, when one of the
members--a "chartered libertine," in regard to speech, and they do
speak very plainly--boasted that he was a member of a club to which
none of the ministers could belong. "They are decent people," he
said, "but not professional men, and the membership is limited to
them." Domestic servants are particularly independent as a class,
and many people do without them altogether rather than submit to pay
very high wages for little work. An ordinary cook will receive about
L1 a week. They rarely say "sir," but usually plain "mister," which
is to most people not a pleasant way of being addressed. They seem
to take a pride in addressing their employer (I must not say master
or mistress) by their surname, as Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So, as often as
possible. What Emerson calls the "fury of expectoration" is very
rife throughout the colonies. If a floor or carpet is particularly
clean the temptation to spit upon it is too great to be resisted.
In the Court-house at Adelaide is a special notice requesting people
not to spit on the floor. I suppose this habit is connected with
smoking, and smoking with drinking. All day long the hotel bars are
besieged by crowds of men demanding "nobblers," like flies round a
pot of honey, and I have heard that a hotel proprietor does not care
to see his customers go beyond the bar, as so large a proportion of
his profit is derived from it. In a debate in the Assembly, on the
new Licensing Bill, one orator referred contemptuously to "miserable
tea drinkers." "We do not want," he said, "to be Chinafied; the more
men drink the better they are." He would find many outside the House
of the same opinion. _Per contra_ it was urged that total abstinence
produced strength because "Samson was a teetotaller!"

Considering the comparatively small size of Victoria, it is much
more thickly populated than any other colony. Its population is very
nearly a million, on an area about as large as Great Britain, giving
about 10 persons to the square mile. The chief towns after Melbourne
are Ballarat, East and West, with a population of 37,000, and
Sandhurst, with 28,000. Next comes Geelong, which, with its suburbs,
has 21,000. For purposes of representation, the country is divided
into 14 provinces, from each of which three members are returned to
the Legislative Council. It is divided into 55 electoral districts,
which return 86 members to the Legislative Assembly. The country is
also divided into 37 count