d down for ever, and the
glorious Southern Cross would wave in its stead, over a free Australia.
The day on which this happened would be a never-to-be-forgotten date in
the annals of the country. For what, he would like to know, had the
British flag ever done for freedom, at any time in the world's history?
They should read in their school-books, and there they would learn that
wherever a people had risen against their tyrants, the Union Jack had
waved, not over them, but over the British troops sent to stamp the
rising out.

This was more than Mahony could stomach. Flashing up from his seat, he
strove to assert himself above the hum of agreement that mounted from
the foreign contingent, and the doubtful sort of grumble by which the
Britisher signifies his disapproval.

"Mr. Chairman! Gentlemen!" he cried in a loud voice. "I call upon those
loyal subjects of her Majesty who are present here, to join with me in
giving three cheers for the British flag. Hip, hip, hurrah! And, again,
hip, hip, hurrah! And, once more, hip, hip, hurrah!"

His compatriots followed him, though flabbily; and he continued to make
himself heard above the shouts of "Order!" and the bimming of the
chairman's bell.

"Mr. Chairman! I appeal to you. Are we Britons to sit still and hear
our country's flag reviled?--that flag which has ensured us the very
liberty we are enjoying this evening. The gentleman who has been
pleased to slander it is not, I believe, a British citizen. Now, I put
it to him: is there another country on the face of the earth, that
would allow people of all nations to flock into a gold-bearing colony
on terms of perfect equality with its own subjects?--to flock in, take
all they can get, and then make off with it?" a point of view that
elicited forcible grunts of assent, which held their own against hoots
and hisses. Unfortunately the speaker did not stop here, but went on:
"Gentlemen! Do not, I implore you, allow yourselves to be led astray by
a handful of ungrateful foreigners, who have received nothing but
benefits from our Crown. What you need, gentlemen, is not revolution,
but reform; not strife and bloodshed, but a liberty consistent with law
and order. And this, gentlemen,----"

("You'll never get 'em like that, Dick," muttered Purdy.)

"Not so much gentlemening, if YOU please!" said a sinister-looking man,
who might have been a Vandemonian in his day. "MEN'S what we
are--that's good enough for us."

Mahony was net