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The " West End," i.e., the quarter of Melbourne lying between William and Spencer Streets, and the Yarra and Bourke Street, was for a time a subdivision of the town of some stir and importance. T h e offices of the Superintendent and Sub-Treasurer were at the North-Eastern corner of Little Collins and Williams Streets, though subsequently transferred to Batman's Hill. T h e Survey, Immigration, Public W o r k s and Medical Officer's Departments were planted in this region. T h e gaol was also here, and in 1841 the Supreme and Insolvent Courts and Sheriff's Office were added. Though the Lonsdale Penal Settlement had been considerably curtailed in some of its least attractive proportions, the barracks remained, wherein were quartered the military party stationed in town, and a stockade for the ticket-of-leave holders not yet called in. T h e duty of the military was mainly to provide a guard for the newly put up gaol in Collins Street, and to overawe the convicts. T h e latter, though privileged on account of presumed good behaviour, were a pack of as arrant blackguards as ever disgraced a free community. The Immigrants' Depot, consisting of a couple of rows of canvas tents, formed an encampment in rear of the site of the present Model Lodging-house, off King Street, and the Immigration Officer (Dr. Patterson) had often unpleasant times in keeping off undesirable male and female visitors. T h e ticket-of-leave m e n were supposed to constitute a gang for employment in making and mending the streets, but they did little else than beg from the passers-by, and, whether by begging, borrowing, or stealing, some of them contrived to get drunk over-night, and for so doing got soundly flogged next day. Occasionally a squad of sailors, " three sheets in the wind," would roll up towards the stockades, where, convivialising with the soldiers and the prisoners, the nocturnal orgies frequently indulged in were beyond description, especially as the roysterers were generally able to set at defiance one chief and eight constables, the sole public protection. T h e Yarra was crossed by means of a punt and ferry-boat; and, though well enough off for general provisions, the people were wretchedly provided with water. Unless when the tide was low, the river was brackish, for there was as yet no real breakwater at the "Falls," and the water had to be procured by hand-buckets. After a time p u m p s were fixed, and the fluid retailed in loads to water-carters, by whom households were supplied. But if the water was bad, there was an abundance of the n o w almost unknonn luxury, unwatered milk, for everyone of any means kept a milch cow, which, for a trifling weekly sum was taken charge of by a town herd, and there was such an abundance of cow-feed about the township, that pure new milk was easily attainable. At almost every turn one met with the Aborigines, in twos, and threes, and half-dozens—coolies, lubras, gins, and picaninnies—the most wretched-looking and repulsive specimens of humanity that could be well found. T h e m e n half-naked, with a tattered 'possum rug, or dirty blanket, thrown over them, as far as it would go; and the w o m e n just as nude, except when an odd one decked herself out in some cast-away petticoat, or ragged old gown. T h e young "gin" had usually stowed in some mysterious receptacle on her back, a sooty-faced, curly-headed baby, whilst the younger members of an "unfair sex " dandled mangylooking cur dogs as playthings in their arms. Their eternal "yabbering whine" was for " backsheesh" in the form of white money, a " thikpence " or so, to invest in tobacco or rum, for they soon grew inordinately addicted to both. It is said that a seaman of the Collins' Expedition of 1803 treated a blackfellow to a mouthful of r u m one day at Sorrento ; but the m o m e n t he tasted it, fancying he had a plug of firestick between his jaws, he spat it out in disgust, and could not be induced to repeat the dose. Well would it have been for his unfortunate countrymen had they always acted likewise, for the fire-water of the whitefellow became a potent factor in the extinction of their race. Such is a general outline of the state of Melbourne when the Superintendent (Mr. Latrobe) began to settle down to his work ; and though the district was prospering in an extraordinary degree, considering its little more than four years' growth, he had before him a task of unexampled difficulty ; and few persons can withhold from him the credit of having done the best that was possible, and with no ordinary ability and efficiency. Nothing could well exceed the neglect and superciliousness with which Port Phillip was treated by the Executive of N e w South Wales, and the facts to be disclosed in this resume are almost beyond belief. At the commencement of 1840, there was, perhaps, no British community with a population, natural resources, and hopeful prospects such as Port Phillip possessed, and with such limited legal machinery ; for, though supposed to be under the laws and government of N e w South Wales, all legal and constitutional protection was of a meagre description. T h e only courts in operation were those of