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retail traders. Drinking and eating prevailed in abundance, and due honour was done to both animal enjoyments. T h e origin of pawnbroking is very remote, and traced from Perousa, in Italy, whence it is said to have been transplanted to England by Mich, de Northburg, Bishop of London, in the reign of Edward III. Primarily, the payvnshop was the reverse of the usurious abomination it has proved in modern times. It was a M o n t de Piete, a kind of benevolent institution, designed to advance loans to necessitous persons at a moderate interest. M o n e y was lent on a " pledge," but the benefit of the borrower was regarded equally with the profit of the lender. O n e of the regulations of the original pawnbroking establishment in London was, that in the event of a pledge remaining unredeemed for a year, the preacher at St. Paul's Cross announced that if not released within fourteen days, it would be sold forthwith. T h e "three-ball" sign is the ancient symbol of the Italian Bankers, notably the Lombards, from the most eminent of w h o m the princely house of the Medici of Florence sprang. In allusion to the professional origin of the n a m e of " Medici" (that of medicine) they bore gold-gilt pills on their shield; and their agents in England and other countries hoisting their armorial bearings as business emblems, such a trade cognizance yvas adopted by others, and thus in course of time became general. T h e popular interpretation of the triple ball implies that the chances are as two to one that a pledger never recovers the article "popped up the spout;" and the general result of Melbourne pawning does not belie the general supposition. T h efirstreference to pawnbroking in this colony is the appearance of Mr. John Stephen, before the City Police Court on 7th March, 1848, to apply for the issue of a pawnbroker's license to a Mr. Samuel Whittaker, a recent arrival from V a n Diemen's Land. T h e application was m a d e under the 29th and 30th Geo. I V , yvhich, it yvas contended, was then in force in Port Phillip. There yvere several pawnshops in Launceston and Hobart T o w n , but a special Act of Council had been passed in V a n Diemen's Land for their regulation. T h e Magistrates had strong doubts as to their poyver to grant the license ; and one of them a barrister (Mr. R. W . Pohlman), advised the refusal of the application, when, if considered advisable, the Supreme Court could be appealed to. This was done, and the subject dropped for the time. T h e N e w South Wales Legislature, however, took the matter in hand, and "Whereas it was necessary and expedient to regulate the trade of pawnbrokers in the colony," the Act 13 Vic, N o . 37, yvas passed (ioth October, 1849), for that purpose, and very little time elapsed before its provisions yvere utilized both in Sydney and Melbourne. In London slang, the pawnbroker is affectionately knoyvn as " M y Uncle," whilst in amusing contrast, this often useful relative is termed by the French "Ma taule" " M y Aunt;" and a more amusing paradoxical fact still is that the "Uncle" N u m b e r O n e of Melbourne, was actually an "Aunt," a Mrs.,Anne Willis, w h o obtained a pawnbroker's license, on the 12th November, 1842, and instanter commenced her obliging operations in a small weatherboard " bunk " in Bourke Street, where till lately, the Omnibus office issued tickets of a very different kind, to the mysteriously hieroglyphiced duplicates known as "Willis's paper currency." Mrs. Willis had but a neck and-neck start of Old Whittaker (the previously refused applicant), for later the same day he took out his " ticket-of-leave," and displayed his trade mark of "the Medici " on a small shop at the south-west comer of Queen and Little Collins Streets, where n o w the Temple Court Hotel insinuatingly invites passers-by to enter and refresh. Whittaker was a sharp-faced. hot-tempered, shreyvd customer, and just the manner of m a n to make the business turn in a good dividend, O n the 26th of the month, a Mr. J. P. Plevins also procured a license, and opened a third "spouting" shanty, in the congenial region of Little Bourke Street, in rear of the Theatre Royal. There yvas no further increase in the trade till the close of 1850, when Mr. John Browning arrived from England with the intention of engaging in agricultural pursuits ; but when he sayv hoyv matters went, it occurred to him (as he had been a pawnbroker in the old country), that his former trade yvould be likely to turn out a surer "spec." than ploughing and pig-feeding; so he took premises at 167 Elizabeth Street, and applied for the requisite license. T h e " A u n t " and the two " Uncles " before-mentioned yvere up in arms against the intruder. They would have the gold ball vintage to themselves, and no interlopers were wanted. W h e n the application was heard at the Police Court, a couple of lawyers were retained against the " new chum," and the license was refused, through the influence, it yvas believed, of an Aldermanic