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as guesswork, and was widely interpreted. T h e issue of this pronunciamento, which should not have been unexpected, rumbled through the Orange camp like a thunder peal, and for the next forty-eight hours an almost continuous war council was held at the Bird-in-Hand, from which not only the Press, but every sort of outsider was rigidly excluded. T h e Mayor (Mr. Henry Moor) was appealed to as Chief Magistrate of the town, to suppress the hurling, but he could not see his way to do so, as Melbourne was not under martial law, Batman's Hill was not a proclaimed district under any " Peace Preservation Act," hurling was not illegal, and hurlies and shillelaghs were in themselves as harmless as a child's toy-rattle. T h e Patriot of the n t h backed up this appeal, andfiercelydenounced the advertisement "as a challenge to the Orangemen, to w h o m , if they should accept it, the consequences must be fearful." It warned the Mayor of the effects of his refusal to interfere, and argued that he had the power to forbid such a meeting within the limits of his jurisdiction. If every special constable that could be, was not sworn in forthwith, and police, military, and Riot Act not employed to suppress the hurling, it was predicted "that the consequences m a y be awful, the Yarra tinged with the purple gore of the combatants, and the romantic site of Batman's Hill become a field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls!" T h e town read, and the town laughed at such insane maunderings; the Mayor did simply nothing, the Orangemen were left to perambulate the streets, if willing to indulge such a risky pleasuring, whilst the hurlers had everything their o w n way, to shout and run, jump and hurl to their hearts' content. Saturday, the 12th, was one of thefinestwinter days with which this colony has ever been blessed, the sun's face dimpling over with a geniality calculated to put the most gloomy hypochondriac to rights with himself, and shedding a halo of bloom over the grassy and umbrageous hill-side that would cheer the most low-hearted invalid that was ever wheeled in a bath-chair. A s for the Melbournians, with the exception of the malcontents, w h o growled and "kept their pecker u p " with nobblers at the Bird-in-Hand, three-fourths of the inhabitants went off to the hurling. T h e spectators could be reckoned by thousands, and about 500 of as fine specimens of adult population as could be picked out of Ireland, threw off their coats, and set to work with a ringing Hibernian hulloo. Such a gathering of the clans, and such a real Irish turn-out have never been reproduced in Victoria. T h e following stanzas of a poem on the event, show h o w Munster was that day represented at the antipodes:— The Munster Clans from far and near, All thoughts of danger scorning, With hands and hearts that knew no fear, C a m e mustering fast that morning. A warning voice had speeded forth, Which brooked of no delay ; A n d East and West, and South and North W e r e at their posts that day. The sturdy sons of grassy Clare, T h e Kerry m e n so cheery, T h e boys from Garryowen were there, A n d 'gallant Tipperary.' The Waterfordians, like red deer So active, blithe, and airy, A n d Cork's untiring mountaineers With sprigs of black shillelagh. O h ! Often in dark Galtee's brakes, Or at grim Slieve-na-Mann, Or by Killarney's magic lakes, O r Limerick's treaty-stone— T h e lads n o w turning out for play, Played, danced, and sang galore; Ready alike for fun or fray, In revel or row, to score.