There is no muster-roll of this Irish Brigade in existence, but for the time it was a grand numerical success, and the bifida, springing up everywhere, was in m u c h requisition to do duty as a proxy shamrock. T h e fellows also, many of them, sported sprigs of fern arid acacia branches in their hats, and their appearance suggested a singular coincidence with that "Wearing of^the Green, upon which the Prince of Orange insisted at the Boyne Water, but it was no longer his Majesty s "Loyal and Protestant green." T h e game went on without any desire to keep a correct score for though the hurlers were on the hill, their hearts were in town; and a chain of videttes was set from the Bird in-Hand, like the modern telegraph posts, the whole way, vial Flinders Street, to signal any breaking from their cover by the Orangemen, in which event a change of front would be immediate, and the hurlies used on other leather than ball coats. T h e Orangemen, however, kept quiet, and so were permitted to rest in peace. O n the hill prevailed a promiscuous sort of enjoyment, m u c h appreciated : and although there was no refreshment, gambling or music tents there, pocket-pistols, well-primed with strong mountain dew, were in m u c h request, and nipped and shared with true Irish hospitality. A n Orange scout was occasionally seen prowling about, but was respected as if the bearer of a flag of truce. About three o'clock the Mayor made his appearance, and was loudly cheered, a compliment which he acknowledged in a brief plausible speech. Mr. Henry M o o r was an adept when he liked, in administering doses of sugared nothings. H e had a pleasant, though possibly an insincere, manner by which he could placate a crowd, and to this sort of " toffying" the Melbournians were tolerably well used, and it passed with them as the real confection. O n the present occasion Moor's "soft sawder" worked effectually, the more so that one of its ingredients was an assurance that there should be no Orange procession, and about 4 p.m., at his bidding, the hurling match adjourned sine die. H o w the Orangemen took their disappointment was never publicly known, but they made up for it by a good use of the night. T h e Bird-in-Hand was kept in a state of crowing until morning. T h e " Lodge" expended their bottled-up wrath in eating and drinking; the yellow and blue sashes were displayed under the folds of a " pious and immortal banner," and the charter toasts of Orangeism, not remarkable for either charity or purity of phraseology, were uproariously bumperized amidst stunning salvos of " Kentishfire" behind the protection of barred doors and brick walls. A n d thus did a hurling match achieve for a second time a peculiar and bloodless victory. N o third hurling was ever required, for no Orange procession afterwards was either effected or even menaced. It was providential that the insane attempt to insult an enlightened, mixed community was not persisted in, as if so, though the Yarra would not run red with blood, or dead men's skulls abound, a shocking riot would have taken place, lives lost on both sides, and terrible reprisals made whenever opportunity subsequently offered. T h e Orangemen, in demonstrating that " the better part of valour is discretion," acted so discreetly as to adopt (at least in part) the memorable advice of Oliver Cromwell—• " T o put their trust in God, and keep their powder dry."
It is very doubtful, though, whether they thought m u c h over the first half of the injunction, yet certainly the dryness of the powder was looked after, but only until the following year, when a little of it was employed, not in a fair open fight, but in pot-shots from the upper story of an hotel, whose strong stone construction provided an ample shelter for indulging with impunity in such a very dubious species of valour.
THE FIRST ORANGE RIOT.
In 1846 the first overt act of Orange aggression was perpetrated in the colony, and its memory has a traditionary existence, around which Time has woven a cobweb of absurd exaggeration, tinting it in colours of quasi-hewlc romance, but to any such quality it cannot in fairness lay the slightest claim. It forms so discreditable an incident of early history that I would willingly excise it from these C H R O N I C L E S ; but as its omission might be attributed to other than the true motive, a
