of passwords and tylers, and then there would arise an altercation, but little consonant to the grand old principle of Truth, Charity, and Brotherly-Love upon which Masonry is traditionally supposed to have been founded. If a notice appeared in one paper reflecting upon any of the adherents of another, every effort was resorted to in revenge, and very bad blood often engendered thereby. T h e editors were also fond of calling each other names. Arden never knew his early competitor by any designation other than "the m a n Fawkner," and was in turn styled "the stuck-up brat." Kerr was christened " N o o d l e " (a misnomer) by Cavenagh, w h o was paid off as "the Big Drum," because his father was a Commissioned Officer in the British army, in which the son took m u c h pride. Osborne used at times to imbibe rather too much, and on his way h o m e traversed the streets in a serpentine fashion, through which he obtained the alias of " the Teetotum ;" but the best hit m a d e in the way of nick-naming was by Kerr, in respect to Boursiquot. At the period when the latter arrived in the province, H o m e ships were not victualled in the luxurious manner they are now, and somehow or other it got to be insinuated that Boursiquot, and some companions, m a d e rather too free with a h a m from the steward's larder. W h e n Kerr heard this rumour he tinned the preserve for further use, and the first newspaper quarrel between him and Boursiquot, the object of his wrath was proclaimed a " Westphalian," a compliment considered so equivocal by its recipient that he cut up terribly over it, which only established its efficacy as a caustic, and caused others besides Kerr to apply it whenever they had an account to square. M'Combie was known as " the Donkey," against which he neither kicked nor brayed much, for there was little liveliness in him; but whenever Cavenagh was " big-drummed" it was like beating a tattoo on his tympanum, which drove him nearly wild. Boursiquot also named him " Buggins," which was a sticking-plaster he never could shake off. In fact, between the pounding of the "Big D r u m " and the reiteration of "Buggins," Cavenagh was m a d e miserable, and the epithets stuck to him like wax. A glance through the old files give innumerable instances of the spiteful pettishness with which they were conducted. If an editor happened to be "dunned" for an account inconvenient to pay, or was sued for the recovery of a debt, he was unmercifully pilloried as if a public enemy, or some diabolical conspirator against the safety of Church and State. This disreputable warfare was also enforced against the reporters, and the attacks on some of them, actually written by editors, were most cowardly and disreputable. Notwithstanding all this the Press, as a whole, was cherished by the public as one of its great safeguards; the n e w papers were for the time well supported, and where one of them collapsed, it was more through its o w n fault than anything else. EDITORIAL THRASHINGS.
first instance happened on the 13th February, 1843, and the victim on this occasion was about the m a n connected with our early journalism w h o least merited an embrocation of physical force, for Dr. Greeves was always suave and gentlemanly, as inoffensive in the newspaper under his control as in the political arena, where he played no undistinguished role. However, as the Fates would have it, he was provisionally captaining the Gazette at this period when an ex-reporter named Joseph Byrne obtained the appointment of Corporation Rate Collector. T h e choice did not meet with general approval, and a paragraph in the Gazette emphatically asserted as much, whereupon Byrne waxed mdignant, and waylaying Greeves in Collins Street not only punched his head, but threatened to murder him. T h e Doctor trotted off to the Police Court, and sueing out a warrant had his assailant arrested. At the hearing the complainant magnanimously forbore pressing the charge, and the defendant tendered an ample apology. Nevertheless he was judged to enter into recognizances, himself in ^ 8 0 and two sureties of £4o, to keep the peace for twelve months.
BYRNE AND GREEVES.—The
1843 there was in Melbourne a Mr. Daniel Kelly,'of much respectability and intelligence a awyers clerk by profession, and the holder of a confidential position in the office of M e e k and Clark, conveyancers, w h o kept shop in an old two-storey brick rookery at the western side of an open area off Little Collins Street, n o w the crowded legal thoroughfare known as Bank Place. Kelly was rather of a pleasant and jovial turn of mind, and the companions with
KELLY AND KERR-In
