jauntily left the scene of altercation, Finn was quizzed by some of the office hands, one of whom scoffingly asked, "Well, I suppose you will be thinking of cutting George now?" "Certainly not," replied the other, "it does not suit m y cards to 'cut' Master George just now, at all events; but ere a week is over I will get another to ' cut' him in a style of which neither you nor he has the slightest notion." There was a general laugh, and the conversation ended. Next day Cavenagh and Finn met, and were seemingly on the best of terms with each other. They spoke about the coming election, and Cavenagh rubbed his hands in high glee, for the other told him, from what he could gather amongst Ward voters, Peter Davis did not stand even the ghost of a chance. " I have just left him," continued Finn, " surrounded by a pack of his supporters, by the Mechanics' Institute. H e was abusing you fearfully, calling you a ' long wretch,' a ' gobemouch,' and 'Buggins,' and declaring before The quoted epithets were he was quite done with you, he'd beat the big drum on your head." well-known nicknames from time to time tacked on to Cavenagh, and the application of any of them always riled him. Cavanagh turned white with rage, bit his lip, and vowed he would make it warm for Davis. "Look here," he said to his satellite, " Y o u go at once and write something that will touch the scoundrel on the raw; and give it to him in style about the Sydney affair. You understand." Mr. Finn lost no time in executing his commission. The " Sydney affair" was a passage in the past life of Peter Davis, of which no colonist need be ashamed, though he felt a morbid sensitiveness about any allusion to it. O n Cavenagh returning to his editorial sanctum in the afternoon, the Davis epistle was ready for his perusal; he read and re-read it, gloated over and pronounced it to be the very thing wanted, and passed it on to the printing office. Next morning at breakfast Peter Davis had the Herald before him, and it was breakfast enough for him. Though he could not stomach it, he had no appetite for anything else. There appeared before him over a nom de plume in itself sufficient to unsettle a greater Stoic,' in very readable type, accentuated by many italicised expressions, a communication of a very pungent and personal description, holding him forth in terms of rancorous reprobation as a character from whom the citizens should run rather than elect, and well seasoned with innuendoes which stung like a scorpion. Swallowing a cup of strong coffee as a "pick-me-up," and snatching the newspaper, he sallied forth, procured a horsewhip, and sought the earliest opportunity of giving Cavenagh a taste of it. The latter resided in Little Flinders Street East, and as he was proceeding to his office about eleven o'clock, Davis met him, and with one well-dealt blow knocked him down, looked at the writhing prostrate figure, and passed on. Cavenagh, though wounded, was not killed, and was assisted to a neighbouring chemist's. H e then, by the aid of a stick, marched on to the office, and when he entered, there was Finn before him, busily engaged in the pretension of doing something. O n beholding Cavenagh with a very long face and disfigured headgear, the blood trickling through the lint stuck on over one of his ears, Finn jumped up, affected much surprise, and exclaimed, "Good heavens! Mr. Cavenagh, what has happened?" " Y o u may well inquire," loudly growled the other, "It is all your doing, you confounded little scoundrel; see what you have got m e through that blackguard letter you wrote about Davis. There, the fellow has gone and half killed m e I believe." "Mr. Cavenagh," responded the other, "you have only yourself to blame, certainly not me. You asked m e to write the letter, and you approved and published it." So saying Finn took up his hat and papers and departed, telling Cavenagh as he passed, that he had to run up to the Insolvent Court, at which was jerked out an exclamation more curt than polite, "That he might go to the devil." A n d this is the novel manner in which the promise "to cut Long George " was accomplished. Davis was subsequently proceeded against at the Police Court, and fined ,£5 for the assault. The same Mr. Peter Davis, despite of the Herald influence, attained the so much coveted seat at the City Council table, and was Mayor of Melbourne in 1856-7. H e died a few years ago. THE "RECORDING ANGELS."
joined the Herald, and very soon came into open collision with the judicial despots known to ancient history as Judge Willis and Major St. John. Byrne had two or three rare
JOSEPH BYRNE,
