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can, at times, jump out of the gutter, but he lost his equilibrium, and soon collapsed. Others of them turned out capital police officers, and there are four of them n o w (1883), enrolled in the Colonial Magistracy. In 1846 the N e w South Wales Legislature favoured a return to transportation under certain limitations, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies was only too ready to oblige, conditionally, upon the colonists being satisfied to receive it. A despatch to such effect having been published, the Pro-transportationists of Port Phillip rushed rashly into a public meeting and clamoured loudly for cheap labour. Whether it consisted of " exiled " convicts, or what was known as conditionally pardoned prisoners from V a n Diemen's Land, did not matter. It was a favourite plan of theirs to pack a meeting of a score of these wool-growing wide-awakes, in some Melbourne hotel, get up a grandiloquent memorial, and post it away in Tooley Street tailor style, as the protocol of " W e , the people of Australia Felix," etc., etc. S o m e of the newspapers occasionally denounced the underhand work, and impunity finally so blunted the edge of discretion that those w h o hungered after convict labour at length s u m m o n e d courage to venture out of cover, and presented a requisition to the Mayor to convene a public meeting on the subject. This move broke the spell of inactivity by which the people generally were bound ; a powerful opposition sprang into life, and it did not subside until the question was effectually settled. T h e first shot fired scattered the Pro-transportationists in every direction, and from its effects they never recovered. It assumed the form of a "monster" meeting held in the Queen's Theatre (Queen Street) on the 1st March, 1847. T h e theatre was crowded with the more prominent personages of the evening, and the issue to be pronounced upon was put plainly and unmistakably as to "Whether convicts should be admitted in any shape, and upon any conditions." T h e Mayor (Mr. Henry Moor) was appointed Chairman, and in opening the proceedings he declared that, " A s for his o w n part, he must say that he for one was not prepared to consent that this Province should become the receptacle of British criminals upon any terms, and he hoped the time would be far distant ere Port Phillip Avould be converted into the Penitentiary of Great Britain." T h e enthusiasm of the assembly was unbounded, and the thrilling and heart-gushing applause with which the several speakers were frequently interrupted left not a shadow of a doubt as to the uncompromising earnestness with which the struggle (supposing there to be one) would be fought out to the end. Addresses, in tone and lauguage as unmistakable as the cheering, were delivered by Dr. Peter McArtfmr, Messrs. W . F. Stawell, E. E. Williams, John O'Shanassy, William Kerr, Sidney Stephen, W m . Hull, H . W . Mortimer, Major St. John, and Bernard Reynolds. T h e first and principal resolution adopted was, viz.:— " That whilst this meeting acknowledges and sincerely regrets the scarcity of labour in this district, and the injury to prosperity resulting therefrom, it cannot under any circumstances entertain any proposal for a system of importation of British criminals, considering, as this meeting does, in the declaration m a d e by the Legislative Council of the colony, in 1844, 'That the moral and social influences of the convict system, and the contamination and vice which are inseparable from it, are evils for which no mere pecuniary benefits would serve as a compromise.'" Another resolution was also passed, thanking the Governor (Sir C. Fitzroy) for promising to recommend a renewal of free emigration to the colony, an intimation to such effect having previously emanated from His Excellency. During the proceedings two remarkable episodes occurred. At one period, M r . Edward Curr, w h o was on the platform, moving to the front, commenced to address the meeting, when he was overwhelmed with a torrent of disapprobation from every part of the building, consisting of hooting, hissing and yelling, H e was a straight built, slightly stooped, rough, red-faced old man, with hair well bleached into greyness, and he scowled on the multitude with such a fixity of solid grimness that, in his general appearance. he might be likened to a Polar bear, got up for the occasion in man's habiliments. H e would not knock under, for he was plucky and obstinate to the backbone, and for several minutes he gesticulated at the curious exhibition of d u m b show, for, though his action was seen and jeered at, not a syllable of what he uttered could possibly be heard. In the midst of this clamour out jumped before the curtain Mr. E. E. Williams, who, like an English bull-dog, tackled the bear in such a style that the old agitator