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were partial to swinging sign-boards as the most effectual mode of signalling to the passers-by by day, as the guttering sickly tallow or oil lamp did by night. O n the 26th September, 1838, the Act of Council 2 Vic. 1 N o . 18 was passed, and commenced operations on 1st January, 1839. By it the license fees were :—For general license, ,£30; night license, to keep open after 9 p.m. until 12, ,£10 ; billiard table, £^o; retailing wine and beer, £o ; ginger or spruce beer, £2 ', and £1 for selling on board a steamer on its passage. All licenses were to be granted in Petty Sessions in April, and to date from the 1st July of each year. Transfers between different persons or houses might be m a d e at other times, as well as pro ten/, to fairs, races, and places of amusement, but at no greater distance than ten miles, if out of the district of the licensed person. N o publican could, under a penalty, have in or about his house any skittle ground, or ball court, or any dice, cards, bowls, billiards, quoits, or other implements used in gaming, or permit the use or exercise of such or other unlawful g a m e ; but the holder of a billiard license might allow the game to be played all the year round, except on Sunday, Good Friday, and Christmas Day. Sunday trading was permitted from 1 to 3 p.m. only as regarded the sale of fermented liquors. N o spirits could be legally vended, but beer might be bought for consumption off the licensed premises, where nothing could be drank. G o o d Friday and Christmas D a y were subject to similar restrictions. T h e non-consumption proviso used to be frequently evaded by fellows bringing out their foaming pewters into the streets, and then and there absorbing the contents. T h e Sabbath trading soon came to be as great a farce as it is now. All public-houses might remain open from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. from 1st October to 31st March, and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the other six months of the year; holders of night licenses to keep open until 12 o'clock ; and the sale of spirits out of Melbourne was prohibited. If a publican sold liquor to a married person whose intemperance was known to be of injury to his family, he was liable to a penalty of £5, and the same consequence followed the allowing of wages to be paid in the hotel, or the selling or serving grog to prisoner servants, except medicinally or by the permission of the master, and even then only to the extent of half a gill (glass) in six hours, or one gill in twenty-four hours. A n y person giving intoxicating liquors to an Aborigine was liable to a £5 fine. There was also a heavy ascending scale of punishment for drunkards. A first offence was punishable with a fine of from 5s. to 20s., or, as alternatives, not more than twenty-four hours' solitary confinement on bread and water, or a twist on the treadmill not to exceed twelve hours. Repeated offences received augmented punishment upon each successive conviction, not exceeding in the whole the amount or period specified, multiplied by the number of convictions. Thus, for a twentieth appearance, an incorrigible drunkard could be fined ,£20, and on non payment either twenty days' solitary or half the time " milling." Every publican should keep a two-burner lamp constantly lighted over his tavern door from sunset to sunrise, or pay from £1 to £$ for every default, unless it could be proved that the extinction was caused by accident or boisterous weather ; and every licensed house should contain two sitting and two sleeping rooms plus the appartments required for family occupation, together with stabling, hay, corn, or other "wholesome or usual provender," sufficient for at least six horses of travellers. There was likewise a provision for preventing any offence against decency, and, should any of these requirements be discontinued, two or more Justices had power to void the license. N o tavern could have ingress or egress except in the street or streets named in the license, and the permission of any other passage or entrance cancelled the privilege. N o liquors adulterated or mixed with deleterious ingredients could be sold under a fine of from £10 to ^ 5 0 , and publicans were to have their names legibly painted in three-inch letters, with the description of the license held, constantly and permanently remaining, and plainly to be seen and read on a conspicuous part of the house. Such were some of the principal provisions of the then Act; in addition to which certain customs were rigidly observed, which worked well, and would do even better at the present day. These were so recognized by public opinion that a Magistrate, in other respects corrupt enough, would not dare to disregard them. For instance, no license would be issued for "dead men's shoon," and persons w h o married publicans' widows could not trade under the n a m e of the buried husband, as is n o w the case (1882). I could point out hotels in Melbourne where a dead man's name has been paraded over the doorway for nearly twenty years, and a second publican husband has been thriving on the mouldering bones for more than one-half that time. If a widow applied for the renewal of a license of her " dear departed "