VICTORIA.

fc- ■' f '. / i y ; 4-r^^if-I -IW i. yd^i ■ (fHOHOTROWK CORRESPONDENT.) | Melbourne, NoTsiSJfif. i Since my last, under date of 24th October, everything here haa beeH;frfagna^d by the awful state of tbe weather, which has be^n. one unbroken seiks^ofeyßhoiwers night and day. rain and tremendous IffiSTi ailing in miserable alternation—- .nothing to be seen bathwater, a plunge bath in yontxellar, and an involuntary ditto |n tHe "i&wetyffloel*"*? a season no one has ever, heard of, eveiy post brings fresh details of loss'{ blliff at|^rd|er^ t^ough^t tgg country, and urilessit clears off very slwrtlyTthe. crops, vails extensively, and ..should a short, harvest be the result, the consequences would be most \ alarming, as famine is said to be impending '

-in-America, from the war, so that any great „ import of bread-stuffs from that quarter canmt bi aht^jpaHld.f 7 7 O - •^Biil toS&ume* progress. ""Just as the ma il was closing 'For the Alhambra, the last day's sport 'Of the Victoria Jockey club Raffes was 'commencing^ but the dreary 4tate of the atmosphere was evident in the thin attendanee, and, altheagh, considering: tbe quaggy 'state' of the course,' tlie running was very fair, every bnt* looked raw and wrebched. Ul'imatelysfthe weather Reared sufficiently to permit of' tbe' seveiul^events coming off between the showers 1 nothing worthy of , 'particular -note. took. place, alie pace being slow, the&eavy state of thetnrf telling against ■ the yonng horses, but it may be noticed ii), ■* 3contraai*tinJsfionj to "the i "previous ; day,? ffi Me favorites i won ; for file Spring Stakes— Mr John's Bosh, beating Flatcatcher, «St i Patrick^ Shylock, -Cliv L e* asd Oriflamme— ' tfie tliree latter, not placed. For the Oaks, Lang's Aruma beat Love, Song. and Ghry--BoVil6f/-'R6i e :' ot- Denmark -being scratched. The Handicap Steeplechase, was brilliantly won by Coles' Alice, beating a first-rate field, comprising Donovan, !Brown t Daniel Webster, St.- Clair, Longbow, and Guy Fawkes The (nt^ $&ce' yaaf for tifiie- Jockey 'Club Cup, and fell to Wilson's Musidora, Rose 'of Denmark running second, and GlenwilMe, third. The Sydney and Van Dieman's Land horses, Zoe, Talleyrand and Haidee, not even behig placed, to the disgust of their backers. /The V« Seffing Were taken by *I*angJs BulißardA beaming JBainis Rambler — the others, Maryborough, Maxwell and Comet, being nowhere., -After this came the wind up, "the"" Consolation 'Stakes," won by Abbott's Impudence, beating.MaxweU, Tory. Bpy, Edith, Wattletree, and Regina ; this race was signalised by the only accident of theday. Tory Boy was " coming in up the straight Tunning an easy winner, at a tremendous pace, wnenhe threw his rider, a boy named Sill, Davis, with such violence, as nearly td*kill hira, but continued running on his o,wii account, -and^came in-second. T^us'b'oh'cluded the meeting, and as the liabilit ; e3 consequent thereon have been duly r mei, it "has gene OfF rcrat&to the satisfaction of * that"limi'*ed but busy portion of the communityknown, 9s ;".lfie Sporiang World,' "Whose doings claim.no more notice at present. An inquest \v4u3 held on tiie 24th ult. at Modewarre; 'hear GreelprTg,,,OH tjjej body of Mr John Rayen, ; >a settler of ©Kneed, who was drowned An. crossing-Thomson's Creek, on hi6iway tOj town. The" urifortiinate gentleman pleft- his station .on the 1 7 th, when upon his liorse being found with the saddle on, enqMries ■ were'jiriatitutedj decased being missing until 1 -the 23rd, wheh his body was found by amounted trooper; and a pa ty of men. His coat, hat, and stirrups were dis-. covered in succession, .and a mile further down .his -remains. Ih his waistcoat pocket ,;was a gold WaWh, wluWi iad stopped at ten minutes to 8 p.na.. From .the trooper's eyidence it appeared that the creek xi-ds a most dangerous place even on ordinary occasions, and in flood qf, course additionally so. The usual verdict7.of accidentally drowned was returned. : .-*■ .- Another instance of colonial mercantile morality has just taken place under the following chcumstances : In December, • 1862, Ri Gold hrough and Co. held a wool sale, at which Douglas and Co., of Geelong, purchased certain bales of greasy wool, wliich upon opening the flteeces for the purpose of scouring, they discovered to have been falsely packed,; the jocks having been left on. Not being able to obtain any satisfaction from the auctiofl^ers, Messrs Douglas and Co. brought an action 'in the Melbourne County Court for £30 6s. lOd j, the difference ;in value and two guineas for a survey, made in accordance with , the conditions of sale. The case was to have ; -cbm% off upon the 9th instant,' when, under a recent Act, Messrs Goldsbrough and Co. obtained .a" writ of certiorari, removing the action into the Supreme Court for trial by specialfjury, thereby ensuring tp v the claimants a certain expense, ev. n if successful, of "far greater amount than the sum in dispute. Qf. course the latter have very wisely pre,f4^ed|td fpSit up .with the. first loss. A rich scene was enacted in our District Court last week. Mr D. F. O'Connor, Inspector of Weights and Measuies, having summoned^ sqmV twenty or thirty of our most respectable citizens for having unstamped measures &c, and in most cases, obtained a conviction, with costs. It was with a view to these last that the complaints were lodged, the charges beiiig of the most trumpery description, and the penalties consequently almost nominal ; but great was the dismay of the legal gentleman (Mr Barrister by theT Inspector, when ■4\ie &lgi*strate-I(MpSturt>ihformed him that under the gazetted regulations officers such as MrCConnorwereespeciallyplacedonthesame footing as other servants and law officers, and hot alio w^^ripr^ceiye ''Costs. This, after such an array of convictions was a most cruel cut, especially as in many others a friendly arrangement had been made not to press matters if the costs were paid, from which kind of business, no doTlßtrthe Inspector naturally calculated upon quietly realizing a good income. This expose in some measure accounts for the feverish anxiety to secure the post ofrfe3pecto.EforvMr<O'Gonrt?#>fwho was the proteje of the Irisli Roman Catholic party), evinced at the last election, upon which occasion even Town Magistrates were literally ' dragged to^thevßench to voje, who, -upon '< pt&'maiy I dayi, kr-^- never seen upon it, so leeore-*a result- to a" successful intrigue is therefore proportionately annoying to these most unsrupulous gentry. A melancholy suicide took place a few days since. A Mr J'ohn'Mackreel, formerly £ teacher in St. Matthew's School, Lygon Street, Carlton, being found dead in Fitzroy Gardens, with.a razor .firmly clenched in his hand. T^e $o6r SiSihrhad been- in a desponding state for some time past, owing to tl*e almost total loss of sight, but appeared to be ? in .comfortable cir^cumatances. „ The jury reverdict' ol^felfidestruc'tioh, "hut without any allusion to his state of miud at the time, i The inquiry intoftJie Woodstock murder has concluded, and resulted in the full committal of James Barrett for trial at the Criminal S,es£ippsonthe,loth inst. Tlie facts qf tbe case ai&bi^njlHhe'ae^S^vid Beckinsale is a small dairy farmer, living at Woodstpcl?. ' j not T^apy miles a from. .Melbourne, and, the w6^aft; ; p«^eth. Beckinsale, was : '*" Ftroni the r «vlde(nce of the neighbors they appear to" have- 'been quiet, hardworking people. fcStfilig no family, and but hsffio;wte*6sMt4e --witb thoseviti^the' vicinity. ' On Sunday, theiA^ij' the prisoner Barrett, who mts what is called on the tramp for work, called at the farra,*an3 solicited employment, : *tatinfVv?H&^oVe3 to^^ be -fal'se^^athe could- : milk, ond injan evil houp?the farmer engaged him, Onme Wednesday following. Beckiresa^Uefth^^about 10 o'clock inthe morn- i in&*^ajfc^^K^Bgirfe at Morang, not reaching Jffiww^un^ the evening, just after 7dark. i^srai^^^mefcftlfeje '."but William Robertson, #^t to milk tfoe cows, i being unable to do it, he inquired : ; ;f^|Kß^wife,Ahd .was toldste had not been* seen. "thSt" day; neither the man (meaning -B^j^t^.^i^dj^'^he.front'deor locked, his s'uspiclons'were aroused, and he got into the hopsethrougb the window of the bed-room, when he found his wife's body lying on tlie floor, v her throat' having been cut, and her hejSfd.f^aif uUjr f|-acti"ired and. contused withja , 'tomaHa*wlc,- ; - v which ''^proved to be one ; he haif given -'to ? x »arrett in the morning- to -cut =- pea- sticks with, and which, waa. discovered under the sofa in the adjoining* rod"m.". lnformation was at once ,gjyen. to thp igplice, , as, suspicion pointed to. the, inissi^g Jajjprer, ;"(Toiin j, his description ■was react to the who'e. body of : constables at" parade on. Thurßdaj, night, 4 when at half-past twelve 'dh^lie following Fridayj Senior Constable Thomas Summerhayes, while on duty in Little Bourke-street. saw a man of suspicious appearance, whom, after examining,

and finding him tp prevaricate, he took into custody. This proved to be Barrett, but who assertedhjs name to be Williams, and stated first that he came New Zealand, but afterwards said from Hobart Town; fourteen days ago, and that he had not * been , put of Melbourne, steadily denying any knowledge . of Woodstock, or that he kne vv any one of the name of Beckinsale, although, upon the j Constable taking him to the look-up and ; confronting him with the latter, he evinced ; the greatest con3tef nation. At the, inquest, i the prisoner, .\tfho is a man of about fifty years of- age, of most forbidding aspect, declined to say any tiling in his defence, ahd the jury unhesitatingly returned., a verdict df wilful murder against him.' Since his committal, the evidence has materially strengthened against him, as, iii addition jto Beckinsale's watch stolen by him, aiid pawned, with a publican, the key of the locked front door has been found iri some clothing left by hira at a lodging-house, where he had slept ou the Thursday night following the -murder. The motive appears to bave been simply pJtmd.eiy no sexaal.violeKce having been perpetrated upon his victim. So money was found upon- him when arrested, but about fifteen pounds are stated to be missing, though the amonnt is uncertain, as the deceased, who -was* a bustling woman of abjnt thirty, was accustomed to pay and receive . all monies,, and kept her cash secreted in various parts of the liouse ; but this "was unknown to the prisoner, whose only object ! could have been the price -oif a horse, which' he knew Beckinsale had just sold, and been paid, for. This horrible episode has created l tfte~greatest excitement in the hitherto quiet neighborhood where it occurred, _ and the residents thdre are raising a subsciiption for the apprehending constable, to reward him. for the vigilance displayed in so speedy a enpture of the assassin, for such, without prejudging the case, he undoubtedly is. The husband, whose singularity of manner gave rise to suspicions which at first caused his detention, has been fully exonerated and set at liberty., A great incentive to the growth of tobacco as a profitable crop is furnished, the fact just established here hy experiment, that one pound of the dried stalk is equal for the purposes of sheep- wash to three-quarters of- a pound of the leaf, hitherto used for thafc puipose—this is doubly important, a?, heretofore, the stalks have been thrown away as refuse. At the recent Beechworth Sessions, -Julian Cross, David Gedge, and Elizabeth Scott were tried for the murder of Robert Scott, tlie husband of the latter, found guilty, and condemned' to death. The case presented most revolting features, from the cool deliberation with which the deed was perpetrated : and the youth of two of the parties — the woman being only twenty-two years of age, and Gedge, her alleged paramour, a boy Of nineteen 5 the third, Cross, is a man of color, and of middle age. Prom the evidence at tlie trial, it seems that the deed was commit led as far back as April the 1-7 ih, and as flie arrest was made next day, the delay in the proceedings appears somewhat strange. The deceased kept a refreshment-house on the Jamieson, at a spot between the Devil's liiver and Mansfield ; and it is supposed that the female prisoner, having formed an illicit attachment to Gedge, resolved to get rid of the former. From tlie statement made by Cross to the police, Gedge came to him with a pistol in hi3 hand, and woke him up, saying, " I've fired at Scott, but this wouldn't go off ; come you a id shoot him ;"' to which he demurred, saving, "No, perhaps Missus don't want me to do so," Gedge replied, " Oh, yes, get up and see her." He says that he then went into the kitchen, and seeing the female prisoner there, asked, "D© you want me to shoot Scott?" She replied ." yes," and gave him a glass of brandy^ thnt he then went into the bedroom and shot Scott, after which he went to bed. The unfonunate victim was not asleep at the time of his death, but lying in a semi-drunken state on his bed, upon which a pistol was placed, to give color to the story told by the prisoner Gedge to Ellis (a drayman encamped at the spot with his wife), that Scott had shot himself. This it was proved, from the position of tlie body, was impossible, nor was the bore of the pistol capable of receiving a ball of sufficient dimensions to produce such a state of the skull, not a bone of which was whole. The female prisoner persists in asserting her innocence, while the men, previous to leaving Beechworth Gaol for Melbourne, declared to the , clergyman there that it was she who actually fired the shot. They were lodged in the condemned cells upon their arrival here on , Wednesday, and tlae Executive have appointed Thursday next, the 11-th instant, for their execution, the female's statement that she was enceinte proving from medical testimony to- be false. At the samo Circuit Court, Dee Gee,, a Chinaman, was found guilty of the murder of Air' Humphries, a storekeeper at Bright, whose store be had "entered to rob, and being seized, by /the deceased in the act, stabb.ed hira to the heart ia the struggle .to escape. He was brought drwn with the above three criminals, but has had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life, the first three - year s in irons. A Rev. Mr Taylor, purporting to belong to the Wesleyan Connection in California, has been holding " Revival" meetings, preaching and lecturing here and at Ballarat, .lately, his ' rriission being for the modest purpose of paying ofF a debt of £4000, incurred for the, rebuilding of a Bethel Chapel, at San Franoisco, which had been destroyed by fire -the reverend gentleman haying become, liable on bills* of exchange to 'that amount*"— and, according to pke Ballarat .ytqx; discovered onje for £400 in thafrpossession of a seaman in the Melbourne Hospital, to whom he paid a fourth of the amount from the proceeds of bis tour. Without wishing to be uncharitable, I strongly suspect this to be what ffo'rtatHan calls a " kinder sorter of theological speculation.'' Nor is the manner of the preacher at all calculated to impress the hearer with any idea of either liis reverence for, or fitness to. expoundjjthe mysteries of the -'Faith,, There IS air'the vulgarity of a Spurgeon, Without the force and originality"; and what earthly claim the brethren; of -San Franoisco who are well able to help'themseives — 'can Have upon either the pockets -en sympathies of Victorians, is difficult to conceive. The Ballarat converts are set. down at 540, including the,7 Bones '' of Campbells Nigger Minstrels, now performing there. It is possible that the man may be sincere, bat the whole affair smells marvellously of an imposture, and the known laxity of religious discipline in all parts of America, especially in the gold State, renders it very suspicious. A similar, -appearance has been made at Castlemaine, by a person named Annear, who had greatly infatuated the folk tliere with his sermons and lectures, hut with respect to whom a , caution has been recently circulated throughout the denomination in which he figured, and which has been further promulgated by the local press. Mr John James Main, who made himself conspicuous sometime since by his invasion of squatte'rs'runs on the Murray, under pretence of selection, . was jf ully committed for wilful and corrupt perjury, he having-charged William James Denny, overseer to Mr J. J. Glass, of Wharparilia, by whom .he had been prosecuted for trespass, with committing an unnatural offence. The evidence was perfectly clear, and he will be tried at tlie next Circuit Cdkrfc, a't Sandhurst. Being unable to procure bail, he was sent to gaol to abide the event. Our journals, both .metropolitan and provincial, teem just now with extracts from letters from diggers, in various parts of the New Zealand gold-fields, giving the most lachrymose accounts ; in fact, if a tithe of what's stated is true, you must be a. wretched race of people. As for Dunedin, according to"*' private and confidential advices '.ieoeived in Geelong, eveiy one is starving there, while I learn from a returned digger, in the Castle

maine Daily. News, that "fearful ruin, is staring the people of Inveica'rgid in the face." Luckily no trace of it is to be found in the columns of the Times. Of course these cobked-up statements go for what they are wOrth, and it is nothing but the extraordinary, in fact frightful severity of the weather, which retards the spring exodus. The freaks of the great unpaid, as magistrates are termed at home, a.re queer enough at .times, but a recent ease' exeeeds. all bounds of 'credibility — Sir Henry O'Neiil, a J.P. residing at Brighton, on tjie ; Bay, being brought before the local Bench, charged with assaulting three; men in;; his." employ, nanied Keen, Merrick, and Brien. vrfThis gentleman it was stated, as was his -custom; set .theni to work ori tlie Sunday, splktfiag wood and/ making maulhead^; that during his abseiice^he two . latter 'vreu.t away for two hq^s without leave, 'While 'the third lay down 'for a sleep. Mr O'Neill coming back suddenly, and being dia pleased at Iteeh's waritjbf alacrity.in attending to his horsej , violently assaulted Jiim with a heavily ; loaded riding whip, and the two absentees coming baolc at the time, camp in for a similar, benefit, -the appearance of thei r cut and bruised faces' bearing witness to the fact. This humane and christian administrator df the law* was adjudged to , pay to each of the plaihMffs lthe sum ,;of £5, with £1 3s 6d costs, being a total of iIS 10 6d for his.-Sabbath's diversion, which, howev r, with characteristic meanness, he ccntr ved to modify, by getting the men's waj:es forfeited on technical grounds. His i i unit sal from t'.i3 Commission of the Peace has i ot yet been .gazetted, but if our Premier (Mr M'Culloch) has any of the usual veneration of a Scotchman for the Sabbath day,- his name cannot in common decency be allowed to disgrace the list. The question as to the practicability of salting beef in the colonies for ■shipping purposes has been finally determined iu our favor, ■ samples prepared by two competing firms in Melbourne being tested at the stores of Messrs Dalgety and Co, in the presence of the .judges appointed — Captain Henry, oi the clipper ship Omar Pasha, Captain Norman, of H.M.S. Victoria,, and Mr. Bignell ; Mr. Matson, Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and several other gentlemen of practical experience in such matters attending to see the result. At tlie suggestion of the Council of the Board some twelve months since, two- tierces of each sample were sent to Europe, and two retained ; portions trom the different casks were bow cooked, and the meat declared by all present to be delicious, both in -color, quality, and flavor, and infinitely superior to ordinaiy ship provisions. The beef which underwent the sea voyage was packed in casks made from the white wattle, and was totally free from any peculiarity of eith r taste or appeaTance ; and Mr Bignell declared that & similar article could be supplied at from £3 to £3 lOs per tierce, whereas the home figure is ,£G 10s. A profitable trade iu both branches -of "preserving" and •'coopering'' may spring up throughout the colonies, particularly the stock-growing ones. The Prince Albert Hotel, Barkly street, Ballarat east, has been converted into a temporary church <for the Presbyterian congregation there. The natives in the Queensland district*are again committing ravages against the whites, intelligence hiving been received from Mr F. W. Wills, of Nogoa (formerly of Geelong, vh >se lather and men were barbarously mur did th< re a year or more since), that a sei tier, Mr J. G Rild 11, of Mi lerva Station, had been found dead, being speared through the neck. His movements had apparently be^n watched for some days, his death, not plunder, being the object, only a little sugar being taken from the hut. The deed is supposed to have been done hy a small body of about twelve men, detached from tfie tribe, and who had been in concealment until they succeeded in surprising him when unarmed with the exception ef a knife, found on the spot. Other murders and robberies are also reported. The settlers are crying out for the re-establishment of the ".native mounted police," as the only means of safety for life and property.