MELBOURNE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1189, 28 January 1864, Page 3

MELBOURNE.

(from the correspondent of the otago DAILY TIMES.) Melbourne, 13th January, 1864. "With respect to general news here just now we are in a perfect state of stagnation, and if it were not for the periodical exploits of the All England Eleven, or as one of the local papers here has, by way of printing something original in these dull times, taken to calling the team the " Old " England Eleven, there would be literally next to nothing to write about. The only reliable political rumor afloat is to the effect that as soon as Parliament meets ministers are to be called over the coals for keeping the Houses of Legislature so long closed, and consequently the public so long in the dark respecting their plans and intentions for the present and future. But with an opposition so numerically weak as that by which they were confronted at the close of the last session, and with so serried au array of coalition forces as they still possess —all bent on keeping things as quiet and as much in statu quo as possible, it would seem that ministers have not much to fear for the safety of their position, and that their expectation of a long " inniugs " will not be disappointed. Talking of an " innings," of course brings on to the subject par excellence of the day, the English cricketers and their up-country doings. At the date of the departure of the Aldinga, the Sandhurst match was in progress, the Eleven having completed their first innings for a score of 85; the twenty-two of Beudigo their's with 74, and the All-Eng-landers, having five wickets down in their second innings for 118. So matters stood on the Friday evening. Oil Saturday the Eleven concluded their innings, by making the handsome addition of sixty to their previous score. The Twenty-two in^ their second innings failed to attain anything like the number of runs scored in their first, and went out for the insignificant number of 45. The total of their two innings therefore stood as follows: — First innings ... ... 74 Second innings ... ... 45 Total 119 —Against the following numbers scored by the All-England Eleven: — First innings 85 Second innings 178 263 Being .144 over and above the score of the Bendigo men. It is said that the latter played their second innings under every disadvantage, for the weather was very stormy, with occasional torrents of rain, rendering the ground—which was Yory bad before —■ entirely unfit to play upon at all. The state of the weather, of course, told upon the attendance, aud militated very much against the enjoymeut of those who in their enthusiasm for the noble game had braved all the threats of wind and weather for the purpose of witnessing it. Mr. Parr, the captain of the English team, was unfortunately seized with a severe attack of erysipelas, soon after his I arrival at Sandhurst, and upon the departure I of the team on the day after the conclusion

of the match he was unable to accompany tho Eleven back to Melbourne. It was rumour jd the other day that' his life was in considerable danger, but I am happy to be able to state that, according to a telegram since received from Sandhurst, he appears to be rapidly progressing towards complete recovery. On Monday last, the 11th inst., the Eleven went to Ballarat for the purpose of playing a match against a twenty-two chosen from amongst the best cricketers of that district. That match is still in progress, and, judging from the present appearances, it would seem that the metropolitan gold field, as it delights to call itself, will sustain a defeat even more decisive than that experienced by their fellow colonists at Sandhurst. The fielding of the Ballaratians can scarcely have been so good as that of the men of Bendigo, for while at the latter district the Eleven made only 85 in their first innings, when matched against the former their score in their first innings ran up to 188 —that reached by Ballarat being 82. Of these 82 runs, Bryant, the well-known Melbourne player, engaged by Ballarat for the purpose of strengthening the provincial team, made no less than 21, while Greaves, another Melbourne player, made 16, thus showing that the purely local teams were either very weak or very unfortunate in their play. Nor does there appear to be any prospect of their making a better stand in their second innings, for up to the time of drawing the stumps at the close of yesterday's play they had seven wickets down for the beggarly account of 13 runs, the batsmen who had so early come to grief, including the redoubtable Jerry Bryant, who had gone out with 0 against his name. An amusing affair of a serio-comic character has just been brought to light here. The main facts of the story alluded to, and to which the title of " The Dead Alive " might not inappropriately be prefixed are as follow : —About a month since, among the shipping casualties reported in the local papers as having resulted from the fearful gales prevailing on the coast at or about that date, it was reported that the ship Brandon bound hence for Akyab had suffered severely in her spars and rigging from a sudden squall, and, worse still, that five of her sailors having been washed overboard had sunk never more to rise. The report received due verification, for the captain of the disabled ship who put back and having given up to the proper authorities the worldly goods belonging to the departed seamen for distribution amongst the disconsolate relatives, if they should happen to have any in | the colony, shipped fresh hands to replace the missing men, and again put to sea. On nearing Cape Otway for a second, time, and just before the pilot was about to leave the ship, only imagine what must have been the effect upon the captain and his mate, if they were at all of a nervous or a superstitious temperament, of the appearance of the gaunt and haggard forms of the supposed-to-be drowned seamen as one after another, with " solemn step and slow," they emerged from the depths of the hold. Why, Professor Pepper, with all his ghostly experiences, could scarcely have mustered (pray excuse the pun, which was purely accidental) sufficient courage to stand such a sight as this: and how can it be wondered at, then, that the worthy skipper was taken all aback by the frightful apparition, or that he was ready to ask, with Macbeth, " Can such things be, and overcome us like a summer dream without one special wonder ?" When the Brandon next visits our port, we shall probably learn the sequel of the tale; and whilst the captain, making the best of a bad bargain, forgave the clever ruse played upon him by the five resuscitated tars. In the meantime, all we have learnt as to the motive for the perpetration of this trick is, that in the opinion of the majority of the seamen on board at the time of its occurrence, the number of hands shipped by the captain was altogether insufficient for the proper working of the ship, and that the concealment and reported death of the five sailors were the means resorted to for compelling the skipper to take more sailors on board. A telegram just received from Adelaide to the effect that in a number of the " London Punch," prior to the departure of the Otago from England, the rumor which has been made so much of respecting a divorce suit iii 'which it was asserted that Lord Palmerston was to be the co-respondent, is spoken of as " a dirty scandal of the ' Morning Star,'" renders it more than probable that there is no more of truth in the rumor than there was in the silly report respecting a previous marriage of the Prince of Wales, which reached us some time back. This view of the matter is strengthened too by the statement in the telegram already referred to, that the Bishop of Adelaide asserts that there is no such man as O'Kief, the alleged petitioner in the rumored divorce case in the Clergy List either of England or Ireland. Melbourne, 13th January. Bendigo Cricket Match concluded Saturday. ALL ENGLAND ELEVEN. .First innings 85 Second innings 178 Total 263 BENDIGO. First innings 74 Second innings 45 Total 119 The Eleven winning by 144. Ballarat match commenced Monday. Ballarat, first innings, 82. Eleven, first innings, 188. Ballarat's two innings, 176. Parr lies seriously ill with erysipelas at Sandhurst. Melbourne, January 18. Our cricketing visitors from England are achieving easy victories in the up-countiy districts, and Julius Cresar, as one of that famous band, might indeed almost say with respect to his campaign at each district they have visited, with as much truth as his Imperial predecessor of the same name,' Vt'M, vidi, vici," so puny have been the results of the enemies opposed to them in each case. After the conclusion of the Ballarat match, which was won by the Eleven in one innings, with twelve runs to spare, the Englishmen proceeded to Ararat, they soon polished off the twenty-two of the district, the score of tho Eleven in ono innings being 137, while that of the local team was in their first innings 35 and in the second only 34. The following is the score of each of the AllEngland team. It will be seen in the list that Marshall played in the place of Hayj ward, the latter being too unwell to take his place at the wicket: —Grace, 0; Tarrant, 11; Caffyn, 6 ; Caesar, 3 ; Marshall, 14 ;

Auderfson, 14 ; Lockyer, 22 ; Carpenter, 35 ; Clarke, 1; Tinley, 12 ; Jackson, 15 ; byes, &c., 4; total, 137. As the match lasted only two days, a scratch match was arranged for the day following its conclusion, Tarrant playing against eleven of the local men. The result was a tie, the eleven obtaining 4 runs amongst them, and Tarrant being caught out after getting the same number. The losses by the late floods upon the banks of the Yarra appear to have been so large that nothing but a national grant in the way of supplement to the subscription now on foot amongst us is likely to be adequate to compensate the sufferers by that calamity ; claims upon the generosity of the public to the amount of no less than £30,000 have been sent in to the Relief Committee, and in addition to the losses thus made in some degree public, hundreds of persons have been severe sufferers who nevertheless abstain from soliciting public charity for the means of compensating them for the damage which their property has sustained.