MELBOURNE.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1937, 21 July 1869, Page 2

MELBOURNE.

[FROM OCR OWX COKRESrOXWi'ST.J 1 2th July, 1860. Did you, dear reader, ever peruse Dr Holmes's " Elsie Veimer ? ” If not, take advice from one who has. Rush at once to the bookseller’s, and purchase a copy. Lay aside all other literature, and brace up your intellect to detect, beneath a charmingly written tale, innumerable germs of freshest thought in science, philosophy, religion, and that strange nameless region where lie more facts than have yet been got out of it—the region of the undiscovered. Then, before the subtle influence has evaporated, try to realise to yourself an Elsie Yenner in Victoria, They tell a somewhat similar story to her’s of a woman up the country, and I cannot declare it untrue. What has Australian humanity transgressed in that we are to be pestered with such stories even in winter 2 Surely there must be some cause for those periodical out-

breaks, or else the Southern Continent is the field of some spell that irresistibly draws attention to such subjects. In either case the author of “ Tree and Serpent Worship ” has left unwritten one of the most interesting chapters (that might have been) in his new book.

Velocipedes are the staple subject of talk here just now. Last Saturday there were two grand meetings for athletic sports, and at each of them velocipede races were the leading attraction. Croxtnn Park is the new name for the old “ Pilgrim” Inn at Northcote, and its proprietor, having spent much money on re-habilitating the house and paddocks, got up one of these entertainments. The other came off under the auspices of the Melbourne Cricket Club, and upon their ground. The papers estimate the number of people present at the latter place as high as 10,000, but I believe about 8,000, or 8,500 would be nearer the truth. The tricycle concerns were ludicrously beaten, and the “ Barb” left all its fellow bicycles hopelessly behind. Its rider is said, however, to have had three great advantages; fiirst, he had a somewhat larger driving-wheel than the others; second, the treddles of his machine were better arranged • and third, he has been for years in the habit of travelling on his iron racer. Every body seems to agree that this style of conveyance will not come into general use the work is too hard, the result too small, the range of applicability too limited (for, practically, up-hill work cannot be done, I am told) and the practise required is considerable. But I cannot help fancying that the lauded bicycle, though much superior to its three-wheeled brother, is still but a clumsy affair compared with a possible velocipede. It has small wheels. The weight of the rider’s body is a dead encumbrance; and the whole work of propulsion is thrown on a set of muscles that act at great mechanical disadvantage. Cannot some ingenious man give us a machine in which the weight of the traveller shall be the motive power—say a pair of treddles, on which he may stand alternately, fixed beneath the axle of a pair of 14ft or 1 Oft wheels, placed parallel ? A break could be easily and safely applied, which is an advantage over the bicycles now used ; the mode of steering I leave the ingenious man to devise, and make him a present of the idea. Our interminable Land Bill keeps making pretences to get on, and as continually deludes us. Notwithstanding the immense outcry against it from the press in almost all parts of the country, the House seems well content to pass it. The powers bestoAved by it upon the Minister of Lands are certainly enormous.

In all probability, between tlie time of this reaching you and the writing of my next, the musical world will have enjoyed the first of a series of concerts to be given by Mr Pringle and some other instrumentalists at the Mechanics’ Institute. Some choice chamber music for pianoforte and strings is promised,

We have at last got a public illuminated clock in Melbourne—that at the Post Office being now at work. The boon is not so great as some people expected ; they wanted something that would be distinctly visible at Flinders street, which the present dock certainly is not—indeed, to most persons it ceases to tell the time at about half the distance,

These are, on the whole, items of progress; but it would not be a fair record that omitted mention of the obstructives. And where should we look for them but in the City Council I Accordinglj-, there we find them, Mr A. K. Smith is to move the prohibition of velocipedes in the city and in those suburbs under the Council’s jurisdiction. This of course in the interest of cab-drivers, and evidently forgetful that ‘this is a free countiy, where a man has a perfect right to choose his own mode of locomotion so long as he does not injure his neighbors. Another sapient gentleman, Mr Cohen, tries to set up legal objections to an organ in the Town Hall. This is the interest of whom 1 Surely the race that has produced Meyerbeer, and has blessed the world with a Mendelsohn cannot, even in one of its representatives, be so destitute of love for music as Mr Cohen’s motion implies. But extremes meet. Who would expect a modern Hebrew and our respected IJ. P. friends to have anything in common'? Vet here is the startling coincidence —in organ hating. Our weather is pleasant for winter, occasional light rains keep the ground moist, but the miners long for heavy downfels ; farmers seem satisfied. 13th July. P.S.—Mr Michie’s lecture on “ Loyalty, Royalty, and Princes’ visits,” was delivered to a crowded audience at the Academy of Music last night. It was even more brilliant than his wont, and is saying something as those of your readers who have heard him kno'w. It is reported in full in the I \

Argus, and is very amusing to read. The picture of the Queenscliffe Hotel on the night before the Princes arrival capped by the nightshirt episode, is worth all the trouble of procuring a copy. In a very different style is the contrast he points out between Victoria of England and Isabella of Spain, which produced a tremendous burst of cheering. The humorous yet severe delineation of American motives for plaguing the President, shows knowledge of human nature, and is free from that offensive fetish-worship with which some Englishmen speak of American things and ways. Notwithstanding these excellencies, I cannot say that 1 quite like the lecture —or rather, perhaps, I ought to say that the arriere pensee (for that there is one must be felt by every thinking reader) is rather difficult to get at. A politician, especially a practised one —and, most of all, a practised one of Mr Michie’s stamp — never makes a public move without a reason ; what was his reason for this 1 The mere request of the Early Closing Association does not seem sufficient: as the philosophers would say, it is more probably the occasional than the efficient cause.