VICTORIA.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2684, 23 September 1871, Page 2

VICTORIA.

“iEgles," in the A ustralasian of the I2th August says A gentleman who was once gold commissioner at Bendigo in the old days before Sandhurst was invented, retnern* bered this week that he held L3O or so deposited with him for safe keeping by a man named L)e Castro in 1841. In that year a alight-built man, with pale face, dark hair, about sft. Sin. in height, with a foreign accent, and with manners betokening gentle birth and some -education, - called at my friend’s tent and asked him to take care of the above-mentioned sum of money. This sort of request was common enough in those days, and the commissioner consented. From that hour he never was De Castro. A few days after the money had been left with h'm, some men, who alleged that they were m tes of Do Castro, claimed it on the ground that part of it belonged to them, and that it had been improperly appropriated by Signor De Castro. Without an order from the depositor himself, or security against the proper claimant, the commissioner declined to surrender the cash. He asked the persons who

asserted their right to proceed to law, as he desired nothing better than to be freed from responsibility by a judge ordering payment of the cash. The claimants tried the .matter thus and were nonsuited, and my informant, who says he could now pick De Castro out of a thousand men, to this day holds that L3O. Does this fact throw any light upon the colonial career of the claimant of the Tichborne estates ? What I have written can easily be substantiated if necessary. The funeralists in Melbourne are making headway. Hitherto the time and place of interment of the deceased have been notified in the papers, now the undertaker, sends out invitations, and the formula of the latest outrage of the undertaker is ornamentally printed, with a grief-stricken border, and reads • “ The favor of > our company is requested to attend the late - for - toon— An early answer is requested ; and then follows the name and business address of the issuer of this ghastly invitation Ihe advertising spirit of the age cant let even the dead rest in peace. At the banquet given to Mr Trollope at Rockampton, aMr James Smith, who was present in uniform, responded to the toast of the army, navy, and volunteers Mr Smith opened his address by observing that “he was pleased to hear the grime of the «eat unwashed to that august and select assembly, and to have the honour to dine with Mr Trollope." After this gentle disclaimer of the credit of cleanliness, Mi Smith, with all the democratic scorn of class distinctions wnich the great unwashed evince, informed the meeting that he had once dined with the Duke of Athol, but he did not relate the untoward circumstances Which brought the dnkc such a table companion, IMr Smith in replying to the objection of “the religionists” to fiction, as not fit for young men and hoys, ventured the heterodox assertion that he found that a large part of his Bible was fiction. He had u aited upon 'Mr Trollope in private, and told him how sorry he felt that he cOuld not meet his favorite authors-Skakspeare Scott and others—in the flesh.” Mr Trollope modestly Observed that Mr Smith “must be content to see a. live clog instead of a dead lion. By wav of correcting an erroneous opinion current about the decadence of England, Mr Smith “in respect to the toast, would say that the Germans were much mistaken m supposing they could have the British fleet by merely asking Gladstone.” There was a difficulty in their way that the Germans had nob reckoned upon. ‘‘ They must first consult Prince Alfred, whom he hoped yet to see tbe President of the United States of Australia.” 'ihe observant novelist, was no doubt highly amused by the highly Colonial character of the entertainment. Sir Geo. Stephen, Q.C., recently lectured in Melbourne on Larrikinism. He is inclined to think the word was of Greek origin though immediately derived from the French larrou, signifying thief, or rogue. Referring to its existence in theJColomes, Sir George ar aued that in administering condemnation of °larrikinism, insufficient allowance had been made for the inexperience of the youthful 'offenders, and that we had scarcely appreciated with justice the buoyant feehugs and exuberance of animal spirits in which these boyish irregularities had their source Vanity and the thirst for distinction were undoubtedly at the root of it all, and these desires, when encouraged, however _s ightly, crew with adolescence, and swelled into offensive self-conceit. Hence it was that our hoys sought to he regarded as men while vet at an age when in his (the lecturer s) younger days they would have been still abject to the birch. In looking to the causes of larrikinism, he attributed much of u to the defective character of our general system of education in those restraints as well as encouragements, winch abound in the mQtfior country, apd largely as well as directly conduce to the maintenance of social order.