Here we have the indefatigable Mr. Denning busied as usual, in "extracting gold out of cat-gut scrapings," and superintending quadrilles at the "Protestant Hall." He insists upon his lady patronesses providing themselves with cards of respectability; of course, founded upon proper proof of their being virtuous females. Now it is evident that these certificates must either be white lies, or else they are to be obtained as truthful indices, by a peculiar process of investigation, known only to the initiated, or that paragon of medical respectability, the illustrious Dr. Louis L. Smith.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.-The monthly meeting of this society was held on Saturday afternoon, at 2 o'clock, in the Scots School, Collins' Street, Mr. M. Cutcheon in the chair. Two gentlemen were admitted as members of the Institute. Mr. Inglis was appointed as one of the secretaries, on the resignation of Mr. Trythall. A letter from the Secretary of the Denominational School Board promised that the request of the association, that that Board would retain in its own hands the power of dismissal of its teachers, would be early considered by it. In reply to a memorial of the Institute, requesting that degrees be granted on examination alone, the Council of the University stated that the subject had been frequently under notice both before and subsequent to the date of the petition, and that there was every probability that in a short time degrees would be attainable without compulsory attendance upon lectures. It was mentioned that the council had recently announced their adoption of the above principle, and would make corresponding arrangements for next year's examinations. The professors wished the attention of the teachers to be drawn to the classes held at the University on Saturday mornings, designed specially for them, as at present the attendance was somewhat limited. The subjects of the lectures were mathematics, Greek, and constitutional history. After some discussion on the objections made by Bishop Perry to the recent regulations issued by the Denominational School Board, to restrict the local boards from taxing their teachers' incomes to an undue extent, it was resolved to draw up a memorial to the Governor in Council, praying him not to refuse his sanction to those rules so necessary for the protection of the teacher. A communication from Mr. Colin Campbell, M.L.A., was read, suggesting that the Institute should call a general meeting of the profession of teachers, in order to elicit their views on the subject of education. He considered that such a meeting would have much influence in drawing the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of some settlement of the question being arrived at this session.

An opposition concert to Denning's fiddling at the Protes

DEATH ON THE PALE AND WHITE HORSES OF LITERATURE. 123

tant Hall, on the educational harmonicon! Bishop Perry, however, does not play in tune, and his "fetch," Mr. Colin Campbell, M.L.A., proposes to give a solo on his flageolet to charm the deaf adders in parliament.

Necessity of some settlement, Mr. Campbell! why does not Dame "Necessity" get delivered of her daughter" Invention," she is past her time ere this surely? Does denominationalism weaken the nervous system?

BOOKS

OOKS of all the OPERAS, with music of the principal airs. Dwight, Bookseller, near Parliament Houses.

DWI

WIGHT, Bookseller, near Parliament Houses, BUYS, exchanges, or sells on commission. 10,000 volumes at low prices.

FOR good BOOKS, at lowest prices, go to Glenny Wilson's, 172,

Bourke-street, east. Books purchased.

UIDE to HEALTH,

GUID

‚—a medical work on nervous debility, with plain directions for perfect restoration to health and vigour. By Perry, and Co., surgeons, 50, Lonsdale-street, east ; and 210, Bourke-street, east. Price, 2s. 6d. ; post paid, 3s.

IN

the

press, with addenda, MONEY; where shall I deposit it for Security and Income?

GREEN TENT MURDER.-M'QUEENEY'S CAST just received.

Phrenological Museum, opposite Eastern Market.

Here we see how education tries to take care of itself; ten thousand volumes of a species of Japanese literature at low prices! Quality no doubt to suit the price. The intimation that good books are on sale by another seller is in a following advertisement, and the number of these superior productions is not stated in tens of thousands as the low priced collection above was. Then we have one of those obscene abominations, that have contributed mainly to aggravate and spread the very class of nervous diseases they so kindly profess to cure, altogether unknown till these beastly specimens of medical quackery polluted the minds, and ruined the health and morals of whole communities. A juvenile treatise on pecuniary troubles, that has apparently got jammed in the press; with addenda! what is the addenda? A lecture on the effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum? That work on the currency question has been long looked for.

Green tent murder and portrait of the author for sixpence. This question about proper systems of education is one of the most pitiable pieces of quackery now rampant. Instruction and education are jumbled together, and instead of broad views, we have narrow cliquism of that sham religious order that is more repulsive than any other form of self deception. It is coolly assumed that unless state catechisms of theological speculations are inculcated in schools, there can be no instruction of any sort afforded; because the better educated he church-avoiding masses are, the more dangerous, insubordinate, disrespectful, and disloyal they are sure to be.

Now for extract from the Melbourne "Herald" of same day. The motto of this newspaper is "Impartial, not neutral;" which they interpret to mean " All things to all men:" "every thing by starts, and nothing long :"

A BLACK BUSINESS.-It would appear as if the aborigines of Victoria were at length about to take a prominent position in the affairs of their own country. Not to mention the Committee of inquiry, the appointment of which Mr. M'COMBIE demanded with such empressement, scarcely a week passes that they do not appear before us connected with some incident of sorrow or crime that ought, at all events, to make us blush for the results of European civilisation at the Antipodes. Now, we hear of an old lubra, dying a mass of disease in some den near the border; and although her shrieks, the result of combined illness and hunger, are so audible as to find a ready chronicle in the local press, not a solitary hand is put forward to relieve her agony; later still we find two aborigines arrested for murdering a drunken white man who broke into their corroboree, sent for brandy, and reduced himself to even a lower state of brutality than theirs: and one of the latest developments of the question is the conviction of two blacks at Ballaarat-rejoicing in the names of OLD MAN BILLY and YOUNG MAN BILLY-for the murder of another aboriginal of a different tribe, whereupon re-arises the curious legal "question" whether we, the British possessors of this territory, have any right to try the natives for murder, when the victim happens to be of their own race and blood? Nobody who reads the Victorian journals need be told that this point has frequently been raised before; that the law officers of the crown have formally prononnced upon it; and that a long list, including names no less distinguished than those of the Hon. Mr. PLUNKET, of New South Wales, and Chief Justice STAWELL, have given it as their opinion that the blacks ought to be permitted to butcher each other with impunity, the

SOCIAL SCIENCE AT THE ANTIPODES.

125

law only applying to them when they venture an experiment upon the blood of a white man! If this doctrine were known to the humane Europeans who first "colonised" Australia, it would doubtless have afforded them infinite consolation; for, instead of having to expend their money upon poison and powder to extinguish the natives, they need only have exerted their diplomatic powers in encouraging them to slaughter each other. As it happened, the race has faded away rapidly enough; but if the true theory of the law were understood the existence of a real aboriginal would at this moment be as problematical as that of the bunyip.

Of course we may presume that such eminent authorities would not pronounce such a decision upon insufficient grounds; and it is to be hoped that Mr. M'COMBIE'S Committee will elicit all the information that can be gleaned upon the subject. In the meantime it is attempted to justify it by three arguments-1. That murders among the aboriginals-" murders in se" as they are called-are simply executions for offences against their own laws; 2. That it is almost impossible to rely upon the evidence of aborigines given in our courts; 3. That after all, we have no legitimate control over the blacks, as we have never yet completed their conquest. This last is considered the most powerful of the trio; and it is understood to be the sole ground upon which the Executive have commuted the sentence of death passed upon the two aborigines now in the central gaol, who were convicted of the brutal murder of their dusky brother.

Now, after all, what is the real pertinence of these arguments, judged by the criterion of common sense; and it is our proud boast that British law is the essence of common sense For example, take the question of “aboriginal evidence;" it was chiefly upon the evidence of an aboriginal woman, KITTY, that the blacks were convicted at Ballaarat. If her evidence were inadmissible-above all, if the Court had no right to try the prisoners at all-what use was there in going through the mockery of a trial? What renders this evidence business more absurd, is the fact that the law has over and over again winked at inter se aboriginal murders, even although committed in the presence of whites. But then we have no right to interfere, forsooth, as, after all, we never " conquered" the blacks! Could there be a more preposterous proposition, in the face of the abject spectacle presented by the few thousand wretched natives still extant? Where are they to be found assuming an attitude of defiance or even independence? Does the human form anywhere present a more degraded picture than that of the male or female aboriginal of Australia? Conquered! Certainly we have conquered them-conquered them "off the face of the earth." Perhaps those who use the phrase really mean that we have not civilized them. Quite true, we have preferred the process of brutalization.

The inter se theory stands, if possible, upon less tenable grounds. It

is asserted that the blacks only kill each other "according to law,”— according to some mysterious code prevalent among themselves. It is not very wonderful that those well-informed individuals who say this, do not tell us the nature of this aboriginal law; and thus have substantial justice done without rendering our own trial by jury a farce? If there be any such law, and that it is not merely the "wild justice of revenge," let us recognise and adopt it in some intelligible way; but we should prefer ignoring its existence altogether, and punishing as well as protecting the aborigines through the ordinary courts of justice.

It is impossible for any generous mind to dwell upon these exhibitions of combined cruelty and cant without anger and shame. We have coolly usurped possession of the entire territory of the aborigines; and, as an excuse for not extending them the protection of our laws, we plead that we never "conquered them." Flying from the guilt and misery of the old world, we found here one of the mildest and most docile of aboriginal races; and after inoculating them with vices and diseases they never knew before, we repudiate the responsibility of their coming extinction. In reply to a circular, issued by the select committee on Aborigines, in 1849, Mr. DALOLT, of Brighton, in the Wimmera district, gives this sketch of the primitive condition of the natives::

When we first meet the aboriginal on his virgin soil, it is in camp, in the purity of his native air, the abode of a night or two, his arms and opossum rug his only encumbrance. What food he has was obtained by the sweat of his brow, and is clean and wholesome, whether of the inhabitants of the waters, the farinaceous root of the flower of the field, or of the locust or creeping things that roam on the face of the earth. His mode of cooking, however disgusting to fastidiously refined imaginations, is such as not a few of us have been glad to resort to when compelled by necessity, the great mother of all our ingenuity, luxuries and refinement. His bodily health, agility, and watchfulness are next to proverbial.

Contrast this with the horrible picture he gives of the native contaminated by the white man :

We are first saluted by a host of half-starved leprous mangy dogs. The filth about the miamies proves them to have been occupied more weeks than days. Here, coiled in luxurious sloth, partly concealed under a dirty rug or blanket, or a heap of rags of all hues, partially sewn together with grass, we find the heir of the soil. The object beside him, with hair disordered, and hands and face coated with manure, with here and there a streak of a lighter shade (perspiration having done the duty of soap and water), and whose nakedness is in some measure covered under the tattered folds of what was once a tunic, made after the latest fashion, squats his youngest lubra. In her hands she has a shell with which she scratches his back and limbs, which are one mass of small pimples, from many of which we see blood and matter exuding; this is the disease the aboriginal calls bong bong,-a kind of itch mange taken from their dogs. A child of about