"It isn't madness,
ma'am," said Mr Bumble, "it's meat."

There is the true explanation of the larrikin. He is meat-fed and is
thereby inspired with ferocity, Darwin, if I remember righdy, tells of a
sheep which was gradually accustomed to a flesh diet. Its wool began
to take the coarseness of hair and the mild beast grew savage.
The fore-runners of the larrikin were never very sheep-like in all
probability, for if one could trace his pedigree, it would in most cases
be found that he is the descendant of the true British cad. But he has
improved upon the ancestral pattern and become a pest of formidable
characteristics and dimensions. The problem he presents has never been
faced, but it will have to be met in one way or another before long.
The stranger is forced to the conclusion that magistrates are absurdly
lenient. I recall a case of some few months ago where a gang of well-fed
ruffians assaulted an old man in Flinders Street, Melbourne. The attack
was shown to have been utterly unprovoked, and the victim's injuries
were serious. Three of the most active participators in the sport were
seized by the police and were each sent to prison for six weeks, A
sentence of six months, with a brace of sound floggings thrown in, would
have gone nearer to meet the exigencies of the case; but there is a
widespread objection to the use of the cat, the argument being that it
is wrong to brutalise these refined young men by its application. The
same spirit of false sentiment exists in England, but in a less marked
degree.

Crimes of violence are of exceptionally frequent occurrence and it
is still felt necessary to punish rape by the imposition of the final
penalty.

The democracy is determined to test itself completely and female
suffrage seems to be within measurable distance. It is conceivable that
it may have a refining effect, and that it may act as a curative, though
the experiment is full of risk. The one-man one-vote principle, together
with the payment of members of the legislative chambers, has not, so
far, achieved the happiest conceivable results. The parliament of New
South Wales is occasionally notorious as a bear-garden. The late Mr
MacEhlone (who once informed the Speaker that, when he encountered
outside an honourable gentleman, to whom the ruling of the chair
compelled him to apologise, he would "spit in his eye ") has a worthy
successor in the presence of a Mr Crick. Sometime ago Mr Crick was
expelled by an ind