s, so much the better. But the domestic virtues
which make a happy home for the husband are best fostered in a centre
where brothers and sisters have to give and take; and a good daughter
and sister is likely to make a good wife and mother. I have read quite
recently that the jokes against the mother-in-law which are so many and
so bitter in English and American journalism are worn out, and have
practically ceased; but Dickens and Thackeray set the fashion, and it
lasted a long time.

While "Clara Morison" was making her debut, I paid my first visit to
Melbourne. I went with Mr. and Mrs. Stirling in a French ship consigned
to him, and we were 12 days on the way, suffering from the limited
ideas that the captain of a French merchantman had of the appetites of
Australians at sea. I intended to pay a six weeks' visit to my sister
and her family, but she was so unwell that I stayed for eight months. I
found that Melbourne in the beginning of 1854 was a very expensive
place to live in, and consequently a very inhospitable place. Mr.
Murray's salary sounded a good one, 500 pounds a year, but it did not
get much comfort. His sister was housekeeper at Charles Williamson &
Co.'s, and that was the only place where I could take off my bonnet and
have a meal. From the windows I watched the procession that welcomed
Sir Charles Hotham, the first Governor of the separated colony of
Victoria. He was received with rejoicing, but he utterly failed to
satisfy the people. He thought anything was good enough for them. One
festivity I was invited to--a ball given on the opening of the new
offices of The Argus in Collins street--and there I met Mr. Edward
Wilson, a most interesting personality, the giver of the entertainment.
He was then vigorously championing the unlocking of the land and the
developing of other resources of Victoria than the gold. It had
surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from
Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me
to see sheepruns close to Melbourne. With a better rainfall and equally
good soil, Victoria had neither the farms nor the vineyards nor the
orchards nor the gardens that had sprung up under the 80-acre section
and immigration systems of South Australia. It had been an outlying
portion of New South Wales, neglected and exploited for pastoral
settlement only. The city, however, had been well planned, like that of
Adelaide, but the suburbs were allowed to gro