put in an appearance, without as much as a bun or a lolly, a bottle of ginger-beer or pannikin of tea amongst them. T h e Mayor held his breakfast levee, yvhere there was enough to eat and drink in a genteel way, and the entertainer had all the speechifying to himself; but here, to use an Irishism, in opening his mouth he " put his foot in it," by some very injudicious remarks as to his preferring " the approbation of the educated to the applause of the uneducated." This he ineffectually endeavoured to tone d o w n afterwards, when rated about it by the newspapers. After the breakfast an attempt yvas m a d e to form a procession, but the youngsters were not in the best humour or condition to fall into rank, and though some hundreds started on the boundary excursion, only the Mayor, T o w n Clerk, Chief Constable, and a couple of the Council members saw the end of it. Civic
EXCLUSIVENESS IN CHURCH.
A few days after the children's " treat," the Mayor revived the folly of Mayor Condell, by an attempt to secure for the Corporation a locus (not standi, but) sedendi, at St. James' Church, and in a more puerile manner than his predecessor. H e actually applied for " special seats " for himself and four Aldermen, altogether oblivious of the Sunday spiritual condition of the Councillors, and yvith m u c h gusto, announced what he had done at the Council meeting of the 14th February. T o his extreme disgust, instead of a patting on the back for his unsolicited consideration, he got rapped over the knuckles, and took his "gruel" with a humbleness not unmixed yvith chagrin. H e was roundly and truly told that he had committed a gross impropriety, because as Mayor he was not a member of any particular church, and consequently should not in that capacity specially recognise any religious denomination. T h e Mayor disavowed a preference for any church, but admitted that he had not applied for Sabbath privileges for any other religious persuasion. Councillors Kerr and Johnston animadverted with m u c h severity upon the action of the Mayor in his attempted recognition of Episcopalianism as a dominant church, and the subject was allowed to drop. A question of a general lighting of the town yvas initiated and ventilated by Councillor Greeves. T h e Council had power to levy a 4d. lighting rate, and it was calculated that 128 lamps would answer every reasonable purpose, which at £3 each would be ,£384. A 4d. rate on the assessment would yield .£435 I0S-> leaving ,£51 19s. towards the erection of lamp posts. T h e subject flickered for the moment, and died out. During the months of March and April, 1846, vacancies occurred in the Council through the insolvency of Mr. Kerr, and the resignations of Messrs. Moor, Orr, and Sandford. Councillors Greeves and Bell were elected Aldermen, M r . Michael Cashmore (thefirstJew so honoured) was returned Councillor for Latrobe W a r d in Sandford's place, and on the 20th April, Mr. John O'Shanassy (the first Irish R o m a n Catholic, similarly complimented) yvas elected by the same W a r d for the seat voided by Councillor Greeves' promotion. Mr. T h o m a s M'Combie was a few days after returned vice Councillor Bell, for Bourke Ward, beating Mr. Charles Callow by 31 votes to 23. T h e General Market yvas placed under the management of one officer instead of two, and M r Michael Gallagher (afterwards an Alderman), was appointed Inspector at ,£78 per annum. In M a y , 1846, the state of Collins from Elizabeth to Swanston Streets was such that the shopkeepers offered to pay half the cost of kerbing the footyvays, but were only treated to a shrug of cold shoulder. T h e Separation queries brought the Mayor into a serious collision with the Governor, Sir George Gipps. His Worship yvas at times rather given to m u c h speaking and writing, and some of his published epistles are masterpieces of argument that would have been irresistible if more moderately put but the were marred by dogmatism, and bitter, though polished, invective. O n e of his communications to the Government yvas returned with a memorandum, intimating that as it was " couched in language studiously offensive, and abounding in misrepresentations, His Excellency refused to submit it to his Executive Council." This placed the Mayor on his mettle, and on the 9 th of M a y he submitted the correspondence to the T o w n Council, when a resolution yvas passed approving the action of His Worship, and a copy of the condemned manifesto was ordered to be forwarded to Mr. A . Cunninghame, then' a Port Philli delegate in London, to be by him presented to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.' 'P
