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with the other. Mutual friends endeavoured to effect an amicable arrangement, and some days after Lee received a note from his assailant, enclosing a ,£25 cheque as a solatium, with a request to apply the amount to charitable purposes, but it was indignantly returned. Dr. Wilmot and Mr. J. B. Were endeavoured to settle the quarrel, but the case was carried into the Police Court, and the presiding Justices (Mr. James Smith, Dr. Fletcher, and Captain Dana) inflicted a fine of is., and ^£4 15s. costs. Amongst certain legalized nuisances of early Melbourne were the night auctions, held mostly amongst a very questionable class of individuals, w h o were, nevertheless, entrusted with auctioneers' licenses. Their rooms were the resort of the rogues and vagabonds, w h o utilized such dens as a means of getting rid of the stolen property of the period ; for this was before the advent of pawnbroking establishments. T h e law was at length compelled to step in and put down the night sales. T h e next auction nuisance was the perpetual clattering of auctioneers' bells in the streets by day; and so intolerable did this become that the T o w n Council passed a by-law suppressing the ringing of bells and sounding of instruments. S o m e of the H a m m e r Knights started bugles, which were given up on an intimation that they broke the law as flagrantly as the bellman. M r . Peter Davis set up a gong, and declared that neither he nor it should be put down, and when cautioned, maintained that the Corporation had acted ultra vires in what had been done. O n the 25th July, 1848, he was s u m m o n e d for a breach of the by-law, and the Police Court fined him 10s., with 5s. costs, which, after some demur, he paid, and sent his beloved gong to Jericho. Eight years after, this same Peter was Mayor of Melbourne, and there never was a m a n in the Commission of the Peace w h o strained points farther to secure convictions for breaches of the law. In August, 1848, the wife of a cooper, residing at the corner of Flinders and Williams Streets, rushed from the house in her night-dress, and mounting the steps of the wharfv plunged into the River Yarra, under the stern of the "Circassian." O n e of the ship's crew slipped down a rope into the water, brought the w o m a n to the surface, and landed her safe on shore. Immediately on the w o m a n casting herself into the river, afineNewfoundland dog, belonging to Mr. T. B. Sibbering, of the Market Square Hotel, plunged in and swam towards her, but the ready act of the sailor anticipated him. It appears that the would-be " suicide" had been driven to desperation by the ill-treatment of her husband, a m a n of intemperate habits. T h e Punt Lnn, a small hostelry at the off side of the Salt-water River, where a punt then plied, was destroyed by fire on the night of the 13th January, 1848. T h e place was of weatherboard, and house, furniture, and stock were carried off with great rapidity, the inmates having as m u c h as they could do to bolt out of bed into the bush, and so save their lives. T h e proprietor, 'Mr. Henry Kellett, never had such a close shave, for though the run was only a few yards, it. was absolutely a race for life. A very deserving and industrious young man, his loss exceeded ,£400. A s u m of ,£30 and 23s. in silver was in the bar till. T h e notes were turned into tinder, and the coinage was returned to the condition of ore. S o m e fine r u m went up in the blaze, and there was not a penny of insurance effected. T h e casualty was caused by the obliviousness of a drunken servant omitting to extinguish a candle. In the course of the same day a conflagration occurred in Richmond Paddock (now Yarra Park), when some twenty acres of the place were laid waste. At one time it was feared that the fire would gallop off to Richmond, and at another that the residence of the Superintendent (Latrobe) at Jolimont would come to grief. Neither contingency, fortunately, happened. A terrible wholesale drowning occurred in Geelong harbour on Sunday, 2nd December, 1849, Captain Kircus, of the "Victor," a nephew of Captain Davidson, of the "Posthumous" (two vessels riding off Point Henry), and two ship's apprentices, proceeded by boat to Geelong, to attend Divine service there. This they did, and were returning in the afternoon to go on board the "Victor' when the boat was capsized in a squall, and all hands perished.