if she would renounce all rights to the throne for herself and her daughter, a young lady who was then being educated in Europe; just as the great Napoleon offered the Bourbon heir to France an Italian province if he would renounce his regal rights. He replied in one of the few noble letters that can be ascribed to the Bourbons, refusing the offer, and saying that he would still remain true to the cause of France, though for it he had lost all but honour. The Queen, we were told, replied in a similar strain. Since then we have read of what was said to be an attempted counter-revolution by her partisans. The rising was promptly suppressed, and the usual arrests, trials for treason, sentences, confiscations, have followed. The gentlemen composing the new Government appeared to be clever men, and prompt to act when occasion required. We experienced this ourselves. One difficulty in laying the cable that was projected between Vancouver and Australia, and which it was one object of our mission to secure, was supposed to be the want of British, or neutral, landingplaces for the different stages across the ocean. Practical authorities have since declared that the lengths to be spanned are a matter of little consequence, as by aid of modern inventions the cable can be laid in safety for thousands of miles on the ocean bed at a stretch. Before we came some inquiries had been made as to the conditions under which it could be landed, if necessary, for one stage, at Honolulu, and also as to what facilities. there were for making a small island, some 300 miles distant, the resting-place, which some preferred as an alternative, since it had never been formally annexed by any power, and so could be taken by England for that purpose. The young republic, however, hearing of or surmising this idea, promptly sent round one of its little ships of war and hoisted its flag over the barren rock. The fact was that the United States Government, with whose wishes they were no doubt acquainted, had resolved to show no favour to the British Pacific cable, preferring to have one from

Honolulu to San Francisco, and so secure the commercial relations between the two places. However, we can lay our cable from Vancouver to Fanning Island, which is our own, without difficulty, though it is 3,232 knots, and it is to be hoped that we shall do so without delay.

The natives are a handsome, lazy race. The soil is so fertile, and the climate so genial, that there is no need for hard work in order to live. Yet at times they will work, when pushed to it. The patient, much toiling Chinese, of whom there are a considerable number here, plods along contentedly from one year's end to another. The Japanese immigrants also are industrious, and the labour of these two races upon the rich land makes the wealth of the country great.

There was noticeable here what one particularly observes in small communities - the pride in titles, names, distinctions of rank and office. Indeed, this feeling is natural to us all, however democratic our ideas may be in the abstract. When trade and artisan societies go out upon a fête day, you will see badges and decorations worn with evident satisfaction by men who would yet recite, with enthusiasm, Burns' scornful reference to the "riband, star, and a' that." Here we found the public men designated by high-sounding titles, each Minister's card bearing upon it the title of the office he held; as for example, so and so, " Minister for Foreign Affairs.” To illustrate how strong this sentiment is, even with learned men, I may be excused if I close this long chapter with an incident that happened many years ago in my own province of Victoria. A Supreme Court had been established there from the first, the judges of which used to be addressed by the title of "Your Honour," it being considered, I suppose, that it would be too much to import the old "Your Lordship" from the mother land. In 1853, County Courts were established, and there the practitioners, who were chiefly from England and Ireland, retained, in addressing the Bench, the style of " Your Honour,"

to which they had been accustomed in those courts at home. But the judges of the Supreme Court resented this sharing of their titular dignity by an inferior jurisdiction, and the authority of the Governor-inCouncil was invoked to check the encroachment.

The following notice was accordingly published in the Victoria Government Gazette :

Colonial Secretary's Office,

Melbourne, 4th October, 1853.

NOTICE.

In order to remove an erroneous impression which has prevailed as to the proper title of judges of the inferior courts, the LieutenantGovernor directs it to be notified that, until Her Majesty's pleasure be known, the title of a judge of a County Court or the Chairman of General Sessions shall be that of "Your Worship" or "His Worship." Where the name of office is required, the addition to the ordinary address should be "Judge of the County Court," or "Chairman of General Sessions," as the case may be. The titles of "Your Honour" and "His Honour," having been as yet conceded by Her Majesty to the judges of the Supreme Court alone, cannot properly be assumed by or accorded to any other officer.

By His Excellency's command,

JOHN FORSTER.

But how to proceed-how to give effect to these sound views? The County Court judges did not style themselves "Your Honour," and after all was it in their power to prevent the public doing so? In this dilemma the Acting Chief Justice wrote the following official letter to my father, who was one of the first appointed judges:

Supreme Court,

8th July, 1853. SIR, I have the honour to request that you will have the goodness to inform me if it be with your sanction that you allow yourself to be addressed, in the court in which you preside, by the title of "Your Honour."

I remain, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,
RB-

To the Chairman of General Sessions

for the County of Bourke.

Acting Chief Justice.

My father, who had only arrived from Ireland a short time before, replied that when presiding in his court he was variously addressed by witnesses and others-sometimes simply as "Sir," or even "Mister," often "Your Worship," frequently "Your Honour,' occasionally "Your Lordship," and, though rarely, "Your Reverence"; but that he was unable to say that he actually sanctioned any one of these titles. In the end the public, with a natural obstinacy, continued to "honour" the County Court judges more than ever.

CHAPTER III.

CANADA.

WE arrived in Canada early in July, and as we travelled through the whole extent of that vast Dominion, from Vancouver, on the Pacific, to Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, we had many opportunities of observing Canadian social life, and some of studying its political condition. And Canada is vast. To get from one end to the other you go 3,000 miles by rail. You can do this now comfortably in five days and a half: one hundred years ago it took a goods dray three weeks to go from London to Edinburgh. Its mountain system, stretching from north to south, also measures that wide span. Its rivers, some of which are the grandest in the world, number fourteen. Some of the smaller ones would be worshipped as river-gods by us in Australia. It has nine great lakes, two or three of which are rather to be called inland seas of fresh water, besides lesser ones innumerable. Its vast forests still defy the inroads of the splitter and the sawmill. Its total area is not much less than that of the United States or Europe, falling short of the size of the latter division of the earth only by something over 300,000 square miles, which is not much when you are dealing with areas of millions. Though this great country has only a handful of people, speaking relatively to its size, yet its population numbers over five millions; and the representatives of Canada and Australia at the Conference spoke for more than ten millions of the Queen's subjects. In 1820 the