gains the day, and not unfrequently brute force or unscrupulous
trickery is called in to keep that which wealth has purchased.

Melbourne is the commercial metropolis of Australia, as Sydney is the
capital of the penal colony, and though both are large, well-built
and thriving cities, they are strikingly in contrast with each other.
One is the scion of a lordly house, "to the manner born"--the other,
the _parvenu_ of yesterday, whose gold makes his position. Melbourne
is to all intents a European city, with its boulevards and regular
streets, whole blocks of costly stores and princely dwellings, and
environed by elegant villas and country-seats adorned with gardens,
vineyards and choice shrubbery. It has its English and Chinese
quarters, the latter as essentially Chinese as if built in the
Celestials' own land, and brought over, mandarin buttons, tiny
teapots, opium-pipes and all, in one of their own junks. The English
quarter contains, besides the government buildings, several schools,
hospitals, churches and benevolent institutions, the public library, a
polytechnic hall, a national museum, theatres and opera-houses, all
built in a style alike elegant and substantial. The library only ten
years after it was opened numbered 41,000 volumes, and has since been
largely increased. Science rather than literature, and practical
utility more than entertainment, have been kept in the ascendency in
the management of this institution. The hall is open for daily
lectures, and some valuable telescopes and other apparatus belong to
the institution. The cabinet of natural history contains many rare
specimens that serve to elucidate the ancient and modern history of
the country, especially in regard to some of the animals and
vegetables indigenous to the island. The museum is built on a
commanding eminence, and from its spacious windows one sees clearly to
the opposite side of Hobson's Bay.