the capital of the colony of Victoria in South-Eastern Australia, is situated on the River Yarra-Yarra, at the head of the large estuary of Port Phillip, in S. Lat. 37° 48', E. Long. 144° 58'. The site was selected and occupied in the year 1835 by a small colonizing party from Van Diemen's Land. The town was officially recognised and designated two years afterwards by the government of New South Wales, to which colony Melbourne, together with the surrounding district, pertained until its formation into an independent colony in 1851 under the present name of Victoria. The capital of the future colony was named in honour of the English prime minister of the day, Lord Melbourne.

The rapid growth of Melbourne has given it an extension far beyond the limits of its original plan. The principal part of the town is still on the northern bank of the river, where it was first founded; but considerable divisions or wards have sprung up on the south side also, where South Melbourne, Sandridge, St Kilda, and the western part of South Yarra, are comprised within the city boundary. On the northern bank the site consists of two eminences, called respectively the Eastern and Western Hills, which, with the intervening hollow, have been overspread with streets and houses. The lower situations along the bank, and for a short distance up this hollow (now the main thoroughfare called Elizabeth Street), were until lately exposed to floods from the river; but the municipal improvements have now so considerably raised these exposed places as to cause little or no apprehension on this account for the future. The southern side of the river is flat and swampy, excepting the sandy margin upon the bay where Sandridge is built, and the rising ground where the other parts of Melbourne already spoken of are laid out. To the westward, on the N. side of the Yarra, is another flat called Batman's Swamp, having a salt lagoon, without outlet, and a creek or chain of ponds entering it at the north, but without stream in its bed save on rare occurrences of heavy rains. So much surrounding low land is considered unfavourable to health; and the low parts of the town are decidedly so, especially in the present imperfectly drained condition of Melbourne. The original block of the town was laid out without open reserves, probably from the moderate anticipations of the future city. In the subsequent extension, however, this great defect has been remedied. Besides the Royal Park to the N.W., and the Police Paddock and other large spaces on the outskirts, there are the beautiful natural sites of the Carlton and Fitzroy Gardens, which are already being surrounded by the houses of the expanding capital.

The undulation of the site has occasioned some artificial levelling, although not to a great extent. The streets are mostly at right angles; and being of considerable length, straight, and of ample width, they have a good appearance. All the principal lines are well finished, being macadamized in the middle, and drained, kerbed, and to a great extent flagged on either side. In the original plan there were alternate lanes or narrow streets, which had been intended to serve as back entrances to allotments extending from the main streets. As the town increased, however, and the lands became very valuable, the original allotments were subdivided to a degree far beyond what had been antici- The climate of Melbourne in its mean results is cooler, as usual in the Southern Hemisphere, than that of the same latitude in the N., but it is subject to very frequent changes, particularly during the summer season. The mean temperature of January last (midsummer), for example, was $66^\circ$-4. The highest indicated temperature was $101^\circ$-1, the lowest $48^\circ$; while the mean daily range of the month was so considerable as $19^\circ$-4. It is not, therefore, a climate suited to invalids, as is often supposed. It possesses, however, an agreeableness of character, arising from the great proportion of fair and sunny weather, which is especially noticeable to the British emigrant. Another mistake, still more common, attributes to Australian colonies a very diminished supply of rain as compared with European countries. On this subject the following results are interesting, as they compare the rain-fall at Melbourne with that at London:—At Melbourne the annual mean of five years (1847-51) gave $32\frac{6}{13}$ inches; while at London the mean of twenty years, ending in 1846, gave only $24\frac{4}{13}$ inches. The seasons of greatest rain in each are somewhat different. The wettest months at Melbourne were those between April and November inclusive, when the monthly mean was $3\frac{4}{13}$ inches; while the driest were between December and March, the monthly average being only $1\frac{3}{13}$ inch. Thus the most rain occurred from the last half of autumn to the beginning of summer; while in London, it would appear, the rain falls proportionally most from midsummer to the beginning of winter (June to November). This is almost an exact reversal; but as the opposites in the antipodean seasons have been allowed for, it follows, that both in London and at its antipodes the greatest proportions of rain are occurring during about the same time.

The commerce of Melbourne has already attained to a scale that constitutes it, so far as regards that test, the principal port of the British colonial dominions and of the Southern Hemisphere. This great and sudden development is due to the Australian gold discoveries that took place in 1851. Although the first discoveries were made in New South Wales, yet Victoria, where the gold was soon after found, has ever since yielded by far the larger proportion; and as nearly all the auriferous wealth flows through Melbourne, that place has thus acquired its surpassing importance.

The following figures represent the import and export commerce of the port of Melbourne for the last two years (1855 and 1856) according to the declared value at the customs:—

| Year | Imports | Exports | |------|---------|---------| | 1855 | L10,232,279 | L13,240,751 | | 1856 | L12,706,849 | L14,383,250 |

Nearly the whole external commerce of the colony has been gradually concentrating in Melbourne. For the year 1855 the total amounts for the colony were,—imports, L11,568,904; exports, L13,469,194; from which we observe that Melbourne possesses nearly eight-ninths of the import and sixteen-seventeenths of the export commerce. The export of gold is in the proportion of five-sixths of the whole amount of exports.

The great and yearly expanding importance of Melbourne as a seaport demands for that part of our subject a short notice. The city is 8 miles by river course from the mouth of the Yarra, and thence to the Heads of Port Phillip is 35 miles. These Heads are but 2 miles apart; and through this strait, so narrow as compared with the expanse of Port Phillip, the ebb and flow of the outer ocean sweeps with a strong current of 5 or 6 miles an hour, rendered more remarkable by the eddying and jumbling of the water caused by the great inequality of depth in the channel. Ships sailing inwards are in a few minutes transported from the stormiest to the calmest waters. Each in-flowing tide is charged more or less with sand, sustained while the waters are in motion, but deposited when they have come to rest within the bay. Thus has arisen a system of sandbanks extending 12 miles inwards, and navigable by several channels, the deepest of which, called the South Channel, takes a circuit by the S. and E. of the bay. As the entrance is dangerous, particularly at night, pilots cruise about outside. The danger, however, is now much diminished since a second light has been added to Shortland's Bluff, so as to afford a safe entrance by keeping the two in line.

The anchorage is at Hobson's Bay, the upper part of Port Phillip, where the larger vessels were discharged by means of lighters until within the last two years, when the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway began to expedite this tedious process. The railway from Williamstown, now nearly completed, will be a further improvement; and although considerably longer, it has the advantage of a better sheltered jetty than the other. Extensive wharf accommodation has been recently made at Melbourne to accommodate the fleet of the smaller shipping and the lighters. The authorities, in regard to harbour improvement policy, have been for some time undecided between deepening the present circuitous river-course and opening a new and straight cut to the bay; the first being 8 miles, while the other would be only about 1½ mile. Opinion now inclines to the first. The river has two bars or shallows,—one at the mouth, the other half-way to Melbourne; and neither has more than nine feet of water at usual flood-tides. Besides these, however, other places, although not so shallow, require to be deepened. Neither scheme can be carried out without heavy expense; still the object to be attained is greatly more important than the consideration of its cost. A patent slip on a large scale is now being erected at Williamstown. The rise and fall of tide in the bay has usually a range of only three feet. Persons interested in shipping and merchandise should be careful, in bills of trading, of the use of the words "Port of Melbourne," which, although intended to mean Melbourne itself, is now usually held to be the anchorage off Williamstown, unless the vessel is destined for or is able to proceed up to "Melbourne Wharf."

Melbourne is the seat of a municipality, which was conferred in the year 1843. The mayor and aldermen are elected by the council. The following is the valuation of the city, taken for the purpose of levying the rate, for the six years ending 1857:—

| Year | Valuation | |------|-----------| | 1852 | L174,723 | | 1853 | 638,894 | | 1854 | 1,553,865 | | 1855 | 1,077,725 | | 1856 | 729,807 | | 1857 | 911,414 |

The valuation for each year is taken towards the end of the year preceding. We here observe the great rise in value caused by the gold discoveries. Not less striking is the reaction after 1854, when the colonists had gone too great a length. The year 1856 gives less than half the value for 1854, notwithstanding that some extension and improvement had been effected intermediate. As the colony is again actively progressing, the value for 1857 shows a large advance on that of the preceding year. The number of houses for 1857 is given at 10,334, affording the unparalleled average of nearly L90 of yearly value for each house.

The municipal revenues are considerable. In 1854 they amounted to L69,938 in gross total, and in 1856 to L71,717, which last amount comprised L48,000 of city The expense of salaries for 1856 was £12,954. In 1854 £500,000 was borrowed by the corporation under the sanction and with the guarantee of the colonial government. With so effective an aid the town was greatly improved in its streets. Already nearly a million sterling may be computed to have been spent in such improvements.

Melbourne is the seat of the colonial government, which is now, since the recent concession of political freedom, administered on the constitutional plan of that of England. There are two houses of parliament, both elected by the people; while the governor is nominated by the crown. The press is an active agent, and issues three large daily papers in Melbourne, besides various others at longer intervals.

Melbourne already possesses many public institutions of a charitable or useful description. The hospital was begun in 1846; and in 1856 administered to 1725 in-door and 3393 out-door patients. There is also a benevolent and a lunatic asylum, a mechanics' institution and public library, and latterly a spacious and costly university, which as yet, however has not been adequately supplied with pupils. The Parliament-House, which is still unfinished, will be a very large and handsome structure.

The costliness of everything, and the rush and bustle of life and business during the first years of the gold-digging, caused the erection of many poor and temporary structures throughout the town. Many grotesque-looking edifices of wood and iron had been rapidly put up, which contributed little by way of ornament, and still less of comfort under the extremes of the climate. An entire suburb of tents on the southern side of the river acquired the significant name of Canvastown; but it has now happily quite disappeared, and with it much misery and mortality. The iron and timber buildings are gradually being displaced by a better kind of edifice as their sites get more valuable. There are now many handsome shops, and a considerable profusion of plate-glass, which begins to appear in the windows of private residences as well as of numerous shops and warehouses. Many houses of timber or iron still remain; but, with few exceptions, the custom is now to build of brick or stone, particularly of the former, as bricks are now largely made in the country. The various churches, which are chiefly collected upon the Eastern Hill, exhibit amongst them some large and costly edifices. The banking companies, too, have erected handsome places of business; and many substantial warehouses of the merchants are scattered over the town. The river is crossed by a bridge of unusually large span. The chief thoroughfares are crowded with traffic, with foot-passengers and omnibuses, to an extent not inferior to that exhibited by the larger and most stirring of the British towns.

Melbourne boasts of a large "Theatre-Royal," nearly equal in its accommodation to the largest London houses. There are two smaller theatres, and a spacious "Astley's." The last is a wooden fabric, and being capable of containing 4000 persons, it is much used for the political and other "mass meetings" of the colonists. In the suburbs are "Cremorne Gardens," where fireworks, Sebastopol sieges, and other attractions are nightly exhibited. The annual races last for three days, and are always so absorbing as almost to cause a general holiday-making. Cricket, too, is a favourite pastime both in Melbourne and throughout the colony.

In front of the town-hall and adjacent police-office is a considerable stand of cabs. There are regular daily coaches to the interior towns that are rising rapidly upon or near to the different gold-fields; and a growing fleet of steamers maintains regular communications with neighbouring ports and colonies,—namely, daily to Geelong, and at wider intervals to Alberton, Sydney, Portland, Adelaide, Launceston, and Hobart Town. Railway travelling is as yet confined to the two miles of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay line, and a small part of the Geelong and Melbourne line next the former town; but it is expected that the present year (1857) will witness the opening of the entire way, together with the branch of the Hobson's Bay line to St Kilda, and the line to Williamstown. The great lines to the gold-fields are as yet scarcely commenced.

Among the more recent improvements in the city connected with the sanitary and general wellbeing, we may notice the erection of an elegant and substantial marketplace in the Custom-House Square; and in the same locality a savings-bank and a fine exchange edifice for the use of the commercial interests, and a place of meeting for the Chamber of Commerce. In January 1856 Melbourne was lighted with gas. At a latter period of the same year a supply of water was introduced throughout the town, raised from the river by pumping machinery. By this arrangement, besides the supply to the dwellings, there is a regular watering of the streets; while the risk from fire is greatly diminished. This supply, however, is only temporary, pending the completion of the gigantic works connected with the Yan Yean reservoir, near the head of the River Plenty, about 18 miles to the N.E. of the town. Immediately following this completion will come the much-wanted drainage and sewerage, upon which the health of the population of Melbourne so greatly depends.

The increase of the population of Melbourne has been as remarkable as that of its commerce. The census of 1841 gives it 44,40; that of 1846 a little short of 10,000. In 1851, just prior to the gold discoveries, it had attained to 23,000; but in 1854 the numbers were 53,235, while the suburbs contained 23,330,—making a total of 76,565.

A census taken on 29th March last (1857), but the results of which have not yet been made public, will probably give to Melbourne about 70,000 within the city boundaries, besides 30,000 in the suburbs, making a total of 100,000 souls.