Australia and Homeward; 



OB, 



MELBOURNE TO LONDON. 



FIRST LETTER. 



the evening of the 14th of December, 1887, a 

 gathering of near 2,000 of the Melbourne tem- 

 perance people was held in the City Hall to give us a 

 farewell, and to celebrate a Local Option victory, 

 which the friends of temperance had just secured in 

 the Victorian Legislature. The Hon. James Munro, 

 the President of the Victorian Alliance, presided. The 

 Hon. J. B. Patterson and the Hon. J. Balfour, C. J. 

 Ham, M.P., J. Russell, M.P., as also several ministers 

 of various denominations, took part, among them that 

 giant preacher and temperance worker, the Rev. A. R. 

 Edgar (Wesley an), whom everybody, except the pub- 

 lican, loves. The chairman, in his opening address, 

 was kind enough to refer to my work as having 



