safed thee by the Sydney Town and Country Journal, thou would'st bless the happy day that called it into existence. Our first thought, on looking at what was termed "Wonderful Pictorial Representation of the Ascension," recalled a certain hackneyed reference to Fools and Angels. Our second was one of virtuous indignation (i.e., the righteous wrath of the virtuoso) at the imbecile impertinence of the Wonderful Pictorial. What on earth hast thou done, poor Dorè? What expiation is it thou art called upon to suffer, that such a wretched forgery of thy genius should be set before men's eyes? Says the footnote to the W. Pictorial: "There have been many pictures of the Ascension of Christ, but who ever succeeded so well in presenting to the eye at once the appearance of that ethereal nature, &c." The presentation, to our eye, was simply that of a vile burlesque upon one of the noblest pictures the world has ever gazed upon-s shoddy imitation evoking feelings of anger. Let the T. and C. Journal confine its artistic faculties to Model Public Schools, Gatling Guns, or even coarse likenesses of deceased bishops; but, in Heaven's name, we implore them to let Dorè and the Ascension be!

Is it intended to erect a statue to Creswick, to give him a snuff-box, or to present him with a reprint of Davie Buchanan's extra-honied encomiums bound in appropriate calfskin? We own to an opinion that Creswick is a painstaking, all-round actor, in some parts, indeed, admirable; but cannot accept the dicta of the Herald, the News, and the Entr Actes, that he combines all the graces

of the Garricks, Listons, Keans, Macreadys, and Phelps, of the past and present. How is it Australian pressmen are so exceeding lavish of praise for furriners,' " and have scarce a word to spare for the several excellent Australian stock actors, who, because they are in their own country are neither allowed to be or to make profits.

WE note that a safety (?) railway bridge is in course of erection at Newtown. Should there be, as is not unlikely, a succession of limb accidents from the hurried use of this bridge, we would suggest to the Railway department the advisability of constructing subterraneous passages at all suitable spots. Should these fail, balloons might be tried; and if they failed, we would just hint that the Yankee principle of action, based on Stephenson's "awk'ard for the coo" notion, might perhaps after all be safest and most economical.

Australia may well be proud of the cricketing prowess of her sons. We only hope their success will teach them to be self-reliant in other things than sport, and to add to Free Trade principles the crowning glory of a belief that the home made article ceteris paribus is the best one-that Australian wine, Australian cloth, Australian boots, Australian paper, like Australian cricketing and sculling require no puffing, but are on their merits every whit as good as articles palmed off under London or Paris labels, or Marylebone or Putney traditions.

Should the match between Trickett and Higgins come off, the former, notwithstanding the recent accident

We sincerely trust that the Colonial Secretary will see his way to give the Agricultural Society men a good snubbing when they go to him next time in re a Sydney International Exhibition for 1879. Even if the Government backed the idea with financial aid to the tune of thousands the thing would be bound to result in a fiasco under the meddling management of a Society that is not up to the work of successfully carrying out an ordinary metropolitan show. If the fussy old gentlemen who think they ought of right to be on every Commission would be content with some honorary title, just to quieten them and keep them from meddling with matters beyond their senile faculties, we would suggest to the Government the propriety of conferring it upon them-say for instance, create them G. C. M. M's., General Colonial Meddlers and Muddlers, with the right on public occasions of assuming the badge of the great Panjandrum-to wit, a little round. button on their tops.

tal required to start it must needs amount to some fifty, seventy-five, or hundred thousand pounds. Such notions might not be preposterously absurd were the want of the day a second S. M. Herald. That, however, is by no means the want.. To argue by analogy: What European general in his sober senses, if called on to do battle with an oriental army cumbered with its unwieldy sumpter train and its crowd of non-combatant menials, would dream of endeavouring to match impedimenta against impedimenta? The paper that will successfully occupy the vacant place in metropolitan journalism will not, of necessity, be a big one. To start on an immense scale would be a huge error. It would be to commit one'sself to lines of action from which there would be difficulty in departing, even should they be found utterly incompatible with subsequent intentions. Prudence suggests a commencement on a small scale, not necessarily on a niggardly one-on a small, handy, and thoroughly efficient one; one capable (if circumstances should justify the course, and as they required,) of being extended in any or every direction, to allow of legitimate development and healthy growth.

If a paper were merely wanted in order that there might be the means of fighting the S. M. Herald, of outrivalling it, of crowding it out, then there might be some savour of com

mon sense in the idea of not starting unless upon a capital of a hundred thousand pounds or so. But a jour

nal of such a character as we have just said is not the want. What is actually wanted is a daily paper that will act as a light and agile corrective to the leviathan of Hunter Street; will enact towards it the part which a compact, well-led minority in opposition enacts towards an overgrown majority, kept together by the conservative instincts begotten of love of place. Verbatim reports of parliamentary, or judicial, or synodical proceedings, of tea or prayer meetings, are not a sine qua non of daily journalism. Accurate synopses are. To provide these, a far higher capacity is requisite than that of the mere shorthand writer. A good working staff, numerically small, but kept well in hand by a controlling master mind, is more likely to be in a position to purvey its collected intelligence in an acceptable readable form than an army of shorthand reporters, who, paradoxically as it may sound, by their very truthfulness of word and letter, wholly fail (save, of course, in exceptional cases) to be true in spirit to the task of putting the public en rapport with the day's history. Even truth must be focussed. A comparatively small but accurately edited daily paper would command confidence so long as it foreshadowed measures and events, advocated Liberal ideas in