Page:Australian views of England.djvu/108

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96
AUSTRALIAN VIEWS
[Let.

spoke with much energy, but it was only for two or three minutes. On the evening of the 7th the Association and its friends assembled at a grand soiree at the Palace of Westminster. Not only Westminster Hall, but St Stephen's Hall, the Prince's Chamber, the corridors and galleries connecting the Houses of Parliament, and the House of Commons itself, for the first time in English history, were thrown open to the public gathering. Between 3000 and 4000 persons assembled, and Lord Brougham kept his post with Lord Shaftesbury and others the whole evening to receive the immense throng. I saw him as late as eleven o'clock in conversation with the aged poet. Dean Milman, and notwithstanding the fatigues he had undergone, he looked much fresher than at Exeter Hall.

The Social Science meetings throughout the ensuing week, which were held principally In Guildhall, were well attended. Prison discipline and reformatory institutions were subjects which received much attention, and among the papers read were several by Sir Joshua Jebb and Sir Walter Crofton. Those ladies who have made themselves famous of late years by their labours