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Judge Willis little dreamed, at the time he was orating, that before the Court-house was opened, he should be recalled from the Bench. " G o d save the Q u e e n " was then chanted, during which a charitable collection was m a d e by two of the Masonic brethren. T h e order of procession was reversed, and, headed by Judge Willis and the Worshipful Master, returned to the Old Court-house. A large proportion of ladies participated in the day's ovation, and the verdict unanimously returned was that the ceremonial had passed off in a manner most gratifying and creditable to all concerned. In the evening the Masonic body, and a number of gentlemen not belonging to the Craft, dined together at the Royal Exchange Hotel, Collins Street, where everything went off in the happiest manner. T h e Oddfellows had a banquet of their o w n at the Crown Lnn, Lonsdale Street, where sociality and good fellowship characterised the proceedings. M y reason for giving such a lengthy notice of this ceremonial is because of its being the first of the kind in the colony, and thefirstof those public displays in which the Associated Societies of Melbourne, in after years, so distinguished themselves. The New Court-house when finished asserted some pretension to architectural taste. In less than a year it was completed, and opened for the first time on the 15th July, 1843, when Judge Jeffcott presided on the first occasion of his judicial appearance in Melbourne. This " Court-house of Australia Felix," whose birthday was signalized with all the pomp and circumstance detailed, is the old weather-beaten stone building n o w in its turn, on the eve of being cashiered. Probably ere long it will have disappeared from off the earth as completely as its humble predecessor; yet it has done good work in its day, and it had the inestimable advantage of a race of Judges of whom, without a single exception, Victoria m a y well feel proud. Since the introduction of the Supreme Court as an Institution more than a dozen Judges have officiated in the (now) Old Court-house. It will be fortunate for the new Law Courts if they should be as well benched, for, taken as a whole, no future dozen Judges will prove a better selection. M a n y a thrilling drama of real life has been witnessed in the old building of which I a m n o w writing, and with all the terrrible tragedies, and some of the comedies, presented on its boards in the early time, I hope to m a k e m y readers acquainted before I bid them farewell. THE FIRST GAOL. The identity of the first regular prison for malefactors in Melbourne is difficult to ascertain, in consequence of the haze which theflightof even only little more than forty years has left in its wake, and the silence of the old chroniclers, or what is worse, the inaccuracy of one or two writers on the subject. O f the few m e n still surviving w h o were contemporaries ofthefirst"Bridewell"—men w h o must have often seen and passed by the place hundreds of times—I can only find two w h o have a recollection of such a place of personal restraint, and even these differ upon two essentials, respecting which a person would think there ought to be no possibility of disagreement, viz, the precise spot on which it stood, and the materials of which it was constructed. After as thorough an exploration of the musty old difficulty as it was possible to effect, and with means which would not be available if the task were m u c h longer deferred, the conclusions which I have arrived at, based upon positive and circumstantial evidence, will be found embodied in the following relation :— F r o m 1835 to 1839, there was but little occasion for a prison, as crime was in direct proportion to the population, and after the arrival ofthefirstPolice Magistrate in 1836, when a prisoner was committed for felony, as there was no competent Court to try the case in Melbourne, it was necessary to forward him to Sydney, to be there dealt with. Even such instances were rare, and in ordinary matters of theft, as the perpetrators were mostly of the convict class, they could be served out in another way, and flogged for some breach of penal discipline, which answered the purpose. W h e n a person was arrested upon a serious charge he was detained, pending a preliminary examination, in the slab-huts, used as watch-houses, before described. Lock-up and gaol were in those times convertible terms, and no distinction seems to have been drawn between them. In the beginning of 1838, a notorious murderer n a m e d Commerford, afterwards hanged in Sydney, was secured in thefirstlock-up near Captain Lonsdale's original Police-court cabin. This was an insecure place