At this period none can prophesy what will eventuate in this city. No prophet has so far turned up with mitch cheer, though we have our persistent school of optimists still with us. One must conclude sometimes that one half of our immediate world is living in Hell itself, and the other half in a fools' paradise.
Those who have had eyes to see, and have not been bemused into forgetfulness by the progression of gay life which had to some degree persisted prior to hostilities, have seen, they say, the rot setting in this city for some years, and certainly since 1982 our glad raga have hung on a not inclined to agree. Perhaps we have lost some of the latter's formal profession, but I.doubt if we are much worse than our antecedents. Certainly, noting recent good works here, none can say we have lost real human sympathy. And, after all, what were the old folk like when they were examined?
Was it not Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister who remarked with annoyance when religion seemed to be sweeping the country: "Religion is all very well in its place, but it should not be allowed to interfere with a man's private life" and there, I think, we have the "nub" of the spirit of religion which actuated some of the Victorians, Another writer in these times describes the perfect wife for her brother William as a woman, "of good sense withofit vanity, a penetrate ing judgment without a disposition to satire, with about as much religion as my William likes," and we judge
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.