The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, congratulated the assembly upon having met together to pay a mark of respect to their distinguished fellow-countrymen, Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay. (Applause.) They were doubtless aware of the circumstances under which those gentlemen had become conspicuous amongst the Australian community.  Immediately upon the discovery of any danger attending the Victorian explorers Messrs. Burke and Wills—­upon discovering that there was a possibility of their being unable to surmount the difficulties which surrounded them in the desert, it was thought desirable to start contingent expeditions from the neighbouring colonies, as well as from Victoria, in search of them.  The people of Melbourne had assembled that evening to congratulate those distinguished gentlemen, Messrs. Landsborough and McKinlay, upon their safe return from their expeditions.  They most cheerfully volunteered their services to the respective Governments under which they lived to proceed in search of Burke and Wills, and everyone was aware to some extent of the result of their labours.  They had been most successful explorers.  They proceeded in cheerfulness to encounter the dangers of the desert, such as in the eye of every individual unaccustomed to bush travelling seemed insurmountable. (Hear, hear.) They had all heard something of Mr. Landsborough’s expedition from the statement which he had made before the Royal Society, and they knew something also of the expedition undertaken by Mr. McKinlay.  The immense difficulties which each had experienced placed both gentlemen side by side as great and successful explorers. (Cheers.) Having briefly directed attention to the circumstances under which the meeting had assembled, he would detain them very little longer.  He was sure that they had done their duty as inhabitants of Victoria in meeting to welcome back again to this colony the gentlemen who had been sent out in search of those who first crossed the continent of Australia and brought into conspicuous notice the great enterprise, which was first initiated by the colony of Victoria, of exploring the whole of this vast continent. (Applause.)

The Reverend Dr. Cairns, who was called upon to move the first resolution, remarked that this was a magnificent meeting, and that he had seldom been more delighted in the course of a long life. (Applause.) When Mr. McKinlay was received by the Royal Society he (Dr. Cairns) made the very natural remark that he supposed he would receive a welcome from the public of Melbourne (hear, hear) that, however cordial might be the welcome extended to him and to Mr. Landsborough by private committees or private societies, the community at large had a right to express their feelings, and in the most public manner to give a welcome to those successful explorers. (Applause.) He thought then, as he thought now, that in making that remark he not only expressed his own feelings but the feelings of the community in general.  A very ill-natured notice