This mournful epistle was written on October 8, 1843, but on the 30th of the same month another was sent, which revealed the silver lining of the cloud. Robert Lowe had been absolutely idle for eight months and a half, and during that time he had neither read nor written a line. He now decided to resume, with great precautions, the practice of his profession. It is not stated whether this was done with the approval of the two Sydney doctors, but it may shrewdly be suspected that the patient had decided on this course without further consulting them. He therefore procured the assistance of a clerk for his chambers, who was also to live at his house, so that he might be always at hand. He gave a distinct promise to his wife that if he felt the slightest symptoms of a relapse, either in regard to his eyes or his general health, he would then and there give up all idea of ever again practising at the Bar. With this she contented herself, reflecting that, if he does little, this will be an amusement.' With the increasing badness of the times, and the fact that he had to make a fresh start as a junior, there was very little likelihood of any distressing amount of legal business coming in his way.

Mrs. Lowe seems to have cherished the hope that Sir George Gipps would yet find some suitable post for the man of whose capacity he entertained so high an opinion. Lady Gipps had told her that Sir George declared that Mr. Lowe was the cleverest man in the country.' This raised her hopes to the altitude of a temporary judgeship in Norfolk Island or a police-magistracy somewhere in the back blocks of New South Wales. But the revenue of the colony was falling wofully, so that retrenchment was the order of the day; and under these circumstances Sir George Gipps was the very last man in the world to make a post for any friend, however deserving and capable he might be.

These weary months recurred to Lord Sherbrooke's

memory with vivid intensity when, some years ago, he sat down to record the events of his past life.

Then it was that he paid the fine tribute to the memory of W. S. Macleay: However, in this the lowest ebb of my fortunes, I found several alleviations. The principal was the extraordinary good fortune which gave me the acquaintance and, I. am proud to say, the friendship of Mr. William Macleay. He had been Secretary at Paris for claims of English subjects and afterwards had been a Commissioner for the Extinction of the Slave Trade at Cuba. He was an excellent classical scholar, he knew more of modern history and biography than any one with whom I was ever acquainted, and in addition to all this he was a profoundly scientific man; thoroughly conversant with zoology, botany, and entomology. He was an excellent companion, with a store of caustic wit which reminded me continually of the best part of Scott's Antiquary. It fell to my lot to do him some slight service for which he never knew how to be sufficiently grateful. It would have been a good find to meet with such a person anywhere, but in a remote colony it was a good fortune for which one could not be too thankful. I have not seen, and shall not see, his like again.'

Such is Lord Sherbrooke's tribute to William Sharpe Macleay, his most cherished Australian friend, who fully returned his affection, and whose admiration for his great abilities, indomitable courage, and personal worth was unbounded. At his death in Sydney in 1865, William Macleay bequeathed 1,000l. to Lord Sherbrooke and a like sum to his wife as a mark of his friendship and esteem. It is not difficult to imagine what a solace the conversation of so cultivated a man must have been to one who felt that, despite his own great powers and grasp of mind, his career, from impending blindness, was about to close before it had well begun. Lord Sherbrooke, it will be remembered, goes on to refer to the bush wanderings of this gloomy period, and, with regard to

the loveliness of Illawarra, pathetically describes it as a place 'where a man might pass his time with no other regret than that of being totally useless.' But now, in defiance of doctors and specialists, he determined to go back to his law-books and to active life in Sydney, be the consequences what they might.

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6

CHAPTER XI

THE CROWN NOMINEE

(1843-1844)

Lord Stanley's New Constitution'-Richard Windeyer, the Popular Member' -W. C. Wentworth, the 'Australian Patriot '-Lowe's Maiden Speech in the Council-His Stand for Free-Trade-Becomes a Personage in Sydney

UNDER the new Constitution, which the late Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary of State, had bestowed upon New South Wales in the year 1842, the old Legislative Council, which had heretofore consisted entirely of officials and Crown nominees, became largely a representative body. It consisted of thirty-six members, of whom two-thirds were elective, on a franchise of a 201. rental or a freehold of 2007. in value; furthermore, there was a property qualification for members of 2,000l. or a yearly value of 1001.

In addition to these twenty-four popular' representatives there were six salaried government officials, who might be regarded as a kind of Cabinet, and six Crown nominees. The Governor no longer presided, nor had he any direct voice or vote in the Council. In the Viceregal speech which inaugurated this, the first Parliament in Australia (August 3, 1843), Sir George Gipps thus explained the constituent elements of his new Council: The Legislative Council,' he said, 'is composed of three elements, or three different classes of persons: the representatives of the people, the official servants of Her Majesty,' and of 'gentlemen of independence -the unofficial nominees of the Crown.'

Unfortunately Sir George Gipps, who was a soldier rather than a politician, too quickly forgot his own distinctions between the salaried Government officials and the Crown nominees. It would seem that Sir George, having nominated these latter gentlemen of independence' to their seats in the Council, fully expected them to vote on all occasions with his salaried officials and to assist them in every way to thwart the ' representatives of the people,' who under this hybrid scheme formed a permanent but ineffective Opposition, as, despite their overwhelming majority, the Governor could always veto any measure which he considered inopportune or undesirable.

Some three months after the opening of the Legislative Council, the Speaker (the Hon. Alexander Macleay, elected in his 77th year) announced that he had received a letter from 'Richard Jones, Esq.,' resigning his seat; and further that His Excellency the Governor 'had been pleased to appoint Robert Lowe, Esq., Barrister-at-Law,' in his stead. Mr. Lowe, having been introduced to the Speaker by the Colonial Secretary (Edward Deas Thomson) and the Attorney-General (John Hubert Plunkett) took the oaths and his seat.

The Sydney Morning Herald-then the only daily newspaper in Australia-seemed perturbed at this intrusion of a mere nonentity into the sacred precincts of this infant Parliament. In its issue of November 10, 1843, appears the following serious little article, which, in the light of subsequent events, it is difficult to read without a smile :

:

Who is Mr. Lowe, the new member of Council? is a question that has been asked pretty often within the last forty-eight hours, and it does not say much for the Governor's choice that it should have to be asked. All that is known of Mr. Lowe in the colony is that he is a junior barrister, who arrived here about fourteen months ago, and that, in consequence partly of ill-health and partly of want of success, it was understood some six months since he had determined upon retiring from the profession. He is a gentleman of very superior scholastic attainments, and was, until very shortly before he left England, a Fellow and tutor of one of the Oxford colleges. We are at a loss to conceive what claims Mr. Lowe had to be made