roll of the Irish brogue in these disjointed and indignant sentences:

You have been termed paupers! And that by the pet of the people! For your pet, Robert Lowe, on the evening of the election, from his own verandah in Elizabeth Street, declared that the mechanics, the working men of Sydney, were the only real freemen in the colony. And now, by Heaven! 700 to 1,000 mechanics are walking about Sydney idle. . . . We applied to two country members, who declined to attend, but did not write such an insulting document as our own city member. Every syllable of which (hissed out by Mr. Lynch) grated on the ear. [The audience demanded to hear Mr. Lowe's letter again, and it was read accordingly]. In the name of God! (yelled the exasperated Mr. Lynch) what does he mean? If the money was given by the Council to the mechanics, would they keep it buttoned up in their pockets? Would it not every Saturday be expended with a small shopkeeper, from whom it would travel on to the middleman and the merchant?

A subsequent speaker, in a somewhat more connected and relevant manner, said that though he was one of Mr. Lowe's most enthusiastic admirers, he could scarcely believe his eyes when he first saw this letter. Mr. Lowe had declared himself the representative of the mechanics of Sydney, he had applauded their public spirit, and told them that they were the real people of the colony. Now he refused to support them, on the ground that they were a class.

This is quite enough of the oratory of these early leaders of the unemployed movement. It was inevitable that they should quickly fall to loggerheads with the new member for Sydney—a city which to this day so many of their kind have loved so well that no offer of regular work up-country can ever induce them to leave it. Robert Lowe had now a much weightier question on his hands, for Earl Grey had set about in earnest to re-introduce the evil system of transporting the criminals of the old country into Australia.

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CHAPTER XXVI

ROBERT LOWE AND EARL GREY

The proposed Constitution-Lowe and Wentworth at the Victoria TheatreEarl Grey's Exiles -The Convict Ship Hashemy-Lowe at Circular Quay Alarms Sir Charles Fitzroy-His plea for Responsible Government

EARL GREY was possessed by the laudable ambition of enrolling his name among those whom the late Walter Bagehot terms 'nation-builders.' In a remarkable despatch to Sir Charles Fitzroy, published in Sydney on December 25, 1847, the Colonial Secretary elaborated a new political Constitution for Australia. This scheme, to which he had evidently given a considerable amount of thought, proved so unpalatable to the colonists that even this masterful Minister was forced to abandon it when Sir Charles Fitzroy informed him that it had met with universal condemnation. Briefly, Earl Grey proposed that the district councils, those languishing and, indeed, all but non-existent bodies, should form electoral colleges' for the purpose of returning a representative assembly, while a second Upper Chamber was to be composed entirely of Crown nominees.

The immediate effect of the publication of this scheme was to reunite Lowe and Wentworth. In fact, all the leading colonial politicians and the whole body of the electors ranged themselves into one solid, overwhelming Opposition. A meeting was promptly held to consider Earl Grey's new Constitution, with the Mayor of Sydney in the chair, when resolutions were passed expressing astonishment and regret that a mere modification of the old close-borough system should originate

with the son and representative of the noble earl to whom Britain was indebted for the Reform Bill.

It is unnecessary to quote the full text of these resolutions, although they bear evident traces of the handiwork both of Lowe and Wentworth, who were the two most prominent figures at this meeting. The resolutions were indeed withdrawn, and a committee appointed consisting of a number of leading and representative public men of that day in New South Wales, of whom Robert Lowe and W. C. Wentworth, from a political point of view, were decidedly the foremost.

This committee at once organised a great public meeting, which was held on January 21, 1848, in the Victoria Theatre. The pit and boxes, we are told, were densely thronged, while the stage was crowded with the most influential gentlemen of the colony of every shade of political opinion.' It was on this occasion that Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Martin made his first notable speech in Sydney; while among the other speakers were Mr. Archibald Michie, Mr. S. A. Donaldson, Mr. James Macarthur, and other leading colonists. But the two great guns were, of course, the members for Sydney -Wentworth and Lowe; now standing again side by side on the same platform. Next day the Sydney Morning Herald referred to that brilliant orator, Mr. Robert Lowe, whose eloquence on such a theme is the more impressive from being associated with a professional knowledge of the law.'

This unstinted praise is by no means too lavish. It is not possible to read even a summary of this speech without recognising its power and brilliancy; as stated with regard to some previous colonial speeches, it is probable that Mr. Lowe never rose to loftier flights in England. Indeed, it is evident that in one respect he was heard in these early days of the colony to greater advantage; for in Australia he took rank not only as a foremost speaker in Parliament, but as a most moving orator at mass meetings.

The burden of his discourse was that, instead of accepting

Earl Grey's pedantic constitutional experiment, it would be wiser for the colonists of New South Wales to transplant as far as possible the Constitution of the mother-land. This, indeed, was the burden of all the speeches, notably of Wentworth's. Such an enthusiastic and united expression of public feeling could not be ignored even in Downing Street; and on receipt of Sir Charles Fitzroy's despatches this scheme of Earl Grey was promptly abandoned. The Colonial Minister, indeed, met with equally hostile criticism within, as without, the walls of the Legislative Council.

On May 2, 1848, Wentworth, in a speech of great argumentative power, brought forward in the Council a series of resolutions against this new Constitution of Earl Grey. His chief supporter was Robert Lowe, who spoke enthusiastically of Wentworth's clear and luminous speech, entitling him to the thanks of the country and the House.' He went on to say that he agreed with nearly every word uttered by his colleague; but he would enter into a friendly discussion with him on the advantages of the bicameral system.

It was true they could not have a house of dukes and marquises like the House of Lords. Nor did he think, let it be composed of whom it might, that it would command much respect, but there were plenty of men fitted for it. As to a chamber entirely composed of nominees, he held that it would be unconstitutional for it to take part in money votes.

Wentworth, who had once again become filled with democratic ideas, wound up what was really a very great night's debate with unflagging ability. Give the Governor this shelter,' he declared in his denunciation of Upper Houses, and let what will arise, he might sit quietly in some snug parlour of his palace, where the gale of popular opinion or indignation could never reach him.'

It was to this speech that the late Lord Sherbrooke made special reference after he had returned to London, when he delivered his luminous address on the Australian Colonies Bill

before the members of the Society for the Reform of Colonial Government in 1851, on which occasion Sir William Molesworth presided.'

Upon the withdrawal of Earl Grey's scheme, the English Ministry handed over this constitutional problem to a committee of the Privy Council. But the usual delays, not to be wondered at in the settlement of so grave a question, ensued, and it was not until after endless discussions in the British Parliament that the present system of responsible government in Australia was established. By this time Robert Lowe had left Australia and become once more a citizen of London, and was indeed a member of the House of Commons.

Before his departure from New South Wales, Lowe was called upon to take a yet more prominent part in opposition to another and more dangerous innovation on the part of Earl Grey. On this subject he had no longer the powerful support of his colleague, but had to face instead the combined forces of the Crown officials and those of the dominant squatter party led by Wentworth himself.

This question was Earl Grey's attempt to renew criminal transportation, the frustration of which may be regarded as the turning-point in the history of Australia. To no part of his colonial career did Lord Sherbrooke look back with greater pride than to the decisive stand which he took against the policy of Earl Grey on this question. And rightly so, for he manfully assisted to make Australia what she is an uncontaminated, self-respecting and self-governing English community-instead of what she was intended to be, and what so many of her own sons would have liked her to remain-a wealth-producing, but utterly degraded penal settlement.

In a previous chapter, the one entitled 'Mr. Gladstone's proposed Penal Colony,' some slight fore-glimpse has been given of the state of public feeling in Australia about this time with

1 See vol. ii., p. 5.