Institution was to live or die. It was slowly approaching a slate of actual extinction, and if its life were to be prolonged, it could only be by some strong rousing effort, and not only an infusion of fresh blood into the management, but a Committee consisting wholly of new blood,flesh,bone and muscle. This was resolved upon, and the next St. Patrick's anniversary celebration was a success. For the first time the visit to St. Francis' was a b a n d o n e d — a step in the right direction, and the place of meeting was changed from the Royal Exchange to the Lord Nelson, a one-storey tavern, erected on the ground n o w occupied by Clauscen and Foley's furnishing entrepôt, on the north side of Bourke Street.
T h e annual meeting in April was looked forward to with m u c h interest, as it would form the live or die turning-point, and there was an active beating-up of recruits as n e w members, for a majority was to be secured that would sweep away the old régime. T h e meeting was crowded and disposed to be rowdy, and the first act of the evening was, in a certain sense, revolutionary in itself, for not one of the out-going officers would be accepted as C h a i r m a n — a favour conferred upon Mr. John O'Shanassy, a n e w member, and the acknowledged leader of the Opposition. T h e business was proceeded with in anything but an amicable style, and it must be recorded that the Chair manifested no conciliatory disposition. There was to be no reasoning, no parley, no trifling with either past apathy or present mismanagement. T h e iron-hand was to do everything; and it was accordingly put forth ungloved and bare, the metallic fingers twitching to grasp and strangle any obstruction, and well it did its work. T h e Annual Report of the defunct management was submitted and challenged for its vagueness and misrepresentation. After a short, sharp, and stormy discussion, it was rejected. This being anticipated, a protest, ready cut and dry, was presented, but as there was no rule to authorize its reception, the Chairman requested its promoters to withdraw it, and on their refusal to do so he unceremoniously threw it into the fire. Several members became enraged at what they considered a grossly insulting and summary proceeding, and, after venting their indignation in most unparliamentary language, they dashed out of the r o o m — a " Contempt of Court"—promptly punished by the formal expulsion from the Society of half-a-dozen of the ringleaders.
T h e election of a n e w Directory was the next business, and thus resulted :—President: John O'Shanassy; Vice-President: John Stephen; Honorary Secretary: E d m u n d Finn; Treasurer: Timothy L a n e ; with two Auditors, and twelve Committee-men—the whole team, without exception, being "new blood."
This change might be pronounced as altering the destiny of the Society. O'Shanassy had just given up squatting on a small station between Brighton and Dandenong, and commenced the drapery business in Elizabeth Street, a few yards below the well-known Clarence Hotel corner.[1] He was then beginning to give evidence of the singular ability afterwards so thoroughly developed in him. H e joined the Society with an earnest desire to re-animate it, and m a k e it a fixture in the land. Stephen, w h o was a Police-Court Advocate and a T o w n Councillor, was of small account, for, except a fine physique, and pliant and plausible manners, he had not m u c h to boast of in the way of principle or ability. Imperturbable in temper unless terribly provoked, with an effrontery never so pronounced as to be absolutely offensive, and encased in a haze of superficiality, he attained for a time to a position and popularity, through which he was acceptable to any of the early Societies he felt disposed to join. A n amusing instance of his unscrupulousness sprang out of his nomination to a St. Patrick's membership. Admission was confined to natives of Ireland, or descent from Irish parents, and Stephen was through both father and mother most undiluted Anglo-Saxon. O n the question being raised, he met it by a positive declaration that, maternally, he was lineally of the posterity of Brian Boru, the great Celtic D a n e conqueror at Clontarf, and promised if conditionally received, to procure from Dublin the most conclusive proof of his pedigree. Not half-a-dozen present believed one tittle of a statement put forth with a solemn seriousness which even in the Stephen face was irresistibly comical. Yet, at that particular time, it was considered such a capital move to take him in, that the stringency of the rule was relaxed, and the canard swallowed. As a member he was
- ↑ Now the City of Melbourne Bank corner,—Ed.
