CHAPTER LX.
POLITICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PENCILLINGS.
SYNOPSIS:— Edward Curr. —Charles Hotson Ebden. —Alexander Thomson. —J. F. Leslie Foster. —John Dunmore Lang. —John O'Shanassy. —William Westgarth. —William Hull and Others. —Barristers-at-Law: E. J Brewster, James Croke. —Redmond Barry. —Robert Williams Pohlman. —Archibald Cunninghame. —James Erskine Murray. —Edward Eyre Williams. — William Foster Stawell. —Samuel Raymond. —Sidney Stephen. —John Barker. Attorneys: William Meek. —Thomas Clark. —H. N. Carrington. —Quarry and Ross. —Robert Deane. —Charles Sladen. —Thomas T. A'Beckett. —H. F. Gurner. —J. D. Pinnock.—J. Montgomery. —F. Hinton. —J. Duerdin. —J. Trenchant —R. Scott. —J. W. Thurlow. —J. Plaistow. —J. M. Smith. —F. Stephen. —H. J. Chambers. —J. W. Belcher. —Crossing the Garden Wall.
The Early Politicians.
ANTECEDENT to the birth of the Colony of Victoria, the political agitation in Port Phillip was threefold, viz., Separation, Anti-transportation, and the Land Question, of which Emigration and the Equitable Appropriation of the Land Sales Fund constituted sub-branches. But the great question of questions was the Separation movement. For once let the Province only be redeemed from the thraldom of New South Wales (the Middle District it was called) and armed with the power of self-government it would very speedily extricate itself from the constantly threatened abomination of convictism, and its territorial revenue would be expended for the sole advantage of the country from which it was drawn. Port Phillip stood forth as one man in the assertion of its right to have the management of its own affairs, and from 1840 to its attainment there was not a single hand publicly lifted against the so ardently-wished-for separation. As regarded the establishment of a penal settlement south of the Murray nine-tenths of the public were vehement in their opposition, the residue being the squatters, who hungered for cheap labour, and with whom "pocket" and "patriotism" were esteemed convertible terms. As to the justice and vital necessity for financial fair play, and a copious stream of untainted colonization, there was no second opinion. These subjects are treated with some fulness in other chapters, and this subdivision of the present one is devoted to some personal reminiscences, and a few other incidents in connection with a generation of public men now almost extinct, who, in their time, rendered good and faithful service to the young and promising land wherein they had resolved to woo the smiles or bear the frowns of Fortune.
Like unto a traveller after a long journey standing on a high hill-top looking back over the expanse of country through which he has passed, I fancy myself taking a retrospective glance over the devious thoroughfare of Time, and scanning through the field-glass of memory, the far away starting-point now partly obscured by the continuously augmenting mists of years.
Edward Curr was the principal figure in the political firmament I am endeavouring to describe. In 1826 he arrived in Van Diemen's Land, and for years was Manager to the V.D.L. Company at Circular Head. In August, 1839, he first visited Melbourne, bringing with him for sale some thoroughbred English cattle. Shortly after he settled in Port Phillip, turned his attention to squatting pursuits, and took up his residence on the Yarra in a nook of the area now occupied as the Abbotsford Convent, but called by him "St. Helliers," a name that should never have been abandoned. Mr. Curr, a man of cultured intellect, and considerable ability, was soon immersed in the public affairs of the Province. As the movement to attain Separation was initiated before his permanent residence in Port Phillip, the designation of "Father of Separation" subsequently conferred on him, cannot be regarded a correct one; yet the ardour with which he threw himself
