Mr. Lydiard, Lieutenant of the Mounted Police, and Lieutenant Maxwell, of the 11th Regiment, in command of a guard of honour from the same corps.
After the levée, Captain Conran, the military Commandant, presented two medals to veterans whose services by "flood and field" warranted such distinction. His Excellency called for three cheers for the Queen, which were rapturously accorded, and followed by three more for himself.
Throughout the day there was a large concourse of people congregated in front of the Government Offices, and a general dispersion was not effected until a late hour. The finale was one of the most numerously-attended and successful balls that ever came off in the colony, particulars of which are included in the notice of the Benevolent Asylum given elsewhere[1], in which building (then finished but not occupied) it was held. On the evening of the 16th the members of the Melbourne Club entertained the Lieutenant-Governor at dinner, and on the 17th the heads of Departments dined with His Excellency.
Government Appointments.
A Government Gazette was issued on the same day as the official inauguration, containing the first Proclamation, in which Mr. Latrobe announced his appointment of Lieutenant-Governor under Royal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date at Westminister, the 31st December, 1850, and declaring that he had taken the prescribed oath, and assumed office. He further intimated that Her Majesty had been pleased to appoint as members of the Executive Council of the Colony of Victoria, the Crown Prosecutor, or the Principal Law Officer of the Crown for the time being, the Colonial Secretary, the Sub-Treasurer, or Treasurer for the time being, and the Collector of Customs, or the Principal Officer of Customs for the time being.
Further official announcements were made, the principal being the appointment of Captain William Lonsdale as Colonial-Secretary and a member of the Executive Council.
Mr. J. H. N. Cassels, Collector of Customs.
Mr. Alastair MacKenzie, Colonial-Treasurer.
Mr. Charles Hotson Ebden, Auditor-General.
Mr. Robert Hoddle, Surveyor-General.
Mr. Alexander M'Crae, Postmaster-General.
Mr. Edward Bell, Private Secretary and acting Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant-Governor.
Mr. Edward Grimes, Clerk of the Executive Council.
Mr. Henry Ginn, Colonial Architect.
Mr. John Sullivan, Colonial Surgeon.
Mr. William Foster Stawell, Attorney-General.
Mr. Redmond Barry, Solicitor-General.
Mr. R. W. Pohlman, Master in Equity of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the district of Port Phillip, and Chief Commissioner of Insolvent Estates for the Colony of Victoria.
Mr. James Simpson, Sheriff.
Mr. James D. Pinnock, Registrar of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the district of Port Phillip.
Mr. Edward E. Williams, Commissioner of the Court of Requests for the City of Melbourne and County of Bourke.
Mr. Henry Field Gurner, Crown Solicitor.
The Executive Council consisted of Messrs Stawell (senior member), Lonsdale, M'Kenzie, and Cassels. Mr. James Croke, for several years Crown Prosecutor and Law Adviser, was relieved from duty, because, as was rumoured, the Lieutenant-Governor did not believe in him for an Attorney-General an appointment expected, and failing which he declined the second place of Solicitor-General.
One of His Excellency's first acts was to confer a long-coverted dignity on the Melbourne Corporation, which he did in the following terms:—
