order, and when, in 1871, he became Premier himself, he formed a government that would have indubitably exercised a lasting influence for good on the progress of Australia, had it not been stopped short in its career by an unprincipled parliamentary combination. The Duffy Ministry held office for a year in the face of such virulent and factious opposition as was unparalleled in the political history of Victoria. A perusal of the parliamentary debates of the period will afford ample corroboration to every unprejudiced mind of the truth of Sir Gavan's remark: "They hated the Ministry mainly because I was an Irishman and a Roman Catholic." These rabid opponents of a clever Irish-Australian Premier pretended to believe, and tried their little best to make the public believe, that the patronage of the government was exclusively conferred on Fenians—a name that was as continually in their mouths as the catch-word of a play. One appointment in particular—that of Mr. John Cashel Hoey to a position in the office of the Victorian Agent-General in London—was made the battle-ground of a most bitter and acrimonious discussion, for no other reason than that the gentleman appointed was at one period of his life connected with the staff of the Nation. According to the logic of the bigots, he was therefore necessarily a self-condemned Fenian. On a motion of want of confidence. Sir Charles exploded this ludicrous charge, and thus narrated the circumstances under which he first became acquainted with Mr. Cashel Hoey:
"It is said by the hon. member for Williamstown: 'Was not Mr. Cashel Hoey engaged in stimulating rebellion in Ireland?' Sir, for the Nation newspaper which existed before the attempted insurrection in 1848, I may be held responsible, and I never did shrink from the responsibility.
