The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 2/Chapter 60
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 into the struggle, and the unflagging manner in which he maintained his place in the front of the lohong and tedious battle, fairly ranked him as a leader second to none, though whatever laurels were his due for the vast services rendered in a cause which so materially affected the interests of the whole community, might be fairly shared by the Rev. Dr. Lang, in whom Curr had a coadjutor as able and willing, and as persevering as himself. Yet, strangely enough, these two men, though they helped so bravely a common cause, never worked in the same team, and if yolked together, would have kicked, or bitten, or torn each other to death. Curr was an English Roman Catholic of extreme views, though tolerant enough in a certain fashion, whilst Lang was a most intolerant Presbyterian minister, who so abhorred Papistry, that if he only had the power, he had the will to clear out of the colony every man, woman, and child of that abhorred sect. A feud was generated between Curr and Lang at the Legislative Council Election in 1843, and though Curr was certainly the first aggressor, he would never be a party to healing the quarrel, and when Lang afterwards obtained something akin to a general absolution for past transgressions in consequence of his eminent public services in the Colonial Legislature, Curr alone amongst the most prominent men of the time stood aloof, and refused to extend the hand of reconciliation.
As a speaker Edward Curr was calm, methodical, and unimpassioned, unless when "riled" by some interruption, when he would warm up, and hit out. He never ascended to eloquence, but his deliverances were to the point, undiscursive, logical, and exhaustive. No man was better posted up in provincial affairs, and more than one memorial prepared by him on the Separation Question, was so complete as to be irrefutable. In addition to the platform, he contributed elaborate essays to the newspapers, and was ever indefatigable in advocating with tongue and pen what he believed to be conducive to the common weal. But there was one point in which he did not accord with the public sentiment. He came from a penal colony, and as a squatter was keenly appreciative of the pecuniary advantages arising from the employment of convict labour. Consequently he was not deemed "sound" in the matter of Anti-transportation. During this agitation he wriggled and trimmed, and more than once sought to cajole the people into a compromise, where they would have none, and the consequence was that an otherwise well deserved popularity was to some extent tarnished. Taken as a whole, Edward Curr was a public benefactor who merits a kindly niche in old Victorian history, and when he died on the 11th November, 1850, the very day that brought the intelligence of the Independence of Port Phillip, the event was deplored with an universal regret, which was deepened by the singularly melancholy coincidence of the announcement of the victory, and the loss of the commander of the campaigns.
The following was furnished me by a correspondent:—
"The Van Diemen's Land Company which was instituted for the purpose of introducing prime sheep, cattle, and horses into Tasmania, was, at that time it should be remembered, the largest industrial undertaking of any sort south of the Line. It had received a grant from the British Parliament of over 350,000 acres, and had a capital commonly said to amount to one million sterling. Mr. Curr was the sole Agent for this Company, and was instrumental in inducing the Directors in London to spend £30,000 in the introduction of first-class merino sheep from Germany, which the Company were able to obtain through the high standing and influence of its principal Shareholders, many of whom were members of the House of Lords, and also of the House of Commons. The result of this was that the Van Diemen's Land Company were the real introducers of the highest caste of merino sheep into Port Phillip, and their numerous flocks having spread throughout the colonies, many of the principal merino breed trace their origin to this fact. Wherever Mr. Curr went 'society' gave him a name. In Tasmania he was generally known as the 'Potentate of the North.' The Governor of that country used to speak of him as 'Baron Grim of Cape Grim,' such being the name of a point on the Company's principal sheep-station. After he had lived some time in Victoria, he was called the 'Father of Separation.' Mr. Curr arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1826, and left the Company in 1841. He was the author of one of the earliest works on that colony, entitled An Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land, published in London in 1824; and was member of the Legislative Council thereof." Charles Hotson Ebden was the second son of J. B. Ebden, senior, non-official member of the Cape of Good Hope Legislature. At an early age he directed his attention to Australia, and made several trips between the Cape and the New Continent, settling in 1832, to commercial pursuits in Sydney. In 1835 he abandoned the counting-house desk for the stock-breeders' vocation, and transferred whatever capital he possessed to pastoral operations. The occupation of Port Phillip, and the interest excited by its supposed boundless pasturages, acted like a magnet in attracting the attention of the neighbouring colonies, and amongst some of the earliest overlanders from Sydney was Ebden, who in September, 1836, took up a station on the Murray, and was the first to strike a crossing-place over the river at Albury. Coming further South in the beginning of 1837, in company with Mr. Charles Bonney, they discovered the splendid country so well-known as Carlsruhe, which Ebden named as a memento of his Germanic associations, and occupied it for several years. It was stocked with 9000 sheep, the first quadrupeds of the kind driven overland from Sydney. Ebden was a solemn-faced portly man, and judging from his cast of countenance one would not take him to be addicted to certain frivolities freely attributed to him. Becoming a land speculator in 1839, when a mania for that sort of investment set in, he realized large prices for allotments purchased at a low figure a couple of years before, and subsequently sub-divided and re-sold. He was a shining light of the Melbourne Club, and from an early period mingled freely in every political movement, and election struggle, sympathizing with the squatting element, but usually standing well and popular with the people. He represented Port Phillip more than once in the Legislature of New South Wales, and if it be admitted that he was a respectable mediocrity in the capacity nothing more can be fairly claimed for him. As a Separationist and Anti-transportationist he did his duty, and he was a liberal supporter of every charitable project initiated. When Port Phillip obtained its Independence in 1851, Ebden was appointed to the office of Auditor-General, and as such his friends asserted on his behalf the possession of special qualifications. No doubt he had picked up a general smattering of figures in the mercantile calling in which he had originally embarked in Sydney, but that he was anything of a thorough master of finance is fairly questionable. However, he played no unimportant part in the after political history of the colony, having held office in several Ministries, and sat for years in the Legislative Assembly, and at his death was very generally regretted. When Sir Thomas Mitchell made his memorable journey to Port Phillip in 1836, and was so enamoured of what he saw that in a fit of ecstacy he designated the country Australia Felix, he bestowed upon the since well-known northern range the name which it still takes for the somewhat inconsequential reason that (Port) Phillip should have its "Macedon." Some time after Ebden and two or three friends were riding through the country of which Mount Macedon was the southern terminus, and beholding another range towering in the distance, Ebden exclaimed that, as on one side they had a Macedon, it was only befitting that there should be an Alexander on the other, and so Mount Alexander as such was adopted in the topographical vernacular, destined in some fifteen years to become world-known as the natural depositary of the auriferous treasures, by which the Ballarat nuggets were eclipsed, and the fame of golden Victoria established.
Alexander Thomson was one of our earliest imported politicians, for he was an attaché of the Batman party, and arrived with his family from Van Diemen's Land in Melbourne during March, 1836. According to an ancient biographical notice of him, he was a born Scotchman, educated under Dr. Todd of Tichfield, thence passed to the University of Aberdeen, and finished under Sir Everard Home. He circumnavigated the globe five times, and in 1828 was instrumental in the introduction of the first English steamer to the Australian colonies. In 1828 he went to Van Diemen's Land, and was a good deal in the confidence of the members of the co-partnery for which Batman purchased Port Phillip from the eight Aboriginal chieftains. After all of life seen by Dr. Thomson it was dull enough for him to have to quamby with his wife in a wattle-and-daub hovel in the vicinage of the wharf, for this was where he was for a while domiciled. But he was a useful, good-natured, though near-sighted gentleman, and rendered many kind offices to the very limited community in which fate had cast him. He did not long remain in Melbourne, for he conceived an affection for Geelong which never left him until his dying hour, and by 1837 had migrated there, purchased at some of its earliest land sales, and remained one, though very prominent, of the Geelongeese. As an evidence of the unexpected things to which an energetic settler in a new colony will have to put his hand, it may be mentioned that Dr. Thomson was the first to accomplish the perilous undertaking of driving a bullock team between Geelong and Melbourne. His regular whip fearing that he might be eaten by the blacks, who were reported as very carniverous on the Werribee, struck work after the journey had been commenced, and left the master to either return or go on if he liked without him. Dr. Thomson went on, and reached his journey's end without the slightest Aboriginal molestation. In politics Thomson was an ultra-Radical, or rather sided with an extreme Scotch party then existent, and who, though in pretty general accord with public opinion, occasionally urged a redress of grievances in language more uncompromising than prudent. He invariably fought under the banner of Dr. Lang; but no question was ever raised as to the sincerity and disinterestedness of his motives. He was the first Mayor of Geelong, and its representative in the Legislature, and should the chronicles of Corio be ever written, Alexander Thomson ought to hold an honoured place as one of its public benefactors.
J. F. Leslie Foster was the son of an Irish Judge, and nephew of Mr. Speaker Foster, of the Irish House of Commons before the Union. He was an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin. Arriving in Port Phillip about 1840, he soon appeared in the arena of public men, and took an active part in every political movement of the time. Of considerable ability and largely read, he might have acquired considerable influence, but there was a shiftiness and insincerity about his public conduct, which, added to the absence of personal liking, for he never much courted popularity, somehow or other he never escaped a certain amount of distrust. He was mixed up with every underhand move of the squatters for the procuring of cheap labour, and no public man not thoroughly sound on the Anti-transportation question could ever hope to be taken into general favour. Whilst he sat as a Provincial Representative in the New South Wales Legislature, he performed his duties with creditable assiduity and intelligence, if not with universal satisfaction; and at the Separation era he disappeared from the colonial stage by a visit to England, with a view, as was reported, of working a lucrative Victorian appointment from the Home Government. Whether rumour was correct or not Foster succeeded, for he turned up with the Colonial Secretaryship in his pocket in August, 1853, when he succeeded Captain Lonsdale, the first holder of that office. During the brief interregnum between the departure of ex-Governor Latrobe and the arrival of Governor Sir C. Hotham in 1854, Foster officiated as Administrator of the Government. The Hotham reign was short and troublous in consequence of the disturbed and almost revolutionary state of the goldfields. Both Governor and Secretary were objects of extreme unpopularity, and succumbing to the exceptional circumstances, and in some measure to allay the daily increasing discontent, Foster tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by Mr. W. C. Haines. There is little doubt but Foster was sacrificed. It was realizing the familiar phrase of throwing a tub to a whale, the greater vessel (the Governor) was in danger, and to save it the chief officer was pitched overboard. If Foster had continued in harness until 1856 he would have been entitled to a pension on being ousted by any change under responsible Government. But now that he had cast himself prematurely adrift, he forfeited this prospective retiring allowance, which in process of time passed into Haines' pocket. There can be no doubt that Foster felt assured of receiving adequate compensation, but his subsequent applications to Parliament were rejected. It is difficult for any unbiassed lover of fair play to favour any other conclusion than that Foster received shabby and ungenerous treatment. Under the new constitution he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly, and in March, 1857, accepted office as Treasurer in the first O'Shanassy administration, which lived only some six weeks. He subsequently quitted public life, and left the colony, and has not since reappeared on the political horizon.
John Dunmore Lang, though connected with New South Wales, made himself so essentially a Port Phillipian politician, and so pre-eminently distinguised himself in the advocacy of Separation, that he is well-entitled to a place in this notice. A Scotchman every inch, and born at Greenock, 25th August, 1799, he graduated at the Glasgow University, and attained a D.D. in 1825. In 1822 he was ordained by the Irvine Presbytery a minister for the Scots' National Church in Sydney, where he arrived in 1823. His chequered career in New South Wales and the religious and political troubles in which he was embroiled there, do not come within the scope of this narrative. His openly avowed rancorous hostility to anything Papistical, more especially the Irish Roman Catholic, caused him to be regarded with much disfavour by no inconsiderable section of the population of this province when he visited Melbourne in 1843, seeking election to the New South Wales Legislature. He dashed into the contest with the pluck for which he was proverbial, and the opposition to him was of the fiercest and most embittered kind. It was his presence in Melbourne that gave impulse to a few embers of Orangeism recently imported from the North of Ireland, longing for some Lucifer to fire the feeble train, and this Dr. Lang brought with him.
Mr. Edward Curr, an English Roman Catholic of strong Conservative opinions, was candidate for Melbourne, aud he lost his head so far as to declare that if Lang were elected for the district he (Curr) if returned, would not sit for Melbourne. This ill-timed dictation was an overt act of aggression, opportunely presented to the Langites, which they were only too ready to use. And well they did so, for they evoked the worst passions of human nature, stirred up the dregs of Orangeism, and a wild cry of fanaticism, rang for a while throughout the length and breadth of the land. Still in a certain way Lang placed the province under deep indebtedness to him for the unceasing energy with which he fought the battle of its Independence both in and out of the New South Wales Legislature, as well as during one or two trips he took to England. His Victorian vicissitudes, if fully described, would form in themselves an amusing chapter, and afford a striking illustration of the mutability of public opinion, and the extraordinary reverses to which a well intentioned but perverse individual may be subjected without any great fault of his own. As for Dr. Lang, by even some of the Port Phillipians he was loathed as a demi-demon, whilst others hailed him as something not much short of a demi-god; and curiously enough he drifted from the verge of assassination to the confines of an apotheosis, he was the honoured guest at a grand Separation demonstration, and the occupant of a cell in the Melbourne Gaol. He made various visits to Port Phillip, and one of these occasions, in 1845, afforded his admirers an opportunity of according him a special ovation in the form of a public breakfast, for which extensive preparations were made. A section of the Melbourne ladies had taken quite a liking to him, and to impart éclat to the proceedings, the presentation of a gown from them was to constitute a special feature.
The Doctor arrived, after some disappointment, per steamer, from Sydney, and on the 4th of March the public welcome was offered. The Mayor (Mr. H. Moor) presided, and the orators were the Mayor, Messrs. J. A. Marsden, Alderman Kerr, Councillors Greeves and Fawkner and Dr. P. M'Arthur. Mr. H. W. Mortimer, in a few brief, stilted but suitable observations, officiated as the proxy of the ladies, and presented the guest with a minister's elaborately finished gown, as their friendship's offering. The Doctor seemed much pleased with the compliment, spoke pleasantly, as he could well do when he liked, and was profuse in his acknowledgments. The gown was put on, was a capital fit; it well became the man of peace and war, and the event terminated in general gratulation.
Dr. Lang had been in England in 1849, and to give him his due, was not idle there in urging the public claims of Port Phillip upon the Downing Street magnates; and as the colonists were in the main never ungrateful for services rendered, a public meeting was held in the Mechanics' Institute on the 16th February, 1850, to testify the public regard for the valuable labours of Dr. Lang, whilst in the Home country. Mr. L. M'Kinnon officiated as Chairman, and addresses were delivered by him, Messrs. Wm. Westgarth, Wm. Hull, J. W. Bell, J. C. King, Wm. Kerr, and others. The outcome of the proceedings was two-fold, viz., the giving of a public dinner and a purse of sovereigns to the reverend gentleman. The entertainment came off on the 22nd February at the Protestant Hall. The Mayor of Melbourne (Dr. Greeves), presided, with the Mayor of Geelong as Vice, but the Press were not admitted.
But great trouble was brewing for the Doctor at the very time those festivities were en train, and a squall burst upon him soon after which sadly put out both himself and his friends. It came about in this wise:— Whilst in England he organized a scheme of supplying Australia with a number of young missionaries, which ended in an abortion. Whilst arranging for his departure per the "Clifton," Mr. Robert Wilson, an intending fellow-passenger, placed £700 in the Doctor's hands, under an arrangement to receive £719 on arrival in Port Phillip. The "Clifton" anchored in Hobson's Bay on 12th February, 1850, but the promised reimbursement of the deposit or loan was not forthcoming, and legal proceedings were, after some procrastination, instituted for its recovery. On the 10th May, Dr. Lang, who was in Melbourne, was arrested under a fi. fa. whilst dining at the residence of Mr. William Kerr, in West Lonsdale Street. An unsuccessful application was made to the Supreme Court to quash the proceeding, and great was the consternation reigning amongst the Langites. On the 14th they mustered at the Mechanics' Institute to consider the best means to be taken for raising the amount for non-payment of which the Doctor was under duresse, and the chair was taken by Dr. P. M'Arthur, of Heidelberg. The attendance did not exceed a couple of dozen, and the principal speakers were the Rev. A. M. Ramsay and Mr. W. Kerr. It was stated that £300 had been subscribed, and the further management of the movement was confided to a Committee consisting of the Chairman, Rev. Mr. Ramsay, Messrs. Milne, W. Willoughby, J. C. King, Thorpe, Fleming, M. Farlane, Campbell, T. B. Darling, J. Ballingall, G. Finlayson, G. Annand and M'Gregor. The Doctor was not released until 21st May, a compromise having been effected, its terms being, according to a newspaper of the time, £200 cash, and acceptances for the balance. The Doctor's popularity was now on the wane, and little more was heard of him in Melbourne, but in 1872, the Parliament of Victoria, not ungrateful of past services, voted him £1,000. Dr. Lang was a voluminous writer, a somewhat ponderous, though at times, a racy speaker, never at rest, but always doing something, and possibly no man ever worked so unceasingly for the new country to which he had transferred his allegiance. No person capable of expressing an unbiassed opinion can fairly impugn the general accuracy of Dr. Lang's attributes as summarised in Blair's Cyclopaedia of Australia, viz., "a man of indomitable energy, of liberal views, of considerable ability, of great public spirit, and utterly careless about pecuniary advantage." Add to these a proneness to literary pugnacity, and an intolerance of a certain religious denomination, which only needed the power to burst into a persecution, and the portraiture is complete. Dr. Lang died in 1878, the owner of one of the most historic names in the early annals of Australia.
John O'Shanassy, though the last in this connection by no means the least, was a South Irish Tipperary man, for in that far-famed, but much-maligned county, he first appeared in the world, anno 1818. Arriving in Hobson's Bay in November, 1839, and the possessor of a sound commercial education, he owned little or none of those acquirements so essential to the coming statesman; but he was gifted with an inordinate appetite for reading, without the slightest tendency to literary dyspepsia, and so he "read, learned, and inwardly digested;" and by the aid of a mempory so retentive that it did not permit a crumb to escape, he was soon well posted in every public question ventilated in newspaper or at meeting. Had he undergone the same process of mental training as his great countryman Daniel O'Connell, and, like him, called to the Bar, John would have proved a sort of counterpart of Dan, for there was a corporeal and intellectual resemblance in the two. Their style of oratory was not unlike ih several respects—rough, impetuous, uncontrollable, as a mountain torrent. O'Connell the more disciplined, logical and humourous, and both of them, when much put out, subject to violent gusts of invective. O'Shanassy had the good sense not to jump into the political ring at once. He felt his way, bided his time, and when the hour came the man was ready to move to the front, take his place, and keep it amongst the foremost publicists of the colony. It was several years before he took an active part in public affairs, and though quietly remaining in the back-ground, an univeral impression prevailed that there was a good deal in him, and that he would show it. By degrees he began to make himself felt by the part he took in the Separation and Anti-transportation agitations. In 1851 be was elected one of the members for Melbourne in the First Legislative Council of Victoria, and he was the only one of the thirty composing that body who, on the prorogation in 1883, occupied a seat in our 
William Westgarth.— There could be no more indefatigable yet unobtrusive man than William Westgarth, who, though an indifferent speaker, always thought out his subject, as to be perfect master of it. He was a voluminous contributor to the newspapers and the recognized statist of the old times. Though never pushing himself forward he was always in the van, and his services were such that on the 15th January 1847, on the eve of a visit to the old country, he was entertained at a numerously-attended public breakfast in the Prince of Wales Hotel, but at his urgent request the projectors unwillingly acquiesced in making it a private demonstration. In England he rendered valuable services to the colony, in return for which he was successively elected to the Legislatures of New South Wales and Victoria. For many years he has devoted himself to commercial pursuits in London, and is second to none as an authority on Colonial Finance.
William H. Hull.— Refined and gentlemanly, chivalrous and uncompromising, Mr. Hull was a vast acquisition to any movement he joined. With an impulsiveness which when thwarted inclined to a slight eccentricity, he would sometimes give an amusing turn to a matter of sombre seriousness; but whether on the Police Bench or public platform, no one could reasonably question the sincerity of his motives or the straightforwardness with which he enunciated his views. He would not accept a seat in the City Council, though for several years he served the colony well and conscientiously in the Upper branch of the Victorian Parliament.
In addition to those already enumerated, there was a large and useful phalanx whose names figure in the early records as participants in the various efforts undertaken for the redress of grievances, or the promotion of the welfare of the community; but the space at my disposal precludes more than the noting of those who should at least be mentioned in a sketch of this kind, viz., Captain G. W. Cole, Drs. P. M'Arthur and F. M'Crae, Thomas Wills, J. B. and George Were, Lyon Campbell, Wm. Verner, A. F. and A. T. Mollison, A. M'Killop, Joseph and John Hawdon, G. S. Brodie, C. J. Griffiths, A. R. Cruikshank, A. H. Hart, John Bear, senior, J. A. Marsden, Michael Cashmore, and Colin Campbell.
Barristers-at-Law.
Prior to the establishment of a branch of the Supreme Court in Melbourne there was no such Institution as a Port Phillip Bar; and according to Kerr's Directory for 1841, at the close of 1840 there were only three Barristers in the Province, who are thus specified—James Croke, Esq., Crown Prosecutor and Legal Adviser to His Honor the Superintendent; Edward Jones Brewster, Esq., A.B., Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Commissioner of the Court of Requests; and Redmond Barry, Esq., A.B. In April, 1841, Judge Willis had his judicial machinery in motion, and the following Barristerial admissions are recorded during the year, viz.:— 12th April—Messrs. James Croke, Redmond Barry, R. W. Pohlman, E. J. Brewster and Archibald Cunninghame; 15th October James E. Murray. On 15th March, 1842, William Houston was admitted; Edward Eyre Williams, 22nd March; and Charles J. Baker, 15th April. In 1843 there was a further accession in the persons of Messrs. William Stawell and Samuel Raymond, and in 1844 Mr. Sidney Stephen. There was no new blood for several years, and two of those, named Houston and Baker, did not go into practice. The number was further reduced by the subsequent retirement of Brewster, Murray, Raymond and Cunninghame; and in 1847 there were only Croke, Barry, Pohlman, Williams, Stawell and Stephen. And so it continued up to 1851, when Mr. John Barker was admitted, but did not practice. Croke, the Law Adviser, and Pohlman, the Commissioner of Insolvency, rarely appeared in the Nisi Prius Court, which was therefore appropriated by Barry, Williams and Stawell, chiefly the last two named, who were almost invariably pitted against each other.
E. J. Brewster was the First Barrister to arrive in the colony. He came from Sydney in 1839 with the appointment of Chairman of Quarter Sessions, the first Court with a criminal jurisdiction to try uncapital felonies and misdemeanours, established in 1839, which continued until the opening of the Supreme Court in 1841. He was also the first Commissioner of the Court of Requests (a small debts tribunal) Brewster was a member of opened in 1840, which he resigned in 1841, to be succeded by Barry. Brewster was a member of the Irish Bar, of moderate ability, but remarkable for his severe Quarter Session sentences. He practised for some time before Judge Willis, who viewed him with an aversion he did not care to mask, and the result was that Brewster retired from business, took to land speculating and mortgage investments, at which he did better than he would have done at the Bar. He represented Port Phillip for some time in the New South Wales Legislature, where he displayed a sound, practical ability, which was duly appreciated, for he was held in good esteem until his departure from the colony, to which he never returned. In 1885 he was alive and prosperous in his native land.
James Croke, also of the Irish Bar, was the second to put in an appearance. He also arrived vià Sydney in 1839, accredited as Clerk of the Crown, Official Prosecutor, and Law Adviser. He was a queerish-looking, cross-grained, red-gilled customer, reputedly stuffed with a musty lore known as "black-letter" law; and if he was possessed of anything like genuine ability, he was consummately skilful in concealing it. No functionary was better known to all ancient colonists than "Old Croke." No misnomer was given to him, for he was as veritable a "croaker" as could possibly be picked up. Eccentric in his brusqueness, and excessively ill-tempered when engaged in Court, his collisions with Bench, Bar, Attorneys, Suitors, Officials—and, in fact, everybody—were so frequent that he was a favourite with nobody. As an Advocate or a cross-examiner, it would be a perversion of fact to designate him other than the veriest muff; and it was an infliction to listen to his long, drawling, lugubrious, irritable addresses to Judge or Jury, particular passages of which he used to emphasize by a vicious push at his wig or a spiteful clutching of his gown collar, as if he wished to twist the whole garment over his shoulders. With Willis, the first Judge, he never could get on, and the "scenes" between them, when they would grin at and caterwaul each other like a pair of fighting tom-cats, were rich beyond description. Willis would snarl, and bounce, and scream; Croke would grimace, howl, and defy in return. Willis would seem as if disposed to jump from the Bench and scratch the eyes out of the other, whilst Croke to all appearances would be not unlike a person preparing to spring on the table, storm the Judgment-seat, and throttle his plaguer. But though they hissed, grinned, and showed their teeth at each other, it never came to blows, though two or three times it was not far off. With the other Judges Croke got on better, though he often sorely tested their patience and forbearance. Still "Old Croke" in his public capacity never lost the general confidence of the public. His legal advice to the Government was on the whole sound, and as Crown Prosecutor as a rule he performed his duties in a reasonably conscientious manner. The position he held as such was one of much responsibility, needing good judgment; for, like the Attorney-General of the present time, he was the Grand Jury of the province, but, unlike now, had no legal deputies to whom he could relegate any portion of his functions. In a limited community, and with an evercarping Press, he would have been more than human had he pleased everyone; and though he was not free from mistakes, for he made two or three remarkable ones, no one ever attributed his shortcomings to any corrupt or unworthy motives, but assigned them to a misconception of what he thoroughly believed to be his strict and sworn duty. At the approach of Separation Croke entertained not only expectations, but had, as he conceived, strong claims to the Attorney-Generalship of the new colony of Victoria. In 1851 Mr. Stawell, his professional junior, but facile princeps, his professional superior, cut him out, when "Old Jemmy" got into a terrible fit of sulks; but upon an appeal to the Homee Government he was, after some procrastination, appointed Solicitor-General. After sitting as a 
left the colony, and died in Ireland some years after. whose name was destined to be written on one of the brightest pages of Victorian history, inherited N o r m a n and Cymbrian bloodfilteredthrough an Hibernian pedigree, for he was descended from William D e Barry, w h o married Angharad, grand-daughter of Rhys Ap-Griffiths, Prince of Wales. His father was a Major-General Barry, w h o resided near Glanworth, in the County Cork, and here the baby Corkonian m a d e hisfirstacquaintance with the Emerald Isle, in 1818, the year of his birth. Young Barry was intended for his father's profession, and to qualify him for such, was despatched at an early age to a military school, near Bexley, in Kent. S o m e delay occurred in obtaining his commission, and such proved the turning-point of his life, for it shunted him on to a different line, and arma cedant toga- was his future watch-word. Returning to Ireland and entering Trinity College he obtained an A.B. degree in 1833, was called to the Irish Bar in 1838, and arrived in Sydney the following year. Coming to Melbourne towards the end of 1839, he determined upon remaining there. In 1840 there was little legal business to be done in Port Phillip beyond advising upon titles, and, the young Barrister had only the Quarter Sessions and Police Courts in which to air his eloquence. At the former place his appearance was rare, but his n a m e is reported in connection with several important cases at the Police Office during 1840 and '41. O n Brewster's resignation of the Commissionership of the Court of Requests in 1841, Barry was appointed to the post at an annual salary of £ 1 0 0 , and was soon after nominated Standing Counsel for the Aborigines. O n the opening of the Supreme Court, he was necessarily engaged in almost every case, and for a time got on so well with the judicial oddity (Willis) that on one occasion his Honor condescended to compliment him as "an eloquent young Advocate." But they soon s w a m out of the smooth water, and no Barrister of the period had so m a n y nasty tiffs with the irascible Judge, w h o was however, invariably " bested " by Barry's dignified deportment and invincible politeness. A s the Bar enlarged and business increased, Barry's practice did not do so in proportion, for he was never a favourite with the Attornies, and his solemn starchness and profuse punctiliousness overpowered them. Whilst Murray, Raymond, Williams, and Stawell could be got, Barry would hardly be thought of, and when he was under such circumstances retained, it was either at the special request of a client, or because of the valuable forensic services expected from him. A profound lawyer he was not; but in addressing a jury he was unexcelled by any of his contemporaries, and some of his Court speeches in the early libel cases are rare specimens of ornate and impassioned oratory. T o the promotion of every early literary, social, or charitable movement, he contributed no ordinary assistance, and though he was too grandiose and stand-offish for the multitude, w h o half admired and half feared the primishness of his "get up," and the mannerism of his movements, he was, nevertheless, always held in high respect. O n the inauguration of Victoria as a colony in 1851, Mr. Barry was appointed its first Solicitor-General; and in 1853 when the Justiciary was enlarged, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, where he officiated more than once as Acting Chief Justice. In the founding of the Melbourne University he took so prominent a part that at its birth in 1855 the Chancellorship was conferred on him, and he retained it until his death, a quarter of a century after. O f the Public Library he might be designated one of its chief projectors. In 1875, during the simultaneous absence from the colony of the Governor and Chief Justice, he performed the duties of Administrator of the Government for a short time. A Knighthood of the Order of St. Michael and St. George was, in 1876, bestowed as a royal recognition of his distinguished public services. O n the 23rd November, 1880, Sir R e d m o n d Barry died somewhat unexpectedly, and his remains were consigned to their last earthly resting-place amidst a regret as genuine as it was universal.
REDMOND BARRY,
a Londoner, born in 1811, and in 1839 called to the English Bar, arrived in Melbourne anno 1840, and thenceforth cast in his lot with the fortunes of the infant settlement. H e never made much, or indeed any noise, professionally or personally, for he floated along the current of life a respectable nonentity, esteemed by many and disliked by none. His legal practice was never of m u c h account, and mostly confined to the Equity branch. H e was too undemonstrative for the wordy turmoil of ROBERT WILLIAMS POHLMAN,
FFF 2 legal wrangling, and when one listened to his unenergetic lisping before judge or jury, a feeling of some surprise arose, h o w it ever came to pass that he selected the Bar as a vocation. H e was the second Commissioner of Insolvency in Port Phillip, and the first Master in Equity and County Court Judge in Victoria; and on two occasions he acted as the locum tenens Judge of the Supreme Court. In his judicial capacity he rendered m u c h satisfaction, for, though his legal abilities belonged to the moderate order, he was gifted with a plodding, painstaking faculty of application, and an unflinching honesty of purpose, which enabled him to dispense justice of a quantity and quality which could not be outdone by a m a n of quicker perception, or more intellectual parts. For years he acted as Chairman of the Board of Denominational Education; he did m u c h to promote purposes of charity, and was for years one of the most dutiful children of the Church Episcopalian. originally an Advocate in the Scottish Courts, performed the difficult feat, if not of unlearning the legal lore he hadfirstacquired, at least of substituting for it, or overloading it with the studies required for the English Bar, to which he was called in 1834. C o m i n g to Melbourne in 1841, he was soon enrolled amongst the legal acolytes of the Court of Judge Willis, and between them they contrived to improvise some stirring episodes, for Willis, w h o was always fiery, would be met by a tetchiness on the part of Cunninghame, which was far from agreeing with his Honor's brimstone temperament. They soon, however, drifted into a better understanding, and Cunninghame, without opposition from the Judge, managed to get appointed Official Assignee in some protracted insolvent estate cases, which brought acceptable grist to the mill. Cunninghame's line in law was Equity, his style as befitted such a branch was prolix, dry, and tedious, his personnel was peculiar, and his voice harsh. W h e n addressing the Court he did so with a stoop, and the conformation of his face was such( and his nose so beakish, that a listener with any force of imagination, would fancy that he saw before him a huge crow cawing away at something like a jackdaw perched aloft before him. But, there were occasions when the monotonous Barrister could shake himself u p and show there was an extra judicial vivacity in him; for when divested of the cumbersome trapping of wig and gown, and on his legs at public meeting or public dinner, he would hit out with a verve, and declaim with a pathetic eloquence, enough to cause a person to doubt whether the lithe, lively, and rhetorical orator before him, could possibly be the horse-haired, sabled talking automaton of the Supreme Court.
ARCHIBALD CUNNINGHAME
an English Barrister of standing, dated 1831, was son of the Scotch Lord Elibank, and so be re the prefix "Honourable," then rare, but since grown c o m m o n in the Colony. H e was a '41 arrival, and for a brief period mixed actively in the vitality of the district, enjoying alike the solemnity of the Supreme Court and the conviviality of a public dinner, the recklessness of the racecourse and the rowdyism of a Corporation election meeting. A s a lawyer he was superficial, and his style of address showy, shallow and insinuating. H e bid high for the applause of the many, in which he succeeded, by the combined influence of a bonhomie almost Hibernian, and ancestralic blue blood, considerations which invariably act with an almost resistless power in captivating the populace. But, Judge Willis could not bear him, and they were soon not only at drawn daggers with each other, but willing enough to wound if it only could be done with impunity. In his altercations with Murray, Willis particularly delighted in derisively accentuating the term "honourable," such as " O h , the honourable Mr. Murray, I beg your pardon. A h , honourable is it ? I suppose it will not be polite, though it m a y be the correct thing to say dis—honourable; I beg your pardon, &c.;" whereat Mr. Murray would writhe in his wig and scowl at his tormentor, almost wishing himself an anthropophagus, and that he had Willis, cooked or raw, for a meal before him. There was once a row at an early race meeting, where Mr. Oliver Gourlay, a fast merchant, obstructed the police in the arrest of a peace disturber. T h e police turning on him, he was overpowered and handcuffed. Murray, w h o was an intimate friend of the second prisoner, did something towards inciting to a rescue, and narrowly escaped a locking up in the watchhouse ; but his rank turned the scale, and heescaped the indignity. T h e land mania of the period was too m u c h for the uncanny Scotchman, who plunged into transactions so risky and long-winded, that in instances he gave bills running for five years. At length he slipped so far out of his depth that, to save himself from being carried out to
JAMES ERSKINE MURRAY, sea by hisfinancialcomplications, he actually put to sea in a schooner he owned, known as the "Warlock," accompanied by a merchant named Abraham, and never returned. This occurred in 1842, and no tidings came to hand of the voyagers until 1844, when a letter was received from Abraham, communicating intelligence that in November, 1843, Murray had been killed in a skirmish with some natives on the River Cote, in Borneo. was born in 1813, and called to the Inner Temple in 1833. In 1841 he married Miss Jessie Gibbon, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Gibbon, of Lonmay, Aberdeenshire, and was the only m e m b e r of the original Port Phillip Bar w h o came provided with a wife to the new settlement. Admitted here in April, 1842, he had a taste of Judge Willis ; but there never occurred anything like a shindy between the t w o — a circumstance difficult to be accounted for, because Williams was about the last m a n to patiently submit to a brow-beating. Possibly chance interposed on his behalf, for, curiously enough, Williams never held a brief on behalf of any individual upon w h o m Willis had a "down," though in almost every case of importance that came before him, the Judge exercised more or less of a predilection, or the reverse. Williams was given to a spasmodic style of address—something of a melodious bark, largely tinctured with bounce, and so loud lunged that a poetaster once, in a local squib designated him as :—" T h e Boanerges of the Melbourne Bar." Williams was thorough master of every matter he took in hand, and the care and completeness with which he placed his case before the Court went far to m a k e up for any forensic deficiencies beyond his control; so the Attornies took to him. But Williams, so far from isolating himself in his profession, was not indifferent to the world as it wagged outside the Supreme Court, for his portly figure was frequently to be seen, with a stout shoulder to the wheel, whenever any question vitally affecting the public welfare required a strong helping push. His proclivities were more anti than pro squatting, and no m a n of the time was more uncompromisingly denunciatory of the attempts periodically m a d e to turn the district into a cesspool of convict iniquity. For years he was a m e m b e r of the District Council of Bourke, a Corporate body armed with almost despotic power, wisely kept in abeyance until the abortion died out without an effort to do either good or harm. In July, 1851, he succeeded Barry as Commissioner of the Court of Requests, but was neither as painstaking nor popular as his predecessor. In January, 1852, he was appointed Chairman of Quarter Sessions, and in the succeeding April was again in Barry's track; for on the latter vacating the Solicitor-Generalship, Williams stepped into the abandoned official's shoes. This promotion brought with it a nominee seat in thefirstLegislative Council; but here he did not abide long, for fate was beckoning him upward, and in the lapse of some time he was nominated as the third Judge of Victoria. H e continued on the Bench until the early part of 1874, when he retired on a well-earned pension, and returned to England. Four years afterwards the honour of Knighthood was conferred on him, a distinction he did not long enjoy, for he died a year or so after. T h e colony has been hitherto specially fortunate in its Supreme Court Judges, for with the exception of the first (Willis) the members of the Judiciary taken generally have not been excelled by any Bench out of England ; but without disparagement to any of them, it m a y be truthfully written that as an all-round Judge, Williams was held in most esteem by the Legal Profession. It is a noteworthy coincidence that the three best C o m m o n Law-pleaders of the Victorian bar. Williams, Fellows, and Williams secundus, were all exalted to the Bench ; and equally remarkable that the Judge Williams of 1888 occupies the seat so worthilyfilledby his father, w h o was succeeded by Mr. Justice Stephen,
EDWARD EYRE WILLIAMS
(the prenomen of "FOSTER" was not publicly adopted in the colony for several years) was born in June, 1815, at a place known as Old Court, in the very Irish County of Cork. In his 18th he year entered Trinity College, Dublin ; he took classical honours during his undergraduate course, and obtained a B.A. in 1837. For a time a student of King's Inn, Dublin, he crossed the Channel, attached himself to Lincoln's Inn, London, and was called to the Bar in 1839. In 1842 the young lawyer, fancying he should find a wider scope for his abilities in a larger country, steered his course to Australia, arrived in Melbourne before Christmas, and remained there. His admittance to the Port Phillip Bar was nearly contemporaneous with the departure of the irritating and irritable
WILLIAM STAWELL Judge Willis, so he escaped the unpleasantness of any disedifying Court scenes with the eccentric ex-functionary. M r . Stawell was a smart, wiry, determined-looking young m a n , w h o lost no time in setting to work, leading, however, the reverse of the Anchorite's life. T h e Horatian motto of duke est desipere in loco was not displeasing to him ; and though a study of sheepskin converted into parchment was not neglected, the Templar was often more at h o m e anchored in a pigskin, astride a sprited quadruped, the livelier and wickeder the better, for though sometimes the rider would come, if not to grief, to the ground, it took a consummate "buck-jumper" to execute a deed of separation between m a n and horse. T h e first time I saw Stawell was not m a n y months after his arrival, and he was residing in a small brick cottage in Little Lonsdale Street West. I went from a newspaper office to m a k e some inquiry about a Supreme Court case in which he was retained. M y knock was answered by a thoughtful-looking young m a n , loosely garbed in a blue serge short overshirt then m u c h worn in the bush. N o t personally knowing M r . Stawell, I asked for him, and was rather taken aback by an answer informing m e that the individual wanted stood before m e . I fancied he noticed m y surprise, for he smiled, m a d e himself agreeable enough, and gave m e what I c a m e about. I was then a mere Irish stripling, but even at school had acquired some reputation as a face reader amongst m y companions. O n m y way back to the office, pondering over what I had seen, m y thoughts, if put in words, would run almost literally in this strain, "Well, if that be the n e w arrival about w h o m I have been hearing so much, he seems a careless, fair and easyish sort of fellow ; but still there is something about the lines of his mouth, an earnestness in his eyes, and an unmistakableness perched on the top of his nose, from which I should be disposed to think that he will m a k e his mark in Melbourne, and I shall hear a good deal about him before I die." T h e events of the forty years that have flown by M r . Stawell's public career, as a lawyer and politician, and his present exalted position more than vindicate the accuracy of m y impromptu soothsaying. T h e Bar was so numerically limited that a m a n like Stawell had not m u c h way to make in coming to the van, and this he did almost at a step. H e was a painstaking Advocate, with an immense capacity for work, and a sound knowledge of law. T h o u g h not a brilliant speaker, the soundness of his arguments and his seriousness of purpose always caused him to be listened to with attention. Without the eloquence of Barry,'or the technical knowledge of Williams, he was a better general m a n , and the Attornies soon learned the importance of making sure of his services. A s a rule he and Williams were in every case pro and con, and in m a n y of the actions of the time, juniors, from their non-existence, had to be dispensed with, Barry's practice was injured through his being the senior of Williams and Stawell. Raymond's stay in the province was short, and Stephen, after he joined, was not m u c h in leading business. Stawell's energy and tact at cross-examination obtained him briefs in the most important criminal cases, and his m o d e of handling a jury was a combination of skill and a knowledge of h u m a n nature. In most of the sports and pastimes, and s o m e of the more questionable amusements of the age, he was by no means loth to take a hand. Tradition accords him the distinction of being the first amateur whip to sport a four-in-hand drag at the Flemington racecourse, and his feats of equestrianism in bush ridings after hounds and cross-country formed portion of the c o m m o n town-talk for m a n y a day. In managing that cross-grained incarnation of treachery colonially known as a " buck jumper" he had few equals, and an amusing story is told of his occasional interviews with one of this tribe, for which the unfearing lawyer seemed to entertain a sort of attachment. O n a station some fifty miles from Melbourne was a stock-horse named "Sholty," as viciously perverse a brute as ever was foaled. H e was a caution not only to the station hands but acquired more than a local ill-repute for his kicking and bucking propensities. With a strong-handed, well-seated rider "Sholty" was an excellent worker; but the great difficulty was in mounting, for the horse was inaccessible by the ordinary modes of ascent, and no one could get aboard directly from the ground, at either side or head or tail. W h e n " Sholty " was to be jockeyed, the process could only be effected by the stratagem of holding the animal under the projecting bough of an old tree near the homestead, and the adventurous rider had to swing himself from this, and, dropping into the saddle, hold on by hands and knees and feet like grim death, during the preliminary pirouetting of the over-reached nag, whose displeasure would be vented in a four-hoofed breakdown, sure to dislodge any but a rider of well-tried coolness, pluck and experience. Stawell occasionally visited the "Sholty" head-quarters, went through the "up-a-tree" trick to perfection, performing the ' drop" scene with a methodical firmness and precision, and picking up the bridle and settling himself on the horse's back with a skill and rapidity from which the horse instinctively learned that resistance was useless, as the rider was master of the situation. But a time was to c o m e when the Stawell mind would be purged of all such worldly impurities as tree-mounting, Flemington drag-driving, the hunting-field, Platonic saunterings along the ti-tree enclosed banks of the Yarra; and even the Sabbatarian In 184S Dr. Perry, the first Anglican matutinal equestrian constitutional was to be tabooed. Bishop, m a d e his appearance, and from shortly after his installation as such, the change in the Stawell idiosyncracy set in, and was soon complete. T h e "William Stawell" of the previous year could hardly be said to exist, so great was the transformation, so assured the alteration ; and that such was really the case was soon publicly notified by the appearance of the erst blitheful barrister in the role of a lecturer on the Reformation. T h e event was received with mixed feelings by a community in which the lecturer was held in the highest esteem ; but he was free to take his o w n course, and the public confidence in him underwent no variation. H e was actively connected with all the early charitable institutions, and though at one time directly interested in pastoral pursuits, on the Anti-transportation Question he would listen to no compromises, for in the hard-fought struggle to avert the contaminations of a penal colony from Port Philip, Stawell was always as true as steel. O n the inauguration of the new colony in 1851, he was appointed to the office offirstAttorney-General, and as senior m e m b e r of the Executive was the Government leader in the Legislative Council, a position which he held with consummate ability and untiring energy for several years. In October, 1856, when the bicameral system of legislation was initiated, he was selected as one of the three members returned in February, 1857, he was elevated to the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court, vacated by the retirement of Sir William A'Beckett. H e was soon after Knighted, and on three several occasions it has fallen to his lot to fill the office of Administrator of the Government. LL.D., an Irsh Barrister, and son of the Postmaster-General of New South Wales, arrived in Melbourne in 1841, with the appointment of Deputy-Sheriff, which he held until the close of 1842, when he was superseded to m a k e way for an appointee sent out by the Colonial Office. H e then went to the Bar, and obtained some practice until the close of 1884, when he was elected by the Magistrates of N e w South Wales to the office of Chairman of Quarter Sessions, on his acceptance of which he bade good-bye to Port Phillip. M r . R a y m o n d was a quiet, gentlemanly, well-liked individual, of pleasing and unassuming manner, of moderate ability, and wanting the " g o " of Barry, Williams, and Stawell.
SAMUEL RAYMOND,
a m e m b e r of an English family remarkable for having supplied the legal profession with both Barristers and Attorneys in abundance, joined the Bar here in 1844, and settled down to practice. Possessed of m u c h natural or acquired courtesy, and an almost unending copiousness of talk, which he could work off smoothly by the fathom, he was m u c h personally liked and glided into considerable practice, m u c h less in the Superior Court than his o w n contemporaries, but realizing a tolerable dividend from the Criminal Sessions and the Police Office. Though not renowned for any profundity in legal lore, he owned an attractive suavity of tongue which rendered him a fluent conversationalist and a tolerably effective Advocate. H e professed himself a staunch religionist, officiated at the founding and opening of Wesleyan Chapels, and was quite at h o m e when holding forth at an anniversary tea meeting and its oratorial hymn-chaunting wind up. O n e of his brothers was Chief Justice of N e w South Wales, and the family influence standing well at the Colonial Office, after some years, M r . Stephen was appointed to a Supreme Court Judgeship in N e w Zealand, which he held until his death. His family remained in Victoria as permanent occupiers, two of his daughters marrying squatters and two sons becoming well-known colonists. O n e of them is Mr. Frank Stephen, Melbourne's only City Solicitor; and the other Mr. James Stephen, w h o died some years ago, when Clerk of the County Court, and respecting w h o m I never heard even one unkindly word uttered. SIDNEY STEPHEN, (one of three brothers well known amongst the old colonists), is a native of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire. Articled to M r . T h o m a s Tindal, Clerk of the Peace for Buckinghamshire, he subsequently entered himself at Lincoln's Inn. In 1840, arriving in Port Phillip, he took up a squatting station at Cape Schanck, of which he is still a co-proprietor. Returning to England he was called to the Bar in 1843, and marrying, he re-emigrated to the colony in 1844. In 1849 he was appointed one of the several Commissioners under what was k n o w n as the Disputed Boundaries Act, and had assigned to him a portion of the then large Western District. O n the establishment of the new colony in 1851, Mr. Barker had conferred upon him the Clerkship of the first Legislative Council, and in November, 1856, when the two branches of Parliament were initiated he became Clerk of the new Legislative Assembly, a position which he retained until the beginning of 1882. when he was transferred to the Clerkships of the Legislative Council and of the Parliaments, a joint office vacated by the retirement of Mr. G. W . Rusden. O n terminating his long connection with the Assembly, his valuable services were commemorated by a special resolution of thanks, and the presentation of an unique and costly silver service, subscribed for by the Members. M r . Barker was not admitted to the Port Phillip Bar until November, 1851, and as his services were then retained for State purposes, he did not go into practice. In all branches of the law and usages of Parliament, M r . Barker is, in the fullest sense, a specialist, and many a difficulty has been smoothed over by the aid of his rare experience. Such is a cursory "brief" of the members of the Port Phillip Bar, known as such in the Province from 1841 to 1851, and of the number, so far as I a m aware, there are n o w (1888) only three of them in the land of the living, viz., Brewster, Stawell, and Barker.
JOHN BARKER
ATTORNEYS.
The first parchments executed here were prepared by Gellibrand, an Attorney-General of V a n Diemen's Land, w h o was an unit of the memorable Batman Copartnery, and when Batman came over in 1835 to negotiate a purchase of the country from the Aborigines, he fore-armed himself with what he believed to be valid legal transfers, cut and dry in his pocket. In this he was disappointed, for the bargain was annulled with scant ceremony by the H o m e Government. It is strange that in the versions of those memorable conveyances which I have seen printed in books on the colony, I have met with no absolutely correct one. T h e originals are in the Melbourne Public Library, the Trustees of which Institution were induced by Sir W . Mitchell to purchase them some years ago, and in another chapter of these C H R O N I C L E S appears a revised and genuine copy. The conveyancing branch then, as now, was the most lucrative, for Melbourne was not six months old when the game of mortgaging commenced, and during 1838 there was lent on town lands alone no less than ,£17,260, covered by sixteen mortgages, an enormous encumbrance considering the first cost of town lots, the limited extent of the town, and the very circumscribed population. In 1839 country lands were first so operated upon to the tune of ,£32,595, and the total mortgages upon town and country swelled to n o , covering .£"77,463. A s there was no local Supreme Court jurisdiction in Port Phillip until April, 1841, all the important legal business prior to that period was transacted in Sydney through Melbourne agencies. In 1843, the year of greatest financial depression felt in the colony, the mortgaging of town and country lands covered ,£113,262, which increased to ,£270,413 the year after. This year saw the commencement of borrowing by liens on wool, and mortgages on live stock, which in a few years assumed enormous proportions. was the first Attorney to arrive in Melbourne in September, 1838. He was not long alone in his glory, for a Quarter Sessions was established in 1839, and the hawks commenced their flight hither from Sydney, and before the year's close they were even on the wing from the old country. H e was the A d a m of "the brigade," and so lively on his "pins" that his activity in exploring the un-macadamised streets of early Melbourne occasionally got him into difficulties in which he stuck hopelessly until extricated by some timely aid. In 1840, within a space of six months,
WILLIAM MEEK he three several times broke a leg, and whilst confined to barracks by the third casualty, he advertised in the newspapers " that during his illness he had retained M r . Barry, the Barrister, to advise generally on titles of property and peruse drafts on matters connected with conveyancing." S o m e time afterwards, entering into partnership with T h o m a s Clark, they carried on business for several years. Clark was a full-faced comfortable-looking m a n , and was known as " lame Tom," through a deformity of one of his feet, which reduced his locomotion to a ponderous sort of half-hop, effected by the aid of a huge stick. M e e k was married and Clark was not, but they were alike light-hearted, jovial individuals. M e e k died in a few years, whilst the extraordinary fate was reserved for " T o m " of falling into a religious mania, resulting in his detention in a Queensland lunatic asylum, where he remained for m a n y years, immersed in a living tomb, as utterly forgotten in Melbourne as if he never had existence there, and not taking his exit from the world until 1882. H. N. CARRINGTON, a diminutive, sallowish-faced Manxman, came from Sydney in 1839, as Clerk of the Crown to the Court of Quarter Sessions, and for some months conducted the criminal prosecutions tried there in a manner that gave only mixed satisfaction. H e was about the most bumptious and bounceable of talking animals, and used to " row" the Police Court Magistrates in a style worth listening to. W h e n the Supreme Court got into working order he joined a business with F. L. Clay, a partner of m u c h more conscience and moderation, but they did not get on long together. Carrington, had he minded himself, had the ball before him, and, with reasonable skill and caution, he might have kicked it to the goal of a large fortune. But he was reputed to be professionally most unscrupulous, and given to land and bill-discounting speculations. Complications more than professional were alleged to have arisen between him and some of his clients, from which extrication was not easy. H e was never out of trouble with Judge Willis, w h o always thought that Carrington was preparing for some iniquity whenever his n a m e appeared to any case in Court. Willis more than once denounced him as a filer of sham pleas, and not only attacked but struck him off the Court Roll of Practitioners. Still there was a deal of game in him, and he bravely fought the brow-beating Judge inch by inch until he conquered him on an appeal to the Full Court at Sydney. In 1842, Carrington m a d e an effort to get returned for Bourke W a r d at thefirstT o w n Council Election; but pecuniary embarrassments were so besetting that he was compelled to withdraw from the contest, though nominated as a candidate. In February, 1843, he had no alternative than to throw up the sponge, for the Philistines were so close on him, that nothing could save him unless showing them his heels. H e was in the Rules (a limited area of West Melbourne proclaimed as a Debtors' prison) at the time, and breaking through their boundaries, donned lady's apparel, and got away from town in the mail-cart which carried the mail overland to Sydney. W h e n twenty miles from Melbourne, he resumed his proper manly attire, and effected a safe retreat. T h e actual detaining creditors had only recovered for a small amount, and this was said to have been paid by the bolter's sureties. In the course of 1844, long after his unrelenting foe (Willis) had left the colony, Carrington returned to Melbourne, ultimately going back to Sydney, and he died at Windsor, N e w South Wales, on the 16th May, 1845, at the early age of thirty-nine years. Q U A R R Y A N D R O S S were for a time in partnership. Similar, so far as both being tall men, they presented m a n y opposites, for Quarry was a lanky, pale-faced, black-haired Irishman ; and Ross a red-visaged, stern-looking, dark-haired Scot. Quarry hailed from a town in the County of Cork, named Mallow, so proverbial for its " Rakes," w h o are immortalized in a well-known Irish song; and, so far, he did not belie his place of paternity, for there was a strong dash of rakishness in his disposition. H e dressed in tip-top style, a shining bell-topper, swallow-tailed, gilt-buttoned blue cloth coat, long white vest, and black cloth or white drilled trousers, strapped under high-heeled, well-polished Wellington boots. His tie and shirt fronts were only equalled by those sported by Barry, the Barrister. Partial to riding astride on an undersized nag with his toes nearly touching the ground, "Long Quarry" used to be one of the most remarkable ambling sights of Collins Street. H e married a pretty girl, but on her part the alliance was no love match, and poor Quarry's connubial existence was anything but blissful. Ross was a m u c h better m a n of business than his partner, and after dissolving with Quarry he joined a Mr. John Clark, and they constituted a legal house which had for several years a lucrative run of business. Ross, for a short period, sat as a Government non-official nominee in the first Legislature of Victoria. EDWARD SEWELL was a dashing member of the second branch of the law. He was an intimate friend of Mr. R e d m o n d Barry, and mixed up with more than one of the early duelling farces in Melbourne.* ROBERT DEANE, arrived from England in 1839, and immediately plunged into cold water, by taking an active part in the establishment of thefirstTemperance Society in Melbourne. His devotion to teetotalism was not of long continuance, for by 1842 he had sunk into such an intense worship of alcoholism that Judge Willis was more than once obliged to rebuke his unsteady appearance in Court. Deane c o m m e n c e d partnership with M r . Richard Ocock, and the firm was for a while in a fair business, but Deane's irregularities precipitated a dissolution. It was said that he was driven to intemperance by an attachment contracted prior to emigrating, and that the lady of his love had promised to come to Melbourne as soon as her fiance had settled d o w n in his new h o m e ; but with her, absence did not m a d e the heart grow fonder. Another wooer came, and Deane and Port Phillip were speedily forgotten. H e was not the same m a n after the receipt of this intelligence. S o m e forty years ago he was rid of the cares of life, and at an age of twice that period, Ocock was alive at Ballan, the oldest surviving Attorney in Victoria until 1883, when he m a d e his exit from the world. CHARLES SLADEN, arrived in Port Phillip in 1841, was admitted in 1842, and selected (with others) Geelong as the field in which he would labour. Here he worked hard until 1854, when he retired from the profession, was no longer known as "an Attorney, Solicitor, and Proctor," but blossomed into the " Politician." H e sat in the first Legislature, the Assembly, and the n o w Upper H o u s e ; served his country as Treasurer and Chief-Secretary, was deservedly Knighted in consideration of what he had done, and in 1882 retired from the political arena, taking with him into private life a profusion of good wishes such as never before were borne away by public m a n in the colony. Sir Charles Sladen will occupy a high and honoured niche in the history of Victoria ; for no m a n ever laboured with more sterling honesty and unremitting devotion for her welfare. H e may fairly be accounted her political Bayard, for he served her like a true Knight, sans peur et sans reproche. THOMAS T. A'BECKETT was not admitted until February, 1851, and is therefore the name with which I close m y enumeration. H e was brother of Mr. Gilbert A'Beckett, the famous L o n d o n comic writer ; of Sir W . A'Beckett, the well-known and highly-esteemed Victorian Judge; and of Dr. A'Beckett, a physician of eminence, w h o followed his profession for several years in Sydney. Like all the family, Mr. T. A'Beckett had a mind above professional drudgery, and was gifted with literary attainments of no m e a n order. H e was lucky in getting into partnership with Moor, after Chambers had seceded therefrom, and that of M o o r and A'Beckett was once known as one of the leading law firms in Melbourne. A'Beckett is a brilliant lecturer when he likes, and a clever pamphleteer; and though he won a respectable position as a politician, his displays in public speaking were inferior to his written discourses. For twenty years he represented the Central Province in the Legislative Council with marked ability, and once held office as Commissioner of Customs. H e was, until recently (1888), Registrar of the Church of England,' and to no two lay members of that denomination is the Anglican Church in Victoria more indebted than to him and Sir W . F. Stawell. H. F. GURNER was the senior by priority of admission, for he was the first enrolled. He arrived from Sydney with Judge Willis in the temporary capacity of Deputy-Registrar, in which he was succeeded by Mr. J. D. Pinnock. Montgomery was thefirstCrown Solicitor, but not pulling over well with the Judge, he resigned, to be replaced by Mr. Gurner, w h o continued in the office until 1878. Montgomeryjoined M'Crae in partnership, enjoying for years considerable practice, and the former was the first amusing episode in M r . Sewell's professional career will be found in Chapter VII, Honorary Secretary of the Melbourne Hospital. Hinton was, for a short time, in partnership with Mr. John Duerdin w h o soon got quit of him, and, associated with a Mr. John Trenchard, T h e batch of Attorneys w h o attended the commanded a long run of profitable business. Police Court were a very mixed lot, and there were some queerish worthies amongst them, the most prominent being Robert Scott, J. W . Thurlow, and John Plaistow. Scott was a tall, strapping fellow, with unmistakable beery indications about the nose and eyes. In his sober m o o d he was fluent in address, and was reputedly the master of extensive legal knowledge. I have seen him, and one or two others, in such a state of inebriety as to be scarcely able to address the Bench. They would be sometimes peremptorily ordered to sit down, or leave the place; and more than once cases were postponed to give the practitioner time to partially recover himself. Of the more modern Attorneys of the olden time, Messrs. J. M . Smith, F. Stephen, and H . J. Chambers are the most mentionable, and they are all still alive (1888.) fn re Joseph W . Belcher, I have been favoured by a surviving relative with this m e m o :—" H e came from Dublin in the first voyage of the 'Eagle,' in 1842. H e had erected a neat villa, which he named after the Irish 'Tinehinch' in the bend of the Yarra, at the end of Simpson's Road, on the left hand from Melbourne. Following his profession in Melbourne until July, 1846, he removed to Geelong, where he built a residence known as ' Sunville,' which was afterwards sold by his son to the once well-known Dean Hayes, and is n o w the Geelong R o m a n Catholic Convent. Returning to Ireland in 1853, he died at Rostrevor, in his 84th year, on the 14th December, 1865." T w o sons remained after him in Victoria, both of them colonists held in high esteem, viz.—Mr. W . R. Belcher, the most efficient clerk the Melbourne Police Court ever had, who died a Police Magistrate, at Port Albert, 8th October, 1873 ; and the other the H o n . G. F. Belcher for many years connected with the Treasury at Melbourne and Geelong, and m e m b e r of the Legislative Council. Mr. G. S. W . H o m e , whose brother was a Supreme Court Judge in Tasmania, did a fairly well-paying business for some years. H e even found his way into the Legislative Asembly, and oncefilledthe office of Commissioner of Public Works. CROSSING THE GARDEN WALL.
It was the fortune (or misfortune) of two or three of the wedded Attorneys to be blessed (or otherwise) with winsome wives, and these Graces were occasionally the conscious cause of bringing trouble to the domestic hearth. In one notable instance, which formed an item of the c o m m o n gossip of the time, circumstances were evolved which nearly eventuated in a terrible tragedy, and did eventuate in the summary punishment of the wrong man. A fast young lawyer contracted an intimacy with the wife of an Attorney residing in a cottage villa, near the terminus of one of Melbourne's principal streets, then sparsely occupied, but now one of the busiest spots of metropolitan commerce. T h e attachment at length became so confirmed that little doubt existed of its progress beyond the line where the proprieties end and their opposites commence. Though, as often happens in such cases, the husband was one of the last persons to hear of what had long passed the bounds offlirtation.H e woke, at length, to a consciousness of the existence of a state of things which should be discontinued ; but his marital remonstrances were scornfully disregarded, and the errant lady showed no disposition of amendment. At length, the indiscretions were hastening to a crisis, and circumstances had come to the knowledge of the husband which induced him to take measures to stop the goings on. There was no such absolute evidence as would sustain an appeal for legal redress, and as to a duel, there were strong reasons, personal and otherwise, to prevent such an open appeal to arms. O n the villa grounds was a cosy brick-walled garden, one side of which abutted on the street, and the surmounting of this enclosure was as nothing to the supple limbs and lithe form of the D o n Juan, by no means " a youth of sixteen." Nestled against the trunk of a large fruit tree in the garden's centre was a small summer-house, and here, at appointed hours on certain nights, long after sunset, the darker the night the better, the D o n n a Julia and her admirer used to hold assignations, a fact of which the husband was made aware, whether through the treachery of an Abigail, or how else, was a secret, and so he resolved upon sure and deadly vengeance. Though adverse to the duello, he was a capital shot, and securing the