206 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



they were conceived on abstract ideas, without any actual knowledge 

 of the local surroundings. 



Dr. Lang was very bitter in his denunciation of the autocratic 

 handling of the subject, and of the slight which he conceived to 

 have been put upon the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 

 by ignoring their opinion, and not seeking their advice. Doubtless 

 that body possessed information as to the possibilities of working 

 the system which did not reach Downing Street, but the interests 

 involved were so large and the effect upon the future of the country 

 so momentous that the British Cabinet may have been excused 

 for the exercise of a jealous conservatism. A few men, like Mr. 

 Benjamin Boyd, had succeeded in getting possession of such enor- 

 mous areas that the Crown might well be distrustful of the objects 

 of local legislation. Earl Grey voiced this feeling in his letter to 

 Lord John Eussell (13th October, 1852) when he said : " But if the 

 power of altering the regulations under which the Crown lands are 

 disposed of were given too soon to every Colonial Legislature, nothing 

 is more probable than that the small society of a young colony might 

 think it for their interest to share among them, to the exclusion 

 of the other inhabitants of the Empire, the lands which properly 

 belong to all ; and it is still more probable that in such a colony 

 a few rapacious speculators might have sufficient influence to carry 

 changes, which would conduce to their personal gain, under the 

 plausible but delusive pretence of promoting the interests of their 

 fellow-colonists". 



But despite the soundness of this doctrine, the squatters, as a 

 body, continued in a state of unrest, with interludes of protest or 

 defiance, until the passing of the Act of 1846, and the Orders in 

 Council based thereon, which were promulgated in March, 1847. 

 The passage of this Act, which was supposed to unduly favour the 

 squatters, was not effected without prolonged controversy. It was 

 persistently opposed by Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New 

 South Wales, and by Mr. Latrobe, the Lieutenant-Governor of the 

 Port Phillip district, and their influence with Lord Stanley was 

 sufficiently strong to block its passage during his administration. 

 But the matter was taken up very warmly in the Colonies by the 

 Pastoral Association, of which Mr. Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount 



