284 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



spending with the extent and population of the district, and equal 

 to the exigencies of a Free State. 



This appears to have been the initial movement of a combined 

 character, and though Mr. G. W. Eusden is severe upon what he 

 calls the " procacity " of the new community, no one can deny 

 them the quality of plain speaking, and an evident knowledge of 

 exactly what they wanted. 



The meeting was noticeable from the fact that most of the 

 leading residents in Melbourne outside officialdom took part in it, 

 and amongst the speakers were C. H. Ebden, Eedmond Barry, Dr. 

 jGreeves, and several others who were destined to take a prominent 

 share in political life. Lest the public interest should wane after 

 the petition was despatched, it was resolved to form a " Separation 

 Association," and a month later a meeting was held to give it form 

 and substance. A sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. J. B. Were, 

 Andrew M. M'Crae and Eedmond Barry, had been appointed to get 

 signatures to the petition and subscriptions in aid of the movement, 

 and their success had been so far satisfactory that at the later 

 meeting it was decided to appoint a professional agent in London, 

 and a Committee there of gentlemen with direct interests in the 

 district to promote the views of the Association both in Parliament 

 and with the public. The London Committee was selected with 

 great care, and to it were added the names of five colonists who 

 were about to visit England. Mr. John Eichardson of West- 

 minster, who was appointed Parliamentary Agent, did good service. 

 In addition, a local Committee was elected, with Mr. Wm. Kerr, in 

 later years Town Clerk of Melbourne, as the paid secretary. 



Lord John Eussell's famous despatch of 31st May, 1840, had of 

 course not yet arrived, so the petitioners could not have been 

 inspired by the indications which that document gave of an in- 

 tended division of the territory of New South Wales. But the 

 feeling of antipathy to the parent colony, intensified by a sense of 

 injustice in handling the joint revenue, was largely owing to the 

 fact that, though the district was by proclamation included with New 

 South Wales, it owed practically nothing to the enterprise of its 

 colonists in founding the settlement. It was almost entirely a 

 venture of residents in Van Diemen's Land, and when the agitation 



