THE CONSTITUTION STATUTE OF 1842 303 



years before, had been hawking round petitions for the Super- 

 intendent's recall, the despatch of Earl Grey in January, 1851, 

 could not have been very pleasant reading. In advising his 

 appointment as Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State wrote 

 to Mr. Latrobe : 



" In conferring it on you, Her Majesty's Government have 

 great pleasure in acknowledging the services which you have ren- 

 dered to the community of Victoria, during your long and careful 

 superintendency of its affairs, while constituting a district of New 

 South Wales ". 



Pending the election of the members of the Council, which 

 actually took some three months, it was necessary to provide an 

 interim supervision of the affairs of State, and on the day after 

 Mr. Latrobe had been proclaimed, the Attorney-General (Mr. 

 Stawell), the Treasurer and the Collector of Customs were sworn 

 in as an Executive Council, in terms of the Governor's commission. 



Here then, at last, was the starting of the machinery of a self- 

 contained existence. A Lieutenant-Governor who was in direct 

 correspondence with, and amenable only to, the Secretary of State ; 

 an Executive temporarily controlling affairs, until the chosen of the 

 people could be gathered into legislative conference ; a franchise 

 reduced to one-half of that under which the small contingent sent 

 to Sydney had been elected ; and finally, most important of all, the 

 power in the hands of the people, through their representatives, to 

 modify the constitution under which they lived, and to mould it to 

 the requirements of the varying phases pertaining to a rapidly 

 developing community. 



The privileges which this latter condition carried were invaluable, 

 and should certainly have silenced those grumblers in the press 

 and on the platform who saw nothing but ruin ahead, because 

 they did not get all they wanted at the first election. 



A mighty change was at hand, which for a few months seemed 

 to threaten the overthrow of all organised government. But out 

 of the troubles it engendered, and the many mistaken theories it 

 evoked, the way was clear for a distinct advance in the principles 

 of Government, on ever- broadening democratic lines. 



