HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



95 



SIR JOHN VOTXC (I.OKI) I.ISCJAK). 





colonists have become completely educated in the work of self-government, understanding 

 fully their powers, their opportunities and their responsibilities, while all traces of the 

 absolutist system have entirely disappeared. Under this regime six Governors have suc- 

 cessively represented the Queen namely, Sir William Uenison, Sir John Young (Lord 

 Lisgar), the Earl of Belmore, Sir Hercules Robinson, 

 Lord Augustus Loftus and Lord Carrington. Though 

 very different in their previous experience and in their 

 individual temperament, and though differently estimated 

 by the people of New South Wales, they have all entered 

 fairly into the spirit of the British Constitution in its 

 modern phase, while maintaining the dignity of their office. 

 On several occasions since the granting of the new 

 Constitution they have differed in opinion from their 

 advisers, especially in respect of granting dissolutions of 

 Parliament, the pardoning of prisoners, and the relation 

 of the Governor as Commander-in-Chief to the discipline 

 of the military forces. But those differences, though 

 resulting sometimes in a ministerial resignation, have 

 produced no serious political crisis. The Governors have, on the whole, held the balance 

 impartially between the different political parties, using their personal influence indirectly, 

 rather than directly, while at the same time remaining the confidential advisers of the 

 Crown, and the protectors of its prerogative. In a small community, the acts of every 

 public man are exposed to searching criticism, and it was, therefore, not to be expected 

 that all they did could be approved of by all parties ; but under their presidency the 

 constitutional system has worked without any dangerous friction, and there has been no 



parliamentary appeal against any of their actions a 

 fact which speaks well not only for the system, but 

 for the men who had no small share in its representation. 

 Wentworth himself did not remain in the colony to 

 give his personal services at the initiation of the consti- 

 tutional system he had laboured so hard to establish a 

 task which devolved on the gentlemen who had already 

 gained parliamentary experience in the mixed nominee 

 and representative Council, and who secured, to start 

 with, the assistance of one or two old heads of depart- 

 ments. Wentworth returned to the colony during the 

 Administration of Sir John Young. He had contended 

 ardently for the principle of a nominated Upper House, 

 because he thought a Chamber so constituted was ana- 

 logous to the House of Lords, and formed the best possible protection against rash 

 democratic legislation ; but he did not foresee the use to which nomineeism could be put. 

 Under the Constitution Act, the first Legislative Council was nominated for a limited 

 term of years, and just prior to the close of this term, the Government of the day 

 suddenly nominated twenty-one gentlemen, with a view to force the passage of a 



THK KAKL OK liKLMOKE. 



