56 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



scapegoat that the public anger might be diverted from a higher 

 aim. Many years after the death of Sir Charles Hotham, the 

 publication of his confidential letter accepting Foster's resignation 

 finally dispersed all such slanderous rumours. Whether these 

 belittling suggestions really affected the voting it is not possible 

 to say, but for some reason, satisfactory to themselves, the members 

 of the Council set their face against any compensation, and though 

 the claim was revived at intervals over several years it remained 

 unliquidated. 



The new Colonial Secretary was a man with a high repute 

 for integrity, of strong conservative instincts, a slow thinker and 

 a poor speaker. In dabbling unsuccessfully with agriculture on 

 the Barrabool hills he had acquired something of the antipathy 

 to the squatters which marked the farming class at this time, but 

 he had too high a sense of honour to seek to do them political 

 injustice. By no means the type of man to evoke enthusiasm 

 in the Council, but commanding the respect of members by his 

 dignified reticence, his patience as a listener, and the unfailing 

 courtesy of his manners. His appointment allayed the public 

 irritation, and it was soon evident that the community was pre- 

 pared to give him a fair trial. 



There were plenty of questions involving heated argument in 

 the Council, but they were mainly matters of administration. The 

 real work before that body, work the satisfactory performance of 

 which might materially affect the future welfare of the colony, was 

 the framing of the necessary measures, electoral and otherwise, for 

 the launching of the New Constitution. It was evident that a 

 Ministry responsible to Parliament, and through it to the electors, 

 could not be called into existence until the machinery for such 

 elections had been completed. But the wording of the New 

 Constitution Act required it to come into force on the date of its 

 proclamation, which, it further decreed, must be within one month 

 of its receipt in the colony. It reached the Governor's hands on 

 the 23rd of October, 1855, and on the 23rd of November a special 

 Government Gazette proclaimed that it had come into operation. 

 During the intervening month there had been many consultations 

 between the Executive officers and the Governor, which had been 



