AN ERA OF CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE, 1864-1868 137 



object in the bay that it was sold for a trifle to be broken up. 

 The Cerberus reposed peacefully off Williamstown for more than a 

 generation, and when the question of the defences became a live 

 subject, naval experts declared her guns to be of very little use and 

 the ship to be hopelessly obsolete. 



Mr. Verdon was also charged to endeavour to combat the op- 

 position which the British Government had offered to the establish- 

 ment of a second Mint in Australia, and in this he was quite 

 successful. Indeed, he proved throughout so popular in all his 

 negotiations that, notwithstanding his admitted share in the dead- 

 lock, he was banqueted by the Australians in London, and, on the 

 recommendation of the Colonial Minister, was made a Companion 

 of the Bath. He returned to the colony in time to take part in 

 the opening of the Parliamentary session on 17th January, 1867, 

 and to hear an acknowledgment of the success of his mission in 

 the Governor's opening speech. This, the first deliverance of Sir 

 J. H. Manners-Sutton, was tame and colourless, more noticeable 

 for its omission of any reference to strained relations in Parliament 

 than for anything it said. 



The dominant figure of this session was once more found in Mr. 

 Higinbotham, the Attorney-General ; a man who by his intensity 

 of character, the transparent conscientiousness of his convictions, 

 and his burning oratory, exercised a sway over the House which 

 in Victoria has never been equalled. As a private member his 

 extreme fairness in debate, his courteous attention to the arguments 

 of an opponent, and his general urbanity led to the belief that he 

 was an academic theorist, rather seeking knowledge than anxious 

 to display it. But when he assumed the responsibilities of office it 

 was quickly apparent that he was an extremist in action, and an 

 unflinching devotee of his own views. And he had an exceptional 

 power of forcing the adoption of his views upon the majority of 

 those who came under the spell of his oratory. 



That he was wrong in his crusade against the Legislative Council 

 and the Colonial Office on the question of the "tacks" to the 

 Appropriation Bill is evidenced by the fact that outside Victoria 

 public opinion was wholly against him, that no one to-day would 

 defend such a form of coercion, and that it is expressly prohibited 



