AN ERA OF CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE, 1864-1868 147 



lapsed emoluments of his office was readily met, and the Imperial 

 Government granted him a pension of 1,000 a year, dating it back 

 to the day of his recall. Some two years later, when he died, the 

 Victorian Parliament generously and unanimously voted the con- 

 tinuance of the pension to his widow for her life. 



So came to an end a contest between the two Houses, which 

 during three years had evoked more angry feeling and bitter re- 

 crimination than the Victorian community has probably ever ex- 

 perienced. There were serious collisions in later years, but the 

 contending parties were more equally divided, and in the public eye 

 they were mere squabbles compared with the tidal wave of popular 

 excitement which Mr. Higinbotham evoked and directed. The 

 numbers were overwhelmingly against the Council, and against any 

 check, foreign or domestic, on the absolute rule of the Assembly. 

 Loud and defiant was the talk at mass meetings of repudiating any- 

 thing in the shape of interference, and many were the speeches in 

 which the readiness of the people to "cut the painter" was alleged 

 rather than submit to it. But the sedition of the mob evaporated 

 in words, and the colonists who had any stake or interest in the 

 country felt an immense relief when a happy chance closed this 

 threatening episode before it developed into civil strife, and possible 

 ruin for many. 



However much popular opinion may have been influenced against 

 the Council, its attitude throughout was simply one of defence. 

 The speeches of its members, with very rare exceptions, were 

 moderate in tone, and free from the aggressive and threatening 

 language so freely used in the Assembly. No doubt while they 

 fully believed they were standing out for the rights which the 

 Constitution conferred upon them, and were consciously free of 

 seeking any personal ends, they were yet sensible that if the whole 

 of the 12,000 electors whom they represented were heartily with 

 them, it was but a small set-off against the many thousand votes 

 which their opponents could command. A desire for a larger 

 popular support possessed them, and Mr. Sladen, during his brief 

 tenure of office, introduced a Bill for widening the franchise of the 

 Council, by reducing the property qualification of both members and 

 electors by one-half. He sought the assistance of Mr. McCullooh 



10* 



