152 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



to come out of party funds, not out of the Treasury, which belonged 

 equally to his opponents and his supporters. His advice in this 

 matter was smilingly put aside, and he waited his opportunity. 

 His sense of Parliamentary propriety was outraged on learning 

 that the Chief Secretary held so poor an opinion of the capacity 

 of members as to have appointed Mr. George Bolfe, who was not 

 a member of Parliament, to the position of Minister of Customs. 

 Mr. Duffy worked upon the irritation of the Ministerial supporters 

 so effectively that one of them, Mr. Eobert Byrne, an unknown 

 and untried man with no political experience, was induced to move 

 a vote of want of confidence, which was promptly carried. Fol- 

 lowing constitutional practice the Governor commissioned Mr. 

 Byrne to form a Ministry. Naturally that gentleman offered the 

 lead to Mr. Duffy, the real mover, but he did not see his way 

 to a working majority, and declined the responsibility. A Cabinet 

 was eventually got together, chiefly from the supporters of the 

 defeated Ministry. Mr. J. A. McPherson, a comparatively young 

 squatter with conservative instincts, took the lead as Chief Sec- 

 retary, Mr. Byrne taking the Treasurership, but losing his seat in 

 the effort. He was defeated by the Mr. Bolfe whose Ministerial 

 appointment he had challenged, and paid dearly for his temerity, 

 never being able again to secure a seat in Parliament. 



The epidemic of rapid Ministerial changes that was doing so 

 much to discredit the capacity of the people for self-government, 

 and to nullify all efforts at deliberate constructive legislation, gave 

 the McPherson Ministry an existence of 200 days. Although it 

 was composed almost entirely of the discontented followers of 

 McCulloch, the straight Opposition agreed to give it support, in 

 the hope of breaking up the dominant power of the late Chief 

 Secretary. With the exception of B. C. Aspinall, who was Solicitor- 

 General, all the Ministers were novices, and none of them were 

 conspicuous for ability. Circumstances favoured them in dealing 

 with the interminable land question. They inherited from Mr. 

 Grant the substance of an amending Act, to which he had given 

 long consideration, and on this basis they had the satisfaction of 

 placing on the Statute Book the Land Act of 1869. This Act, 

 which consolidated and amended all previous legislation on the 



