" PEACE, PKOGRESS AND PROSPERITY " 237 



Bent as a sort of patron saint. It was not without some abject 

 concessions that the Parliamentary session was at last brought to a 

 close, the prorogation being from 21st December to 13th February, 

 1883. Once safely in recess, however, Sir Bryan bethought him 

 that the conditions under which he had been kept in office were 

 unendurable, and he inclined to the belief that an appeal to the 

 country would give him a good working majority. He satisfied 

 the Marquis of Normanby that his expectations were well founded, 

 and on the 30th of January the community was surprised to see the 

 dissolution of Parliament gazetted, and provision made for a general 

 election on 22nd February. Consternation seized upon politicians ; 

 the time for organisation was short ; party lines were practically 

 non-existent, and a wild rush was made to the polls by men who 

 were ready to promise anything suggested to them. 



Although there was no burning question prominent at the 

 general election of 1883, there were indications that some sectarian 

 heat was thrown into it, and it is more than probable that the feel- 

 ing roused by the debate on the Grattan address affected the issues. 

 The result was disastrous for the Ministry Sir Bryan O'Loghlen 

 and one member of his Cabinet lost their seats but his persistent 

 antagonist, Graham Berry, had a very narrow escape from rejection 

 at Geelong, his own stronghold, where he had ever been wont to 

 head the poll. He was the lowest of the three candidates, and less 

 than forty votes ahead of the fourth. Amongst the rejected of the 

 people on this occasion were Sir John O'Shanassy, Francis Long- 

 more, and three other prominent members of the Irish party. The 

 relegation of O'Shanassy to private life after thirty-two years of an 

 active political career was not without a touch of pathos. He had 

 rendered yeoman service to the State in his early days ; he had a 

 sound grasp of constitutional questions, was a forcible though not 

 elegant speaker, and had long bravely combated the parochialism 

 of Protection and the selfish exclusiveness of the anti-immigration 

 party. Yet the Belfast electorate, with more than 4,000 on the 

 rolls, preponderatin gly Irish, had only recorded a paltry 320 votes 

 for him. No doubt his influence as a statesman had been seriously 

 handicapped by his devotion to the interests of his creed and his 

 countrymen, and by his rigid opposition to the State education 



