268 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



attend to, and they were restive under the assumed sacrifice of their 

 time. They made it so manifest that they did not intend to refer 

 everything to the President, and also that they would far exceed the 

 financial provision made, that Mr. Higinbotham felt constrained to 

 tender his resignation. The President of the Legislative Council, 

 Sir James Macbain, who succeeded him, took a less onerous view 

 of his responsibilities, and as he allowed the committees all the lati- 

 tude they wanted, the financial result was much what Mr. Higin- 

 botham had predicted. Neither his predictions nor his protests 

 would probably have materially affected the result, but if he had not 

 retired there would have been an administrative breakdown or a 

 coup d'&tat in the form of a mutiny. From which may be deduced 

 the moral that the working methods of the Law Courts and those 

 of practical business men are irreconcilable. But probably no one 

 would have been listened to who preached economy while wealth 

 appeared to be so widely distributed. Indeed, it is somewhat sur- 

 prising that in their final report the Commissioners appear to adopt 

 an apologetic tone in saying that although the cost had been much 

 larger than anticipated, yet the greater part of it was expended in 

 wages to artisans and labourers within the colony. Further, they 

 alleged that the outlay by visitors, and by foreign and colonial ex- 

 hibitors in connection with their courts, was very far in excess of 

 that which the Government was called upon to meet. 



An important political episode of the Gillies Ministry was the 

 despatch of Messrs. Deakin and Lorimer to London, where, in 

 conjunction with Mr. Service and Sir Graham Berry, they repre- 

 sented Victoria in the Imperial Conference which was held in April, 

 1887. It was a recognition by the British Government of the great 

 commercial and political importance which the Colonies had attained 

 in the estimation of the mother-country. It was not, as some sus- 

 picious editors averred, an attempt to entrap the various self-governing 

 communities into a cut-and-dried scheme of Imperial Federation, 

 but a friendly invitation to them to send representatives to discuss 

 matters of equal interest to all. Prominent amongst them were the 

 terms upon which the naval defence of the Colonies could be best 

 provided; the storage of coal and defence of coaling stations; 

 uniform postal and cable charges; execution of legal judgments 



