DAYS OF TRIAL 321 



been hailed everywhere as the man of action who was to awaken the 

 country from the lethargic spell of Messrs. Shiels and Berry. He 

 was urged to " do something to restore the finances," but the some- 

 thing which he had done left him hosts of enemies in the public 

 service, and when they combined with a public dissatisfied with the 

 taxation proposals, the end came. 



Mr. George Turner, who took charge of the Ship of State in 

 September, 1894, had a long and honourable tenure of office, far in 

 excess of any previous Minister except Sir James McCulloch. He 

 retained an uninterrupted charge of the country's affairs for upwards 

 of five years, and then, after a displacement of eleven months by the 

 McLean Ministry, he resumed office in November, 1900, only to 

 retire when called upon to take his place in the first Commonwealth 

 Ministry. He was a man of cheerful and equable temperament, 

 tactful, hard-working and with a strong fund of common-sense. A 

 solicitor by profession, he had graduated through municipal service 

 into Parliamentary life, and soon proved himself a welcome addition 

 to the ranks of those rare silent workers who are satisfied to let their 

 deeds speak for them. In 1897 he was invited by Mr. Chamberlain, 

 in company with the other Australian Premiers, to take part in the 

 unique demonstrations in London which celebrated Queen Victoria's 

 Diamond Jubilee. In connection with this visit he was made a 

 K.C.M.G., appointed a Privy Councillor, and received other flattering 

 distinctions, arising out of the enthusiasm with which at this time 

 the Colonies were regarded. His Cabinet was a fairly strong one, 

 having for Attorney-General Mr. I. A. Isaacs, who had been one of 

 Sir James Patterson's Law Officers, but seceded from that Ministry 

 on account of a difference with Sir Bryan O'Loghlen on a question 

 of Government prosecutions in connection with some of the financial 

 scandals. Sir Henry Cuthbert, a member of the Upper House, was 

 Solicitor-General, and to another member of the Council, Mr. Wm. 

 McCulloch, was confided the charge of the Defence Department. 

 Mr. A. J. Peacock was Chief Secretary ; Mr. E. W. Best, Minister of 

 Lands ; Mr. John Gavan Duffy, Postmaster-General ; and Mr. H. E. 

 Williams, Minister of Eailways, the latter having been a member of 

 the Berry Cabinet in 1880. 



At the opening of the sixteenth Victorian Parliament on 4th 



VOL. II. 21 



