conducted it for some years with much success. In 1839 Mr. Dowling proceeded to England, having received the appointment of Immigration Agent for Tasmania, in which capacity he was the means of introducing into the colony many settlers whose names are now well known in Northern Tasmania. In 1842 he returned to Launceston, and was for some years engaged in the printing and drapery business. He was one of the founders of the Launceston Savings Bank, and in 1844 was appointed manager of that institution. Mr. Dowling was always active in public affairs, and was specially prominent in the anti-transportation movement, and in the agitation for railways. He was Mayor of Launceston from 1857 to 1861, and in the latter year was elected to the House of Assembly as Member for Launceston, but only held the seat for two years. In 1868 he accepted the secretaryship of the Launceston and Western Railway Company, and held that position until the year 1872, when this, the first of Tasmanian railways, was taken over by the Government. Amongst the works issued from Mr. Dowling's press may be mentioned an illustrated edition of the "Pickwick Papers" and West's "History of Tasmania." He died at Launceston, Sept. 17th, 1885.
Dowling, His Honour James Sheen, L.L.B., District Court Judge, New South Wales, is the eldest son of the late Sir James Dowling, sometime Chief Justice of New South Wales, by his first wife. Sir James Dowling's brother, Vincent George Dowling, was for many years editor of Bell's Life in London, and was the first to seize the miscreant Bellingham after he had assassinated Mr. Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister of England, in the lobby of the House of Commons on May 11th, 1812. Judge Dowling was born in London on Dec. 2nd, 1819, and was taken to Australia by his father in 1828. Returning to London in 1836, he entered at King's College, and graduated LL.B. in 1841. In Nov. 1836 he became a student at the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar in Nov. 1843. He was appointed Attorney-General at Port Curtis in 1849, and subsequently went to Sydney, where he was appointed a police magistrate in 1851, Crown Prosecutor in 1857, and in 1861 District Court Judge, a position he still holds. Judge Dowling married on June 20th, 1849, Katherine Marion, fourth daughter of the late James Laidley, of Sydney, sometime Deputy Commissary-General.
Downer, Henry Edward, M.P., J.P., brother of Sir John Downer (q.v.),is a native of Adelaide, S.A., and for fifteen years held the position of stipendiary magistrate and Commissioner of Insolvency. He is now in partnership with his brother Sir John as a legal practitioner in Adelaide. Mr. Downer has been M.P. for Encounter Bay in the South Australian Legislature since 1881. He was Attorney-General in the Cockburn Government from May to August 1890.
Downer, Hon. Sir John William, K.C.M.G., M.P. Q.C., formerly Premier of South Australia, was born in Adelaide on July 5th, 1844, and educated at St Peter's College in that city. He was admitted to the South Australian bar in 1868, and belongs to one of the most prominent legal firms in the capital. Mr. Downer, who was made Q.C. in 1878, entered the Assembly in the same year as member for Barossa, and still represents that constituency. He was Attorney-General under Mr. (now Sir) John Bray from June 1881 to June 1884. In this capacity he introduced and carried through the House a measure to allow persons charged with criminal offences to give evidence upon oath, and a Married Woman's Property Bill. In 1883 he was one of the representatives of South Australia at the Sydney Convention, which gave birth to the abortive Federal Council of Australasia. Mr. Downer took the leadership of the opposition during Mr. Bray's absence in Europe in 1885; and having carried a motion of want of confidence in the Cotton Ministry, assumed office in June 1885 as Premier and Attorney-General. The accession of Mr. Bray, later in the same year, strengthened the Ministry, which carried a tariff, going a considerable way in a protective direction. In Jan. 1887 Mr. Downer left for England to attend the Colonial Conference as one of the delegates of South Australia. He attended all the sittings, and was entrusted by his Australian colleagues with the duty of presenting the case for an assimilation of the law of England with that of the colonies.
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