864
THE
CHRONLCLES
OF EARLY
MELBOURNE.
about in this wise:—Whilst in England he organized a scheme of supplying Australia with a number of young missionaries, which ended in an abortion. Whilst arranging for his departure per the "Clifton," M r . Robert Wilson, an intending fellow-passenger, placed ,£700 in the Doctor's hands, under an arrangement to receive ^£719 on arrival in Port Phillip. T h e "Clifton" anchored in Hobson's Bay on 12th February, 1850, but the promised reimbursement of the deposit or loan was not forthcoming, and legal proceedings were, after some procrastination, O n the ioth M a y , Dr. Lang, w h o was in Melbourne, was arrested instituted for its recovery. under a /. fa. whilst dining at the residence of M r . William Kerr, in West Lonsdale Street. A n unsuccessful application was m a d e to the Supreme Court to quash the proceeding, and great was the consternation reigning amongst the Langites. O n the 14th they mustered at the Mechanics' Institute to consider the best means to be taken for raising the amount for non-payment of which the Doctor was under duresse, and the chair was taken by Dr. P. M'Arthur, of Heidelberg. T h e attendance did not exceed a couple of dozen," and the principal speakers were the Rev. A. M . Ramsay and M r . W . Kerr. It was stated that ,£300 had been subscribed, and the further management of the movement was confided to a Committee consisting of the Chairman, Rev. M r . Ramsay, Messrs. Milne, W . Willoughby, J. C. King, Thorpe, Fleming, M . Farlane, Campbell, T. B. Darling, J. Ballingall, G Finlayson, G. Annand and M'Gregor. T h e Doctor was not released until 21st May, a compromise having been effected, its terms being, according to a newspaper of the time, ,£200 cash, and acceptances for the balance. T h e Doctor's popularity was n o w on the wane, and little more was heard of him in Melbourne, but in 1872, the Parliament of Victoria, not ungrateful of past services, voted him _£i,ooo. Dr. Lang was a voluminous writer, a somewhat ponderous, though at times, a racy speaker, never at rest, but always doing something, and possibly no m a n ever worked so unceasingly for the new country to which he had transferred his allegiance. N o person capable of expressing an unbiassed opinion can fairly impugn the general accuracy of Dr. Lang's attributes as summarised in Blair's Cyclopaedia of Australia, viz., " a m a n of indomitable energy, of liberal views, of considerable ability, of great public spirit, and utterly careless about pecuniary advantage." A d d to these a proneness to literary pugnacity, and an intolerance of a certain religious denomination, which only needed the power to burst into a persecution, and the portraiture is complete. Dr. Lang died in 1878, the owner of one of the most historic names in the early annals of Australia. though the last in this connection by no means the least, was a South Irish Tipperary man, for in that far-famed, but much-maligned county, he first appeared in the world, anno 1818. Arriving in Hobson's Bay in November, 1839, and the possessor of a sound commercial education, he owned little or none of those acquirements so essential to the coming statesman; but he was gifted with an inordinate appetite for reading, without the slightest tendency to literary dyspepsia, and so he " read, learned, and inwardly digested ;" and by the aid of a m e m o r y so retentive that it did not permit a crumb to escape, he was soon well posted in every public question ventilated in newspaper or at meeting. H a d he undergone the same process of mental training as his great countryman Daniel O'Connell, and, like him, called to the Bar, John would have proved a sort of counterpart of Dan, for there was a corporeal and intellectual resemblance in the two. Their style of oratory was not unlike ih several respects—rough, impetuous, uncontrollable, as a mountain torrent. O'Connell the more disciplined, logical and humourous, and both of them, when much put out, subject to violent gusts of invective. O'Shanassy had the good sense not to jump into the political ring at once. H e felt his way, bided his time, and when the hour came the m a n was ready to move to the front, take his place, and keep it amongst the foremost publicists of the colony. It was several years before he took an active part in public affairs, and though quietly remaining in the back-ground, an univeral impression prevailed that there was a good deal in him, and that he would show it. By degrees he began to m a k e himself felt by the part he took in the Separation and Anti-transportation agitations. In 1851 be was elected one of the members for Melbourne in the First Legislative Council of Victoria, and he was the only one of the thirty composing that body who, on the prorogation in 1883, occupied a seat in our
JOHN O'SHANASSY,
