a Government, however, of men who were new to office but who were so fit for it that every one of them became members of future Administrations. Mr. Heales took the Public Lands; the Public Works were assigned to Mr. Verdon—afterwards Sir George Verdon—an honoured name in the colony. Mr. Aspinall, one of the half-dozen men whose undoubted genius gave the Parliament of Victoria a first place among colonial legislatures, was Attorney-General; Mr. Brooke, Treasurer; Mr. Robert Stirling Anderson, Postmaster-General; Mr. Loader, Commissioner of Customs, and I was Chief Secretary and Prime Minister. I offered the Solicitor-Generalship to Mr. Wilson Gray, but he insisted that he could serve the cause best as a private member. It was the first democratic Ministry, and I was determined that it should be one which would steer by the stars, and not have to watch the shifting winds and tide of the hour, a Government whose policy should not consist in evading difficulties but in encountering them. But we speedily came to understand by the secret whispers, never wanting on such an occasion, that the men ejected from office and the leading men who had been opposed to them would immediately unite against us. To provide against this catastrophe I asked the Governor's assurance that in case of such an unfair combination he would refer the question to the people by dissolving Parliament. The Governor said he could not give such an assurance; he would act according to circumstances. I reminded him that he had given such an assurance to the last Government of which I was a member. He replied that that was the reason why he could not do so again; he had given such an undertaking to Mr. O'Shanassy, considering it confidential, but Mr. O'Shanassy had used it to menace the House. My colleagues agreed with me that our position was this—the country would support us, but the House would not. If we could not get at the country it would be safer to wait the General Election. I obtained the Governor's consent to report the facts to the House, and Mr. Nicholson was temporarily recalled to office. Mr. O'Shanassy repelled the Governor's imputation with all the force of his vehement nature, but the actual facts were within the knowledge of the House.
