was effectually broken up. The new Government[1] were not strong in capacity or experience. The ablest man was Mr. Aspinall, who was a great wit and a great orator, but not a great lawyer. The Chief Secretary was Mr. McPherson, the son of a squatter, almost unknown in politics up to that date.
The Under-Treasurer told me a characteristic story about the new Government. Passing through the hall of the Treasury, a gentleman whose face he knew asked him whether the telegram in the Argus about the rate our debentures sold at in London was correct. He replied civilly but coolly, "Yes, it was." "Did Verdon's despatches," the gentleman continued, "lead one to expect this result?" Mr. Symonds, who thought this was prying too far, replied, with some reserve, that Mr. Odgers could tell better than he. "Do you know me, sir?" cried the stranger, and, seeing a negative in his face, added, "I'm Mr. McPherson, the Chief Secretary."
Before noting the career of the new Government I must borrow a few fragments from my diary dealing with the period of the previous administration:—
"Ministers and ex-ministers generally went to the Governor's levée in evening dress. It is notable that a diplomatic uniform was first assumed by democrats in their Coalition Government, and did not find much favour with their conservative colleagues. I was conversing with two ministers at a levee, when one of their colleagues appeared arrayed in a Windsor uniform. One minister asked the other with pretended perplexity, 'To what fire brigade does this fellow belong?'
"But in my opinion the democrats were right—there was something due to the position which the people conferred on them. The state assumed by Washington was princely. He dressed sumptuously; all persons stood in his presence, his guests were in full dress, the servants in livery. He drove six horses, and Mrs. Washington, on her arrival in New York, was received with a salute of thirteen guns. Surely this was more respectful to the nation which he represented, than the dusty déshabille of Abraham Lincoln.
"Higinbotham's political conscience is a perplexity to me
- ↑ September, 1869.
