suited to such a task and he was displaced by a more conciliatory leader. In October 1887 he was defeated by one vote as candidate for the office of speaker of the assembly. Almost immediately afterwards he was elected chairman of the first railways standing committee, and in that capacity for two years did much solid work. In he was elected speaker, and held the office, for which he had few qualifications, for nearly two years. During these years 1887-94 he with six others was engaged in the 'land boom,' which at first seemed likely to give him a huge fortune and in left him practically a ruined man. Thrown out of the assembly in 1894, Bent retired to Port Fairy, and devoted himself for the next six years to dairy farming. During that period he was defeated ignominiously at South Melbourne. But in 1900 he was elected for his old constituency, Brighton. On 10 June 1902 he joined William Hill Irvine's ministry as minister for railways and works, and though on 6 Feb. 1903 he parted with the railway work to another minister he bore the brunt of the great railway strike of May 1903. On Irvine's retirement Bent became prime minister (16 Feb. 1904). His ministry lasted over four years, and in that period passed many measures aimed at improving the conditions of life amongst manual workers and their economic position.
In 1907, after a serious illness, Bent paid a long visit to England, where he completed the arrangements for the new Victoria agency building, Melbourne House, Strand. Returning in August 1907, he still held the reins for over a year; but on 1 Dec. 1908 was defeated on a vote of want of confidence. At his request the governor, Sir T. G. Carmichael, dissolved parliament. Bent was defeated at the polls, and a commission was appointed by the new government to investigate charges made against him on the hustings. Out of this ordeal he emerged with general credit. But the strain of work proved fatal. He died on 17 Sept. 1909. A state funeral was accorded him; he was buried at Brighton cemetery.
Bent was made a K.C.M.G. in 1908. Rough and uncultivated, shrewd and strong, Bent was 'one of the most interesting and remarkable figures in the public life of Australia.' At his public meetings he would break off an argument to sing or recite, indulging in 'execrable songs, purely Bentian jokes, extraordinary reminiscences' all prepared to serve as 'impromptus.' In parliament he displayed unusual power in gauging the temper and feelings of members. The keynote of his policy as premier was opposition to the labour party. Unorthodox and even unprincipled in his methods, and apt to take the shortest road to his end, he always boldly accepted the responsibility for his actions. He showed courage in all concerns of life.
Bent married twice. His first wife (born Hall) died childless. His second wife (born Huntley) died in 1893, leaving one daughter.
Bent Street in Sydney appears to have been named after the father as owner of a corner lot (Melbourne Argus, 18 Sept. 1909).
[Melbourne Age, Melbourne Argus, 18 Sept. 1909 (both of these papers have a rough portrait); The Times, 18 Sept. 1909; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biog.; John's Notable Australians.]
BENTLEY, JOHN FRANCIS (1839–1902), architect, born at Doncaster on 30 Jan. 1839, was third surviving son of Charles Bentley by his wife Ann, daughter of John Bachus of that town, and received his education at a private school there. In boyhood he made a model of St. George's Church, Doncaster, from notes and measurements taken before its destruction by fire in 1853, and when Sir George Gilbert Scott [q. v.] began the rebuilding in 1854, Bentley frequented the fabric and rendered some services to the clerk of works. In 1855 he acted as voluntary superintendent in the restoration of Loversall Church, and there tried his hand at carving. Meanwhile his father, who deprecated an artistic career, placed him for a short tune with Sharp, Stewart & Co., a firm of mechanical engineers at Manchester; but in August 1855 Bentley entered on a five years' indenture with the building establishment of Winsland & Holland in London. Next year his father died, and Richard Holland, a partner of this firm, recognising his promise, placed him (1858) in the office of Henry Glutton, an architect in extensive domestic and ecclesiastical practice, who had joined the Church of Rome. Bentley took the same step in 1862, and in the same year, though invited by Glutton to join him in partnership, preferred the risks of independence and took chambers at 14 Southampton Street, Covent Garden.
While waiting for commissions Bentley continued the sketching and modelling which had already occupied his evening leisure, and often made for other architects
