Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/140

1,4 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The Legislators the approbation of the Imperial Government. In appraising the value of popular sentiment and opinion, and in obeying it in important particulars, he was the man for the time. He manifested on certain occasions exceptional courage, especially when he suspended the mineral royalty and assented to the Bullion Act ; and the Imperial Government, invariably jealous in matters of unauthorised responsibility, must have had great confidence in his wisdom to permit such assumptions of power. In Tasmania, Sir Henry Young succe.ssfully introduced responsible government; he held office there until 1861, when he retired from the colonial .service ; and he died in London on September i8, 1870. Mr. Boyle Travers F"inni.ss, the Colonial Secretary, who arrived in the Province in the Cyonci in 1836, administered the affairs of the Province from December 20, 1854, to June 8, 1855. The Imperial Government appointed Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell to succeed Governor Young, and he landed in South Australia from the steamship Biirra Burra on June 7, 1855, when he had an enthusiastic reception. Sir Richard, like his predecessor, was not new to colonial office. Born in 181 5, he was a .son of the Rev. Dr. MacDonnell, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, where, in 1839, Sir Richard took his degree of Master of Arts, and in 1844 that of Doctor of Laws. He was called to the PLnglish Bar in 1841, and from 1843 to 1847 was Chief Justice of Gambia, during which period he consolidated the laws of that colony, and travelled extensively into the interior of Africa. In 1847 he was appointed Governor of Gambia, and subsequently, while visiting one of the native kings, " fell into an ambush treacherously laid for him, and was within an ace of being assa.ssinated." F"our hundred men marched into the country and cha.stised the rebels. Sir Richard made exploring trips into the interior, and extended the limits of British commerce. In 1852 he became Governor of St. Lucia, and afterwards of St. Vincent. He was knighted in Pebruary, 1855, and a few days later embarked for .South Australia. Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, adopting the policy of Sir Henry Young, lent every support to the aspirations of the people of South Australia. Says Loyau in "Representative Men of South Au.stralia": — "He po.ssessed considerable ability and energy of character, which, added to a pleasant and genial manner, made him exceedingly popular." The Province continued to advance under his regime, and no obstacle was placed in the way of the demand for responsible government. After occupying his time on delicate points connected with immigration matters, Sir Richard joined the Council in a reconsideration of the Constitution Bill. Such intense opposition was shown to nomineeism that the Imperial Government, after receiving memorials from the Province, decided to return the Bill to South Australia for further consideration. In August, 1855, the Government Gazette published a despatch from Lord John Russell, from which it appeared that Sir Henry Young and his advisers had " misconceived the intentions of Her Majesty's Government in granting certain enlarged powers to the local Legi.slature." The Imperial Government did not consider the Bill expressed the wishes of the majority, and recommended that a free and an independent decision should be obtained by a dissolution of the elected portion of the Legislative Council. Four days afterwards the dissolution of the Council was announced. The new.spapers