CHAPTER VI
A STRONG GOVERNMENT AND LARGE PROJECTS
Character and composition of the new Government—Foundation of the National Gallery—Complicated libel on the Land Department—My answer—Curious discovery after the debate—The Land Bill of 1862—Its main purpose and provisions—Southern industries—Tenure of the squatters—The Argus' estimate of the measure—How it was baffled and evaded—The drafting of the Bill - Its breakdown on legal provisions alone—Decision of the Supreme Court against the phraseology of the Bill—Measures taken by me to check the conspirators—A new Bill amending the measure introduced—Ill supported by the Government—A premature division demanded by the Attorney-General, and the Bill lost by a considerable majority—Letter of Mr. Higinbotham on the conduct of the Government—Intrigues to reorganise the Government fail—Letters from Mr. Childers, Robert Lowe, the widow of Colonel Byrne, Mr. Arthur Geoghegan, Sir James Martin—A Coalition Government of squatters and democrats is formed under Mr. McCulloch—I supported them in amending the Land Act—My late colleagues opposing them—Dissolution of Parliament—Project a visit to Europe—Letter to John O'Hagan—Letter from John Dillon—Death of Smith O'Brien—Letters from Childers, Henry Parkes, Cashel Hoey, Mrs. Charles Kean—Resistance to convictism—Bold stroke of Edward Wilson puts an end to the practice.
For the first time since the Constitution was proclaimed the colony possessed an Administration strong in capacity, experience, and influence, and above all in the robust will before which difficulties disappear. The new Cabinet consisted of eleven members, nine controlling departments of State, and two holding portfolios without special office—a number which it may be assumed was inconveniently large where something approaching unanimity in the conduct of business is necessary. The quasi-Cabinet of the President of the United States consists of seven, the Queen's Cabinet ordinarily of thirteen, members. But in Victoria there is an embarrassing provision in the law that all members of Parlia-
