Mr. Berry was so strongly impressed with the necessity of reorganising the constitution, with a view of defining the powers of the respective Houses, and of preventing deadlocks by providing a legislative safety-valve, that he introduced a measure containing the novel expedient of the plébiscite, combined with a system of nominated representatives. This measure was naturally repudiated by the Upper Chamber, involving as it did their complete obliteration; and in the winter of 1878-9 Mr. Berry undertook his famous mission to England known as "the Embassy," in conjunction with Mr. C. H. Pearson, with the view of inducing the British Government to bring a bill into the Imperial Parliament having for its object the reform of the Constitution of Victoria. The delegates had several interviews with Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the then Colonial Secretary, and obtained from him much good advice and a modified promise to interfere in case the deadlock proved irremediable after a further recourse to the country. With this small measure of comfort Mr. Berry had to be content, and returned to Victoria, where Sir B. O'Loghlen had been Acting Premier during his absence. One substantial result of his visit to London was the successful floating of a loan of £3,000,000 on behalf of the colony, which was rendered more remarkable from the fact that Mr. Berry insisted on fixing a higher minimum than the banks advised, and that the political disturbances of the preceding year had created feelings of distrust as to the stability of Victoria in the minds of English capitalists. In 1880 Mr. Berry reintroduced his Reform Bill, and then appealed to the country, in accordance with the advice of Sir M. Hicks Beach. The Ministry were, however, placed in a minority, and Mr. Service acceded to power in March 1880. He also, being impressed with the necessity for a substantial constitutional change, introduced a Reform Bill, which also proving abortive, he retired from office in August of the same year, when Mr. Berry once more assumed the Premiership, and succeeded in coming to a compromise with the Council on the basis of a Reform Bill, which considerably reduced the franchise and qualification for members of the Upper Chamber. Mr. Berry was subsequently defeated by a combination of Conservatives with the dissatisfied Liberals, and resigned office, when Sir Bryan O'Loghlen took the reins, and continued as Premier on sufferance until after the general election in Feb. 1883, when he and most of his small following lost their seats, and a House was returned in which the Conservatives, led by Mr. Service, and the Liberals, led by Mr. Berry, were almost equal in strength. To obviate a continuance of weak ministries and merely factious warfare, the Service-Berry coalition was formed, and conferred incalculable benefits on Victoria, until the voluntary termination of its tenure by the resignation of Messrs. Service and Berry in Feb. 1886. In the following March Mr. Berry quitted Victoria to take up the Agent-Generalship of the colony in succession to Mr. Murray Smith. He was also appointed Executive Commissioner to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, for his services in connection with which he was created K.C.M.G. Sir Graham Berry was one of the representatives of Victoria at the Colonial Conference held in London in 1887, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. For his services in connection with the Paris Exhibition of 1889 he was appointed a Commander of the Legion of Honour by the French Government. Sir Graham married, in 1869, a daughter of John B. Evans, of Victoria. In Feb. 1889 Sir Graham Berry was reappointed Agent-General for a further term of three years, and the Munro Government having decided not to again renew his appointment, he left for Melbourne in Dec. 1891. When the Munro Government was reconstructed under Mr. Shiels, he was offered a portfolio, but declined to join the Ministry except in the capacity of Premier. At the General Election in April 1892 he was returned to the Assembly at the head of the poll for the East Bourke Boroughs, and a few days later accepted the post of Treasurer in the Shiels Ministry.
Berry, Hon. John, M.L.C., is the eldest son of the late John Berry, of Albury, New South Wales, who emigrated to that colony from Meath, Ireland, and was born on Oct. 11th, 1840. He married in Feb. 1883 Sara Eugenie, daughter of the late James Morey, of Sydney. Mr. Berry was first employed in the Survey Department of New South Wales in 1866, and in 1877
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