The other side of the House, that of the two-thirds elected, was, in my memory, raw throughout.  O’Shanassy’s strong brogue, and ungainly delivery and manner, had not yet been overbalanced by the solidity of his arguments.  Johnson, our third metropolitan, had early descended, or else condescended, to pungent snapping at the heels of the nominees, as though these sacred persons had been ordinary mortals like the ruck of membership on his own side of the table.  By far our most vivacious member was William Rutledge, of Port Fairy, who, with an earnestness of manner, contrasting with a merry twinkle of the eye, and with a ready but utterly negligent tongue, gave us many a laugh.  He was highly indignant on one occasion, as I remember, on hearing that a bet had been taken that, on a particular Committee day, he would rise and speak more than thirty different times; and he was still more angry when his informant went on to tell him that the bet had been won.  One of the country members, whose name I am now not quite sure of, set us all in a roar, on one occasion, by taking as a personal affront, and very tartly too, as though quite intended, the interruption to his speech by the arrival of a “royal” message from the Governor.

Another curiosity was the way in which the House adjusted itself for legislative action.  Almost as matter of course, under the instincts of the position, the elected members were, in fact and in principle alike, opposed to the nominated; and that, by consequent instincts, ever meant simply the Government.  The press, with similar unanimity, was on the elected side, for both were in the fight for the full “constitutional” concession, which came a few years later.  In anything that touched squatting, however, the squatting representatives, led by another old friend, W.F.  Splatt, of the Wimmera, went over bodily, thus giving the Government a small majority, which, as I have shown in my sketch of Mr. La Trobe, blocked us seriously in dealing with the waste or Crown lands for the benefit of the inpouring tens of thousands of people.  Sometimes, by the force of our case, we stole a vote from the Ministerial side, as when Mr. (afterwards Judge) Pohlman defected upon my anti-transportation motion for transmission to the Home Government.  There was one sole exception on our elective side (another old personal friend), William Campbell, of the Loddon, who, uncongenial towards the disturbing democratic prospect, voted steadily for the Government.  On this account, Edward Wilson, then editing “The Argus”, found for him the designation of “the lost sheep of the Loddon,” which, as from the enemy’s side, was no bad piece of humour; and it took its place in the colony’s category accordingly; alongside of Ebden’s “disgustingly rich,” and possibly other like humour which I have forgotten.