James McCulloch
Sir James McCulloch | |
---|---|
5th Premier of Victoria | |
In office 27 June 1863 – 6 May 1868 | |
Preceded by | John O'Shanassy |
Succeeded by | Charles Sladen |
Constituency | Mornington (1862–1872) |
In office 11 July 1868 – 20 September 1869 | |
Preceded by | Charles Sladen |
Succeeded by | John Alexander MacPherson |
In office 9 April 1870 – 19 June 1871 | |
Preceded by | John Alexander MacPherson |
Succeeded by | Charles Gavan Duffy |
In office 20 October 1875 – 21 May 1877 | |
Preceded by | Graham Berry |
Succeeded by | Graham Berry |
Constituency | Warrnambool (1874–1878) |
Personal details | |
Born | Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom | 18 March 1819
Died | 31 January 1893 Epsom, Surrey, England, United Kingdom | (aged 73)
Spouse(s) | Susan Renwick (m. 1841) Margaret Boak Inglis (m. 1867) |
Sir James McCulloch,
Early life
McCulloch was born in
Political career
McCulloch was appointed a member of the
The historian Raymond Wright describes McCulloch as a "cautious liberal." He served as Commissioner for Trade and Customs 1857–58 under William Haines and as Treasurer 27 October 1859 to 26 November 1860[3] under William Nicholson. When John O'Shanassy's conservative government resigned in June 1863 McCulloch became Premier and Chief Secretary for the first time. He was also Postmaster-General of Victoria 9 May 1864 to 6 May 1868.[3]
McCulloch's liberal government was the strongest Victoria had yet seen and proved to be the longest-lived so far, surviving for nearly five years. Much of its reforming zeal came from the Attorney-General, George Higinbotham, a crusading radical. The McCulloch government fought a series of battles with the conservative landowners who dominated the Legislative Council. The most important was over the tariff issue: McCulloch was a protectionist while the Council was controlled by free traders.
In 1865, the Council sought a confrontation with the Assembly by rejecting the government's tariff bill and then denying supply to McCulloch's government. McCulloch, who was a director of the London Bank, then took the extraordinary step of lending his own government 860,000 pounds to meet its debts and running expenses. After a conference between the two Houses broke down, McCulloch called an election in February 1866, at which his supporters won a large majority in the Assembly. When the Council again rejected his tariff bill, he resigned, leaving the Governor,
In 1867 another crisis blew up when the Council again rejected the government's budget because it contained a clause granting a pension to the retiring Governor Darling, which conservatives said was a payment for his collusion in McCulloch's unorthodox methods of financing the government. McCulloch called another election for February 1868, which he won comfortably. But in May word came that the Colonial Secretary in London, the Duke of Buckingham, had instructed the new Governor, Sir John Manners-Sutton, to support the Council in blocking the grant to Darling.
McCulloch at once resigned, and the Governor commissioned a conservative member of the Council, Charles Sladen, to form a government which did not have a majority in the Assembly. This negation of democracy provoked widespread protests and produced a dangerous situation, which was resolved only in July when the Colonial Office changed its mind about Darling's pension and the Council agreed to a moderate reform bill broadening its electoral base. McCulloch resumed office, but without Higinbotham, who disapproved of this compromise.
McCulloch remained in office until September 1869, and was Premier again from 9 April 1870 to 19 June 1871 and from 20 October 1875 to 21 May 1877,
McCulloch grew increasingly conservative after 1870 and in 1875 he had a political falling out with Higinbotham. Tired and disillusioned, he resigned from Parliament in 1878.
Late life and legacy
After politics, McCulloch focussed on business life, he had several directorships including the Bank of New South Wales.[5] McCulloch was knighted in 1870 and made KCMG in 1874. In 1886, he retired to England, and died in Epsom, Surrey on 31 January 1893; he is buried in the Glasgow Necropolis. He married first Susan Renwick and second Margaret Boak Inglis, but had no children.[3]
Family
A young cousin,
See also
Sources
- Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900–84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
- Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
- Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856–1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972
- Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856–1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992
- "Death of Sir James McCulloch". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 1 February 1893. p. 6. Retrieved 20 July 2013 – via Trove.
References
- ^
Johnson, Robert A. "Everard, John (1825–1886)". OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ Edinburgh Gazette 1 October 1861
- ^ a b c d e f g "Sir James McCulloch". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
- ^ Sweetman, Edward (1920). Constitutional Development of Victoria, 1851-6. Whitcombe & Tombs Limited. p. 179. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^
Bartlett, Geoffrey. "McCulloch, Sir James (1819–1893)". OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ "Treasure Hill on Sheep Station". The Argus. Melbourne. 2 September 1937. p. 8. Retrieved 20 July 2013 – via Trove.
Further reading
- Levey, George Collins (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 207–208.