Barton was elected an honorary member of twelve famous clubs in London and awarded an honorary LL. Back in Australia by September, he corresponded with the Colonial Office about the details of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia.
It was widely believed that he would be first prime minister, although Sir Frederick Darley complained to Sir Samuel Way : 'Barton is bad enough, though I suppose he is certain to be C.
Barton does not command respect here. He is undoubtedly an able man, and might have been a distinguished man at the Bar, but he is too lazy to work, and has therefore but little experience. He is unfortunately in very impoverished circumstances … a sum of money has been collected … for the benefit of his wife and his children's education'.
However, Barton thought it 'his duty to remain in politics for a time', and it came as a shock, both in England and Australia, when on 19 December the Earl of Hopetoun , the governor-general, asked Lyne to form the first Commonwealth ministry. Barton refused to serve as attorney-general and, after frantic use of the telegraph by Deakin, Lyne failed to form a ministry; Barton was commissioned to do so and on Christmas Day named his cabinet, which included his friends Deakin and O'Connor, Kingston, and the three premiers Sir John Forrest , Sir George Turner and Lyne.
Barton himself was prime minister and took the portfolio of external affairs: it was fitting that Australia's first prime minister was native-born. The proclamation of the Commonwealth on 1 January was followed by banqueting and great celebrations, but before the royal tour of the Duke and Duchess of York could begin, Barton had the elections to win to become prime minister in his own right.
He opened his campaign at West Maitland on 17 January with a statesmanlike speech: he favoured moderate protection to raise sufficient money for the States and the Commonwealth and would resort to direct taxation if extra funds were needed in an emergency. He infuriated many Queenslanders by declaring for 'a white Australia', but this was an electoral masterstroke in the other States, both unifying and liberal; he favoured old-age pensions and conceded female suffrage to his more radical colleagues.
On 24 January he was appointed a privy councillor. Barton was elected unopposed for Hunter, and all his ministers were returned. In the House of Representatives he had to depend on the Labor members for a majority; in the Senate he was in a minority. Parliament was opened in Melbourne on 9 May by the Duke of York. The first session was largely taken up with procedural matters; however Barton carried the Immigration Restriction Act, and the Pacific Island Labourers Act which provided for the repatriation of Kanakas.
The early introduction of this legislation pleased Labor, was cheap to implement unlike old-age pensions and tested the fledgling Commonwealth's power against the Colonial Office, which insisted on the substitution of a European for an English language dictation test. Barton acted swiftly to conciliate the Japanese acting consul-general H. Eitaki, who claimed a conflict between the Act and the Queensland protocol to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty.
In Barton was granted permission to retain the insignia of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun first class.
In December he had acceded to an official British request to send a Commonwealth contingent to the South African War. It took all Barton's tact and courtesy to manage his team of leaders, whom he did not try to discipline.
Moreover, to the despair of his private secretaries Hunt, then Bavin, he gave too much time to 'importunate callers', forgot engagements, had no love for administration, and had never enjoyed political intrigues or manoeuvring. His hold on parliament was precarious, and he 'had somehow to contrive a different majority for almost each piece of legislation'. He took a keen interest in setting up the Commonwealth Public Service and securing for it 'only the most competent of officers'.
The new agreement provided for more modern ships and for the local training of Australian seamen as part of the Royal Naval Reserve. Having refused a knighthood in , and , Barton now accepted the G. He also received the freedom of the City of Edinburgh, an honorary D. On his way home he visited the Pope and accepted from him a medallion; for this he was scurrilously attacked by Rev. William Dill Macky , who organized a petition signed by 30, Protestants.
As minister of external affairs Barton was primarily concerned with immigration, but he took a deep interest in questions connected with the Pacific. Although early in he had asserted that Australia could have 'no foreign policy of its own' and implied that the Empire should speak as one, he equally believed that the British government should adopt the Australian point of view on the Pacific Islands.
With 'a greater sensitivity for imperial diplomacy in the midst of the Boer War' than other ministers such as Deakin, he tried to damp down public agitation for an aggressive policy while, from as early as February , he pressed the Colonial Office to appoint an international tribunal to settle land disputes with the French in the New Hebrides. As the Colonial Office did nothing, and he received no promise of action at the Colonial Conference, his attitude hardened.
In he refused the British suggestions of a joint protectorate or partition, and urged the Colonial Office to acquire the New Hebrides either by purchase or treaty. After he left office he recommended to Hunt that if the Colonial Office continued to do nothing, the government should publish the correspondence. In January Barton clashed with the governor-general Lord Tennyson over the role of his official secretary Sir George Steward in confidential communications with the Colonial Office, and reminded the governor-general 'that it was his duty to accept the advice of his Ministers'.
Although parliament was proving difficult to manage, Barton was able to carry the Naval Agreement Act after a prolonged struggle in committee. In July Kingston resigned over differences in cabinet about the conciliation and arbitration bill.
On 23 September Barton resigned and a few days later became senior puisne judge of the new High Court of Australia. Way told Darley: 'Barton seems to me to have a judicial mind, though he certainly has not powers of lucid expression … [he] did not want to leave politics, but his friends wanted him to go to the Bench to provide for his family. His party was getting dissatisfied with his leadership'. Hunt, while noting his chief's 'brilliancy of perception', had complained of the difficulty of getting work done and of his 'want of personal energy, his disregard of time, both his own and other people's, his habit of taking so much to drink that he becomes slow of comprehension and expression'.
He had always worked with 'amazing concentration and speed' but irregularly, and often late at night. Bavin later wrote of Barton as prime minister: 'He was impatient of questions of detail. Though he was always genial, he was too easy going to bother about humouring weaknesses or vanity of other members. He had little or no interest in the game of politics for its own sake.
But it would be quite wrong to suppose that this means his term of office was a failure … He not only played the chief part in planning the machine and inducing the people to accept it, but he took the leading part in bringing it into action'. Barton proved an unexpectedly good and 'scrupulously impartial' judge; possessing 'one of the keenest and quickest of intellects', he readily grasped the essential issues and arguments in a case and discussed them in court with perception and courtesy in his 'rich and beautifully modulated voice'.
The width of his reading in British and American appeal cases was displayed in his sound constitutional opinions. He also proved a careful expositor of the many branches of private law needed for non-constitutional cases, which made up most of the court's appellate jurisdiction. At first he and O'Connor relied heavily on Griffith's greater learning and experience; Barton frequently concurred or adopted joint opinions, 'often pocketing his own reasons for the judgment', but from he increasingly wrote separate opinions and developed a characteristic style, on occasions strongly dissenting from his colleagues.
In he was acting chief justice. With Griffith and O'Connor, Barton shared a 'balancing' view of the Federal system on most constitutional questions and endeavoured to preserve autonomy for the States. They devised the doctrine of 'implied immunity of instrumentalities', which prevented the States from taxing Commonwealth officers, and also prevented the Commonwealth from arbitrating industrial disputes in the States' railways.
They also developed the doctrine of 'implied prohibitions' and narrowly interpreted Federal powers in commercial and industrial matters, but in the steel rails and wire-netting cases in they held that the Commonwealth's fiscal powers included competence to tax goods imported by State governments.
Barton fully agreed that the Commonwealth's defence power included extensive control of the civilian economy in World War I. He particularly desired to keep Commonwealth industrial arbitration power within narrow bounds, and began the laissez-faire interpretation of the guarantee of freedom of interstate trade which later prevailed in the court. Chief Justice Sir Adrian Knox claimed that Barton's 'mastery of constitutional law and principles was unsurpassed, and to this he added a thorough knowledge of the principles of common law'.
The High Court sat in all the State capitals—Barton often stayed or dined with old friends and colleagues and now had time to go to the races. He continued to enjoy 'the warm pleasures of life' and in the summer law vacations took his family to Tasmania.
An affectionate husband and father, Barton had a special affinity with his eldest daughter Jean, who in married Sir David Maughan ; Hunt frequently recorded how much he 'loved children'. In he was disappointed at not succeeding Griffith as chief justice. As the first Prime Minister of Australia, Barton has become something of a national icon, and is remembered for his statement that "For the first time, we have a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation. Most historians feel that in reality Barton was a fairly ordinary politician.
His greatest contribution to Australian history was his leadership of the federation movement through the s, when he showed real leadership. By the time he became Prime Minister he was ready to rest on his laurels.
A large, handsome, jovial man, he was fond of long dinners and good wine, and earned the nickname "Toby Tosspot". Eleven politicians who would have preferred to have been watching cricket instead.
At Sydney in February , pitch invasions, assaults and stories of behind-the-scenes gambling led to the cancallation of what would have been cricket's fourth Test.
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Other important legislation included:. The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture. Prime Ministers of Australia Edmund Barton. Prime Minister from 1 January to 24 September Edmund Barton. National Library of Australia nla. Colonial politics. Federal Conventions. Garnering support. Australian Federation. Prime Minister Edmund Barton. Barton remained Prime Minister for two years and 10 months.
Australian flag. White Australia policy. Time in the judiciary. Other important legislation included: Acts Interpretation Act which set out standards and conventions for drafting all subsequent bills Audit Act provided for supervision of government spending and reporting to Parliament Customs Act and Excise Act which were revenue-raising Acts Judiciary Act to set up the High Court. Defence Act to establish control of military and naval forces. Immigration Restriction Act to implement the White Australia policy.
In our collection. Tom Roberts' studio yesterday to inspect a small bust of Mr. Edmund Barton, Q.
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