#1. Temporary Decline.#--In 1851 the prosperity of South Australia was somewhat dimmed by the discovery of gold in Victoria; for, before the middle of the following year, the colony was deserted by a very large proportion of its male inhabitants. The copper mines were with difficulty worked, for want of men; the fields were uncultivated, the sheep untended, and the colony experienced a short period of rapid decline. However, the results obtained on the goldfields by most of these fortune-seekers were hardly to be compared with the steady yield of the fertile cornfields and rich copper mines of South Australia; and the majority of those who had thus abandoned the colony returned in a short time to their families and their former employments.

Governor Young adroitly turned the discovery of gold to the advantage of his own colony by establishing an escort between Bendigo and Adelaide; and, as this was remarkably well equipped, many of the diggers sent their gold by this route rather than to Melbourne, thus giving to South Australia some of the advantages of a gold-producing country. The crowds of people rushing to the goldfields had carried with them nearly all the coins of the colony; and the banks, although they had plenty of rough gold, were yet unable, from scarcity of coined money, to meet the demands upon them. In this emergency, Sir Henry Young took the extreme and somewhat illegal step of inst.i.tuting a new currency, consisting of gold cast into small bars or ingots; and, although afterwards mildly censured by the Home Government for exceeding his powers, yet he could justly a.s.sert that this measure had saved the colony from serious commercial disaster.

But South Australia was still more benefited by the great market opened for its flour and wheat among the vast crowds on the goldfields; and, when the first period of excitement was over, it was found that the colony was, at any rate, not a loser by the success of its neighbours.

#2. The Real Property Act.#--In 1858 South Australia took the lead in a reform which is now being adopted by nearly all the civilised nations of the world. According to English law, each time an estate was transferred from one person to another, a deed had to be made out for the purpose; and if changes in its ownership had been frequent, it would be held by the last purchaser in virtue of a long series of doc.u.ments. Now, if any one wished to buy a piece of land, he was obliged for safety to examine all the preceding deeds in order to be quite certain that they were valid; even then, if he bought the land, and another person, for any reason whatever, laid claim to it, the owner had to prove the validity of each of a long series of doc.u.ments, going back, perhaps, for centuries. A flaw in any one of these would give rise to a contest which could be settled only after a very tedious investigation; and thus arose the long and ruinous Chancery suits which were the disgrace of English law. When a man's t.i.tle to his estate was disputed, it often happened that he had to spend a fortune and waste half a lifetime in protracted litigation before all the antecedent deeds could be proved correct.

Mr. R. Torrens had his attention drawn to this very unsatisfactory state of things by the ruin of one of his relatives in a Chancery suit. He thought long and carefully over a scheme to prevent the occurrence of such injustice, and drafted a bill for a new method of transferring property. He proposed to lay this before the South Australian Parliament, but his friends discouraged him by declaring it was impossible to make so sweeping a change; and the lawyers actively opposed any innovation. But Torrens brought forward the bill; its simplicity and justice commended themselves to the people and to the House of a.s.sembly, and it was carried by a large majority. According to the new scheme, all transferences of land were to be registered in a public office called the Lands t.i.tles Office, the purchaser's name was to be recorded, and a certificate of t.i.tle given to him; after this his right to the property was indisputable. If his possession was challenged, he had simply to go to the Lands t.i.tles Office and produce his certificate to the officer in charge, who could turn to the register and at once decide the question of ownership. After this, no dispute was possible. If he sold his land, his name was cancelled in the public register, and the buyer's name was inserted instead, when he became the undisputed owner. Mr. Torrens was appointed to be registrar of the office, and soon made the new system a great success; it was adopted one after another in all the colonies of Australia, and must become eventually the law of all progressive nations.

#3. The Northern Territory.#--In 1864 the Northern Territory was added to the dominion of South Australia, and from Adelaide an expedition was despatched by sea to the sh.o.r.es of Van Diemen's Gulf, in order to form a new settlement. After many difficulties, caused chiefly by the disputes between the first Government Resident, or Superintendent, and the officers under him, a branch colony was successfully founded at Port Darwin, opposite to Melville Island. This settlement has become a prosperous one: all the fruits and grains of tropical countries flourish and thrive to perfection; gold has been discovered; and it is a.s.serted that there exist in the neighbourhood rich mines of other metals, which will, in the future, yield great wealth, while the stations that are now being formed are peculiarly favourable to the rearing of cattle and of horses. Yet the number of people who settle there continues small on account of the very hot climate; Palmerston, the capital, is as yet a town of only a few hundred inhabitants, and all the really hard work of the district is done by Chinese.

#4. Overland Telegraph.#--In a previous chapter it has been described how M'Douall Stuart, after two unsuccessful efforts, managed to cross the continent from Adelaide to Van Diemen's Gulf. Along the route which he then took, the people of South Australia resolved to construct a telegraph line. A gentleman named Charles Todd had frequently urged the desirability of such a line, and in 1869 his representations led to the formation of the British Australian Telegraph Company, which engaged to lay a submarine cable from Singapore to Van Diemen's Gulf, whilst the South Australian Government pledged itself to connect Port Darwin with Adelaide by an overland line, and undertook to have the work finished by the 1st of January, 1872. Mr. Todd was appointed superintendent, and divided the whole length into three sections, reserving the central portion for his own immediate direction, and entrusting the sections at the two ends to contractors. It was a daring undertaking for so young a colony. For thirteen hundred miles the line would have to be carried through country which never before had been traversed by any white men but Stuart's party. Great tracts of this land were utterly dest.i.tute of trees, and all the posts required for the line had to be carted through rocky deserts and over treacherous sand-hills. Todd had, with wonderful skill and energy, completed his difficult portion of the task, and the part nearest to Adelaide had also been finished before the time agreed upon; but it fared differently with those who had undertaken to construct the northern section. Their horses died, their provisions failed, and the whole attempt proved a miserable collapse. The Government sent a party to the north, in order to make a fresh effort.

Wells were dug, at intervals, along the route, and great teams of bullocks were employed to carry the necessary provisions and materials to the stations; and yet, in spite of every precaution, the result was a failure. Meanwhile the cable had been laid, and the first message sent from Port Darwin to England announced that the overland telegraph was not nearly finished. The 1st of January, 1872, being now close at hand, Mr. Todd was hastily sent to complete the work. But the time agreed upon had expired before he had even made a commencement, and the company threatened to sue the South Australian Government for damages, on account of the losses sustained by its failure to perform its share of the contract. For the next eight months the work was energetically carried forward; Mr. Todd rode all along the line to see that its construction was satisfactory throughout. He was at Central Mount Stuart in the month of August, when the two ends of the wire were joined, and the first telegraphic message flashed across the Australian Continent.

But, meantime, a flaw had occurred in the submarine cable, and it was not until October that communication was established with England. On the second day of that month, the Lord Mayor of London, standing at one end of the line, sent his hearty congratulations through twelve thousand five hundred miles of wire to the Mayor of Adelaide, who conversed with him at the other extremity. The whole work was undertaken and accomplished within two years; and already not only South Australia, but all the colonies, are reaping the greatest benefits from this enterprising effort. Another undertaking of a similar character has been completed by the efforts of both South and West Australia; along the barren coast on which Eyre so nearly perished there stretches a long line of posts, which carries a telegraph wire from Perth to Adelaide.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KING WILLIAM STREET, ADELAIDE.]

A period of depression began in South Australia after 1882. For a time everything was against the colony. Long droughts killed its sheep and ruined its crops; while the copper mines were found to be worked out.

But fortune began to smile again after a few years of dull times, and when in 1887 an exhibition was held in Adelaide to commemorate the jubilee of the colony, it was also the commemoration of the return of brighter prospects. In the growth of wheat and fruits as well as in the making of wine South Australia has great openings for future prosperity.

CHAPTER XXI.

NEW SOUTH WALES, 1860-1890.

#1. The Land Act.#--Sir John Young became Governor of New South Wales in 1861. He was a man of great talent; but, at this stage of the colony's history, the ability of the Governor made very little difference in the general progress of affairs. The political power was now chiefly in the hands of responsible Ministers, and without their advice the Governor could do nothing. The Ministry of the period--headed by Charles Cowper and John Robertson--prepared a bill to alter the regulations for the sale of land, and to give to the poor man an opportunity of obtaining a small farm on easy terms. Any person who declared his readiness to live on his land, and to cultivate it, was to be allowed to select a portion, not exceeding a certain size, in any part of the colony which he thought most convenient. The land was not to be given gratuitously; but, although the selector was to pay for it at the rate of one pound per acre, yet he was not expected to give more than a quarter of the price on taking possession. Three years afterwards he had the option of either paying at once for the remaining three-quarters, or, if this were beyond his means, of continuing to hold the land at a yearly rental of one shilling an acre. This was an excellent scheme for the poorer cla.s.s of farmers; but it was not looked upon with favour by the squatters, whose runs were only rented from the State, and were, therefore, liable, under this new Act, to be invaded by selectors, who would pick out all the more fertile portions, break up the runs in an awkward manner, and cause many annoyances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE STREET, SYDNEY.]

Hence, though the Legislative a.s.sembly pa.s.sed the bill, the Upper House, whose members were mostly squatters, very promptly rejected it; and upon this there arose a struggle, the Ministry being determined to carry the bill, and the Council quite as resolute never to pa.s.s it. Acting on the advice of his Ministers, Sir John Young entreated the Upper House to give way; but it was deaf to all persuasions, and the Ministers determined to coerce it by adopting extreme measures. Its members had been nominated by a previous Governor for a period of five years, as a preliminary trial before the nominations for life; the term of their appointment was now drawing to a close, and Sir John Young, by waiting some little time, might easily have appointed a new Council of his own way of thinking. But the Ministers were impatient to have their measure pa.s.sed, and, instead of waiting, they advised the Governor to nominate twenty-one new members of Council, who, being all supporters of the bill, would give them a majority in the Upper House; so that, on the very last night of its existence, it would be obliged to pa.s.s the measure and make it law. But when the opponents of the bill saw the trick which was being played upon them, they rose from their seats and resigned in a body. The President himself vacated his chair; and as no business could then be carried on, the Land Bill was delayed until the Council came to an end, and the Ministers thus found themselves outwitted. They were able, somewhat later, to effect their purpose; but this little episode in responsible government caused considerable stir at the time, and Sir John subsequently received a rebuke from the Colonial Secretary for his share in it.

#2. Prince Alfred.#--In 1868 Lord Belmore became Governor of New South Wales, and during his term of office all the colonies pa.s.sed through a period of excitement on the occasion of a visit from the Queen's second son, Prince Alfred. He was the first of the Royal Family who had ever visited Australia, and the people gave to him a hearty and enthusiastic reception. As he entered the cities flower-decked arches spanned the streets; crowds of people gathered by day to welcome him, and at night the houses and public buildings were brilliantly illuminated in his honour. But during the height of the festivities at Sydney a circ.u.mstance occurred which cast a gloom over the whole of Australia.

The Prince had accepted an invitation to a picnic at Clontarf, and was walking quietly on the sands to view the various sports of the holiday-makers, when a young man named O'Farrell rushed forward and discharged a pistol at him. The ball entered his back, and he fell dangerously wounded. For a day or two his life trembled in the balance, and the colonists awaited the result with the greatest excitement, until it was made known that the crisis was past. No reason was alleged for the crime except a blind dislike to the Royal Family; and O'Farrell was subsequently tried and executed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LITHGOW ZIGZAG, THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.]

#3. Railway Construction.#--New South Wales has three main lines of railway with many branches. One starts from Sydney, and pa.s.ses through Goulburn to Albury on its way to Melbourne; one goes north to Newcastle, then through the New England district, and so to Brisbane; and the third runs from Sydney over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst, and away to Bourke, on the Darling River. Those rugged heights, which so long opposed the westward progress of the early colonists, have proved no insuperable barrier to the engineer; and the locomotive now slowly puffs up the steep inclines and drags its long line of heavily-laden trucks where Macquarie's road, with so much trouble, was carried in 1815. The first difficulty which had to be encountered was at a long valley named Knapsack Gully. Here the rails had to be laid on a great viaduct, where the trains run above the tops of the tallest trees. The engineers had next to undertake the formidable task of conducting the line up a steep and rocky incline, seven hundred feet in height. This was effected by cutting a "zigzag" in the rock; the trains run first to the left, rising upon a slight incline; then, reversing, they go to the right, still mounting slightly upwards; then, again, to the left; and so on till the summit is reached. By these means the short distance is rendered long, but the abrupt steepness of the hill is reduced to a gentle inclination. The trains afterwards run along the top of the ridge, gradually rising, till, at the highest point, they are three thousand five hundred feet above the level of the Sydney station. The pa.s.sengers look down from the mountain tops on the forest-clad valleys far below; they speed along vast embankments or dash through pa.s.sages cut in the solid rock, whose sides tower above them to the height of an ordinary steeple. In some places long tunnels were bored, so that the trains now enter a hill at one side and emerge from the other.

One of these tunnels was thought to be unsafe; the immense ma.s.s of rock above it seemed likely to crush downwards upon the pa.s.sage, and the engineers thought that their best course would be to remove the hill from above it. Three and a half tons of gunpowder were placed at intervals in the tunnel, and connected by wires with a galvanic battery placed a long distance off. The operation of firing the mine was made a public occasion, and Lady Belmore agreed to go up to the mountains and perform the ceremony of removing the hill. When all was ready, she touched the k.n.o.b which brought the two ends of the wire together. A dull and rumbling sound was heard, the solid rock heaved slowly upward, and then settled back to its place, broken in a thousand pieces, and covered with rolling clouds of dust and smoke. All that the workmen had then to do was to carry away the immense pile of stone, and the course was clear for laying the rails.

When the line reached the other side of the Blue Mountains there were great difficulties in the descent, and here the engineers had to lay out zigzags of greater extent than the former. By these the trains now descend easily and safely from the tops of the mountains down into the Lithgow Valley far below.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TOWN HALL, SYDNEY.]

By the southern railway to Albury, crowds of people are daily whirled in a few hours to places which, forty years ago, were reached by Sturt, and Hume, and Mitch.e.l.l, only after weeks of patient toil, through unknown lands that were far removed from civilisation.

#4. Sydney Exhibition.#--So on every hand the colony made progress. Her railways expanded in scores of branches; her telegraph lines stretched out their arms in every direction; her sheep increased so that now there are nearly sixty millions of them; her wheat and maize extended to more than half a million of acres; her orangeries and vineyards and orchards, her mines of coal and tin, and her varied and extensive manufactures, make her people, now numbering a million, one of the most prosperous on the face of the earth. Her pride was pardonable when, in 1879, she held an international exhibition to compare her industries side by side with those of other lands, so as to show how much she had done and to discover how much she had yet to learn. A frail, but wonderfully pretty building rapidly arose on the brow of the hill between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove; and that place, the scene of so much squalor and misery a hundred years before, became gay with all that decorative art could do, and busy with daily throngs of gratified visitors. The place had a most distinguished appearance; seen from the harbour, its dome and fluttering flags rose up from among the luxuriant foliage of the Botanic Gardens, as if boldly to proclaim that New South Wales had completed the period of her infancy and was prepared to take her place among the nations as one grown to full and comely proportions. When the building had served its purpose, the people were too fond and too proud of it to dismantle and destroy it, but unfortunately it was not long after swept away by an accidental fire.

In 1885, the colony was stirred by a great wave of enthusiasm when it was known that its Government had sent to England the offer of a regiment of soldiers to fight in the Soudan side by side with British troops. The offer was accepted, and some seven or eight hundred soldiers, well equipped and full of high hopes, sailed for Africa. The war was too soon over for them to have any chance of displaying what an Australian force may be like upon a battle-field. There were many persons who held that the whole expedition was a mistake. But it had one good effect; for it showed that, for the present at least, the Australian colonies are proud of their mother-country; that their eyes are fondly turned to her, to follow all her destinies in that great career which she has to accomplish as the leading nation of the earth; and that if ever she needed their help, a.s.sistance would flow spontaneously from the fulness of loving hearts. The idea of this expedition and its execution belonged princ.i.p.ally to C. B. Dalley. But the great leader of New South Wales during the last quarter of a century, and the most zealous worker for its welfare and prosperity, has been the veteran statesman Sir Henry Parkes.

CHAPTER XXII.

VICTORIA, 1855-1890.

#1. Responsible Government.#--In 1855, when each of the colonies was engaged in framing for itself its own form of government, Victoria, like all the others, chose the English system of two Houses of Legislature. At first it was resolved that the Lower House, called the Legislative a.s.sembly, should consist of only sixty members; but by subsequent additions, the number has been increased to eighty-six: in 1857 the right of voting was conferred upon every man who had resided a sufficient length of time in the colony. With regard to the Upper House Victoria found the same difficulty as had been experienced in New South Wales; but, instead of introducing the system of nomination by the Government, it decided that its Legislative Council should be elected by the people. In order, however, that this body might not be identical in form and opinion with the Lower House, it was arranged that no one should be eligible for election to it who did not possess at least five thousand pounds worth of real property, and that the privilege of voting should be confined to the wealthier part of the community.

Along with this new Const.i.tution responsible government was introduced; and Mr. Haines, being sent for by the Governor, formed the first Ministry. Before the close of the year, the first contest under the new system took place. Mr. Nicholson, a member of the a.s.sembly, moved that the voting for elections should in future be carried on in secret, by means of the ballot-box, so that every man might be able to give his opinion undeterred by any external pressure, such as the fear of displeasing his employer or of disobliging a friend. The Government of Mr. Haines refused its a.s.sent to this proposal, which was, nevertheless, carried by the a.s.sembly. Now, the system of responsible government required that, in such a case, Mr. Haines and his fellow-Ministers, being averse to such a law and declining to carry it out, should resign and leave the government to those who were willing and able to inaugurate the newly-appointed system. Accordingly they gave in their resignations, and the Governor asked Mr. Nicholson to form a new Ministry; but, though many members had voted for his proposal, they were not prepared to follow him as their leader. He could obtain very few a.s.sociates, and was thus unable to form a Ministry; so that there appeared some likelihood of a total failure of responsible government before it had been six months in existence. In the midst of this crisis Sir Charles Hotham was taken ill. He had been present at a prolonged ceremony--the opening of the first gasworks in Melbourne--and a cold south wind had given him a dangerous chill. He lay for a day or two in great danger; but the crisis seemed past, and he had begun to recover, when news was brought to him of Mr. Nicholson's failure. He lay brooding over these difficulties, which pressed so much upon his mind that he was unable to rally, and on the last day of the year 1855 he died. This was a great shock to the colonists, who had learnt highly to respect him.

The vacant position was for a year a.s.sumed by Major-General Macarthur, who invited Mr. Haines and his Ministry to return. They did so, and the course of responsible government began again from the beginning. At the end of 1856 another Governor--Sir Henry Barkly--arrived; and during the seven years of his stay the new system worked smoothly enough, the only peculiarity being the rapid changes in the Government. Some of the Ministries lasted only six weeks, and very few protracted their existence to a year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE.]

#2. The Deadlock.#--Sir Henry Barkly left the colony in 1863, and his place was immediately filled by Sir Charles Darling, nephew of Sir Ralph Darling, who, forty years before, had been Governor of New South Wales.

Sir Charles was destined to troublous times; for he had not been long in the colony ere a most vexatious. .h.i.tch took place in the working of const.i.tutional government. It arose out of a straggle with regard to what is called "Protection to Native Industry".

The colony was filled with vigorous and enterprising men, who had come to it for the purpose of digging for gold. For four or five years gold digging had been on the average a fairly remunerative occupation. But when all the surface gold had been gathered, and it became necessary to dig shafts many hundreds of feet into the earth, and even then in many cases only to get quartz, from which the gold had to be extracted by crushing and careful washing, then the ordinary worker, who had no command of capital, had to take employment with the wealthier people, who could afford to sink shafts and wait for years before the gold appeared. These men, therefore, had to take small wages for toiling at a most laborious occupation. But most of them had learnt trades of some sort in Europe; and the idea sprang up that if the colony prevented boots from coming into it from outside there would be plenty of work for the bootmakers; if it stopped the importation of engines there would no longer be any reason why engineers should work like navvies at the bottom of gold mines--they would be wanted to make the engines of the colony. After a long agitation, therefore, James M'Culloch, the Premier of the colony, in 1864 brought a bill into the Victorian Legislative a.s.sembly according to which taxes were to be placed on all goods coming into the colony if they were of a sort that might be made within the colony. M'Culloch proposed to make this change because it was ardently desired by the working men of the colony, and these could by their votes control the action of the Legislative a.s.sembly. But the Upper House, called the Legislative Council, composed of wealthy men, who had been elected by the wealthier part of the community, thought, after careful decision, that any such plan would ruin the commerce of the colony without much benefiting its industries. They therefore rejected the proposed bill.

M'Culloch tried to persuade them to pa.s.s it, but they were obstinate. He then resorted to a trick which is in itself objectionable, but which is perhaps excusable when the great body of the people wish a certain thing and a small body like the Legislative Council are resolved to thwart them. It is part of our const.i.tutional law that all bills dealing with money matters must be prepared in the Lower House; the Upper House can then accept them or reject them as they stand, but is not allowed to alter them.

Now, once a year Parliament has to pa.s.s a bill called the Appropriation Act, by which authority is given to the Government to spend the public money in the various ways that Parliament directs. In 1865 M'Culloch put the whole of the Protective Tariff Bill into the Appropriation Act as if it were a part of that Act, though really it had nothing to do with it.

The Legislative a.s.sembly pa.s.sed the Appropriation Act with this insertion. The Legislative Council now found itself in a most unlucky position. If it pa.s.sed the Appropriation Act it would also pa.s.s the Protective Tariff Bill, which it detested. But if it rejected the Appropriation Act, then the Government would have no authority to pay away any money, and so all the officers of the State, the civil servants and the policemen, the teachers, the gaolers, the surveyors and the tide-waiters, would all have to go on for a year without any salaries. There was no middle course open, for the Council could not alter the Appropriation Act and then pa.s.s it.

Whether was it to pa.s.s the Act and make the protective tariff the law of the land; or reject it, and run the risk of making a number of innocent people starve? It chose the latter alternative, and threw out the bill.

The whole country became immensely excited, and seemed like one debating club, where men argued warmly either for or against the Council.

Matters were becoming serious, when the Ministry discovered an ingenious device for obtaining money. According to British law, if a man is unable to obtain from the Government what it owes him, he sues for it in the Supreme Court; and then, if this Court decides in his favour, it orders the money to be paid, quite independently of any Appropriation Act, out of the sums that may be lying in the Treasury. In their emergency, the Ministry applied to the banks for a loan of money; five of them refused, but the sixth agreed to lend forty thousand pounds. With this the Government servants were paid, and then the bank demanded its money from the Government; but the Government had no authority from Parliament to pay any money, and could not legally pay it. The bank then brought its action at law. The Supreme Court gave its order, and the money was paid to the bank out of the Treasury. Thus a means had been discovered of obtaining all the money that was required without asking the consent of Parliament. Throughout the year 1865 the salaries of officers were obtained in this way; but in 1866 the Upper House, seeing that it was being beaten, offered to hold a conference. Each House made concessions to the other, the Tariff Bill was pa.s.sed, with some alterations, the Appropriation Bill was then agreed to in the ordinary way, and the "Deadlock" came to an end.

#3. The Darling Grant.#--But, in its train, other troubles followed; for the English authorities were displeased with Sir Charles Darling for allowing the Government to act as it did. They showed how he might have prevented it, and, to mark their dissatisfaction, they recalled him in 1866. He bitterly complained of this harsh treatment; and the a.s.sembly, regarding him as, in some measure, a martyr to the cause of the people, determined to recompense him for his loss of salary. In the Appropriation Act of 1867 they therefore pa.s.sed a grant of 20,000 to Lady Darling, intending it for the use of her husband. The Upper House owed no debt of grat.i.tude to Sir Charles, and, accordingly, it once more threw out the Appropriation Bill. Again there was the same bitter dispute, and again the public creditors were obliged to sue for their money in the Supreme Court. In a short time four thousand five hundred such pretended actions were laid, the Government making no defence, and the order being given in each case that the money should be paid.

In 1866 the new Governor--Viscount Canterbury--arrived; but the struggle was still continued, till, in 1868, Sir Charles Darling informed M'Culloch that Lady Darling would decline to receive the money, as he was receiving instead five thousand pounds as arrears of salary and a lucrative position in England. The Upper House then pa.s.sed the Appropriation Bill, and the contest came to an end.

#4. Payment of Members.#--But they had other things to quarrel about. The working men of the colony thought that they never would get fair treatment in regard to the laws until working men were themselves in Parliament. But that could not be, so long as they had to leave their trades and spend their time in making laws while getting nothing for it.