Lalor the seat warmer
Lalor never held much in the way of major positions. That probably suited him, as his attentions were focussed elsewhere - the making of money. Until 1880 his key positions were as chairman of committees from 1859 to 1868, Commissioner of Trade & Customs and Postmaster-General of Victoria from August to October 1875, then postmaster-general again from May to July 1877, and Commissioner of Trade & Customs from May 1877 to March 1880.
Frankly, he seems to have been pretty much of a seat warmer, who could be counted on to vote the “right” way. The right way being, of course, in accord with the conservatives. Finally, in 1880 he was made Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, a pretty common reward for seat warmers who could be depended on to make decisions that generally favoured the government. He seems to have been a good Speaker, and not simply a mouth-piece for those who put him in place, which must have disappointed them no end. Mind you, these comments about being good appear to have been made after he died, which under our culture seems to be when people try to forget the dead person's many faults.
But by the time he died, Peter Lalor was not a hero to everyone. For example, this is a comment made by William Bramwell Withers in the preface to the second edition of his book:
Frankly, he seems to have been pretty much of a seat warmer, who could be counted on to vote the “right” way. The right way being, of course, in accord with the conservatives. Finally, in 1880 he was made Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, a pretty common reward for seat warmers who could be depended on to make decisions that generally favoured the government. He seems to have been a good Speaker, and not simply a mouth-piece for those who put him in place, which must have disappointed them no end. Mind you, these comments about being good appear to have been made after he died, which under our culture seems to be when people try to forget the dead person's many faults.
But by the time he died, Peter Lalor was not a hero to everyone. For example, this is a comment made by William Bramwell Withers in the preface to the second edition of his book:
... There remain Humffray and Lalor, and, with other of Lalor's Stockade subalterns, the gold-finder Esmond. Humffray and Esmond are in the shallows, but Lalor, on whose "rebel" head a price was once set, floats proudly as the able and well-salaried Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. His political friends are not ashamed to plead for a retiring pension for him, after he has, for many years, been liberally paid for his services in a nominally pension-hating democracy; whilst Esmond, but for whose discovery Lalor might never have been here, has failed to get leave to earn State wages enough to keep the wolf from the door.