Although Chamberlain clearly bore in mind opinion in the Australian colonies in appointing the Commonwealth's first Governor-General, the most important factor was more likely to have been Hopetoun's acceptability to the Colonial Office. In his letter of recommendation to the Queen the Secretary of State commented that, as Governor of Victoria, Hopetoun had
1. Truth, 15 July 1900 .
2. Note by Governor Tennyson in diary, 21 July 1900, p. 58. Tennyson papers, MS 479/2, A.N.L.
See issues of S.M.H ., Daily Telegraph and Advertiser, 16 July 1900. Similar laudatory comments appear in West Australian and Brisbane Courier of the same date. 3 .
'acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of Lord
Knutsford and Lord Ripon'.^ His despatches had been full and informative but self-effacing, particularly when compared with the effusive reports of his successor. It was well known that in endeavouring to fulfil his duty in the colony he had spent considerably more than was covered by his salary and allowances. Unlike Jersey, he had stayed longer than the normal term of office.
The other consideration which weighed strongly in
Hopetoun's favour was that he was a good party man. During his career he had been Tory whip in the House of Lords in 1883, Paymaster-General in Salisbury's Government from 1895 to 1898 and Lord Chamberlain 1898 to 1900. He did not possess
outstanding ability but had always carried out his duties zealously and with unfailing loyalty. His close association with Court ceremonial augmented a natural tendency towards
lofty nobility. One visitor to the colony of Victoria had
2
described him as 'Grand Seigneur to the tips of his fingers'. In August and September 1900 Hopetoun busied himself in London making preparations for his assumption of office. A list of questions which he submitted to the Colonial Office revealed some awareness of the likely problems he would face
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in Australia. Observing the lack of provision for exercise
1. C.O. 323/459/22523, folio 103.
2. [Paul Blouet], John Bull & Co., The Great Colonial Branches of the Firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa (London, 1894) , p~. 193. Blouet uses the pseudonym 'Max 0'Rell'.
3. Correspondence between Hopetoun and officials at the Colonial Office during August and September 1900 is in C.O. 418/8, folios 458-484.
of the office during a Governor-General's illness or absence he asked to be informed of the proposed arrangements for such an eventuality. By this stage Chamberlain had decided that the senior State Governor should receive the Dormant
Commission. Hopetoun asked for advice as to the conduct of Executive Council meetings. He was informed that this, and the difficult question of precedence, were matters to be worked out in practice with his Ministers. He also requested, and was given, instructions as to the formal steps taken in
inaugurating the Confederation of Canada in 1867.^
His Excellency anticipated that his role would be that of a Captain taking command of a new ship:
He would be priviliged to ... endeavour to discourage any tendency to strain the engines, to utter a word of caution here, to apply a little lubricant there until all danger of heated bearings ... was a thing of the past ... and the great ship of state was fairly and fully started on her voyage .12
It was clear that he brought to the task of Governor-General a high conception of the usefulness of his office in the early days of the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, his impression of the style in which these duties should be carried out, was excessively grand.
Although there had been casual mention in some pamphlets that an allowance of £5,000 would be provided for the Governor-
1. Ibid.
2. Speech to the Institute of Naval Architects, reported in The Times, 2 October 1900.
General,^" the only specific reference to His Excellency's remuneration was the £10,000 salary guaranteed in the Constitution. The subject of additional expenses was probably one of the matters which Hopetoun had wished to discuss with Barton in London. When the allowance question became a subject of public controversy, in 1902, there was some indication that Barton had undertaken to provide
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generously for the vice-regal establishment. Hopetoun's suite was very extensive. It included a Private and an Assistant Private Secretary, Military Secretary, Aide-de- Camp, house steward and twenty house servants. He also arranged for seventeen horses and thirteen stablemen,
3 together with his carriages, to precede him to Melbourne. He later admitted the whole of his yearly income was
expended in paying off the cost of his outfit and the expenses connected with bringing out his establishment.^ These
preparations reveal Hopetoun to have been out of touch with the desire in the Australian colonies that federation should be cheap.
1. See 'Probable New Federal Expenditure' listed in Con. Deb. Adel. 1897, Appendix 13. Sir S.W. Griffith, Some
Conditions of Australian Federation (Brisbane, 1896), p. 14, includes an estimate of £5,000 for 'Governor- General's Staff & c'. A similar item appeared in
Statistical Tables bearing on the Question of Federation. Compiled m the office of the Government Statist of
Victoria (Melbourne, 18 97) , p~. 15. 2. See below, chapter III, p. 179.
3. See Memorandum included in Hopetoun to Ampthill, 4 September 1900. C.O. 418/8/29024, folio 473.
4. Hopetoun to Deakin 11 June 1902. Deakin papers, MS 1540/2482-2483. A.N.L.
The departure of the Commonwealth's Governor-General elect from Britain was honoured as an occasion of great Imperial celebration. Under the auspices of the Royal Colonial Institute a 'Grand Federal Banquet' was given at the Hotel Cecil on 3 October 1900. It was a distinguished gathering, although Chamberlain was unable to fulfil his earlier promise to chair the ceremony, apparently regarding the prosecution of the 'Khaki' election as more important. Selborne presided in his Chief's absence. Nearly seven hundred guests attended the function, signifying the
connection with the coterie of Imperial enthusiasts in London which the office of Governor-General seemed destined to
provide. At the cross table the Earl of Hopetoun was
surrounded by men who had 'grown grey in the service of the Empire'.^ Nearly every ex-colonial Governor in England at the time was present, including Jersey, Brassey and
Carrington. Colonial Office officials attended in force, as did the Australian colonies' Agents-General, banking, shipping and commercial representatives. The guests exchanged views on current topics and the evening's entertainment. The British election was particularly topical. Pritchard Morgan's defeat at the hands of Keir Hardie at Merthyr Tydvil seemed to have been the subject of general regret. Yarns flowed freely. One story concerned the christening of the guest of honour's son, Lord Hope, at which the clergyman was said to have commenced his blessing by observing that 'the world was full of blasted h o p e s '.^
1. Supplement to British Australasian, 4 October 1900. Copy at Mitchell Library, Sydney.
But there was no mention of blasted hopes in the addresses delivered at the banquet. The occasion illustrated the 'cloudy grandeur ... and exalted truculence of tone' which pervaded the British world at the turn of the century.^ Speeches were
heavily laced with the confident rhetoric of Empire and
abounded with patriotic reference to the soldiers of the Queen fighting in South Africa. Queensland's Agent General, Sir Horace Tozer, K.C.M.G., used the opportunity of his toast to insert a carefully constructed pun. He admitted that the
track of the 'Union ship' to be launched in Australia would be uncertain. But he trusted that 'with Hope as the pilot, with Faith in the people of Australia generally, and with a
charitable construction on the part of the Mother Country' the 2 ship would arrive safely at the 'port of Imperial security'.
'The Pilot' made a characteristically tactful speech which revealed a self-deprecating public humility which sounds false now but which apparently won him admiration at the time.
Twelve months later it was said that 'his clear reed-like voice, vibrating with honest emotion sways an Australian
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