3-085-934 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, 1898. 'The two phases of his career that remain most vividly in the memory are Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, Irish "rebel," languishing in Newgate, and Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G., Speaker of the Victorian Parliament. There is a piquancy in the contrast; and the man who has passed through these extremities has earned the right to be his own biographer. One may regret, however, that Sir Charles has adhered so closely to his intention to write only of his public "Life in Two Hemispheres." For his public life has been entirely politics; and politics, even Irish politics, which is more entertaining than most, is but dull reading to the next generation'. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), was an Irish poet, politician and journalist (editor of The Nation), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of Victoria on a platform of land reform, and in 1871-1872 served as the colony's 8th Premier. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.