3-021-392 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Testimonial to the Hon. John O'Shannassy, of Victoria, 1868. 'One of the most prominent of the public men who have won distinction in the political affairs of our Australian colonies is the Hon. John O'Shannassy, late Chief Secretary, or Prime Minister, of the province of Victoria. He...has for some years past been member for the...township of Kilmore. He is at the head of an important banking establishment in Melbourne, and his acquaintance with monetary questions enabled him to do good service in the Gold Commission...in 1854, and in settling the difficulty with the gold-miners. Mr. O'Shannassy has several times filled the office of Prime Minister, and has maintained a free-trade policy, but has been opposed to a national system of free secular education, on which question he has suffered a defeat. He is an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, and a most loyal subject of the British Empire, During his visit last year to England he was entertained with a public dinner at Willis's Rooms, given to him by a number of the most respectable and influential gentlemen connected with Australia then in London...[This] handsome service of plate, manufactured by Messrs. Hunt and Roskell, was presented to him as a testimonial of his public services'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.