ABSTRACT
The 1850s debates were conducted within a British framework and political spectrum. Members of the Legislative Councils were not censored either before they were elected or in speaking. They discussed democratisation by amending the British Constitution to include the Chartist demands, votes for all men (and even women), the secret ballot or John Bull declaring your vote, illiterate voters, Chinese, Aboriginal, and German voters, equal electorates or weighting towards the country interests, multiple voting, elected, nominated, or less democratic Legislative Councils to review ‘hasty’ legislation, shorter terms of parliament, and State aid to religion. In so doing they tried to address the specific circumstances of their colony. An old-fashioned Whiggery that sought constitutions that recognised and balanced all the interests of the colony, property as well as population, clashed with the coming liberalism.
