Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/82

Mitchell  of an Expedition into Tropical Australia in search of a Route from Sydney to the gulf of Carpentaria,' London, 1848. Other of Mitchell's published works were:
 * 1) 'Notes on the Cultivation of the Vine and the Olive and on the Method of Making Oil and Wine in the Southern parts of Europe,' 4to, Sydney, 1849.
 * 2) 'A Trigonometrical Survey of Port Jackson.'
 * 3) 'Australian Geography, with the Shores of the Pacific and those of the Indian Ocean,' Sydney, 1850.
 * 4) 'The Lusiad of Camoens closely translated,' London, 1854; written in a small clipper during his last voyage to England round Cape Horn.

 MITCHELL, WILLIAM (1811–1878), maritime writer, son of John Mitchell of Modbury in Devon, was born at Modbury in 1811. At an early age he came to London as a journalist, was for some time on the 'True Sun,' and from 1836 was chief proprietor and editor of the 'Shipping and Mercantile Gazette,' a daily paper which he established, and which at once took the high position it has since maintained. In 1840 he began to urge the importance, and indeed the necessity, of compulsory examinations for officers of merchant ships; and it was mainly in consequence of his action that the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 was passed (13 & 14 Vict. cap. 93). In 1857 he was called on to advise with the registrar-general of seamen in the preparation of the measure for the royal naval reserve, which eventually took form in the act of 1859 'for the Establishment of a Reserve Volunteer Force of Seamen, and for the Government of the same' (22 & 23 Vict. cap. 40). He succeeded in introducing an international code of signals, which was gradually adopted by every maritime country, and in establishing signal stations for reporting the movements of all ships using the international code. In reward for his public services he was knighted in 1867, and in 1869 was nominated by the king of Sweden a knight commander of the order of St. Olaf. He edited ' A Review of the Merchant Shipping Bill, being a Series of Leading Articles. . . from the " Shipping and Mercantile Gazette,"' 1869, 8vo, and < Maritime Notes and Queries, a Record of Shipping Law and 1873-6, 4to. He died at Strode, near Ivybridge, Devonshire, on 1 May 1878. He married in 1835 Caroline, eldest daughter of Richard Andrews of Modbury.  MITCHELL, WILLIAM HENRY FANCOURT (1811–1884), Australian politician, born in England in 1811, was son of George Berkley Mitchell, vicar of St. Mary's from 1813, and of All Saints' from 1820, both parishes of the town of Leicester. At an early age William was sent out to Tasmania, where on 2 April 1833 he was appointed writer in the colonial secretary's office, becoming on 1 Aug. 1839 assistant colonial secretary. In 1840 he went over to Port Phillip district (afterwards Victoria), and entered on an active squatter's life near Kyneton and Mount Macedon. On 1 Jan. 1853, when the discovery of gold in Port Phillip threw the whole district into disorder, he was specially invited by the lieutenant-governor to take the supreme command of the police. In this capacity, receiving almost unlimited powers, he reorganised the force on a new basis, restored order in the gold districts, and stamped out bush-ranging. In 1855 private affairs took him back to England.

On his return to Victoria in September 1856 he was elected to the legislative council as one of the five original members for the North-Western Province, and joined the Haines ministry—the first under responsible government—representing it for six months in the upper chamber without portfolio. In Haines's next administration he was postmaster-general from April 1857 to March 1858, and is credited with a complete reform of the post-office. In 1858 he was defeated at the polls and was out of parliament for a short time, but in 1860 he was again elected to the council for the North- Western Province, and in December 1861 became commissioner of railways in O'Shanassy's administration, which lasted till June 1863. Throughout the sessions of 1866-8 he devoted special attention to the bill respecting the constitution of the legislative council, which became law September 1868. In 1869 he was elected chairman of committees in the legislative council, and in 1870 the president of the council. In this capacity he served till his death, through a period of considerable anxiety, leading the opposition of the council to the assembly in the disputes with the government of Sir James McCulloch [q. v.] as to the protective tariff and the Darling grant, and again respecting payment of members. As president he distinguished himself by the vigour of his ruling.

In 1875 Mitchell was knighted. During his last years he used crutches. He died at his residence, Barfold, near Kyneton, on 24 Nov. 1884. The house of assembly as well as the council adjourned as a mark of respect—the first time that it had ever adjourned in 