Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/377

  practice as a solicitor at Geelong, where he became the head of the firm of Sladen, Martyn, & Taylor. His rapid success enabled him to retire from practice in 1854.

In December of that year he was requested to act for a time as treasurer of the colony, and was nominated to the old legislative council. After the reform of the constitution by the act of 1855, he entered the House of Assembly as member for Geelong in 1857, and in November became treasurer in the first ministry of responsible government. In the same year, however, universal suffrage was established, and at the first subsequent general election he was defeated, and remained out of parliament till 1861, when he came in as member for Geelong East. In July 1864 he was elected to the legislative council for the western province, and very soon became the acknowledged leader of the conservative party in that house. He was conspicuous in this capacity in the struggle with the ministry of Sir James McCulloch [q. v.] respecting the incorporation in the Appropriation bills of the tariff bill in 1865 and the Darling grant in 1867. While he was the author of the council's strong line of action, he also managed the compromise of 1867. When, in 1868, McCulloch resigned, Sladen formed, as a last resort, a ministry which was in a hopeless minority. He was premier and chief secretary from 6 May to 11 July. His action on this occasion was regarded as one of great public spirit. In August 1868 his seat became vacant by lapse of time, and he did not seek re-election.

In 1876, however, when a fresh struggle between the chambers was imminent, Sladen once more entered political life as member of the council for the western province, and took a strong line in opposition to Graham Berry's government on the questions of paying members (1878), the plebiscite (1879), levying a land tax, and reforming the legislative council. The general election of 1880 justified the line which he had taken, and the legislative council emerged from the struggle with credit. On 13 Dec. 1882 he finally retired, somewhat broken in health. He died at his residence, Chilwell, near Geelong, on 22 Feb. 1884, having married, in 1840, Harriet Amelia, daughter of William Orton.

Sladen staved off two serious attacks on the constitution, and finally asserted the authority of the council. He took the lead in reforming the council by division of the electoral provinces, increase of the number of members, and curtailment of the tenure of appointment. He was made K.C.M.G. in 1875. In 1854 he bought an estate at Birregarra, which he called Ripple Vale, and there he devoted his leisure to sheep-farming.

There is a portrait of him in the National Gallery of Victoria and another at Geelong town-hall.

[Melbourne Argus, 23 Feb. 1884; Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Parliamentary Reports of Victoria, passim.]

 SLADEN, EDWARD BOSC (1827–1890), Indian officer, born at Madras, on 20 Nov. 1827, was son of Dr. Ramsey Sladen, of the East India Company's service (d. 1860?), and his second wife, Emma, daughter of Colonel Paul Bosc. Educated at Oswestry school, Shropshire, he was nominated to an East India cadetship on 14 April 1849, and, going back to India in that year, was posted on 3 Sept. 1850 as second lieutenant to the 1st Madras fusiliers, one of the company's European regiments. He served in the second Burmese war, being present at the relief of Pegu in December 1852, and at the second investment of Pegu in January 1853. Gazetted a lieutenant on 1 Feb. 1853, he was appointed an assistant commissioner in Tenasserim; and in 1856–7 took part in operations against insurgent shans and karens in the Yun-za-lin district, when he was severely wounded. In February 1858 he rejoined his regiment, then serving against the mutineers in Upper India, and was present at the capture of Lucknow in March 1858. In the subsequent campaign in Oudh he accompanied Hope Grant's column [see ], and acted as brigade quartermaster under Sir Alfred Hastings Horsford [q. v.] On the return of his regiment to Madras he reverted to district work in Burma, joining the Indian staff corps when the Madras fusiliers became a queen's regiment. He was gazetted captain 21 June 1860, major 14 April 1869, lieutenant-colonel 14 April 1875. In 1866 he went to Mandalay as agent of the chief commissioner, and in August of that year had a narrow escape from a body of insurgents who had murdered three of the royal princes. During the disturbances that ensued he embarked nearly all the Europeans and other Christians at the Burmese capital on board a river steamer and brought them safely to Rangoon, for which he received the thanks of the governor-general. The insurrection having been put down, he returned to Mandalay, and in May 1867 exerted his influence with the king to prevent the execution of three young princes, two of whom owed their lives to his intercession, the other having been beheaded before a reprieve arrived.