Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/451

 Search of a Horse," a brochure intended to illustrate in an amusing form the operation of the warranty law, which ran through half a dozen editions. Sir George also wrote several orthodox law books and a "Life of Christ." Mr. Justice FitzJames Stephen and Mr. Leslie Stephen are nephews of Sir George Stephen, being the sons of his brother, the late Right Hon. Sir James Stephen.

Stephen, George Milner, is the fifth son of the late John Stephen, formerly judge in New South Wales, and is a younger brother of Sir, Lieut.-Governor of that colony (q.v.). He was an official member of the Legislative Council of South Australia from 1838 to 1839; Advocate-General from February to July 1838, and as senior member of the Legislative Council, was Acting-Governor of the colony during the interval between the departure of Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir John), and the arrival of Colonel Gawler, July to Oct. 1838. He was Colonial Secretary from Oct. 1838 to July 1839, and was appointed a member of the board which replaced the Resident Commissioner in Oct. 1838. Mr. Stephen having entered into speculations in land at Port Gawler, was involved in criminal charges of which he was acquitted; but comments unfavourable to his conduct having appeared in the South Australian Register, he brought an action for libel against the proprietary, in which the latter secured a verdict. Visiting England, he entered as a student at the Middle Temple in June 1842, and was called to the English bar in Nov. 1845, and to that of New South Wales in April 1852. He subsequently resided in Melbourne, but has lived in London for some years past. Mr. Stephen, who has gained considerable notoriety by his practice of the art of "faith healing," married the third daughter of Sir John Hindmarsh, formerly Governor of South Australia.

Stephen, Hon. James Wilberforce, M.A., was the son of the late Sir (q.v.), and was born in London in 1822. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated Fourth Wrangler in 1846 and subsequently became M.A. and Fellow. He was called to the Bar in 1848, and emigrated to Victoria in 1854. There he practised his profession and took a part in politics, being returned to the Legislative Assembly for St. Kilda in 1871. He aided in the defeat of the Ministry, and on the accession to power of Mr. in June 1872 accepted office in the new Ministry as Attorney-General. On behalf of the Cabinet Mr. Stephen framed and carried through Parliament the Act for establishing the present free, secular, and compulsory system of State education, with which his name will be always linked. On the passing of the Act he was appointed to administer it as first Minister of Public Instruction. This post he held, in addition to the Attorney-Generalship, from Jan. 1873 to May 1874, when he was appointed to a Supreme Court judgeship. Mr. Justice Stephen died in 1881.

Stephen, His Honour Matthew Henry, Puisne Judge, New South Wales, eldest son of the Hon. Sir, G.C.M.G., ex-Lieut.-Governor of New South Wales (q.v.), was born at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, in Dec. 1828, called to the New South Wales Bar in 1850, and became Q.C. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1869 to 1871, and has been a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales since 1887. He married on Sept. 30th, 1854, Caroline Sibella, daughter of Henry Tudor Shadforth, formerly of the 57th Regiment, and Usher of the Black Rod, New South Wales. Judge Stephen is Chancellor of the Church of England diocese of Sydney.

Stephens, James Brunton, is a native of Barrowstowness, Linlithgowshire, where he was born in 1835. He went to Queensland in 1866, and was engaged as a private tutor for some years. Subsequently he entered the service of the Queensland Education Department, and having held for some years the position of head teacher of the Ashgrove School, he was transferred to a clerkship in the Colonial Secretary's office, which he still retains. He has contributed in prose and in verse to The Queenslander, Australasian, and Melbourne Review, in which his fine blank-verse poem "Mute Discourse" first saw the light; and is regarded as the wittiest of Australian poets. "Convict Once," his most ambitious poem, was published by Macmillan, and "The Godolphin Arabian" and "Miscellaneous Poems" by Watson, Ferguson & Co., of Brisbane. He has 435