Thus, in 1848, the electors met at the hustings and discountenanced the appearance of a candidate, and after waiting an hour, the returning officer announced that no member had been returned. On meeting for the election of a member for the city Earl Grey was chosen. The governor and superintendent considered this proceeding a disgraceful farce. The law officers could not question its legality, and the secretary of state was for two years member for Melbourne, without, however, taking his seat. Mr. Westgarth, a merchant of tried intelligence and public spirit, was chosen afterwards, and was presented to the house "in the room of the Right Hon. Henry Grey, Earl Grey." Sir Wm. Denison was instructed to report on the subject of an elective legislature for Van Diemen's Land. He furnished Lord Grey with various opinions and suggestions. He had recommended a frame-work, the counterpart of the New South Wales assembly, only, however, that he deemed it undesirable for colonies so contiguous to differ in their institutions. The experience of the Tasmanian legislative council had, he asserted, assisted him in forming an opinion on the character of the people. "When we see," said Sir William, "the low estimate which is placed upon every thing which can distinguish a man from his fellows, with the sole exception of wealth; when we see that even wealth does not lead to distinction, or open the road to any other ambition save that of excelling in habits of self-indulgence,--it can be hardly a subject of surprise that so few rise above the general level, or that those few owe more to the possession of a certain oratorical facility than to their powers of mind or the justness of the opinions they advocate." "There is an essentially democratic spirit, which actuates a large mass of the community; and it is with a view to check the development of this spirit that I would suggest the formation of an upper chamber." Sir William Denison suggested that bishops might be members of an upper house, and certain _ex officio_ representatives of government; the rest, whether nominated by the crown or elected by the people, to hold their seats for life.[251] By a despatch to Sir Charles Fitz Roy, Earl Grey expounded a new constitutional system for the colonies. It was zealously opposed in New South Wales. The people complained that the change in the constitution without their consent was an infringement of their vested rights, and disrespectful to their legislature. They objected strongly to a plan which made the district councils the electors of the assembly. They repudiated the statement that their legislature had absorbed all the powers of "the colonial state," and the checks and balance contemplated by the original constitutional act. These views were sustained by the legislature itself. The idea of two chambers was approved by the majority, but most elected members were against it.