Governor of Victoria
In March 1873 Bowen was transferred to Victoria (Australia) as Governor of Victoria, where he embarked on an endeavour to reduce the expenses of the colony. A political crisis while Bowen took leave in England from January 1875 to January 1876, when acting governor, Sir William Stawell, showed 'too little flexibility in the exercise of his temporary powers'. One of the main issues was the conflict between the Victorian Legislative Council and the Victorian Legislative Assembly; the Council was blocking legislation for its reform and for payment of members. Backed by advice from the Colonial Office, Bowen consented to Premier Graham Berry's plan to break the deadlock by wholesale dismissal of public servants on the so-called 'Black Wednesday'. In May 1878 Bowen said that "my reluctant consent, purely on constitutional grounds, to these dismissals … has damaged my further reputation and my career to a degree that I shall never recover. It will never be forgotten either in England or in the Colony". However several others including Hugh Childers and William Ewart Gladstone approved of Bowen's actions.
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