Editing Andrew Inglis Clark (section)

==Political career==

In 1878, Clark stood for election to the [[Tasmania House of Assembly|House of Assembly]], despite his reputation as an extreme ultra-republican. He was attacked by the Hobart ''[[The Mercury (Hobart)|Mercury]]'' for "holding such very extreme ultra-republican, if not revolutionary, ideas" that his proper place should be among the 'Communists', and the Launceston ''[[The Examiner (Tasmania)|Examiner]]'' as a "stranger from Hobart". He was elected, unopposed to the electorate of Norfolk Plains. His election was largely due to the influence of [[Thomas Reibey]], a political power broker and a recent Premier.<ref name="UTAS"/><ref>{{cite dictionary| url=http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060022b.htm |title=Reibey, Thomas (1821 -1912)|chapter=Thomas Reibey (1821–1912) |year=2003|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |dictionary=Australian Dictionary of Biography|access-date=7 April 2009}}</ref>

Clark was the founder of the Southern Tasmania Political Reform Association, whose agenda included manhood suffrage, fixed term parliaments, and electoral reform.<ref name="UTAS"/> While a member of the House of Assembly, Clark was regarded as republican and ultra-progressive. He was one of the few members to legislate as a [[backbencher]] and introduce a [[private members bill]]. He failed to reform industrial law by amending the Master and Servant Act, but he succeeded with the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act in 1881.<ref name="ADB"/><ref>The ADB refers to "Criminal Law Amendment Act" of 1880.  The Tasmania House of Assembly records do not include an Act with this title.  There was however a "Criminal Procedure Amendment Act" in 1880.  This confusion is complicated by the lack of a [[Hansard]] service prior to 1979.</ref> He also assisted with reframing the customs tariff.

In the 1882 election, Clark was defeated. He failed when he stood for election in 1884 ([[Electoral district of East Hobart|East Hobart]]) and 1886 ([[Electoral district of South Hobart|South Hobart]]). In 1887, Clark was re-elected, in a by-election as member for East Hobart. In 1888, he was re-elected as member for South Hobart and remained there until the seat was abolished in 1897. He was then the member for Hobart until he resigned upon his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1898.<ref name="parl">{{cite Tas Parliament|id=clarka171 |title=Andrew Inglis Clark |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref>

In March 1888, he became [[Attorney General]] in the government of Sir [[Philip Fysh]]. Since the Premier was in the Legislative Council, Clark was responsible for introducing legislation into the Assembly. Over the next five years he shepherded through the lower house much progressive and humanitarian legislation. His goal was to break the power of property in Tasmanian politics. The legislation covered such diverse reforms as legalising trades unions, providing parliamentary salaries, preventing cruelty to animals, reforming laws on lunacy, trusteeship and companies, the custody of children and the protection of children from neglect and abuse. He also introduced laws to restrict the immigration of Chinese. Clark failed in his attempts to impose a land tax, introduce universal (including female) suffrage and centralise the police.<ref name="ADB"/><ref name="lawmaker">{{cite web|url=http://www.utas.edu.au/history_classics/clark/clark_exhibition/jurist.html |title=Clark as Law-maker and Jurist|year=2003|publisher=University of Tasmania|access-date=7 April 2009}}</ref>

Clark was the most important 19th-century Attorney-General of Tasmania. His considerable drafting skills enabled him to modernise and simplify the law over a number of areas. He introduced a total of 228 bills into the Assembly. His best known achievement as Attorney-General was the introduction of proportional representation based on the [[Hare-Clark]] system of the single transferable vote.<ref name="lawmaker"/>

[[Image:Map of Main Line Railway, Tasmania.jpg|thumb|right|Map of the Mainline Railway, {{circa|1880}}]]

One of the major political issues addressed by Clark during his career concerned the Tasmanian Main Line Railway – a railway which connected Tasmania's two main cites, Hobart and Launceston. In 1873, the Main Line Railway Company began the construction of the line, which opened in 1876. There were a series of disputes between the Company and the government over payments due to the Company under its Deed of Concession.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/divisions/tasmania-division/about-tasmania-division/about-tasmania-division_home.cfm |title=History of the Royal Engineers Building|publisher=Engineers Australia|access-date=7 April 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090428235701/http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/divisions/tasmania-division/about-tasmania-division/about-tasmania-division_home.cfm| archive-date= 28 April 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="Coote">[http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030426b.htm ADB Audley Coote, Chief Engineer of the Mainline Railway Co]</ref> Clark had spoken about the problem, advocating the acquisition of the Company by the government as early as 1878.<ref name="ADB"/> With his dual qualifications as both an engineer and a lawyer, Clark was in a unique position to understand the issues involved. As Attorney-General, he was the government's chief negotiator.

In 1889, the Supreme Court awarded the Company arrears of interest. Clark urged the government to appeal, and in 1890 he went to England to argue the case before the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council|Privy Council]]. Clark may have been a poor speaker in court, but he was a superb negotiator. It was his ''forte''. With full powers, he settled the case [[out of court]] by arranging the purchase of the Company's property by the government.<ref name="ADB"/>

In 1891, Clark returned to Tasmania from London by way of the United States. It was a fateful choice. He was introduced to a fellow Unitarian [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]], with whom he corresponded for the rest of his life. The contacts and people he met in Boston were to profoundly inform his views about political constitutions. Not the least of the consequences was the introduction of the term "[[commonwealth]]" to describe the Australian [[polity]].{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} This term is used in two ways: the [[Commonwealth Government]] and the [[Commonwealth of Australia]].

In 1892, the fall of the Fysh government ended Clark's term as Attorney-General. When Sir [[Edward Braddon]] formed a government in 1894, Clark again became Attorney-General, the same year he was given the title 'Honourable' for life.<ref name="ADB"/> He resigned in 1897, when his colleagues failed to consult him over the lease of [[Crown land]] to private interests, after which he became [[Leader of the Opposition (Tasmania)|Leader of the Opposition]]. Clark left politics to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1898.<ref name="parl"/><ref name="lawmaker"/>