Editing Edmund Barton (section)

===Second Attorney-Generalship===
Dibbs formed a Protectionist government in New South Wales, and Barton agreed to return to the office of Attorney General, with the right of carrying out private practice as a lawyer. His agreement was based on Dibbs agreeing to support federal resolutions in the coming parliamentary session. His attempt to draft the federal resolutions was delayed by a period as acting [[Premier of New South Wales]], during which he had to deal with the [[1892 Broken Hill miners' strike]] and the carriage of a complex electoral reform bill. He introduced the federal resolutions into the House on 22 November 1892, but was unable to get them considered in committee.<ref name=adb/>

Meanwhile, he began a campaign to spread support for federation to the people with meetings in [[Corowa]] and [[Albury]] in December 1892. Although he finally managed to get the federal resolutions considered in committee in October 1893, he then could not get them listed for debate by the House. In December, he and [[Richard Edward O'Connor|Richard O'Connor]], the [[Minister for Justice (New South Wales)|Minister for Justice]], were questioned about their agreement to act as private lawyers against the government in ''[[David Proudfoot (engineer)|Proudfoot]] v. the Railway Commissioners''. While Barton resigned the brief, he lost a motion on the right of ministers to act in their professional capacity as lawyers in actions against the government, and immediately resigned as Attorney-General.<ref name=adb/>

In [[1894 New South Wales colonial election|July 1894]], Barton stood for re-election for [[Electoral district of Randwick|Randwick]], since the electorate of East Sydney had been abolished, and lost. He did not stand for election in the [[1895 New South Wales colonial election|1895 election]], very possibly because of financial difficulties. However, he continued to campaign for federation and during the period between January 1893 to February 1897, Barton addressed nearly 300 meetings in New South Wales,<ref name=dab>{{cite web|first=Percival|last=Serle|title=Barton, Sir Edmund (1849–1920)|publisher=[[Project Gutenberg Australia]]|work=[[Dictionary of Australian Biography]]|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogBa.html#barton1|access-date=8 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226202455/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogBa.html#barton1|archive-date=26 February 2019
|url-status=live}}</ref> including in the Sydney suburb of [[Ashfield, New South Wales|Ashfield]] where he declared that "For the first time in history, we have a nation for a continent and a continent for a nation". By March 1897, he was considered "the acknowledged leader of the federal movement in all Australia".<ref name=adb/>