He possessed for a time practically despotic authority "On the one con — Alfred Deakin

"His nervous instability was painful, his poses perpetual and his vanity colossal."

"A splendidly built man of towering height but never unwieldy, with a high forehead, keen eyes glittering through his spectacles, strongly marked features, and manly address, his many charms of character and some powers of mind were ill conjoined. He was not only prejudiced even among the New South Welshmen of his day, but obstinate, eccentric and changeable. Converted from an ardent Free Trader into a strong Protectionist almost without an interval long enough to permit of baptism, he compared it, himself. to the miraculous conversion of St Paul."

"He had apparently no illusions, no passions and no pre dominantly great ideals. He had the official manner, imperturbable and impenetrable, which would have made the fortune of an ambassador in Bismarcks eves."

"He sought rest only in perpetual physical motion."

"In public life ... he had but one aim — his own aggrandisement."

"... his politics were a chaos and his career contemptible."