his support by writing articles for London newspapers and journals. In Melbourne in the late 1860s he made contributions to Talk of the Town and to the Melbourne Herald. He also became co-editor of the Australian Jurist Politics Purves was elected for the electorate of Mornington in the Victorian Legislative Assembly on 1 April 1872 as a free trader and constitutionalist. Where he served until 1 February 1880. During this time he soon became known for his oratory. He was offered cabinet rank on several occasions, but his talents and inclinations lay with ideological debate rather than administration. In February 1880 he made a surprising decision to contest the working-class electorate of Footscray, where he was defeated. He tried and lost again in the liberal stronghold of Maryborough in July the same year. He gave up parliamentary ambition and turned his talents in other directions. Family In 1875 he had married Annie Lavinia Grice in St. Peter's Church, Melbourne; she died in childbirth, and in 1879 he married Eliza Emma Bobridd in St Mark's Church, Darling Point, Sydney. He had one son by his first marriage and two sons and three daughters by the second. They holidayed at their Family property in Cove Avenue Portsea. Australian Natives' Association From the mid-1880s Purves' political talents were channelled through the ANA. He became a regular speaker at ANA public meetings supporting Australian federation and British annexation of the Pacific islands. In his addresses to these meetings Purves developed a vague and ardent vision of Australia's future greatness which he placed sometimes within a renewed British empire, sometime in glorious national independence. This nativist vision was based on the belief – widely accepted within the ANA – that the Anglo-Saxon race would evolve to new heights in Australia, and that the superior virtues of the new race were limited to the native-born. Purves often claimed to be a founder of the Australian Natives Association, but he was not present at the meetings which created the association in 1871. He spoke at a 'Grand Concert and Ball' held by the ANA in mid 1872, and in 1874 he was elected as one of many vice-presidents – a purely honorary position. His involvement really dates from 1884, when he gave the first of many speeches to the association invoking Australian nativism and British neglect. Speaking to a motion advocating Australian federation, he moved rapidly from