December 1899, he moved and carried a vote of no-confidence, becoming Premier and Chief Secretary, but his government lasted less than a year. At the 1900 election the conservatives were defeated and Turner reclaimed the premiership. Federal politics McLean was an opponent of Australian federation and was not a member of the conventions which shaped the Australian Constitution. However, reassured to some degree by Deakin's composite stand as an Australian Briton, McLean sent him to London in January 1900 as Victoria's representative in negotiations with the British government. In March 1901, however, he was elected a member of the first Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Gippsland, and sat as a supporter of the Protectionist Party of Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. McLean belonged to the conservative wing of the party and opposed Deakin's increasingly warm alliance with the Labour Party. In April 1904 Deakin resigned and the Labour leader, Chris Watson, formed a minority government. Watson resigned in August, and the Free Trade leader George Reid formed another minority government, supported by the conservative Protectionists. McLean came into the cabinet as Minister for Trade and Customs, and his position was so strong that the government is often referred to as the Reid-McLean ministry. This composite ministry was, however, not a success. It was constantly being assailed by the Labour Party and the radical Protectionist section of Deakin's followers, such as H. B. Higgins and Isaac Isaacs. It lasted for less than 11 months, and fell when Deakin withdrew his support. This episode caused great bitterness in the Protectionist ranks, and at the 1906 election McLean was opposed in Gippsland by a radical Protectionist, George Wise, who narrowly defeated McLean with Labour support. Personal life McLean, who had suffered for many years with a rheumatic affliction and did not feel capable of doing justice to his constituents, retired before the next election. He died at his home at Albert Park in 1911. Sir George Reid said of him that "no public man in Victoria was more widely or more affectionately esteemed" (My Reminiscences, p. 238). He was twice married, once in 1866 to Margaret Bridget Shinnock of Maffra (ca.1847 – 7 August 1884), and subsequently, to Emily Macarthur (née Linton), who survived him with five sons and two daughters by the first marriage. His eldest son, William Joseph McLean (d. 19 April 1938) was a noted pastoralist, and