"What ""Commonwealth"" was formed on 1 January 1901, with Lord Hopetoun as Governor-General and Edmund Barton as Prime Minister?"
Barton Government selected as Australia's first Governor-General, and the appointment of the first Cabinet was put in train. Edmund Barton became the newly Federated Australian nation's first Prime Minister at a grand ceremony in Centennial Park, Sydney, on 1 January 1901. He and his cabinet were sworn in by Australia's first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun before an estimated crowd of 250,000 people. Hopetoun had first offered the position to the Premier of New South Wales Sir William Lyne (an opponent of Federation), but the other members of Cabinet and the general population saw Barton as the logical choice. The appointment was temporary, to
Hopetoun Blunder was unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and was forced to return his commission to Hopetoun. Alfred Deakin, among others, then persuaded Hopetoun to appoint Edmund Barton as Prime Minister. Barton was successful in forming a government, which took office on 1 January 1901. He appointed Lyne as his Minister for Home Affairs in what many saw as a gesture of reconciliation. Hopetoun's move of calling on Lyne to form a government became known as the "Hopetoun Blunder", and it marked the beginning of what many historians consider to be his unsuccessful term as Governor-General. Hopetoun