His nervous instability was painful, his poses perpetual and his vanity colossal. - Alfred Deakin

Though a Tasmanian born he appealed at all times to the narrowest Sydney and New South Wales provincialism by the pettiest and meanest acts and proposals. He was an anti- Federalist from the first, except upon terms which should ensure the absolute supremacy of his own colony as a stepping- stone to his own elevation.

Sir Thomas was a man of business, stout, florid, choleric, curt and Cromwellian.

Reid was neither federal nor anti-federal but either at need and as far as possible both at once. It is difficult indeed to describe so extraordinary a man without appearing to caricature him ...