 Hearn's students at Melbourne included Alfred Deakin, H. B. Higgins, Isaac Isaacs, Alexander Sutherland, Samuel Alexander and Thomas Webb.In January 1859, Hearn stood as a candidate for the Parliament of Victoria, in a by-election for a seat in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, he was embarrassingly unsuccessful.The university's Chancellor, Redmond Barry, was not pleased with Hearn's attempts to enter parliament, and as a result the university council passed a rule prohibiting professors from standing for election, and even from joining any political group, a rule that would last more than a century.