 In 1878 he was finally elected to the Victorian Legislative Council, for Central Province.Hearn was regarded as a good politician, who held conservative views but was less concerned with party politics than he was with the technical business of making legislation, and by 1882 he was regarded as a leader in the Council.In May 1886, Hearn was elected as Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, however he lost his position on the university's council at the elections in October that year when his term expired and he was not re-elected, and as such he was only able to serve one year as Chancellor.