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llFE  OF 

Wmi^mmBJoS  GREY 


■.yx^:'2:y^^r^-.;i^f:^^<i^;r'?Vtr^^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE    MAKERS   OF    AUSTRALASIA 


EDITED  BY 


JAMES   HIGHT,   M.A.,   Litt.D., 

PROFESSOR    OF    HISTORY    AND    ECONOMICS 
CANTERBURY    COLLEGE. 


THE  MAKERS  OF  AUSTRALASIA. 


EARLY    VOLUMES 


(READY) 

EXPLORERS    OF    THE    EAST,    CENTRE    AND    WEST    OF 
AUSTRALIA,    by   ERNEST   PavenC. 

SIR    GEORGE    GREY— Governor,    High    Commissioner,    and    Premier. 
An  Historical  Biography,  by  J.  COLLIER. 


(IN  PREPARATION) 
THE   MAORIS   OF   NEW   ZEALAND,  by  JAMES  COWAN. 

THE      EARLY      GOVERNORS      OF     AUSTRALIA,    by     Erank 
Bladen. 


SiK  George  Grey. 


Sir  George  Grey 


GOVERNOR,  HIGH  COMMISSIONER,  and  PREMIER 


AN    HISTORICAL    BIOGRAPHY 


BY 

JAMES    COLLIER, 

FORMERLY  ASSISTANT  TO  HERBERT  SPENCER  ; 

JOINT- AUTHOR  OF  "DESCRIPTIVE  SOCIOLOGY  "—ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH; 

AND  AUTHOR  OF  "THE  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  NEW 

ZEALAND  :   A  BIBLIOGRAPHY." 


Chribtchurch,  Wellington  and  Dunedin.,  N.Z.; 
Melbourne  and  London  : 

WHITCOMBE    AND    TOMBS    LIMITED. 

1909. 


vD 


5-  s  C^7 


TO 

JOHN    MACMILLAN    BROWN 

AS    A    MEMORIAL 
OF    A    LONG     FRIENDSHIP. 


G73002 


PREFACE. 


It  was  once  suggested  to  Sir  George  Grey  that  he  should  write 
his  autobiography.  "Pah!"  he  exclaimed,  with  a  gesture  of 
disgust  at  the  thought  of  recalling  many  a  passage  in  his  past 
life  that  he  would  gladly  shroud  behind  a  veil  of  oblivion.  None 
the  less,  the  idea  struck  root  in  his  mind,  and,  when  his  public 
career  in  New  Zealand  seemed  to  be  brought  to  a  close  by  his 
retirement  from  the  Legislature,  it  germinated.  He  was  too 
indolent  to  write  about  himself,  but  he  was  at  all  times  eager 
to  have  things  written  about  him.  Who  more  worthy  to  write 
a  biography  of  him  that  should  be  virtually  an  autobiography 
than  the  friend  who  had  championed  his  cause  in  the  press? 
When  Sir  William  Fox,  who  had  opposed  Grey  during  a  long 
public  life,  on  the  platform  and  at  the  Colonial  Office,  in  the 
Legislature  and  in  the  press,  perverted  (as  Grey  deemed)  the 
story  of  Grey's  life,  it  was  Mr.  Rees  whom  Grey  employed  to 
state  what  he  considered  the  true  version  of  the  facts.  When, 
again,  a  military  officer  derided  Grey's  claim  to  have  diverted 
to  India  the  troops  sent  to  China  at  the  time  of  the  Indian 
mutiny,  it  was  the  same  valorous  defender,  who,  at  Grey's 
instance,  vindicated  the  pretension  of  the  old  High  Commis- 
sioner. Mr.  Rees's  relations  with  Sir  George  Grey  in  his  later 
years  were  of  the  most  intimate  character.  No  one  was  more 
conversant  with  his  affairs.  No  one  better  knew  his  mind 
on  all  subjects  of  a  public  nature.  No  one  had  rendered  him 
so  many  services.  Residing  now  in  the  same  city  with  the  old 
Governor.  Mr.  Rees  enjoyed  unequalled  opportunities  of 
hearing  the  whole  story  of  his  career,  at  least  as  it  appeared  to 
Grey.  Through  many  a  Sunday  afternoon  Grey  used  the 
privilege  of  old  age  and  talked  over  the  narrative  of  his  life,  as 
he  had  done  to  dozens  of  others. 

Written  by  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  New  Zealand,  Mr.  Rees's 
biography  could  not  be  otherwise  than  commendable.  Coming 
fresh,  in  large  part,  from  the  lips  of  Sir  George  Grey,  it  has 


Viii.  PREFACE 

an  authority  that  no  other  work  can  rival.  But  even  Mr. 
Rees  would  not  claim  that  it  is  an  impartial  biography.  He 
held  a  brief  for  Sir  George  Grey,  and  the  advocate  has  been 
thoroughly  loyal.  It  is  Grey's  presentation  of  his  own  case — 
with  his  facts,  his  sentiments,  his  vindication  of  himself.  But 
if  the  work  derives  authority  from  its  source,  it  also  loses  as 
much  as  it  gains.  An  old  senator  said  that  if  Grey  ever  wrote 
his  autobiography,  it  would  not  be  a  truthful  history.  For  the 
same  reason  Mr.  Rees's  biography  is  not  perfectly  veracious. 
Certain  pictures  are  too  highly  coloured;  the  account  of  Grej^'s 
refusal  to  bring  the  first  New  Zealand  constitution  into  opera- 
tion is,  like  other  accounts,  more  graphic  than  correct. 
Certain  facts  are  omitted.  Thus,  the  various  contentions 
between  Grey  and  the  Colonial  Office  in  South  Africa  are 
clearly  given,  but  many  of  the  facts  that  tell  against  Grey 
have  not  been  stated.  Not  all  of  the  differences  between  Grey 
and  his  Ministers  during  his  second  New  Zealand  term  have 
been  described.  Some,  too,  of  the  narratives  enchased  in  it  have 
a  romantic  colouring  that  must  be  derived  from  Sir  George 
Grey's  imagination.  Let  any  reader  compare  the  account  of 
the  Kafir  rising  in  Rees  with  an  account  of  it  in  a  later 
work,  and  he  will  wonder  whether  he  is  reading  about  the 
same  series  of  events. 

The  work  just  referred  to — Professor  Hendei-son's  Life  and 
Times  of  Sir  George  Grey — has  none  of  the  freshness  that  came 
to  Mr.  Rees  from  personal  knowledge  of  and  personal  inter- 
course with  Sir  George  Grey.  Its  judicial  character  gains  by 
the  drawback.  Evidence  of  bias  there  is  none.  All  the  more 
weight  therefore  attaches  to  the  author's  unsparing  judgment 
upon  the  Governor,  the  High  Commissioner,  the  Premier,  and 
the  man.  It  is  grounded  on  an  abundant  store  of  fresh 
materials.  Professor  Hendei'son  was  permitted  to  explore  the 
archives  of  South  Australia,  and  he  made  journeys  to  Western 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Cape  expressly  to  examine 
the  official  documents  in  these  colonies.  He  was  permitted  to 
read  the  private  letters  addressed  to  Grey  and  examine  Grey's 
literary  remains.  He  catechised  Grey's  contemporaries  in  South 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  South  Africa.  He  had  opportuni- 
ties of  reproducing  illuminative  maps.  From  these  new  sources 
fresh    light    emerges.      The    author    states    new    facts.      He 


PREFACE  IX. 


completely  vindicates  Grey's  right  to  spell  his  name  as  he 
did,  and  thus  clears  away  a  cloud  that  long  lay  on  his  reputation. 
Nothing  was  known  of  Grey's  early  schooling,  and  he  never 
spoke  of  it.  Professor  Henderson  supplies  the  lack,  and 
further  illuminates  Grey's  character  in  doing  so.  A  South 
Australian  resident  himself,  he  gives  a  lucid  and  full  account 
of  Grey's  dealings  with  the  blacks  in  South  Australia.  The 
processes  of  retrenchment  and  reconstruction  in  South  Aus- 
tralia, which  Mr.  Rees  had  reported  from  the  only  then-known 
source,  Mr.  Button's  useful  volume,  are  tirst  clearly  and 
comprehensively  described.  The  author  takes  an  independent 
view  of  controverted  questions.  He  takes  sides  with  Earl  Grey, 
defends  his  action  with  regard  to  the  uncultivated  Maori  lands, 
and  supports  his  view  that  Grey's  policy  in  breaking  doAvn  the 
authority  of  the  tribal  chiefs  in  both  New  Zealand  and  South 
Africa  was  a  disastrous  mistake.  Not  for  the  first  time  (for  his 
disclosure  was  anticipated  a  few  years  ago  by  an  English 
military  officer)  he  tells  the  naked  truth  about  the  taking  of 
Weraroa.  He  gives  what  appears  to  be  a  true  narrative  of  the 
Kafir  rising  in  1858  in  broad  contrast  to  the  romantic  and 
utterly  untrustworthy  account  of  the  series  of  events  given  by 
Mr.  Rees,  doubtless  from  Sir  George  Grey's  version  of  the  facts. 
It  shows  how  distorting  a  medium  Grey's  memory  had  become, 
when  prompted  by  a  glorifying  but  falsifying  imagination. 
Almost  the  most  important  chapters  consist  of  the  narrative  of 
Grey's  career  as  High  Commissioner  in  South  Africa.  His 
faults  and  errors  in  South  Africa  were  known  before;  indeed, 
Mr.  Rees  does  not  seek  to  disguise  them;  but  never  before  have 
Grey's  repeated  acts  of  insubordination  been  so  clearly  brought 
out  or  so  conclusively  sheeted  home  to  him. 

Of  equal  rank  with  these,  and  in  some  respects  possessing  a 
higher  authority,  as  history  is  higher  than  biography,  Mr.  G.  W. 
Rusden's  History  of  New  Zealand  is  indispensable  for  the  full 
understanding  of  the  two  long  periods  of  Grey's  governorships 
in  New  Zealand.  It  was  characterised  by  a  late  Lord  Derby 
as  a  model  colonial  history.  If  a  model  history  should  be 
impartial,  the  eulogy  is  ill  deserved.  The  work  is,  indeed,  a 
passionate  plaidoyer  on  behalf  of  the  Maori  race,  and  while  it 
exalts  the  philo-Maoris  of  New  Zealand  sometimes  beyond  their 
deserts,   it  does  scant  justice  to  those  colonial  Ministers  who 


X.  PREFACE 

deemed  the  rights  of  the  natives  secondary  to  the  interests  of  the 
present  and  future  white  inhabitants  of  New  Zealand.  But  if 
Mr.  Rusden  refuses  to  make  himself  the  spokesman  of  the  thirst 
of  expansion  in  a  conquering  race,  and  sometimes  leaves  out  of 
account  views  that  deserve  consideration,  he  can  seldom  be 
charged  with  perverting  facts.  He  has  many  weapons  in  his 
armoury.  One  piece  of  work  that  has  not  been  attempted  by 
anyone  else,  even  Professor  Henderson,  he  did  eminently  well; 
he  exhaustively  examined  the  despatches  in  the  Colonial  Office, 
London,  and  he  thus  brought  to  light  occurrences  that,  but  for 
his  scrutiny,  would  never  have  been  publicly  known.  He  also 
sought  the  acquaintance  of  men  who  had  taken  a  large  part  in 
the  events  he  described — especially  of  Grey,  who  obviously 
contributed  many  side-lights  to  the  picture.  Though  in  a  distant 
colon}',  the  historian  lived  through  the  events  he  described,  and 
his  narrative  bears  the  marks  of  the  vivid  realisation  that  belongs 
to  a  contemporary  of  more  than  ordinary  imagination. 

A  fourth  work  is  no  less  indispensable  to  the  biographer  of 
Grey.  Mr.  James  Drummond's  brilliant  and  copious  biography 
of  Mr.  Seddon  was  assuredly  not  written  with  the  object  of 
glorifying  Sir  George  Grey.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  conceived  in 
a  spirit  of  systematic  disparagement  of  the  Minister,  if  not  of 
the  man,  who  was  the  remote  founder  of  the  policy  Mr.  Seddon 
pursued  and  the  organizer  of  the  party  he  led.  But  it  furnishes 
an  animated  narrative  of  Grey's  career  as  Premier,  and  the 
student  of  the  New  Zealand  Hansard  through  the  whole  period 
when  Grey  was  a  colonial  legislator  will  acknowledge  its  fidelity 
to  truth.  It  also  throws  welcome  light  on  Grey's  relations  with 
Mr.  Seddon  after  Seddon  became  Premier. 

To  all  these  works,  but  especially  to  the  first  three,  the  present 
volume  is  deeply  indebted.  Without  the  indispensable  aid  they 
afford  it  could  not  have  been  written  as  it  is — ^portions  of  it, 
indeed,  could  not  have  been  written  at  all.  Critically  used,  they 
have  the  value  and  the  authority  of  historical  dociuiients. 

The  other  materials  for  the  biography  or  history  of  Grey  are 
voluminous.  In  1889  a  Bibliography  of  New  Zealand  by  the 
present  writer  was  published  at  the  Government  Printing  Office, 
Wellington.  It  contains  an  account  of  some  1200  books,  portions 
of  books,  review  and  magazine  articles,  and  pamphlets,  in  three 
languages,  relating  to  New  Zealand.     Every  one  of  these  that 


PREFACE  XI. 

was  accessible  was  minutely  examined  and  briefly  described. 
Naturally,  a  large  number  of  them  relate  to  Grey,  and  they  have 
been  of  use  in  throwing  light  on  various  parts  of  his  career.  To 
some  of  these  the  writer's  attention  was  drawn  by  Sir  George 

Grey. 

Of  still  greater  utility  have  been  found  the  impressions 
derived  from  personal  intercourse  with  the  illustrious  Governor 
and  the  information  about  himself  then  personally  communi- 
cated. He  was  a  delightful  companion,  and  during  weeks  of 
close  daily  association  so  long  ago  as  1884,  or  more  intermittent 
relations,  of  a  public  as  well  as  of  a  private  nature,  in  after- 
years,  he  unbosomed  as  much  of  himself  as  so  reticent  a  man 
was  wont  to  do.  For,  with  all  his  apparent  communicativeness, 
he  was,  or  was  supposed  to  be,  impenetrably  reserved.  The 
surface  of  his  mind  was  spread  out  before  you,  but  the  depths 
were,  it  at  first  seemed,  beyond  your  plummet's  sounding.  Just 
so  was  it  with  William  of  Orange.  He  who  was  so  voluble  in 
conversation,  and  always  ready  to  converse,  derived  his  sobriquet, 
not  from  his  silence,  but  from  his  speech.  That  flowed  out  on 
all  topics  without  baring  his  purposes  respecting  them,  or  even 
revealing  his  deepest  views  of  them.  Yet  there  almost  always 
comes  an  hour  when  William  the  Silent  or  Grey  the  Inscrutable, 
who  has  refused  to  yield  the  secrets  of  his  soul  to  the  picklock  or 
the  eavesdropper,  will  surprise  his  interlocutor  by  voluntarily 
and  unexpectedly,  with  a  completeness  that  leaves  nothing 
hidden,  laying  open  the  unsunned  caverns  and  unsounded 
depths  of  his  nature,  as  a  sudden  flash  of  lightning  illumines  a 
tract  of  darkness.  He  who  had  long  been  an  enigma  to  his 
colonial  contemporaries  and  a  problem  to  his  intimates  had  given 
up  his  secret.  The  heart  of  his  mystery  had  been  plucked  out. 
The  riddle  of  the  scornful  Sphinx  had  been  read. 

So,  at  least,  it  appeared  to  the  writer.  Seeing  much  of  Grey 
afterwards,  especially  in  public  scenes,  he  found  no  difficulty  in 
applying  his  discovery,  and  at  its  "open,  Sesame!"  the  unbarred 
gates  flew  apart.  Every  utterance  became  significant,  and  every 
action  charged  with  meaning.  The  following  work,  at  all  events, 
has  been  written  from  this  point  of  view.  If  not  always  or  often 
obtruded,  it  is  ever>'where  implied.  It  is  the  keynote  of  the 
book. 


Xll.  PREFACE 

With  many  of  the  former  friends  of  Grey  the  writer  was  also 
well  acquainted.  From  them — his  subordinates  in  the  old  days, 
his  colleagues  in  later  years — he  learnt  much  about  the  Governor 
and  the  Premier,  the  legislator  and  the  man. 

The  whole  story  of  a  life  so  full  and  so  varied  has  been  told  by 
none  of  his  biographers.  This  writer  omits  one  part  of  his 
career;  that  writer  ignores  another.  One  slurs  over  his  English 
residence  in  1868-69 ;  another  hastily  summarises  his  legislative 
and  Ministerial  activity  from  1874  to  1890.  Nor  in  the  present 
volume  will  all  be  found  narrated.  His  Superintendency  of 
Auckland  Province  remains  in  obscurity  because  there  are  no 
very  accessible  records  of  it,  and  his  colleagues  in  it  apparently 
do  not  care  to  recall  its  tenor.  His  amateur  science,  on  which 
he  plumed  himself,  was  too  unscientific,  supported  though  it  was 
by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  and  anticipated  by  an  earlier  savant,  to  be 
susceptible  of  exact  statement.  Even  with  these  excrescences 
lopped  off,  it  remains  a  very  great  career.  By  his  energy  and 
his  wisdom,  his  originalities  and  his  audacities,  he  rose,  head 
and  shoulders,  above  all  other  colonial  Governors,  before  him  or 
since.  He  will  ever  be  one  of  the  greatest  figures  in  the  colonial 
history  of  the  Empire. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

I.    His  Early  Life 
II.    The  Explorer 

III.  Governor  of  South  Australia 

IV.  Go\-eenor  of  New  Zealand  :  first  Term. 

The  Subjugation  of  the  Maoris    ... 

V.     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :   FIRST  TERM  {continued). 
The  Missionaries 

VI.    Governor  of  New  Zealand:  First  Term  {continued). 
A  Proposed  Political  Constitution 

VII.    Governor  of  New  Zealand:  first  Term  {cmtinued). 
Civilising  the  Maoris  ... 

VIII.    Governor  of  New  Zealand  :  First  Term  (continued,). 
The  Mythologist 

IX.     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :   FIRST  TERM  (cmitinued). 
Three  Colonising  Associations 

X.     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :  FIRST  TERM  {continued). 
The  New  Constitution 

XI.     GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :   FIRST  TERM  {continued). 
The  Churchman 

XII.     GO\'ERNOR  OF  NEW   ZEALAND  :  FIRST  TERM  {contimied). 
His  Departure 

XIII.  AN  Interlude 

XIV.  High  Commissioner  in  south  Africa. 

His  Native  Policy 

XV.    HIGH  Commissioner  in  south  Africa  {continued). 
The  German  Legion  ... 

XVI.     HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  {continued). 
A  South  African  Kingdom 

XVII.     HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  {continued). 
An  Episode 

XVIII.      HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  {continued). 
South  African  Federation 

XIX.      HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  :   SECOND  TERM. 
On  Sunium's  Heights 


PAGE 

1 

7 

18 

30 

42 

51 
59 
66 
70 

76 

8G 

90 
94 

96 

lOG 

111 

115 

122 

129 


XIV. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEB 

XX.    High  Commissioner  in  South  Africa  :  Second  Term 

(continued). 
The  Library  Founder 

XXI.    Governor  op  New  Zealand  :  Second  Term 

XXII.    an  English  Proxenos 

XXIII.  In  the  Desert 

XXIV.  AT  KAWAU     ... 

XXV.  Legislator  and  Premier 

XXVI.  In  Opposition 

XXVII.  Australia  Revisited  ... 

XXVIII.  His  Last  Years 

XXIX.    The    Man— Physical,    Intellectual,    Moral,    and 
Religious 


PAGE 

1.32 
137 
163 
167 
179 
182 
192 
204 
207 

211 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTEATIONS. 


Sir  George  Grey 
Henry  Williams 
Bishop  Selwyn 
Alfred  Domett 
Sir  Frederick  Weld 


Frontispiece 

86 
142 
166 


LIFE  OF  SIR  GEORGE  GREY. 


Chapter  I. 
HIS  EARLY  LIFE. 


Few  colonial  governors  have  excited  such  enthusiastic 
admiration  and  ardent  devotion  as  Sir  George  Grey ;  few 
have,  in  an  equal  degree,  aroused  passionate  hatred,  stern 
disapproval,  and  even  angry  contempt.    Now  that  these 
partial  feelings  have  passed  away,  a  historical  interest 
must  still  be  inspired  by  the  spectacle  of  his  governing 
force,  the  variety  of  the  stages  on  which  he  played  so 
considerable  a  part,  the  veiy  magnitude  of  his  errors,  and 
the  dramatic  vicissitudes  of  his  chequered  career.    To  his 
contemporaries  he  was  a  myth;  to  his  oldest  acquaint- 
ances his  character  was  a  mystery.    Like  many  a  greater 
and  many  a  lesser  man,  he  was  pronounced  ''inscrut- 
able."   Yet  few  have   sought,  to  few  have  been  given, 
more  opportunities  of  self-disclosure.     For  over  half-a- 
century  he  lived  in  the  public  eye.    His  acts  were  known 
to  all  the  world.    He  was  easy  of  approach  and  drove  none 
away.     His  conversation  was  largely  autobiographical. 
His  addresses  turned  on  his  ego  as  on  a  pivot,  and  even 
his  despatches  have  a  personal  flavour  rare  in  State  docu- 
ments.   As  if  apprehensive  of  posthumous  misconstruc- 
tion, he  took  care  that  the  story  of  his  life  should  be  told 
from  his   own   point   of  view.     Sixteen  years   ago   he 
authorised    the    publication    of    a    skilfully    composed 
biography,  so  evidently  inspired  by  the  subject  of  it  that 
it  may  be  accepted  as  his  apologia  pro  vita  sua.     Due 
allowance  being  made  for  the  distortions  produced  by  the 
illusions  of  old  age,  the  book  must  be  the  foundation  of 
all  study  of  his  character.     If,  with  this  central  blaze 


B 


2  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

and  so  many  collateral  lights,  that  character  remains  an 
enigma,  the  fault  is  surely  our  own.  At  all  events,  the 
problem  is  a  challenge.  We  believe  that  it  can  be  solved, 
and  in  the  process  of  solution  we  shall  be  brought  close 
to  a  remarkable  personality,  full  at  once  of  fascination, 
instruction,  and  warning. 

His  Ancestr*y. 

George  Grey  was  born  at  Lisbon  on  April  14,  1812. 
The  place  and  the  time  were  alike  significant.  His 
mother  was  one  of  a  group  of  wives  of  English  officers 
who  tarried  in  the  Portuguese  capital  while  their  husbands 
were  in  the  field.  Born  out  of  England,  George  Grey 
was  destined  to  spend  almost  all  the  years  of  his  manhood 
and  old  age  in  distant  lands.  The  place  was  prophetic. 
The  time  was  no  less  notable.  Genius  often  rises  in 
constellations,  and  the  year  of  the  great  governor's  birth 
was  that  also  of  a  great  poet,  Robert  Browning,  of  a 
great  chancellor.  Lord  Selborne,  of  a  great  humanist, 
Mark  Pattison,  of  a  great  apostate,  William  George 
Ward,  and  of  a  great  abolitionist,  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe, 
while  it  was  also  or  nearly  that  of  two  great  novelists, 
Thackeray  and  Dickens.  If  his  claim  to  Huguenot  descent 
through  his  mother  was  well-founded,  he  was  a  notable 
member  of  a  remarkable  group — the  Newmans,  the 
Martineaus,  the  Mialls,  Herbert  Spencer,  and  many 
others — through  whom  a  foreign  infusion  enriched  the 
public  life  and  the  culture  of  England.  Whether  a 
certain  disloyalty  of  character  of  which  we  shall  have 
more  to  say  may  be  justly  ascribed  to  the  Huguenot 
strain  in  his  blood,  it  would  be  hazardous  to  speculate. 
To  his  less  problematical  Irish  extraction  Grey  probably 
owed  the  winning  manner  that  made  him  liked  by  men 
and  adored  by  women,  and  the  eloquent  tongue  that  led 
all  hearts  captive.  The  vindictive  passions  that  played 
so  large  a  part  in  his  life  may  have  had  the  same  origin, 
or  they  may  have  been  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
imperious  temper  that  bore  him  to  eminence  and  was  also 
the  source  of  all  his  reverses. 


HIS  EAKLY  LIFE  S 

His  Patronymic. 

All  through  his  public  life  he  bore  the  name  of  Grey, 
but  he  was  believed  to  have  changed  it  from  the  common 
(and  Irish)  orthography,  Gray.  Many  men  have  changed 
their  names,  with  or  without  the  royal  license.  Grey 
himself  told  (with  evident  consciousness)  how  the  Duke 
of  Wellington's  family  transformed  the  democratic  Wes- 
ley into  the  aristocratic  Wellesley.  The  eminent  French 
Sinologue,  Noel  JuUien  (already  well-enough  named,  it 
might  seem)  surreptitiously  assumed  the  name  of  a 
deceased  elder  brother  and  was  ever  afterwards  known  to 
the  world  as  Stanislas  Jullien.  Others  have  pardonably 
substituted  an  unobjectionable  or  a  distinguished  for  an 
offensive  cognomen.  Others  still,  like  Richard  Hengist 
Home,  have  interpolated  an  imaginary  aggrandising 
name  between  their  Christian  and  their  surnames,  or 
redeemed  a  too  conmaon  name  by  interposing  a  real  but 
unused  baptismal  name.  Many  have  completely  changed 
the  appearance  of  their  names  by  turning  an  i  into  a  y 
or  appending  an  e.  Grey  would  therefore  have  had 
abundant  countenance  for  the  innovation  he  is  alleged  to 
have  made  in  the  orthography  of  his  patronymic.  While 
he  was  Governor  of  New  Zealand,  he  was  openly  charged 
with  having  so  altered  his  surname  as  to  suggest  that  he 
belonged  to  one  of  the  most  distinguished  aristocratic 
Whig  houses  of  last  century.  The  charge  exposed  him 
to  the  insults  of  the  scurrilous  pamphleteer,  who  publicly 
addressed  him  as  ''Sir  George  Gray."  After  he  was  in 
his  grave,  it  was  pitilessly  revived.  In  a  volume  of 
reminiscences  published  three  or  four  years  ago  Admiral 
Sir  George  Keppel  brought  it  again  to  life.  Some  years 
earlier  the  Senior  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
a  Gray  himself,  who  doubtless  felt  that  Sir  George  had 
deserted  the  Irish  clan  and  deprived  it  of  its  rightful 
share  in  its  fame,  repeated  the  accusation.  It  is  not  the 
least  of  Professor  Henderson's  services  to  the  memory 
of  a  great  man  that  to  this  malignant  fiction  he  has  dealt 
the  deathblow.  He  has  conclusively  proved  that  Grey 
had  every  possible  right  to  spell  the  name  as  he  did.  It 
was  the  orthography  of  his  father's  name.  In  a  despatch 
of  1812  the  Duke  of  Wellington  laments  the  death  at 


4  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Badajoz  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Grey.  In  a  letter  of  the 
year  1813  the  Duke  of  York  writes  to  Mrs.  Grey  of  her 
late  husband  as  ' '  Colonel  George  Grey. ' '  And  the  medal 
then  sent  to  her  by  the  Duke  bears  the  name,  Grey.  There 
was  therefore  no  need  for  the  son  to  throw  a  false  glamour 
over  his  personality  by  wearing  a  borrowed  plume.  In 
any  case,  it  is  false  to  assert  that  he  did  change  it.  All 
the  records  at  the  War  Office  show  that,  from  his 
seventeenth  year  onwards,  he  was  consistently  gazetted 
under,  and  that  he  himself  as  consistently  used,  the 
orthography  he  ever  afterwards  retained.  The  reflection 
the  whole  matter  suggests  is  that  he  must  have  borne 
much  in  silence.  When  he  was  falsely  charged  with  a 
petty  fraud,  he  might  have  produced  his  father's  medal, 
or  the  Duke  of  York's  letter,  or  pointed  to  the  Duke  of 
Wellington's  despatch,  or  referred  his  traducers  to  the 
archives  of  the  War  Office.  He  spoke  never  a  word,  and 
he  took  no  action.    Was  it  pride  or  contempt  ? 

Of  the  Grey  family  his  latest  biographer  states  that  it 
was  descended  from  Lord  Grey  of  Groby,  and  he  adds 
that  Sir  George  was  a  cousin  to  the  present  Earl  of  Stam- 
ford, who  bears  also  the  title  of  Lord  Grey  of  Groby. 
Sir  George  Grey  and  he  saw  much  of  one  another,  when 
the  future  Lord  Stamford  visited  New  Zealand  in  1886. 
At  that  time  Sir  George  said  that  Mr.  Grey  (as  he  then 
was)  claimed  relationship  with  him,  but  he  did  not  seem 
to  claim  it  liimself ,  or  at  least  he  spoke  lightly  of  it.  The 
connection  was  possibly  a  Highland  cousinship.  In  any 
case,  he  did  not  belong  to  the  Irish  Grays. 

He  was,  however,  of  Irish  blood,  though  not  necessarily 
a  Celt,  on  the  maternal  side.  His  mother  was  the 
daughter  of  an  Irish  clergyman  in  Westmeath,  the  Rev. 
John  Vignoles,  whose  name  betrays  his  French  origin. 
A  portrait  of  her  adorns  the  last  biography.  It  is  a 
pleasing  figure.  A  lady  truly,  handsome  and  refined 
in  appearance,  with  the  suggestion  of  much  beauty  of 
character.  From  her  he  must  have  inherited  some  of  his 
superior  qualities  of  mind  and  nature.  The  portrait  of 
the  father  expresses  native  strength,  as  his  life  betrayed 
ardent  courage.  We  have  evidently  got  far  on  the  way 
towards  explaining  the  peculiar  attributes  of  the  son. 


HIS  EAELY  LIFE 


His    Education. 

He  spoke  little  of  his  early  education,  and  little  is 
known  of  it.  Five  years  after  her  husband's  death,  his 
mother  had  married  again,  this  time  an  Irish  baronet, 
Sir  John  Thomas,  belonging  to  her  father's  parish — 
possibly  an  old  lover;  and  she  gave  him  a  step-brother, 
Sir  Godfrey  Thomas,  who  afterwards  lived  with  him  in 
South  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  and  step-sisters,  of 
whom  he  sometimes  spoke.  All  that  we  know  of  his 
early  schooling  is  that,  in  company  with  a  schoolmate, 
he  ran  away  from  the  school  at  Guildford,  in  Surrey, 
where  he  had  been  placed  by  his  parents,  and  returned 
to  their  home  at  Bournemouth.  It  is  apparently  the 
habitual  act  of  the  rebel.  Both  Lamennais  and  Herbert 
Spencer  fled  from  school;  and  was  not  Landor  a  rebel 
there?  Impatience  of  restraint  was  in  all  four  cases  at 
the  bottom  of  it,  and  in  all  four  the  boy,  as  thus  revealed, 
was  the  father  of  the  man.  In  Grey 's  case  the  age  is  not 
given,  but  he  must  have  been  about  thirteen  years  old. 
Herbert  Spencer,  on  his  flight,  was  of  the  same  age. 

As  a  consequence  of  his  defective  schooling,  his  educa- 
tion was  not  classical,  and  he  thus  missed  the  restraining 
influence  that  such  an  education  often  imparts.  In  later 
years,  indeed,  he  professed  to  have  some  knowledge  of 
the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  but  it  was  probably 
slight,  and  he  gave  little  evidence  of  being  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  Once,  I 
remember,  he  read  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  with  the 
object  of  ascertaining  certain  facts,  and  he  contributed 
to  a  New  Zealand  journal  in  1884  a  humorous  article, 
comparing  Carlyle's  account  of  his  own  and  his  wife's 
usage  at  the  hands  of  the  imperious  Lady  Ashburton 
with  Lucian's  account  of  the  domestic  philosophers  whom 
great  families  in  the  Roman  Empire  retained  as  members 
of  their  households,  as  in  the  eighteenth  century  French 
noble  families  kept  pet  abbes.  In  both  cases  it  was 
doubtless  translations  that  he  used. 

Designed  for  his  father's  profession,  he  was  enrolled 
at  the  military  college  at  Sandhurst  in  his  fifteenth  year, 
and  there  he  received  all  that  he  ever  acquired  of  the 


6  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

higher  education.  He  remained  there  for  three  years, 
till  1829,  when  he  entered  the  army.  In  1833,  after  he 
had  gained  a  lieutenancy,  he  returned  to  Sandhurst  for 
three  years  more  in  order  to  complete  his  military 
studies.  To  this  later  period,  perhaps,  rather  than  to  the 
earlier,  belong  his  acquisitions  in  "the  highest  branches 
of  mathematical  science, ' '  when  the  Board  of  Examiners 
desired  "to  mark  their  sense  of  his  superior  merits  and 
talents."  Then,  too,  it  probably  was  that  he  learnt  the 
German  language,  and  he  used  to  relate  that  he  and  many 
of  his  brother  cadets  busied  themselves  in  translating 
the  poems  of  Schiller.  At  Sandhurst  he  seems  to  have 
received  the  literary  and  scientific  bent  that  afterwards 
distinguished  him.  Plainly,  he  was  no  officer  of  the 
conventional  type — ignorant,  prejudiced,  perhaps  dissi- 
pated, lacking  broad  views  and  high  ends.  As  we  shall 
see,  the  purposes  of  a  lifetime  lay  germinating  in  his 
mind. 

His   Profession. 

At  the  end  of  his  first  period  at  Sandhurst,  in  1829, 
Grey  qualified  to  become  an  officer  by  passing  the 
examinations  with  special  distinction.  Next  year  he  was 
gazetted  an  ensign  and  was  appointed  to  the  83rd 
regiment.  He  accompanied  it  to  Glasgow  and  then  to 
Dublin.  In  both  cities  he  saw  things  that  made  an 
ineffaceable  impression  on  his  mind.  Seven  years  he 
remained  connected  with  the  army,  but,  in  those  days 
of  "the  forty  years'  peace,"  without  ever  seeing  active 
service.  In  1833  he  was  made  a  lieutenant.  In  1839  he 
was  raised  to  the  rank  of  captain,  but  rather  as  a 
compliment  to  the  explorer  than  as  a  step  upwards  in 
military  rank.  At  the  end  of  the  same  year,  having  been 
appointed  Governor  of  South  Australia,  he  sold  his 
commission,  but  his  connection  with  the  army  had  been 
virtually  dissolved  in  1837.  A  very  different  career  was 
to  be  opened  up  to  him.  In  that  year  he  was  appointed 
commander  of  an  expedition  sent  out  by  the  Colonial 
Office  to  explore  the  coasts  of  Western  and  North- 
Western  Australia. 


Chapter  II. 

IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA. 

The  Explorer. 

The  new  appointment  was  no  windfall.  It  is  not  the 
way  of  a  Government  department,  and  it  was  least  of 
all  the  way  of  the  Colonial  Office  as  it  was  then  managed, 
to  make  new  departures.  The  undertaking  was  initiated  in 
Adelaide,  which,  with  a  vast  unoccupied  territory  behind 
it,  should  have  needed  no  new  worlds  to  conquer.  By 
some  chance  that  very  wide-awake  young  man, 
Lieutenant  George  Grey,  thirsting  for  adventure  and 
fame  to  be  reaped  from  it,  heard  of  the  proposal,  and 
induced  a  brother  lieutenant,  belonging  to  the  well-known 
Lushington  family,  to  make  a  joint  offer  of  their  services 
as  explorers  to  the  Colonial  Office.  The  Royal  Geographi- 
cal Society  gave  weight  to  the  proposal  by  earnestly 
commending  it,  and  the  Department  decided  to  accept  the 
offer.  The  chance  of  a  lifetime  had  come,  and  the  future 
Governor  lay  in  embryo  in  that  offer  and  its  acceptance. 

Grey  was  never  a  man  to  lie  on  his  oars.  Doubtless, 
he  gave  the  authorities  no  rest  till  the  expedition  was 
under  weigh.  One  omen  was  favourable.  Sailing  from 
Plymouth  on  July  5, 1837,  the  exploring  party  was  carried 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  one  of  the  men-of-war,  the 
Beagle,  in  which  Darwin  had  made  a  remarkable  voyage, 
when  it  was  commanded  by  that Capt.FitzRoy,  who  was  to 
be  Grey's  predecessor  in  governing  New  Zealand.  It  was 
a  small  party,  as  was  the  rule  in  those  days,  and  only  one 
of  its  members  was  acquainted  with  Australia.  There 
was  therefore  a  plentiful  lack  of  experience,  but  there 
was  no  lack  of  enthusiasm  or  earnestness,  of  courage 
or  energy,  on  the  part  of  the  leaders,  or  rather  of  the 
leader.  For,  whether  from  want  of  self-assertion  on  his 
part,  or  from  the  monopoly  of  the  leadership  claimed  by 
Grey,  Lieutenant  Lushington  early  falls  into  the 
background.  Grey  was  already,  as  he  was  to  be  through 
life,  the  king  of  his  company. 


8  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

The  ostensible  object  of  the  journey  was  geographical. 
It  was  to  ascertain  whether  a  large  river  fell  into  the  sea 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dampier's  Archipelago.  The 
secondary,  but  far  the  more  important,  object  was  to 
discover  a  tract  of  country  where  an  agricultural  colony 
might  be  settled.  Disembarking  from  the  Beagle  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Grey  there  hired  a  schooner,  the 
Lynher,  that  took  him  direct  to  the  scene  of  his  future 
explorations.  On  December  3,  1837,  the  party  landed 
at  Hanover  Bay,  in  the  far  north-west,  which  he  had  fixed 
upon  as  a  base  of  operations. 

There  he  lingered  for  a  month.  Then  he  advanced  in 
a  due  southerly  direction  till,  on  March  the  2nd,  there 
burst  on  his  sight  '^a  noble  river,"  which  he  named  the 
Glenelg,  after  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies.  Travelling 
up  its  right  bank,  he  now  struck  eastwards;  he  next, 
following  the  course  of  the  river,  diverged  to  the  south, 
where  he  was  arrested,  apparently  close  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Glenelg,  by  the  want  of  provisions.  Lieutenant 
Lushington,  however,  pushed  on  to  a  more  southerly 
point,  crossing  many  a  stream  by  the  way.  He  surpassed 
his  leader,  and  was  rewarded  by  being  ignored. 

Little  more  than  three  months  later,  after  losing  many 
of  his  ponies  and  some  of  his  dogs,  after  an  encounter 
with  the  natives  that  resulted  in  the  spearing  of  the 
leader,  after  planting  the  seeds  and  letting  loose  the 
animals  he  had  brought  with  him.  Grey  returned  to  his 
encampment  in  Hanover  Bay.  He  had,  indeed,  discovered 
a  large  stream,  but  he  had  failed  to  discover  any  such 
great  river  as  he  believed  must  exist.  He  sailed  in  the 
Lynher  for  Mauritius,  where  he  recruited,  and  then  he 
returned  to  Western  Australia  in  September,  1838,  with 
the  intention  of  resuming  his  quest. 

Had  he  given  the  Secretary  of  State  time  to  examine 
and  acknowledge  his  despatch  (a  long  time,  it  must  be 
admitted,  was  required  in  those  days).  Grey  would  never 
have  started  on  his  second  journey  of  exploration. 
Having  read  his  narrative  and  fully  considered  his 
recommendations.  Lord  Glenelg  had  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  tracts  Grey  had  discovered  were  unsuited 


IN  WESTEBN"  AUSTRALIA  » 

for  colonisation,  and  as  he  evidently  believed  that  no 
other  suitable  districts  would  be  found  in  that  country, 
he  desired  that  Grey  should  discontinue  his  exploration. 
It  was  his  first  condemnation  and  virtually  his  first 
recall. 

But  it  was  too  late.  Plainly  assuming  that  he  had 
received  carte  blanche  to  pursue  his  researches,  so  long 
at  least  as  the  object  of  them  was  not  gained,  he  left 
Fremantle  early  in  the  following  year  on  a  second 
exploring  journey  before  he  received  Lord  Glenelg's 
despatch.  He  was  landed  at  Bernier  Island  on  February 
25, 1839.  Less  than  two  months  later  they  reached  Perth. 
We  need  not  recite  the  vicissitudes  of  the  short  journey. 
They  were  those  of  all  explorers.  Forgetting  that  he  was 
on  the  stormy  west  coast,  Grey  committed  the  imprudence 
of  burying  his  stores  within  reach  of  the  sea.  They  were 
destroyed  by  a  storm.  This  error  of  judgment  ruined 
the  expedition.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  return 
by  the  most  direct  route.  They  rowed  down  the  coast, 
but  were  cast  ashore  and  virtually  wrecked  at 
Gantheaume  Bay,  300  miles  distant  from  Perth.  The 
story  of  the  journey  thither  is  one  of  the  most  ghastly 
in  the  annals  of  travel.  Grey  lost  command  of  his 
followers,  who  refused  to  adhere  to  his  plan  of  long 
journeys  and  few  rests,  necessitated  by  the  almost  total 
loss  of  their  provisions.  The  small  party  split  into  two. 
Grey  went  on  with  one  division  of  six  men.  All  suffered 
intensely  from  hunger  and  thirst.  They  toiled  on  with 
blistered  and  bleeding  feet  and  enfeebled  frames.  On 
April  21  they  reached  Perth.  Grey  presented  himself  to 
the  Governor,  who  did  not  recognise  him.  Acquaintances 
who  had  seen  him  only  two  months  before  passed  him  on 
the  street.  We  are  reminded  of  Wordsworth's  portrait 
of  Coleridge,  when  he  returned  to  his  home  at  the  Lakes 
after  one  of  his  moonstruck,  opium-eating  absences. 

"  Ah  !  piteous  sight  it  was  to  see  this  man 
When  he  came  back  to  us  a  withered  flower,— 
Or  like  a  sinful  creature,  pale  and  wan."* 


•  Mr.  F.  W.  Myors  strangely  sniiposcs  Worclsworth'B  linos  to  refer  to  the  poet  hlm- 
aell.    See  his  volume  on  Wordsworth,  p.  178. 


10  LIFE  OF  SIR  GEORGE  GREY 

Of  the  five  individuals  composing  the  second  division 
of  the  party  one  had  died,  and  the  others  were  found, 
by  a  relieving  party  from  Perth,  in  the  last  stage  of 
exhaustion. 

It  was  in  many  ways  a  memorable  journey.  All  the 
strength  and  all  the  resourcefulness  of  the  leader  were 
called  into  play.  Hardships  and  dangers  of  every  kind 
were  faced.  Death  in  many  forms  was  encountered.  The 
historian  of  Australian  discovery,  William  Howitt,  indeed 
says  that  perhaps  no  journeys  of  exploration  "have 
exceeded  it  in  amount  of  disaster  and  personal 
suffering"— surely  with  some  exaggeration.  It  was  not 
to  be  compared  with  Sturt's  exploration  of  the  Murrum- 
bidgee  district,  when  the  return  voyage  up  the  Murray 
occupied  three  months,  and  the  leader,  amid  incredible 
exertions  and  privations,  lost  his  ej^esight,  and  one  of 
the  party  lost  his  reason.  Nor  will  it  compare  in  this 
respect  with  the  expedition  of  Burke  and  Wills  across 
the  Continent. 

The  geographical  results  of  the  two  journeys  were  more 
contestable.  Grey  himself  claimed  to  have  discovered 
eleven  rivers,  which  Captain  Stokes  afterwards  reduced 
by  one,  affirming  that  Grey  had  mistaken  a  river  seen  at 
two  different  places  for  two  rivers;  but  none  of  them  was 
of  great  magnitude.  He  also  claimed  to  have  discovered 
two  extensive  mountain  ranges,  which  he  judiciously 
named,  after  the  permanent  Under-Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  and  the  leading  English  geologist,  the  Stephen 
and  the  Lyell  ranges.  And,  what  was  of  far  greater 
utility,  he  professed  to  have  found  three  extensive  tracts 
of  good  country.  The  Gascoyne  district  in  Western 
Australia,  as  he  named  it  after  his  friend  Captain 
Gascoyne,  was  ''most  fertile."  The  rich  alluvial  soil 
of  the  north-western  tracts  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Glenelg  was  "well  adapted  for  either  agricultural  or 
pastoral  purposes,  but  especially  for  the  growth  of  cotton 
and  sugar."  Carried  away  by  his  imagination,  he  saw 
in  a  vision  thriving  settlements  and  great  cities  arise  on 
it.  The  fact  that  Grey  and  his  party  nearly  died  of 
starvation   in   or   near   that   fertile   district   is  nothing 


IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  11 

against  the  truth  of  his  description.  Sturt  almost 
perished  of  starvation  in  what  afterwards  proved  to  be 
one  of  the  most  fertile  districts  of  New  South  Wales. 
To  the  last  Grey  maintained  that  it  was  well  suited  for 
colonisation,  and  it  was  chiefly  to  find  such  a  tract  that 
(he  afterwards  stated)  he  undertook  the  exploration  of 
the  country. 

He  had  to  undergo  the  humiliating  experience  of 
having  his  work  reviewed  by  an  expert  within  three  years 
of  its  accomplishment.  Doubting  the  truth  of  Grey's 
sanguine  report  on  the  district  to  the  north  of  Perth,  as 
Lord  Glenelg  had  doubted  the  trustworthiness  of  his 
report  on  the  Glenelg  district  in  the  far  north,  the 
authorities  commissioned  Captain  Stokes  of  the  Beagle 
to  ascertain  whether  the  country  was  really  suited  for  the 
site  of  a  projected  settlement.  Stokes's  report  was 
unsparing  in  its  condemnation.  The  fertile  tracts  Grey 
described  did  not  exist.  Two  of  his  rivers  were  only  one. 
His  maps  were  incorrectly  drawn,  and  in  general  his 
report  was  grossly  misleading.  Stokes  could  hardly 
believe  that  anyone  should  be  so  reckless  as  to  seek  to 
induce  emigrants  to  settle  in  a  desert  that  was  '^abso- 
lutely a  mass  of  bare  ironstone."  It  was  wholly  unfit 
for  settlement,  being  deficient  in  building  wood,  in  water, 
and  in  grass. 

An  official  vindication  of  the  young  explorer  was  soon 
made.  Ten  years  after  Grey,  Assistant  Surveyor- 
General  Gregory  traversed  that  very  district,  lying 
between  Shark's  Bay  and  Perth,  and  reported  favourably 
of  it.  Till  then  public  opinion,  moulded  doubtless  by 
Stokes,  had  been  adverse  to  Grey.  Many  years  later,  in 
1891,  the  special  correspondent  of  a  London  journal 
wrote  of  the  valleys  described  by  Grey  as  ''the  famous 
Greenough  Flats,  which  the  Agricultural  Commission 
class  among  the  richest  agricultural  land  in  all  Aus- 
tralia." Still,  we  cannot  help  remembering  that,  after 
a  lapse  of  seventy  years,  the  cities  ''teeming  with 
;  inhabitants  and  produce"  have  not  arisen  or  suspecting 
1         that  they  will   never   arise.     Almost  fifty  years   after 


12  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Grey's  exploration  was  made,  tlie  best  that  another  naval 
officer,  Commodore  Coghlan,  can  say  for  the  territory 
is  that  ''Gascoyne  is  comparatively  a  flourishing  place." 
It  is  a  distributing  and  receiving  centre  for  sheep 
stations,  ''some  of  which  are  as  far  back  as  400  miles 
from  the  coast."  Steamers,  too,  call  frequently,  but  we 
observe  that  the  men  and  stores  they  carry  are  en  route 
for  the  Kimberley  goldfields.  Much  of  the  land  (says  a 
new  writer)  has  been  found  to  be  adapted  for  pasture  and 
agriculture,  and  the  better  portions  of  it  have  lately 
been  sold  at  fairly  high  rates. 

A  recent  account,  given  in  November,  1907,  by 
one  who  is  evidently  well  acquainted  with  the 
northern  country  traversed  in  part  by  Grey,  is  not 
unfavourable.  The  valleys  of  the  rivers  he 
discovered  and  named  are  now  occupied  by  squatters. 
Millions  of  grass-covered  acres  are  now  grazed 
over  by  millions  of  cattle  and  sheep,  which  are 
yearly  encroaching  on  the  preserves  of  the  wallaby  and 
the  kangaroo.  From  Gascoyne  and  other  ports  Singapore 
boats  carry  thousands  of  skins,  while  sheep  and  cattle  in 
thousands  are  sent  to  Fremantle.  Sun-tanned  teamsters 
cart  bales  of  wool  a  hundred — perhaps  hundreds  of — 
miles,  and  ' '  the  wiry  brown-skinned  Malays  sweat  freely 
as  they  transfer  the  wool  to  the  waiting  steamers."  A 
mere  handful  of  whites — squatters  cramped  in  Victoria, 
overlanders  from  Queensland,  and  farmers  from  the 
banks  of  the  Swan  Eiver — commandeering  the  services 
of  the  blacks  and  the  browns,  wrought  the  transforma- 
tion. Between  the  tropic  of  Capricorn  and  the  equator, 
the  climate  is  too  enervating  for  all  but  the  most  robust. 
The  country  will  never  be  occupied  by  the  crowded 
cities  which  the  sanguine  imagination  of  Grey  foresaw 
in  a  vision. 

The  historian  of  exploration  in  Australia,  Mr.  Ernest 
Favenc,  estimates  that  the  geographical  results  of  the  two 
journeys  were  meagre,  and  the  historian  of  colonisation 
will  make  a  similar  affirmation.  In  no  sense  were  they 
epoch-making. 


IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  13 

The  Resident. 

In  a  few  months  misfortunes  had  heaped  themselves 
upon  him,  and  he  had  come  out  of  the  ordeal  with  his 
powers  of  physical  and  moral  endurance  strengthened. 
Fortune  still  stood  by  him.  As  if  publicly  designating 
him  for  his  future  functions,  she  put  it  in  the  heart  of  the 
Governor  of  Western  Australia  to  appoint  him  Eesident 
at  King  George's  Sound  in  the  South- Western  division 
of  the  Colony.  He  there  succeeded  Captain  (afterwards 
Admiral  Sir)  Eichard  Spencer,  whose  daughter  he  was 
afterwards  to  marry,  and  probably  the  two  events  were 
connected  as  cause  and  consequence.  It  was  at  once  the 
real  start  of  his  career  as  a  colonial  governor  and  the 
source  of  a  lifelong  subsequent  grief;  so  closely  do  our 
joys  and  sorrows  nestle  together. 

His  duties  in  a  still  uncolonised  district,  concerned 
the  government  of  the  natives.  Grey  already  held 
pronounced  views  on  the  subject.  His  sympathies  with 
the  so-called  lower  races  were  strong.  During  his 
journeys  of  exploration  his  humanity  to  the  blacks  had 
been  conspicuous.  He  was  now  to  carry  his  theories  into 
practice.  As  a  boy  or,  indeed,  a  man  suffering  from  what 
physiologists  term  muscular  irritability  can  be  kept  out 
of  mischief  only  by  being  given  something  to  do,  so  is  it 
with  savages,  who  are  only '' children  of  a  larger  growth." 
Grey  set  his  savages  to  work  at  road-making,  and,  paying 
them  at  (for  savages)  the  high  rate  of  eighteen  pence 
a  day,  he  seems  to  have  got  something  like  continuous 
labour  out  of  them.  Two  things  puzzle  one.  How  long 
was  he  able  to  carry  out  an  experiment  that  has  failed  in 
so  many  countries,  where,  as  at  the  South  African  gold- 
diggings,  the  savage  is  afflicted  with  incurable 
indolence?  At  this  day,  in  the  very  country  which 
Grey  explored,  the  blacks  are  so  incapable  of  con- 
tinuous labour  that  they  can  hardly  be  got  to 
work  save  at  the  crack  of  the  whip,  and  most  of 
the  complaints  that  have  excited  the  indignation  of  the 
humanitarians  have  arisen  out  of  this  inability.  Next, 
what  did  Grey's  blacks  do  with  their  eighteen  pence?  In 
North-Western     Australia,    at    the    present    day,    they 


14  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

promptly  part  with  their  money  for  tobacco  and  gin,  and 
the  practice  of  paying  them  in  coin  has  been  disused. 
Grey  claimed  that  the  experiment  was  completely 
successful,  and  he  made  it  the  text  of  a  special  report  to 
the  Colonial  Office  on  the  method  of  dealing  with 
uncivilised  races.  He  was  already  occupied  with  the 
subjects  that  were  to  engross  his  attention  in  future  years. 
We  are  reminded  of  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  who,  when 
in  military  service  in  India,  sent  long  reports  to  the 
East  India  Company  in  London  on  the  government  of 
its  dependency. 

In  his  report  Grey  laid  down  two  principles,  both 
notable  in  themselves  and  remarkable  as  having  been 
carried  out  by  Grey  himself  in  South  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  and  South  Africa.  First,  the  Australian  blacks 
must  be  recognised  and  treated  as  British  subjects  in  the 
fullest  sense.  District  residents  should  be  appointed, 
who  should  protect  the  blacks  against  their  fellows  and 
even  against  their  own  customs,  which  were  to  be 
superseded  by  British  laws,  wherever  these  could  be 
applied.  As  afterwards  in  New  Zealand,  counsel  should 
be  retained  by  Government  to  defend  them.  Next,  the 
blacks  should  be  educated  and  trained  in  habits  of  regular 
industry.  Grey  was  himself  his  own  ideal  resident  and 
industrial  captain. 

The  Philologist. 

In  pursuance  of  instructions  received  from  the  Colonial 
Office,  Grey  paid  particular  attention  to  the  manners  and 
custom  of  the  natives  and  also  to  their  language.  While 
he  resided  in  King  George's  Sound,  he  made  a  careful 
study  of  the  dialect  spoken  by  the  aborigines  of  the 
South-Western  district.  He  there  compiled  a  brief 
vocabulary  of  it,  which  contains  over  120  words,  and  he 
prefixed  to  it  a  synopsis  of  the  grammar.  The  compiler 
of  that  small  vocabulary  and  the  author  of  that  slight 
grammatical  sketch  had  in  him  the  makings  of  a 
philologist.  His  arguments  for  the  unity  of  the  tongues, 
as  dialects  of  a  single  language,  spoken  in  different  parts 
of  the  country  reveal  a  keen  perception  of  linguistic 


IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  15 

principles.  In  that  vocabulary,  too,  we  may  trace  his 
discovery  of  the  existence  of  ancestor-worship  among  the 
Western  Australians,  as  shown  by  the  use  of  the  word, 
djanga,  spirits  of  the  dead.  He  little  knew  the  scope  of 
the  discovery,  but  he  dimly  realised  the  importance  of 
another  discovery  in  the  use  of  the  word,  kohong,  meaning 
the  vegetable  or  animal  totem  of  a  clan.  At  two 
important  points  the  young  explorer  had  driven  a  wedge 
into  the  deepest  mysteries  of  Anthropology.  Of  the  tiny 
volume  he  says  that  the  materials  for  it  were  collated  in 
London  by  his  friend,  Captain  Gascoyne.  Yet  he  states 
that  the  first  edition  of  the  volume,  which  must  have  been 
seen  through  the  press  by  himself,  was  published  at 
Perth,  in  Western  Australia,  in  1839.  AVhat  other 
"collation"  did  it  needf  It  was  not  his  first  essay  in 
Philology.  While  tarrying  at  Teneriffe,  on  his  way  out 
to  Western  Australia,  he  is  alleged,  or  he  himself  claimed, 
to  have  "collated"  the  vocabulary  of  the  extinct 
Guanches.  Had  he  really  done  as  much,  he  would  have 
emulated  the  achievement  of  Zeuss,  in  his  Grammatica 
Celtica,  at  least  in  respect  of  a  single  language.  Doubt- 
less, all  that  he  did  was  to  pick  up  a  few  obviously 
ancient  words  in  the  language  spoken  by  the  present 
inhabitants  of  the  isle. 

As  Grey  was  not  the  first  to  compile  a  vocabulary  of 
the  Australian  language,  so  was  he  followed  almost 
immediately  by  a  more  thorough  inquirer.  Mr.  George 
Fletcher  Moore,  judge-advocate  and  afterwards  judge 
in  Western  Australia,  states  that  his  own  vocabulary  is 
founded  on  that  of  Captain  Grey,  but  is  in  a  much 
enlarged  form  and  on  a  more  comprehensive  plan. 
There  are  hundreds  of  new  words,  and  the  significations 
are  more  copious.  While  Grey's  extends  over  only  a 
few  tiny  pages,  Moore's  corresponding  part  fills  84 
octavo  pages.  He  pays  a  deserved  tribute  to  Grey's 
small  vocabulary,  and  says  that,  without  it,  his  own  might 
never  have  been  undertaken.  It  is  no  small  compliment 
to  Grey  that  he  laid  the  foundations  of  West  Australian 
philology.  The  second  edition  of  Grey's  book  differs  from 
the  pamphlet-form  of  it  by  containing  some  words 
peculiar  to  the  dialect  of  King  George's  Sound. 


16  LIFE   OF   SIB   GEORGE   GEEY 

The  Anthropologist. 

While  he  was  still  resident  at  Albany  he  must  have 
commenced  the  record  of  his  travels  that  was  published 
in  1841  under  the  title  of  Journals  of  Discovery  and 
Exploration  in  Western  and  North-Western  Australia. 
It  forms  two  substantial  octavo  volumes  that  rise  much 
above  ordinary  works  of  travel  in  literary  merit  and  still 
further  transcend  them  in  scientific  importance.  There 
are  passages  in  it,  such  as  the  description  of  the  flight 
of  the  albatross,  that  remain  in  the  memory  after  twenty 
years.  The  style  is  at  once  simple  and  rhythmical, 
revealing  a  vein  of  poetry  that  lay  deep  in  him.  There 
is  also  much  incidental  matter  that  must  have  been  novel. 
There  is  an  account  of  a  class  new  in  history — the  over- 
landers,  or  capitalist  drovers,  who  took  great  herds  of 
cattle  across  the  Australian  continent,  founding 
settlements  as  they  passed,  their  adventurous  lives,  the 
magnitude  of  their  operations,  and  the  fortunes  they 
risked.  There  are  striking  reflections,  that  are  almost 
in  advance  of  his  age,  on  "the  laws  of  the  progress  of 
civilisation."  This  young  man  of  twenty-nine,  so  long 
ago  as  1841,  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  these 
sociological  laws,  as  we  now  term  them,  are  "as  certain 
and  as  definite  as  those  controlling  the  movements  of 
the  heavenly  bodies,"  and  can  equally  "be  stated  and 
reduced  to  order."  He  makes  no  attempt  to  state  them, 
saying  that  the  limits  of  his  inquiry  confine  him  to  the 
conditions  of  a  particular  savage  race. 

In  the  second  volume  of  the  work  he  addresses  himself 
largely  to  the  theme.  One-half  of  the  volume  (chs.  ix-xviii) 
is  occupied  with  the  natural  history  of  Western  Australia 
and  the  social  structure  of  the  blacks.  He  describes  the 
cave-paintings  he  discovered  in  the  far  north.  He 
resumes  and  completes  the  inquiry  into  the  identity  of  the 
various  dialects.  But  by  far  the  most  remarkable  part 
is  that  where  he  describes  the  marriage  laws  of  the 
natives  and  their  consequent  complicated  relationships. 
With  no  help  from  books,  and  only  naked  savages  to 
question,  the  sagacity  of  the  young  explorer  seized,  as 
it  were,  instinctively  the  two  main  characteristics  of  the 


IN"  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  17 

primitive  family  on  which  McLennan  has  built  up  the 
one  department  of  Sociology  that  has  attained  scientific 
rank: — 1.  Children  take  the  family  name  of  their  mother. 
2.  A  man  cannot  marry  a  woman  of  his  own  family  name. 
He  very  justly  compares  these  marriage  laws  with  those 
in  use  among  the  North  American  Indians  and  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews.  Grey  seems  to  have  been  the  first, 
in  England  at  all  events,  to  signalise  these  two  great  laws. 
They  were  nothing  less  than  discoveries,  and  they  deserve 
to  rank  with  discoveries  in  the  physical  sciences.  He 
himself  claimed  that  they  were  the  beginning  of  all  the 
speculation  and  research  that  has  since  been  lavished  on 
these  problems.  Those  interesting  volumes  may  have 
been  little  read  by  the  sociologists  who  as  yet  hardly 
existed.  But  these  prime  features  of  savage  life  were 
doubtless  singled  out  by  the  reviewers  who  then,  like 
Southey,  threw  themselves  upon  every  fresh  work  of 
importance,  and  they  may  have  dropped  their  seed  into 
the  minds  of  inquirers.  The  theme  was,  at  all  events, 
taken  up  by  John  McLennan,  whose  speculations  can  be 
directly  connected  with  the  lines  so  clearly  and  precisely 
laid  down  by  Grey.  All  subsequent  research  on  this 
subject  descends  from  McLennan.  Grey  is  therefore,  as 
he  claimed,  the  originator  of  the  inquiry. 

The  chief  results  of  his  explorations  in  Western 
Australia  and  his  official  residence  in  South- Western 
Australia  were  personal  to  himself.  There  he  served  his 
apprenticeship  to  a  long  and  distinguished  career.  There 
he  first  gave  promise  of  the  high  qualities — courage, 
resource,  endurance — he  was  afterwards  to  display  on 
a  wider  field.  There  he  learnt  to  manipulate  a  native 
race,  and  showed  himself  to  be  exactly  what  such  a  race 
wants — at  once  sympathetic  and  despotic.  There,  in  the 
toils  and  dangers  of  exploring  a  savage  country,  was 
fashioned  the  indomitable  will  that  was  to  be  his  surest 
ally.  There,  too,  he  commended  himself  to  the  great 
department  of  State  which  was  to  employ  him  for  thirty 
years  almost  without  a  break,  and  which  was  to  prove 
more  faithful  to  him  than  he  ever  was  to  it.  The  Colonial 
Office  had  found  its  man. 


Chapter  III. 

GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA. 

Capable  Governors  were  scarce  in  those  days,  when 
young  colonies  were  to  be  guided  through  the  perils  of 
infancy.  The  Governor  of  a  colony,  then  at  six  months' 
distance  from  the  Motherland,  and  (the  time  required 
for  a  reply  being  considered)  at  twelve  months'  distance 
from  the  Colonial  Office,  was  practically  absolute.  If 
he  was  bold  and  went  far,  he  offended  his  superiors  at 
Home ;  if  he  was  timid  or  weak,  he  brought  the  colony  to 
an  impasse.  The  type  of  Governor,  at  once  strong  and 
judicious,  wanted  for  colonies  that  were  on  their  way 
to  becoming  self-governing  communities  was  still  to  be 
created,  and  it  was  gradually  evolved  in  the  forties, 
fifties,  and  sixties;  for  the  Crown-appointed  Governors 
of  the  North  American  colonies  in  the  seventeenth 
century  belonged  to  a  different  order.  Grey  was  perhaps 
the  most  finished  specimen  of  colonial  Governor  the 
evolutionary  process  was  to  produce,  and  yet,  as  will  be 
all  too  plainly  shown,  he  was  in  course  of  time  to 
disappoint  and  exasperate  the  department  that  long 
trusted  him  so  implicitly. 

Two  Autocrats. 

He  had  made  friends  with  ''the  mammon  of 
unrighteousness"  by  christening  Mount  Stephen  in 
Western  Australia  after  the  permanent  Under-Secretary 
for  the  Colonies,  and  Stephen  stood  his  friend 
as  long  as  he  remained  at  the  Colonial  Office. 
Stephen  was  one  of  two  notable  personalities  who 
then  ruled  the  great  department.  Sir  Henry 
Taylor  was  known  to  cultured  readers  as  a  dis- 
tinguished dramatic  poet  (he  was  the  author  of  Philip 
van  Artevelde  and  The  Virgin  Widotu)  and  a  political 
philosopher  whose  natural  sagacity  had  been  instructed 

18 


GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  19 

by  his  conversance  with  great  affairs,  and  embedded  in 
a  volume  that  was  rather  ambitious  than  pretentious 
called   The  Statesman;   he   was   known   to   fashionable 
society  as  consummate  man  of  the  world;  and  to  a  very 
few  he  was  known  as  one  of  the  high  officers  of  the 
Colonial  Office.     Taylor  virtually  governed  the  "sugar- 
colonies,"  and  how  powerful  a  mere  clerk  in  the  depart- 
ment, bearing  no  specific  designation,  could  be,  may  be 
learnt   from   his   Autohiogra'phy,  which   contains   many 
revelations.     Still  more  interesting  would  have  proved, 
had   it    ever   been   written,    the    autobiography   of   his 
colleague.  Sir  James  Stephen,  the  real  ruler  of  the  future 
self-governing  colonies  from  1835  to  1847.*     He  is  best 
known  in  literature  as  the  author  of  Essays  in  Ecclesi- 
astical Biography,  contributed  to  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
which    are   remarkable    equally    for    their    evangelical 
fervour  and  their  sonorous  diction,  smelling  of  the  State 
paper  and  the  despatch-writer.    Carlyle,  conversing  with 
Gavan    Duffy,    doubted    their    sincerity,    alleging    that 
Stephen  had  no  thought  of  leading  such  a  life  as  he  there 
described,  and  at  the  same  time  etching  a  vivid  portrait 
of  the  writer  as  an  official.     Each  successive  Secretary 
of  State  came  into  office,  resolving  that  he  would  shake 
off  the  thraldom  of  the  permanent  heads  of  the  Depart- 
ment, especially  Stephen's,  and  very  imperious  they  all 
were  at  the  start.    The  wily  Stephen  apparently  fell  in 
with  all  they  proposed,  and  in  a  smooth,  silken  manner 
expressed    his    assent.      The    unsophisticated    Minister 
imagined  that  everything  would  be  carried  out  as  he 
desired,  but  it  was  always  found  that  everything  was 
done  as   Stephen   decided,   and  the   Minister  ended   by 
cheerfully  accepting  the  yoke  he  had  tried  to  throw  off. 
Let  anyone  compare  the  despatches  written  from  the 
Colonial  Office  in  the  thirties  and  forties  with  the  Essays, 
and  he  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  writer  of 
both  was  one  and  the  same  individual.    Such  was  the  man 
to  whose  favour  or  discernment  Grey  undoubtedly  owed 

*  SoTiio  of  his  letters  have  lately  been  printed  for  private  circulation  :  Thf  I<'irnt  Sir 
Jarmn  Stephen:  Letters  irnth  Biooraphical  Note*.  Kdited  by  his  daughter,  Caroliuo  K. 
Stephen.    Heffer.  1906. 


20  LIFE   OF   SIE   GEOKGE   GREY 

his  appointment.  He  it  was  who  "entertained"  "the 
high  opinion"  of  Grey's  "ability  and  energy"  which 
induced  Lord  John  Eussell  to  propose  him  for  the 
Governorship  of  South  Australia. 

Though  still  slight  in  importance  to  what  it  was  to 
become,  it  was  a  high  appointment  for  a  young  man  of 
twenty-eight.  Grey  reflected  that  he  was  the  youngest 
man  ever  appointed  to  a  colonial  Governorship — at  least, 
he  should  have  added,  in  a  British  colony,  and  he  feared 
that  youth  and  inexperience  disqualified  him  for  holding 
so  responsible  an  office.  Twenty-five  years  later  the 
professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  an  ancient  Scottish 
university  similarly  recalled  that  in  entering  on  his 
labours  he  was  only  twenty-eight  years  old  and  might  well 
shrink  from  them.  It  would  be  hard  to  determine  which 
position  was  the  more  onerous.  To  instil  the  principles 
of  Ethics  into  the  minds  of  successive  generations  of 
future  teachers  is  a  function  so  high  that  even  the 
government  of  a  nascent  society  and  the  moulding  of  a 
commonwealth  are  scarcely  more  exacting  in  their 
required  qualifications. 

The  Military  Governor- 
Grey  was  a  representative  of  the  military  regime  in 
the  government  of  colonies.  The  first  stage  in  all  the 
older  Australasian  colonies  was  the  naval  stage — 
apparently  for  no  better  reason  than  that  naval  officers 
commanded  the  first  convict  ships  sent  out  to  New  South 
Wales,  and  the  first  Governors  of  that  colony  were  naval 
officers.  The  precedent  thus  created  was  applied  to 
other  colonies,  and  the  first  Governor  of  South  Australia 
was  a  naval  officer.  When  he  proved  unfit  for  the 
position,  he  was  superseded  by  a  military  officer,  marking 
the  second  stage  of  colonial  governership.  He  in  his  turn 
being  found  unequal  to  a  difficult  situation  was  super- 
seded, while  the  military  regime  was  maintained  by  the 
appointment  of  Captain  Grey.  The  phase  reflected  the 
evolution  of  the  Motherland,  which  had  likewise  passed 
through  the  military  stage,  when  the  sovereign  was  a 
military  ruler.    All  of  Grey's  earlier  governorships  were 


GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  21 

of  this  character.  His  government  of  South  Australia 
and  South  Africa,  and  his  first  government  of  New 
Zealand,  were  despotic. 

As  afterwards  in  New  Zealand  and  South  Africa,  he 
was  sent  to  replace  or  supersede  a  Governor  who  had 
committed  errors  of  policy  that  led  to  his  being  recalled. 
Grey's  predecessor,  Colonel  Gawler,  had  only  too  closely 
followed  the  example  set  him  by  an  earlier  Governor  of 
New  South  Wales,  Colonel  Macquarie;  instead  of 
endeavouring  to  settle  the  colonists  on  the  untilled  soil, 
he  employed  them  on  public  works,  making  roads  and 
erecting  public  buildings.  The  difference  was  that 
Macquarie  employed  convicts,  while  Gawler  employed 
colonists,  whom  he  had  to  pay,  and  yet  Macquarie  was 
called  sternly  to  account  for  drawing  to  excess  on  the 
British  Treasury.  So  did  Gawler  draw  bills,  which  the 
British  Government  refused  to  meet.  Authorities  have 
stated  that  with  a  revenue  of  only  £42,000  his  annual 
expenditure  amounted  to  £94,000,  but  it  far  exceeded 
even  that  extravagant  sum.  During  his  last  twelve 
months  of  office  his  expenditure  amounted  to  £174,000, 
and  in  a  little  more  than  two  years  and  a  half  he 
had  expended  no  less  than  £320,000.  Those  watchdogs 
of  British  finance,  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury,  felt  that 
it  was  high  time  that  such  doings  should  be  brought  to 
an  end,  and  they  made  such  representations  to  the 
Colonial  Office  as  ensured  his  recall.  Colonel  Gawler  was 
a  man  of  high  character  and  by  no  means  of  deficient 
capacity,  but  he  was  the  victim  of  adverse  circumstances. 
"We  shall  find  Grey  himself  in  future  years  called  to 
account  for  exactly  such  doings  and  at  last  recalled,  he 
too,  for  still  more  high-handed  proceedings  than  ever 
Gawler  adventured  on. 

The  Retrencher. 

Grey  was  sent  out  to  South  Australia,  as  ministers 
have  been  placed  in  office,  to  effect  a  thorough  retrench- 
ment- He  took  stringent  measures  to  reduce  the 
expenditure,  and  in  a  year  he  actually  cut  it  down  from 
the  figures  above  stated  to  £34,000,  according  to  one 


22  LIFE  OF   SIB   GEORGE   GREY 

authority — to  £28,000,  according  to  another.  He  stopped 
the  public  works  then  in  progress,  and  thus  reduced  to 
beggary  nearly  2,000  men,  women,  and  children,  who  had 
to  be  supported  as  paupers.  He  reduced  the  wages  of  the 
emigrants  whom  the  Colony  stood  pledged  provisionally 
to  support.  He  thus  raised  against  himself  the  entire 
labouring  class.  His  retrenchments  were  not  confined  to 
the  bottom  of  the  social  scale.  He  abolished  three  depart- 
ments— the  Stores  department,  the  office  of  Registrar- 
General,  and  the  Signal-master's  department.  The 
expenses  of  the  Post  Office  and  the  gaol  (built  at  great 
cost — in  a  crimeless  land) !  were  ruthlessly  cut  down. 
As  always,  he  did  not  spare  himself.  The  modest 
establishment  of  Government  House  was  reduced.  He 
thus  raised  the  powerful  class  of  office-holders  against 
him. 

The  consequences  were  of  the  most  serious  description. 
A  period  of  fictitious  prosperity  was  brought  suddenly 
to  an  end.  All  classes  of  property  became  unsaleable. 
Bankruptcies  multiplied;  in  that  small  community  there 
were  37  in  a  single  year,  and  136  writs  were  issued 
through  the  sheriff's  court.  A  storm  of  unpopularity 
broke  on  the  unfortunate  Governor.  Angry  crowds 
marched  to  Government  House  and  threatened  his 
defenceless  person.  Attacks  were  made  on  him  at  public 
meetings,  where  his  recall  was  unanimously  demanded. 
The  menace  of  impeachment  was  flung  in  his  face.  He 
was  burnt  in  effigy.  The  press  was  dead  against  him, 
and  virulently  assailed  him.  Disappointed  claimants,  he 
told  the  Secretary  of  State,  have  "harassed  me  in  every 
possible  way,"  the  ugliest  included.  He  did  not  mention, 
what  we  now  know,  that  blackmailing  was  attempted 
and  frauds  put  on  him.  When  the  crisis  had  passed,  he 
admitted  that  he  would  not  willingly  go  through  it 
again.  So  say  the  English  Prime  Minister  and  the 
Colonial  Premier.  They  have  often  to  "go  through" 
a  still  fiercer  ordeal,  as  was  also  Grey's  later  experience. 
He  bore  it  all  with  fortitude  and  remembered  it 
magnanimously.  Looking  back  on  it,  he  was  willing  "to 
extenuate  the  intemperate  language  and  conduct  of  some 


GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  23 

few."  He  was  still  able  to  forgive,  but  it  may  be 
suspected  that  his  silence  about  South  Australia  in  later 
years  implied  that  in  the  long  run  he  had  not  quite  or 
finally  forgiven. 

He  yet  left  no  stone  unturned  to  ease  the  situation  he 
had  created.  The  banks  refused  to  negotiate  his  drafts, 
but  he  borrowed  £1,800  from  the  Commissariat  Chest 
and  £3,000  from  the  Government  of  New  South  Wales. 
He  sacrificed  £400  of  his  small  salary  of  £1,000.  With 
these  tiny  resources  he  made  head  against  the  distress. 
What  to  do  with  the  masses  of  unemployed?  The  baffled 
Secretary  of  State,  writing  like  a  wiseacre,  instructed 
him  to  ascertain  whether  the  Governors  of  AVestern 
Australia,  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand  would  receive 
some  of  the  surplus  population  of  South  Australia  on 
the  understanding  that  their  passages  would  be  paid. 
Grey  took  more  statesmanlike  steps. 

First  of  all,  he  recast  the  system  of  taxation.  He 
created  new  sources  of  revenue.  At  the  instance  of  that 
great  colonial  reformer,  E.  G.  Wakefield,  the  income 
derived  from  the  sale  of  waste  lands,  which  ought  not  to 
be  regarded  as  a  source  of  ordinary  revenue,  had  been 
devoted  to  the  promotion  of  immigration;  it  was  the 
distinctive  feature  of  his  policy.  At  the  suggestion  of  the 
Colonial  Office,  Grey  divided  the  revenue  thus  derived 
into  two  parts,  of  which  one  was  set  apart  for  its  pristine 
end,  while  the  other  was  to  be  expended  in  the  work  of 
settling  families  on  the  land  and  in  aiding  the  aborigines. 
He  heavily  taxed  the  necessaries  of  life.  He  unadvisably, 
but  perhaps  necessarily,  imposed  port  dues  on  ships 
entering  Adelaide.    It  was  an  unpopular  tax. 

He  next  grappled  with  the  problem  of  the  distribution 
of  population.  It  was  at  an  acute  stage.  Of  the 
white  population  of  South  Australia  considerably  more 
than  one-half  resided  in  Adelaide:  8,439  out  of  14,G10 
were  resident  in  the  capital.  While  he  let  no  one  starve, 
he  refused  to  relieve  those  who  insisted  on  staying  in 
town  when  they  might  go  into  the  country  and  work  on 
the  land.  His  chief  object,  he  explicitly  stated,  was  "to 
give  the  labourers  no  inducement  to  remain  in  town,  or 


24  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

upon  public  works ;  but  to  make  them  regard  the  obtaining 
of  a  situation  with  a  settler  as  a  most  desirable  result." 
His  efforts  towards  this  end  were  largely  successful.  An 
official  table  prepared  two  years  after  Grey's  departure 
from  the  Colony  shows  that  the  number  of  inhabitants  in 
the  rural  districts  had  risen  from  6,121  in  1840,  the  year 
of  his  arrival,  to  11,259  in  1843  and  to  14,977  in  1845. 
The  number  of  inhabitants  in  Adelaide  had  simultane- 
ously fallen  to  6,107  in  1843.  These  speaking  figures 
show  that  the  tide  had  been  effectually  turned,  and  the 
drift  was  now  setting  in  steadily  towards  the  country. 

With  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  distribution  all 
other  problems  were  in  course  of  being  solved.  The  same 
table  that  reveals  the  rural  movement  of  the  population 
shows  an  upward  movement  in  both  agriculture  and 
industry.  The  value  of  exports  of  colonial  produce  rose 
from  £15,650  in  1840  to  £66,160  in  1843;  the  number  of 
factories  rose  from  4  to  31,  and  of  flour  mills  from  none 
to  16.  Later  figures  and  other  statistics  were  no  less 
eloquent.  The  Governor  had  succeeded.  Well  might 
Lord  John  Russell  sound  his  praises.  ' '  In  giving  him  the 
government  of  South  Australia  I  gave  him  as  difficult  a 
problem  in  colonial  government  as  could  be  committed 
to  any  man,  and  I  must  say,  after  four  or  five  years' 
experience  of  his  administration  there,  that  he  has  solved 
the  problem  with  a  degree  of  energy  and  success  which 
I  could  hardly  have  expected  from  any  man. ' ' 

Providence  was  on  his  side.  The  discovery  of  copper 
mines,  through  a  series  of  accidents,  opened  up  a  new 
vein  of  wealth  and  at  the  same  time  stimulated  land  sales, 
which  had  languished.  The  very  elements  fought  for  him. 
A  fine  summer  brought  a  bounteous  harvest,  and  the 
weather,  which  had  ruined  the  reforming  measures  of 
Turgot,  as  it  afterwards  ruined  the  reforming  measures 
of  Loris  Melikoff,  came  to  his  aid.  He  could  now  afford 
to  remit  the  port  dues  he  had  temporarily  levied  to  raise 
a  revenue.    He  was  a  successful  and  prosperous  ruler. 

Grey  was  not  the  sole  worker  towards  this  consumma- 
tion. He  had  an  efficient  co-operator  in  one  of  the 
founders  of  the   Colony,   George  Fife  Angas.     Mainly 


GOVERNOR  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  25 

through  his  untiring  exertions,  a  large  stream  of  German 
immigration  poured  into  South  Australia,  giving  it  the 
exotic,  but  healthy,  complexion  it  still  retains.  Large 
tracts  of  country  were  thus  settled  with  desirable 
immigrants.  And  this  was  only  one  of  the  schemes  by 
which  this  indefatigable  coloniser  sought  to  promote  the 
prosperity  of  the  Colony.  ''Never  let  it  be  said,"  cried 
Herbert  Spencer  in  his  ebullient  early  manhood,  "that 
one  man  can  do  but  little."  By  the  joint  efforts  of  Grey 
and  Angas  the  crisis  was  thus  surmounted,  and  the 
Colony  was  started  on  a  career  of  stable  prosperity. 

Relations  with  the  Blacks. 

A  second  great  problem,  of  more  permanent  interest, 
a  bequest  from  his  predecessor,  demanded  an  immediate 
practical  solution.  As  in  every  other  colony  that  he 
was  to  govern,  a  portion  of  the  natives  was  proving 
troublesome.  The  overlanders,  whose  vast  operations 
had  impressed  his  imagination  in  West  Australia,  were 
being  continually  attacked  by  the  tribes  through  whose 
territory  they  passed.  One  such  attack  had  been  dealt 
with  by  Governor  Gawler  just  before  Grey's  arrival,  and 
two  others  took  place  soon  after  it.  In  punishing  them 
Grey  made  two  new  departures.  Gawler  had  held  that  all 
the  natives  living  outside  the  settled  portions  of  the  Colony 
stood  outside  of  his  jurisdiction  and  could  be  dealt  with 
only  as  foreign  peoples.  He  therefore  treated  offenders 
as  prisoners  of  war  and  had  them  tried  by  court-martial. 
Such  a  procedure  was  opposed  to  Grey's  instincts. 
Though  for  high  ends,  he  was  greedy  of  power  and 
ambitious  of  influence.  He  took  up  the  ground  that  all 
natives  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Colony  were  "within 
the  Queen's  allegiance,"  and  under  the  Governor's 
aathority.  He  accordingly  had  offending  natives  brought 
to  Adelaide  and  tried  by  the  colonial  courts.  The 
principle  was  the  same  as  he  had  asserted  in  Western 
Australia,  and  afterwards  asserted  in  New  Zealand  in 
1847  with  regard  to  the  Maoris,  though  it  was  there  in 
opposition  to  the  legal  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General, 
a  Crown  officer.    In  all  countries,  in  England  itself,  the 


26  LIFE  OF  SIB  GEORGE  OBEY 

assertion  of  such  a  principle  marks  the  growth  of  the 
central  authority  and  the  taking  of  an  important  step 
towards  the  unification  of  the  population.  In  justice  to 
the  blacks  who  were  tempted  to  attack  overlanding 
parties  by  the  weakness  of  the  escort,  he  also  required  that 
such  parties  should  be  efficiently  escorted.  And  he 
stationed  E.  J.  Eyre,  who  was  to  be  his  lieutenant- 
governor  in  New  Zealand,  at  a  settlement  in  the  interior 
where  he  could  lend  aid  to  passing  overlanders  and  at  the 
same  time  keep  the  blacks  in  order.  His  policy  had  a 
measure  of  success.  The  aboriginals  were  conciliated, 
and  the  attacks  ceased. 

He  did  not  rest  content  with  this  satisfactory  result. 
His  policy  consisted  in  that  blending  of  sympathy  with 
rigour  that  constitutes  perfect  justice.    In  a  spirit  of  the 
noblest  chivalry  he  set  himself  to  improve  the  condition 
of  these  lapsed  members  of  the  Caucasian  race,  as  Mr. 
Wallace  considers  them.    He  found  employment  for  the 
younger  members  of  the  tribes.    He  induced  storekeepers 
in  Adelaide  to  employ  them  as  porters,  and  farmers  to 
use  them  as  reapers.    He  did  far  more.    Eealising  that 
the  future  of  the  race  lay  with  the  children,  he  endea- 
voured   to    have    them    educated,    and    he    established 
boarding-schools  in  two  districts.     Much  else  he  sought 
to  do.     He  persuaded  German  missionaries  and  some 
ladies  to  show  kindness  to  the  blacks,  and  he  remitted  a 
portion  of  the  purchase  money  of  their  allotments  to 
settlers  who  aided  them.    The  results  of  the  labours  of 
this  fine  enthusiast  were  disappointing.    The  schools  he 
established  were  given  up  after  their  founder  left  the 
Colony.     The   labours   of   the   missionaries   completely 
failed;  not  a  single  ** conversion "  stands  to  their  credit. 
The  natives  reverted  to  their  old  habits,  or  passed  alto- 
gether out  of  the  settled  portions  of  the  Colony  and 
returned  to  savagery.  Hundreds  of  such  efforts  have  been 
made,  and  always  with  the  same  result.    Should  not  the 
fact  furnish  data  for  an  argument  against  Mr.  Wallace's 
contention?      If    the    Australian    blacks    are    degraded 
Caucasians,  should  they  not  be  able  to  recover  their  lost 
powers  and,  with  the  potent  aid  of  a  higher  stock  of  that 
same  race,  rise  once  more  to  their  ancient  level? 


GOVEENOB  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  27 

Imperial  Approval. 

Meanwhile,  he  was  giving  high  satisfaction  to  the 
authorities  in  England.  In  1842  the  Lords  of  the 
Treasury  allowed  that  he  had  "acquitted  himself  in  an 
able  and  satisfactory  manner  of  the  important  trust 
which  had  been  reposed  in  him."  The  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  chimed  in  and  formally  acknowledged  "the 
essential  and  most  effective  services"  he  had  "rendered 
in  reducing  the  expenditure  and  re-establishing  the 
finances  of  South  Australia. "  It  is  a  proof  of  his  genuine 
capacity,  as  yet  unspoiled  by  perversity  or  velleities  of 
rebellion,  that,  two  years  later,  he  was  still  in  high  favour 
with  the  Colonial  Office.  Lord  Derby  (who  was  still  Lord 
Stanley)  bore  repeated  testimonies  (he  called  them 
testimonials)  to  the  value  of  his  public  services  in 
administering  South  Australia,  and  he  admitted  that 
Grey  had  shown  "energy,  capacity,  and  circumspection 
in  the  conduct"  of  its  affairs.  These  were  high  compli- 
ments, and  they  seemed  to  have  been  well  earned.* 

His  eminent  services  were  to  bring  him  something  more 
real  than  compliments — they  were  to  bring  him  promo- 
tion; but  we  may  pause  for  a  few  moments  to  describe 
another  and  less-disputed  phase  of  his  multifarious 
activity. 

The  Savant. 

Some  men  gain  the  bubble,  reputation,  at  the  cannon's 
mouth,  while  others  gain  it  through  the  Post  Office. 
Tyndall  once  expressed  his  surprise  that  all  manner  of 
persons  who  were  unknown  to  him  presumed  to  address 
him,  asking  him  all  sorts  of  questions  and  desiring  all 
kinds  of  services.  Herbert  Spencer  found  his  reduced 
working  powers  and  limited  time  so  encroached  upon  by 
correspondence  that  he  had  a  letter  printed,  declining 
in  advance  to  reply  to  all  unauthorised  communications. 


•The  political  portion  of  the  pi-esent  chapter,  like  the  corrfKi)onflinfi  chnpti  r  of 
Mr  Rces'B  biography,  was  at  first  mainly  writtfn  from  thf>  matorinl  siipi>li<fl  in  HiittoriH 
book  on  South  Australia— the  contemporary  record  of  a  IjcKislative  (^oiiiuillor  who  snw 
at  cloBC  qnartcrs  the  thinfiB  he  describes.  It  hnH  been  rewritten  to  include  the  tiuU 
freBhly  Btatcd  by  Professor  HenderHon,  who  haw  lia<l  acoesH  to  the  South  Aiihtntban 
archives,  examined  the  jonrnalB  of  the  time,  and  l>een  the  recipient  of  the  confldences 
of  old  colonists. 


28  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Colonial  savans  overwhelm  themselves  with  labour  on  the 
eve  of  the  departure  of  the  European  mails,  keeping  up 
a  correspondence  which,  they  seem  to  imagine,  reflects 
honour  on  them.  And  they  are  not,  in  a  way,  mistaken. 
The  friends  of  a  colonial  savant  appealed  to  the  extent  of 
his  correspondence  with  European  and  American 
scientists  in  proof  of  the  reality  of  his  scientific  claims 
and  position,  which  were  disputed.  As  the  christeners 
of  newly  "discovered"  mountain,  lake,  river,  or  glacier, 
they  are  often  able  to  put  foreign  savans  under  obligation 
to  them,  and  they  are  sometimes  able  to  render  them  more 
real  services  by  sending  them  collections  from  distant 
lands  or  communicating  observations  they  have  made. 

Grey  cannot  rightly  be  classed  among  the  scientific 
pretenders,  but  he  was  far  from  insensible  to  the  glory 
to  be  acquired  by  associating  himself  with  eminent  men 
of  science  in  the  old  country.  His  industry  and  intelli- 
gence entitled  him  to  the  distinction.  When  he  explored 
Western  Australia,  he  embarked  on  a  wide  sea  and 
sounded  deep  waters.  His  soundings  yielded  many  a 
treasure.  In  May,  1839,  Professor  (afterwards  Sir 
Eichard)  Owen  acknowledged  some  specimens  he  had 
sent,  doubtless  to  the  College  of  Surgeons,  of  whose 
museum  Owen  was  then  curator,  stating  that  they  were 
either  new  or  rare,  and  in  either  case  were  of  great 
utility.  Grey,  it  already  appeared,  was  something  more 
than  a  collector ;  if  not  a  savant,  he  was  a  keen  observer, 
and  his  observations  on  the  action  of  the  hood  i!n  the 
hooded  lizard,  according  to  Owen,  disclosed  ''a  new  and 
interesting  fact"  in  natural  history.  In  December,  1840 
and  January  and  February,  1841,  he  presented  the 
British  Museum  with  mineral  and  zoological  specimens 
and  collections  of  fossils  and  shells.  These  were  all 
fruits  of  his  explorations  in  Western  Australia.  His 
brief  residence  at  Albany  was  no  less  fruitful,  and  this 
time  the  British  Museum  made  a  special  acknowledgment 
of  his  donations. 

During  his  four  years'  residence  in  South  Australia  he 
continued  to  send  home  all  kinds  of  scientific  specimens. 
Some  hundreds  of  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  fishes,  and 


GOVERNOB  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  29 

crustaceans  were  despatched  to  the  national  repository. 
Besides  these,  the  indefatigable  collector  sent  265  rare 
or  novel  plants  and  290  rock  specimens  and  minerals. 
No  wonder  that  the  Trustees  again  specially  acknow- 
ledged his  benefactions. 

He  was  catholic  in  his  gifts.  To  the  Horticultural 
Society  of  London  he  sent  52  packets  of  seeds,  and  to 
the  Geological  Society  a  collection  of  fossils.  Probably, 
no  other  Governor  has  contributed  as  copiously  to 
museums.  His  numerous  collections  may  be  described 
as  the  response  of  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  South 
Africa  to  the  maternal  generosity  of  the  Motherland, 
which  has  endowed  its  colonies  with  useful  seeds,  plants, 
and  animals  from  all  parts  of  the  globe. 

Grey  was  sympathetic  with  the  pursuits  of  men  of 
science  and  was  ever  ready  to  aid  them.  Lyell  wrote  to 
him  in  1843  that  Owen  agreed  with  him  in  the  opinion 
he  had  expressed  about  some  cetacean  remains  he  had 
sent  Home.  Anthropologists  like  Lubbock  appealed  to 
him  for  information  on  the  religious  ideas  of  Australians, 
especially  of  the  kobongs,  on  which  Grey  was  well 
qualified  to  instruct  him.  Inquiries  are  often  made  of 
colonial  Governors,  who  usually  apply  to  some  expert  in 
the  colony,  but  Grey  was  one  of  the  few  who  could 
personally  supply  the  information  desiderated.  All 
Governors  welcome  men  of  scientific  or  literary  distinc- 
tion from  England  or  other  countries,  but  Grey  was  able 
to  extend  a  hospitality  of  mind  as  well  as  of  hearth.  He 
was  no  less  sympathetic  with  the  toils  of  others.  He 
liad  been  resident  in  South  Australia  when  Sturt  and  Eyre 
set  out  on  their  memorable  journeys;  Eyre  was  after- 
wards appointed  his  lieutenant-governor  in  the  South 
Island  of  New  Zealand,  and  he  joined  in  recommending 
that  Sturt,  now  blind  and  ailing,  should  be  knighted. 
Where  no  political  rivalries  thwai-ted  his  natural 
instincts,  he  could  be  both  just  and  generous. 


Chapter  IV. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:     FIRST  TERM. 
The  Subjugation  of  the  Maoris. 

His  Appointment. 

It  was  a  tribute  to  Grey's  capacity  that,  in  four 
successive  instances,  he  was  appealed  to  by  the  Colonial 
Office  as  the  man  the  best  fitted  in  the  Empire  to  under- 
take the  government  of  a  colony  that  was  critically 
situated.  He  was  fond  of  relating,  and  the  fact  had  struck 
his  imagination  as  well  as  embedded  itself  in  his  memory, 
that  one  day  when  he  was  out  riding  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Adelaide  in  company  with  his  step-brother,  Sir 
Godfrey  Thomas,  he  was  overtaken  by  a  messenger  in  a 
"tax-cart"  (the  archaic  detail  carries  us  back  to  the 
forties),  who  had  been  sent  from  the  town  with  despatches 
from  England.  He  opened  and  read  them,  and  found  that 
he  had  been  appointed  Governor  of  New  Zealand.  In 
terms  of  high  compliment  he  was  assured  of  his  fitness 
for  the  position.  He  was,  indeed,  almost  solicited  to 
accept  it  as  an  act  of  patriotism  and  in  the  interests  of 
the  Empire.  The  nominal  author  of  the  appointment 
was  Lord  Stanley,  soon  to  become  Earl  of  Derby,  then 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies ;  the  real  author  of  it,  we  need 
not  scruple  to  assert,  and  the  writer  of  the  despatch 
announcing  the  fact,  was  the  all-powerful  Permanent 
Under-Secretary,  Sir  James  Stephen,  whose  keen  eye  and 
trained  judgment  had  already  discerned  the  energies  and 
the  capacities  that  were  to  make  Grey  the  greatest 
colonial  governor  of  his  time. 

The  appointment  did  not  pass  unchallenged.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  Lord  Howiek  (next  year  to  become 
Earl  Grey)  objected  to  the  nomination  of  one  ''whose 
rank,  age,  and  station  were  such  that  he  could  hardly 
carry  weight  or  authority."  The  future  Secretary  for 
the  Colonies  was  to  redeem  his  natural  scepticism  by  a 

30 


GOVERNOR    OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  31 

long  series  of  public  commendations,  by  practically 
surrendering  to  the  new  Governor  the  government  of  the 
Colony,  and  by  publishing  in  his  retirement  the  loftiest 
eulogy  a  colonial  governor  has  ever  received  from  his 
official  superior. 

Though  his  commission  was  enclosed,  and  it  was  there- 
fore hardly  open  to  Grey  to  refuse  the  dangerous  office, 
where  he  might  be  hounded  to  death,  as  Captain  Hobson, 
the  first  Governor,  had  been  hounded,  or  wreck  the 
reputation  he  had  already  acquired,  as  FitzRoy,  the 
second  Governor,  had  wrecked  his,  the  appointment  was 
understood  to  be  temporary,  to  meet  an  emergency,  and 
the  governorship  of  South  Australia  was  kept  open  for 
him.  Eight  years  afterwards  he  left  New  Zealand  on  a 
similar  understanding.  He  was  to  return  to  New  Zealand, 
though  after  an  interval,  but  he  was  to  return  to  South 
Australia  only  forty-six  years  later,  and  then  in  an 
unofficial  capacity. 

Governor  FitzRoy  (so  well  known  earlier  as  a  navigator 
and  later  as  a  meteorologist)  had  brought  New  Zealand 
by  a  series  of  indiscretions  to  the  verge  of  rebellion. 
Who  so  well  fitted  to  educe  order  out  of  chaos  as  the 
young  governor  who  had  just  achieved  a  similar  feat  in 
South  Australia?  We  do  not  need  his  assurance  of  the 
fact  to  believe  that  the  new  Governor  had  conceived  a 
high  ideal  of  his  mission.  The  arena  was  one  well  fitted 
to  call  forth  all  his  powers.  He  was  to  conquer  and  rule 
over  a  barbarous  race  of  a  higher  type  than  the  one  he 
had  left — intelligent,  warlike,  and  in  the  main  hostile, 
spread  over  a  whole  island,  holding  fortified  places,  and 
equipped  with  arms  of  precision.  He  was  to  encounter 
a  powerful  Company,  with  the  great  colonising  genius  of 
the  age  at  its  head,  a  number  of  clever  young  men  (after- 
wards distinguished  statesmen)  among  its  personnel,  and 
the  command  of  the  Colonial  Office  for  its  leverage.  He 
was  to  meet  with  an  energetic  bishop,  as  uniquely  fitted 
for  his  difficult  duties  as  Grey  was  for  his,  and  a  Chief- 
Justice  of  rare  integrity.  And  with  them  all  this  com- 
paratively untried  young  man  of  thirty-three  was  easily 
to  hold  his  own. 


32  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

As  if  anticipating  his  translation  to  New  Zealand, 
Grey  had  taken  a  keen  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the 
island-colony  while  he  was  still  Governor  of  South 
Australia.  Hearing  of  the  sack  of  Kororareka  and  the 
repulse  of  the  troops  by  the  Maoris  at  Okaihu  and 
Ohaeawai,  he  had  suggested  to  (he  had  not  yet  got  the 
length  of  positively  ordering)  the  commander  of  a 
British  warship,  which  touched  at  Port  Adelaide,  that 
he  should  sail  at  once  for  the  Bay  of  Islands,  and  he 
unconstitutionally  sent  along  with  it  munitions  of  war 
from  the  military  stores  in  South  Australia.  When  the 
time  of  his  departure  came,  he  hastily  seized  the  money 
in  the  treasury  at  Adelaide  and  carried  it  with  him  to 
New  Zealand.  It  was  a  second  unconstitutional  act,  and 
it  excited  the  resentment  of  the  South  Australians,  but 
was  not  expressly  censured  by  the  Colonial  Office.  The 
doings  of  the  Csesars  are  apt  to  be  "unconstitutional," 
and  evidently  the  Colonial  Office  was  chary  of  censuring 
a  public  servant  whose  chief  fault  as  yet  was  an  excess  of 
zeal. 

Arriving  in  Auckland  on  November  14,  1845,  he  found 
confusion  reigning.  In  general,  as  was  everywhere  his 
way,  he  reversed  the  policy  of  his  predecessor.  The 
financial  imbroglio  was  the  most  pressing  and  had  first 
to  be  faced.  Using  the  treasure  that  he  had,  Caesar-like, 
carried  oif  from  South  Australia,  he  called  in  and  partly 
paid  the  debentures  issued  by  FitzRoy,  amounting  to 
£37,000,  and  thus  restored  financial  equilibrium.  His 
next  task  was  to  suppress  the  Native  revolt.  Within  five 
weeks  of  his  arrival  Grey  had  gathered  together  a  force 
of  soldiers,  sailors,  and  friendly  natives,  amounting  to 
over  1500,  in  order  to  strike  a  deadly  blow.  An  English 
general,  Sir  Everard  Home,  sent  with  the  troops  from 
Sydney  by  Sir  George  Gipps,  was  in  command.  With 
this  force  Grey  advanced  against  the  Northern  Maoris. 
These  had  built  a  new  and  almost  impregnable  fortress — 
a  typical  pah,  of  which  a  model  was  exhibited  in  England 
— called  Ruapekapeka,  or  ''the  Bat's  Nest,"  near  the 
Bay  of  Islands,  and  were  there  strongly  entrenched.  Of 
the  ensuing  siege  the  accounts  are  almost  as  various  as 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  33 

the  narratives  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  The  most 
intelligible  is  given  by  Mr.  Eees,  and  was  presumably 
inspired  by  Grey,  who  was  present  throughout.  A  very 
detailed  and  graphic  narrative  was  ostensibly  taken  down 
by  F.  E.  Maning  from  the  mouth  of  "an  old  chief  of  the 
Ngapuhi  tribe,"  and  is  printed  in  Heke's  War  in  the 
North*  And  a  third  account,  differing  from  the  others 
in  several  particulars,  is  given  by  Prof.  Henderson.  It 
may  not  prove  impossible  to  extract  a  harmony  from 
the  various  narratives. 

The  Capture  of  Ruapekapeka. 

Arriving  at  the  Bay  of  Islands,  the  troops  went  up  the 
Kawakawa  River  in  boats  and  canoes.  They  spent  the 
last  fortnight  of  the  year  in  making  roads  to  the  pah. 
Then  they  proceeded  to  bombard  it,  with  ship  guns,  long 
brass  guns,  mortars,  and  rockets.  Forgetting  the 
disastrous  gallantry  of  Col.  Despard  at  Ohaeawai,  Sir 
Everard  Home  (if  Maning 's  Maori  chief  may  be  trusted) 
was  eager  to  storm  the  pah,  but  the  chief,  Moses, 
persuaded  him  against  such  an  act  of  reckless  folly,  and 
the  Maoris  henceforth  despised  the  English  general  as 
a  ''foolish  and  inexperienced"  person.  The  bombardment 
continued,  making  two  breaches  by  January  10th,  and  in 
time  it  must  have  broken  down  the  wooden  palisades  that 
constituted  the  outworks  of  the  pah.  Then  Heke  arrived, 
with  only  seventy  men,  having  succeeded  in  eluding 
Macquarie,  who  had  been  stationed  to  arrest  him.  The 
orthodox  account  has  it  that  Heke  was  dealt  with  by  the 
British  troops  and  his  force  scattered.  On  the  contrary, 
he  himself  entered  the  pah  and  tried  to  induce  the  Maoris 
to  retreat  into  the  forest  by  the  door  of  escape  they 
always  left  at  the  back  of  their  pahs ;  the  historians  do  not 
mention  the  fact,  but  Maning  positively  states,  that  the 
whole  of  the  garrison  save  Kawiti  and  eleven  men 
deserted  the  pah  and  joined  Heke's  force  in  the  rear,* 
This  seems  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  statement,  also 
made  by   Maning,   that   the  bulk   of   the   garrison   was 

*  Appcnderl  to  Maning's  Old  New  Zealand-    ChriBtchnrch  :  Whitcombe  and  Toiubu. 
t  Ibid,  p.  312. 


34  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE    GREY 

temporarily  out  of  the  pah  on  the  following  day,  attending 
prayers. 

Next  day  was  Sunday.  A  happy  accident  favoured  the 
British,  but  the  nature  of  the  chance  is  differently  told 
by  different  historians.  Prof.  Henderson  says  that, 
expecting  a  temporary  cessation  of  hostilities,  the  Maoris 
''ventured  outside  to  cook  their  food."  The  orthodox 
telling  of  the  incident  begins  quite  differently,  and  it  is 
confirmed  by  Maning.  The  garrison,  consisting  of 
Native  Christians,  left  the  fort  to  attend  Divine  service, 
never  dreaming  that  they  would  be  attacked  by  a 
Christian  Governor  on  such  a  day.  It  was  a  historic 
circumstance.  Many  times  before  had  the  superstition 
or  the  piety  of  a  people  been  thus  used  to  their  disad- 
vantage. It  had  been  employed  by  King  Ptolemy,  King 
Antiochus,  and  the  Romans  against  the  Jews,  by  the 
Jews  themselves  against  the  Parthians,  and  by  the 
Catholics  against  the  Visigoths. 

The  ensuing  action  is  also  variously  told.  The  accepted 
narrative  has  it  that  Wi  Waka  (William  Walker  Turau, 
Waka  Nene's  brother),  observing  the  silence  in  the  pah 
and  hearing  the  psalmody,  inferred  that  they  had  left 
the  pah  in  order  to  hold  Divine  service  in  a  valley  to  the 
rear  of  the  fort.  Wi  Waka  then  waved  his  hand  to  Waka 
Nene,  when  both  he  and  Tao  Nui,  with  their  people, 
silently  advanced  with  a  rush.  On  the  back  of  the  Maoris 
came  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  who  had  also  been  at 
praj'^ers,  and  they  entered  the  pah  with  a  shout.  The 
shout  waked  up  Kawiti,  the  commander  of  the  garrison, 
who,  with  his  remnant  of  eleven  men,  vainly  strove  to 
make  head  against  the  invading  flood.  They  fired  two 
volleys  and  then  retired,  fighting  desperately.  The 
English  had  gained  possession  of  the  pah. 

It  was  a  decisive  action.  The  Governor  at  once 
declared  the  war  at  an  end,  and  he  offered  the  hostile 
Maoris  a  free  pardon.  Two  months  after  he  had  arrived  in 
New  Zealand  the  face  of  things  was  completely  changed. 
The  back  of  the  rebellion  in  the  North  was  broken.  The 
colonists  felt  a  nightmare  taken  off  their  chests;  the 
Colonial  Ofiice  congratulated  itself  on  its    choice  of  a 


GOVERISrOR    OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  35 

Governor;  the  English  press  was  enthusiastic;  and  yet 
the  Maoris  were  submissive.  Kawiti  submitted,  acknow- 
ledged his  fault,  and  became  a  Christian.  Heke 
refused  to  go  and  see  the  Governor,  but  (we  owe  the 
particular  to  Maning)  the  Governor  went  to  see  him. 
Two  years  later  he  died,  bequeathing  his  lands  to  Grey, 
who  of  course  did  not  accept  the  generous  gift.  As  a 
parallel  act,  Sir  Everard  Home,  dying  long  afterwards 
in  Sydney,  bequeathed  his  books  to  Grey.  Heaven  and 
earth  showered  their  bounties  on  the  fortunate  Governor. 
Yet,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  little  to  do  with  the  taking 
of  Euapekapeka.  Doubtless  his  energy  in  getting 
together  the  small  and  mixed  contingent  and  in  pushing 
it  onwards  to  its  objective  contributed  to  the  result.  But 
the  victory  was  an  accident  of  warfare,  and,  had  there 
been  no  accident,  it  would  have  been  the  necessarv  con- 
sequence  of  the  Governor's  superiority  in  military 
strength.  None  the  less,  he  reaped  all  the  credit  of  the 
action.  He  was  henceforth  known  as  a  man  who  could 
strike  a  decisive  blow. 

The   Seizure  of  Rauparaha. 

Grey's  campaign  against  the  Maoris  in  the  South 
was  marked  by  an  incident  that  occupies  a  place  in 
history  that  is  at  first  sight  out  of  all  proportion  with  its 
real  importance.  At  a  time  of  general  peace,  though  of 
local  disturbance,  without  proved  hostility  on  the  one 
side  or  warning  on  the  other,  the  Governor  treacherously 
laid  violent  hands  on  the  most  dreaded  chief  in  the 
southern  parts  of  the  Colony.  Te  Rauparaha  is  a  striking 
figure  in  the  history  of  New  Zealand.  Of  high  rank, 
blending  the  best  blood  of  two  powerful  tribes,  and  the 
principal  chief  of  one  of  them,  he  was  a  ruler  whose  mana, 
or  prestige,  extended  along  both  shores  of  Cook's  Straits 
and  far  inland.  Unfriendly  observers  found  him  an 
impressive  personality.  With  the  aquiline  features  of 
the  Caesarian  caste,  but  a  retreating  forehead,  sunken 
yet  piercing  eyes,  the  projecting  upper  lip  so  seldom 
seen  together  with  fierceness,  yet  a  look  of  tigerish 
ferocity,  he  was  a  chief  of  commanding  presence.    E.  J. 


36  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Wakefield,  a  hostile  judge,  says  that  on  one  occasion  he 
spoke  ''with  the  majesty  of  a  monarch,"  and  he  was  then 
acclaimed  as  "king  of  the  Maori." 

Rauparaha  had  led  many  a  daring  raid  against 
neighbouring  tribes,  and  he  had  been  mixed  up  with  one 
of  the  ugliest  deeds  of  blood  in  Maori-English  story.  He 
was  vindictive  and  blood-thirsty,  crafty  and  unscrupulous. 
He  was  not  wholly  unsympathetic  with  the  English 
settlers.  So  early  as  1833  a  converted  slave-boy,  who  had 
been  educated  at  a  northern  mission-station,  taught  some 
of  Rauparaha 's  tribesmen  their  letters.  The  same 
missionary  of  civilisation  indoctrinated  both  the  son  and 
nephew  of  the  chief  with  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  so  deeply  impressed  was  Rauparaha  that 
he  despatched  his  son  to  ask  that  a  missionary  be  sent  to 
his  tribe.  He  had  signed  the  treaty  of  Waitangi,  and 
thus,  over  the  wide  range  of  his  influence,  he  surrendered 
the  sovereignty  of  his  tribe.  It  is  probable  that  he  had 
taken  to  heart  the  words  of  Waka  Nene,  spoken  at  a  still 
earlier  date,  telling  him  that  the  British  were  good  people, 
and  that  he  would  find  his  account  in  living  at  peace  with 
them. 

In  1839  Colonel  Wakefield,  the  agent  of  the  New  Zealand 
Company  in  New  Zealand,  found  him  in  general  opposed 
to  the  alienation  of  Native  lands,  but  extracted  from  his 
reluctance  the  purchase  of  some  extensive  tracts,  and 
believed  that  he  had  extracted  a  great  deal  more.  In  1843 
Rauparaha  was  indirectly  concerned  in  the  "massacre" 
at  Wairau,  when  he  strenuously  resisted  the  settlement 
of  English  immigrants  on  land  they  had  never  acquired, 
and  a  year  later  the  representative  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment justified  his  refusal,  if  not  his  crime,  while  the 
action  of  the  Company  was  condemned  by  the  Secretary 
of  State.  The  very  next  day,  in  an  impassioned  speech, 
Rauparaha  revealed  his  mind  and  purpose.  "Now  is  the 
time  to  strike,"  he  cried.  "You  see  now  what  the  glozing 
pretences  of  the  pakeha  are  worth;  you  know  now  what 
they  mean  in  their  hearts;  you  know  now  that  you  can 
expect  nothing  but  tyranny  and  injustice  at  their  hands. 
Come  forward  and  sweep  them  from  the  land  which  they 


GOVERNOR  OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  37 

have  striven  to  bedew  with  our  blood."  Rauparaha,  he 
said  of  himself,  "will  fight  the  Queen's  soldiers  with  his 
own  hand, — with  his  own  name. ' '  It  was  the  behaviour  of 
the  New  Zealand  Company  that  had  changed  the  spirit 
of  Rauparaha.  Wholesale  forcible  conveyances  of  land 
to  which  thej^  had  but  the  shadow  of  a  claim  had  turned 
him  against  the  pakeha.  Still,  as  far  as  has  ever  been 
known,  he  took  no  overt  action. 

In  May,  1846,  troubles  broke  out  in  the  Wellington 
district.  A  body  of  armed  Maoris  swooped  down  on  the 
58th  regiment,  stationed  near  the  Hutt  River,  drove  in 
the  picket,  killing  and  wounding  a  number,  and  then 
slowly  retired  before  a  superior  force.  This  was  probably 
the  act  of  Rangihaeata,  who  occupied  a  strongly  fortified 
position  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  Rangihaeata  was  the 
son-in-law  of  Rauparaha.  Yet  relatives  and  slaves  of 
Rauparaha  aided  the  British  in  making  roads,  an  indis- 
pensable aid  to  the  movements  of  the  troops,  and  they 
were  said  to  surpass  the  Europeans  as  road-makers.  In 
June  a  skirmish  took  place  in  the  valley  of  the  Hutt, 
probably  made  by  the  same  undaunted  disturber  as  the 
author  of  the  night-attack  in  May,  and  the  commanding 
officer  had  his  suspicions  of  Rauparaha,  but  Grey  was 
still  doubtful.  It  was  perhaps  little  that  Rauparaha 
visited  Grey  and  gave  him  assurances  of  fidelity;  a 
traitor  might  have  done  the  same.  He  was  on  that 
occasion  subjected  to  a  rough-and-ready  test.  Grey 
showed  him  an  intercepted  letter,  bearing  his  signature 
along  with  those  of  others,  inviting  disaffected  natives 
to  the  coast.  Grey,  a  keen  observer  and  a  good  judge  of 
men,  was  then  convinced  that  he  was  unacquainted  with 
the  letter,  and  after  his  father's  capture  Rauparaha 's  son 
stated  that  he  had  not  signed  it  (he  was  almost  certainly 
unable  to  write).  Yet  on  this  flimsy  evidence  Grey  relied 
in  after  j^ears,  when  challenged  on  the  subject  by  Mr. 
Rusden  and  (a  few  years  later)  by  another  interlocutor. 
But  the  real  ground  of  Rauparaha 's  condemnation  was 
that,  knowingly  or  not,  he  gave  his  moral  support  to 
Rangihaeata,  and  if  he  was  attacked,  Rauparaha  might 
fall  on  the  rear  of  the  attacking  force.    Grey  decided  to 


38  LIFE   OF   SIE   GEOKGE   GKEY 

strike  a  blow  that  would  resound  through  Maoriland. 
On  the  night  of  July  23,  he  sent  to  Porirua  150  soldiers, 
who  seized  the  unsuspecting  warrior  in  his  sleep,  and  had 
him  conveyed  to  H.M.S.  Calliope,  where  he  kept  the 
chief  a  State  prisoner.  Kauparaha's  own  prophecy  had 
come  true.  Three  years  before,  on  the  very  day  of  the 
Wairau  massacre,  he  had  cried:  "What  could  they  gain 
by  enslaving  me?  by  fastening  irons  on  these  poor  old 
hands'?  No;  that  is  not  what  they  seek.  It  is  because 
through  my  person  they  hope  to  dishonour  you.  If  they 
can  enslave  me,  they  think  they  degrade  the  whole  Maori 
race."  To  dishonour  or  degrade  the  Maoris  was  no  part 
of  the  Governor's  plan.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  to  do 
more  to  raise  them  in  their  own  estimation  and  in  that 
of  all  the  world  than  any  other  man,  but  his  policy  was 
always  to  disarm  and  disable  an  enemy.  Then  he  was 
prepared  to  treat  with  them. 

The  ethics  of  the  case  seem  comparatively  simple.  As 
regarded  Eauparaha,  it  was  plainly  an  unjust  act. 
Probably,  Rauparaha  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  incrim- 
inating letter.  His  own  overt  acts  were  not  culpable. 
But  a  man  cannot  be  always  dissociated  from  the  society 
to  which  he  belongs,  and  especially  a  leading  chief,  in  a 
primitive  community,  could  not  be  separated  from  the 
acts  of  his  tribesmen  and  near  relatives.  Rauparaha  lent 
Rangihaeata  his  countenance.  But  for  Rauparaha 's 
approval  or  passive  acquiescence,  Rangihaeata  would  not 
have  pursued  a  policy  of  active  opposition  to  the  colonists 
and  hostility  to  the  troops.  That  Rauparaha  was 
involved  in  the  consequences  of  Rangihaeata 's  policy  is 
shown  by  his  attempts  to  set  Rauparaha  free-  As 
regarded  Rangihaeata  and  his  tribe,  the  act  was  justifi- 
able. It  was  an  act  of  war,  and  the  tribe  was  at  war  with 
the  British.  No  action  could  be  more  effective.  It  sent 
a  thrill  of  dread  through  all  Maoridom.  It  showed  that 
the  new  Governor,  who  was  already  known  as  a  "fighting 
Governor, ' '  was  not  a  man  to  be  trifled  with.  It  probably 
averted  much  bloodshed.  It  resembled  the  sudden, 
unprovoked  seizure  of  the  innocent  Due  d'Enghien  by 
Napoleon,  which  Napoleon  defended  to  the  last  as  being 


GOVERNOR   OF   NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  39 

necessary  in  order  to  strike  terror  into  possible  Bourbon 
conspirators.  Had  the  duke  been  liberated  after  a  brief 
imprisonment,  the  case  would  have  run  almost  on  all 
fours  with  Rauparaha's.  But  Rauparaha  was  released, 
after  a  brief  time  on  parole,  and  Grey  thus  escaped  the 
condemnation  that  overtook  Napoleon. 

Had  the  act  caused  Grey  to  forfeit  the  confidence  of 
the  Maoris,  it  would  have  been  impolitic,  and  Mr.  Rusden 
affirms,  what  Grey  at  the  time  admitted,  that  it  did  have 
this  result.  Long  afterwards,  in  1879,  when  Grey  was 
Premier,  he  made  overtures  to  King  Tawhiao  that  were 
rejected  on  the  ground  that  the  captor  of  Rauparaha 
could  not  be  trusted.  Yet  the  Maoris  considered  all  acts 
justifiable  against  a  real  or  suspected  enemy.  Grey's 
wily  character  soon  got  to  be  known  to  the  Maoris.  Was 
it  Heke  in  the  far  north  who,  when  Grey  had  sent  him  a 
present  of  money,  examined  the  sovereigns  closely  to  see 
if  they  "had  any  hooks  on  them,"  as  everything  that 
came  from  Grey  was  apt  to  have?  As  for  the  alleged 
distrust  of  Grey  on  the  part  of  Tawhiao,  it  was  transient. 
I  may  be  j^ermitted  to  offer  some  personal  evidence  on 
that  head.  I  was  a  visitor  at  Kawau  in  the  autumn  of 
1884,  when  the  Maori  King  and  his  sons,  with  the  great 
chieftain  Rewi  and  his  daughter,  and  other  Maori  chiefs, 
came  to  procure  Grey's  countenance  and  support  in  their 
projected  mission  to  England.  Rewi  was  then  guarded, 
as  always,  but  the  attitude  of  Tawhiao  was,  on  that 
occasion,  one  of  almost  childlike  confidence.  If  ever  he 
felt  distrust  of  Grey,  he  had  completely  overcome  it. 

There  is  more  convincing  evidence.  When,  in  the 
course  of  the  conflict  between  Grey  and  the  New  Zealand 
Company,  it  was  rumoured  that  the  Governor  was  on  the 
eve  of  being  recalled  from  New  Zealand  a  number  of  peti- 
tions against  the  recall  were  got  up,  and  to  one  of  these 
the  first  signature  appended  was  that  of  the  captured  chief 
himself — the  famous  and  dreaded  Rau})araha.  Some 
years  later,  when  Grey  was  leaving  New  Zealand  to 
return  to  England,  the  son  of  Rauparaha  was  the  author 
of  one  of  the  many  laments.  Rauparaha  himself  bore  no 
malice.    He  told  his  son  to  "love  the  Europeans."    He 


40  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEOEGE   GREY 

had  long  been  a  professing  Christian,  and  from  the  time 
of  his  seizure  onwards  to  his  death  at  an  advanced  age, 
he  "was  continually  worshipping."  But  the  devotedness 
of  a  whole  race  is  proof  that  its  faith  in  Grey  remained 
intact.  In  the  year  of  Rauparaha's  death  two  Waikato 
chiefs  wrote  to  the  Queen,  asking  that  Governor  Grey 
should  "long  remain  here  as  Governor  of  this  island." 
"We  have  a  great  affection  for  him,"  they  added. 

The  war,  even  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Wellington,  was 
not  ended  by  the  imprisonment  of  Rauparaha.  A  guerilla 
warfare  was  still  maintained  by  Rangihaeata,  whom  Grey 
disdained  to  follow,  but  who  was  pursued  to  the  hills — 
he  and  his  little  band  of  200  heroes— by  1000  English  and 
colonial  troops.  In  course  of  time  he  lost  heart,  dis- 
suaded by  his  relatives  from  continuing  the  strife.  "Do 
not  suppose,  O  Governor,"  he  said  to  Grey,  "that  you 
conquered  me.  It  was  these,  my  own  relatives  and 
friends,  who  conquered  me."  He  gave  in,  but  as  he 
proudly  boasted,  he  was  never  defeated,  nor  was  he  ever 
captured.  It  was  the  way  most  Maori  wars  with 
the  British  ended.  The  natives  were  morally — they  were 
seldom  physically — beaten. 

Wan  at  Wanganui. 

In  1847  hostilities  broke  out  afresh  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Wanganui,  a  nascent  settlement  120  miles  to  the 
north  of  Wellington.  The  provocation,  as  was  too  often 
the  case,  was  given  by  a  heedless  act  on  the  part  of  the 
English,  and  the  passions  of  the  Maoris  blazed  out  in 
deeds  of  vengeance.  Whole  tribes  took  up  the  cause  of 
individual  members,  and  the  conflagration  spread.  Grey 
himself,  always  ready  for  a  bit  of  fighting,  by  tongue  or 
gun,  took  the  field  and  arrived  on  the  scene  with  troops. 
He  was  effectually  aided  by  friendly  Native  chiefs,  and 
these  of  the  greatest— Waka  Nene  and  Te  Whero  Whero, 
who  came  from  the  north  and  the  centre  of  the  North 
Island  in  order  to  aid  the  Governor.  The  war  thus 
contributed  to  amalgamate  the  Maori  race,  all  broken  up 
into  tribes,  and  give  it  a  sense  of  unity.  The  alliance  of 
friendly  natives  with  an  invader  has  been  a  feature  of 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  41 

almost  all  wars  of  conquest,  from  the  time  of  the  Romans 
onwards,  and  in  none  was  it  more  helpful  than  in  New 
Zealand.  In  the  North,  Waka  Nene  saved  the  Colony  to 
the  British  in  the  dark  days  that  followed  the  sack  of 
Kororareka;  Te  Rangitake  saved  the  more  southern 
parts  a  year  and  two  years  later;  and  when  Te  Kooti's 
rising-  terrified  the  colonists  and  almost  scared  the 
English  Government  into  sending  out  a  dictator,  it  was 
Rangihiwinui  who  played  the  part  of  the  avenger  and  at 
the  same  time  kept  the  loyal  tribes  from  revolting.  The 
debt  of  the  New  Zealand  colonists  to  the  friendly  Maoris 
is  immeasurable.  On  this  occasion  Grey  bore  generous 
testimony  to  their  ' '  activity  and  gallantry. "  "  We  could 
not  have  dispensed  with  their  services,"  he  honourably 
acknowledged.  Once  more,  towards  the  end  of  the  year, 
the  war  gradually  died  out. 

A  Blunder. 

Like  an  unskilled  medical  practitioner,  he  was  able, 
for  a  time,  to  bury  his  mistakes,  or  the  mistakes  of  others, 
which  he  sanctioned.  A  Maori  known  to  the  settlers  as 
Martin  Luther,  and  to  his  own  race  as  Wareaitu,  was 
captured  by  the  troops  at  Wanganui  in  1847,  tried  by 
court-martial,  and  hanged.  The  despatch  in  which  Grey 
described  the  incident  was  never  published,  but  Mr. 
Rusden  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  it  in  the  Colonial 
Office.  Grey  there  states  that  Wareaitu  was  executed 
for  his  connection  with  the  murder  of  certain  settlers. 
No  such  charge  was  made  before  the  court-martial.  He 
was  there  tried  as  a  rebel  for  attacking  the  troops.  To 
stigmatize  a  Maori  fighting  in  defence  of  his  tribe  a  rebel 
was  monstrous,  and  to  execute  him  for  it  as  a  common 
criminal  was  a  crime.  The  execution,  said  a  military 
surgeon,  Dr.  Thomson,  who  has  written  one  of  the  best 
books  about  New  Zealand,  was  the  disgrace  of  Grey's 
first  governorship. 


Chaptek  v. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continiied. 

The  Missionaries. 

Besides  the  Maoris,  Grey  was  to  find  in  New  Zealand 
a  remarkable  body  of  men  who  were  playing  a  large  part 
in  the  history  of  the  Colony.  They  belonged  to  two 
religious  denominations — the  Anglicans  and  the  Wes- 
leyans,  and  their  friendly  rivalry  presaged  an  equal  share 
in  its  future  civilisation.  They  had  been  principally 
instrumental  in  procuring  the  assent  and  the  signatures 
of  the  chiefs  to  the  treaty  of  Waitangi,  and  the  first 
Governor  had  acknowledged  his  obligations  to  them  in 
this  connection.  On  many  an  occasion  both  Anglicans  and 
Wesleyans  had  interposed  between  angry  bands  of  Native 
combatants  and  made  peace.  They  completed  the  pacifi- 
cation they  had  begun.  Largely  at  their  instance,  the 
great  hostile  warriors — Kapiti  and  Heke  in  the  north, 
Rauparaha  and  Rangihaeata  in  the  south — turned  their 
spears  into  priming-hooks  and  died  Christians.  Such 
services  were  incommensurable  and  unrewardable,  and 
they  should  have  earned  for  the  ''transfigured  band" 
both  consideration  and  reverence. 

The  Missionary  Ideal. 

They  received  neither  at  the  hands  of  Governor  Grey. 
An  older  man,  with  a  still  more  perverted  mind,  Edward 
Gibbon  Wakefield,  appraised  them  more  justly  when,  in 
1839,  he  instructed  his  brother.  Colonel  William  Wake- 
field, to  deal  considerately  with  them,  because  of  "the 
sacrifices  they  had  made  as  pioneers  of  civilisation." 
Self-sacrifice  was  the  last  attribute  Grey  was  to  perceive 
in  them.  Half  a  century  afterwards  he  told  how  he  had 
found  them  living  in  comfortable  houses,  in  competence, 
and  in  good  positions.  Having  incredible  influence  over 
the  natives,  they  had  acquired  great  estates, — and  this 

42 


GOVERXOK   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TEEM  43 

was  the  pretext  of  Ms  hostility.  They  also  opposed  and 
bitterly  attacked  all  who  stood  up  for  fair  dealing.  The 
chief  of  those  who  thus  stood  up  for  fair  dealing  was  Grey 
himself,  and  he  seemed  to  thinlv  that  he  had  been  badly 
used  by  them.  Yet,  at  different  times,  he  had  written 
of  them  in  despatches  as  "the  numerous  and  admirable 
body  of  missionaries,"  and  justly  spoke  of  them  as 
having  conferred  ' '  incalculable  benefits ' '  on  the  Colony. 

In  the  long  strife  that  took  place  between  them  he  was 
the  aggressor.  As  early  as  February,  1846,  immediately 
after  the  capture  of  Euapekapeka,  he  intimated  that 
letters  of  a  gravely  compromising,  indeed  of  a  treason- 
able, character  had  been  found  in  the  pah.  These  he 
professed  to  have  destroyed  without  reading,  but  he  let  it 
be  plainly  understood  that  the  leading  Anglican  mission- 
ary, Henry  Williams,  was  one  of  the  writers.  Williams 
was  one  of  the  most  striking  personalities  in  the  early 
history  of  the  Colony.  Like  the  late  Archbishop  of 
York,  he  had  served  in  the  Royal  Navy ;  and  the  fighting 
spirit,  subdued  and  refined,  lived  on  in  the  old  lieutenant. 
He  was  possessed  by  the  ideal  of  the  early  missionaries, 
who  looked  forward  to  a  missionary  New  Zealand, 
peopled  by  none  but  Maoris  and  their  missionary  teachers, 
or,  if  by  some  scattered  Europeans  as  well,  needed  at 
first  for  purposes  of  trade  and  industrial  initiation,  then 
by  those  Europeans  under  the  government  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. No  thought  had  they  of  making  New  Zealand 
a  British  colony,  or  the  home  of  a  future  division  of  the 
British  race.  They  knew  their  labours  to  be  imperilled 
by  the  questionable  specimens  of  Europeans  already 
settled  in  the  islands,  and  they  dreaded  that  their  entire 
work  of  evangelization  would  be  ruined  by  British 
colonisation.  So  indeed  it  proved,  or  almost  so.  But 
these  things  were  still  in  the  womb  of  time.  Meanwhile, 
these  excellent,  if  mistaken,  men  dreamed  of  a  Maori 
theocracy,  where  the  missionaries  would  supersede  the 
tohungas,  or  Maori  priests,  raise  the  whole  people  to  a 
higher  level,  and  create  within  them  a  new  life. 

Acting  in  that  self-assumed  capacity,  so  far  from 
encouraging  revolt,  Henry  Williams  sought  to  guide  and 


44  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

disarm  the  rebel  chiefs  who  lately  threatened  British 
ascendency.  The  heart  of  the  old  naval  officer  was  loyal  to 
the  old  flag",  and  he  must  have  felt  a  sharp  pang  when  that 
strangest  of  charges  was  made.  The  incident  is  notable 
only  as  revealing  the  beginning  of  Grey's  animosity 
against  Williams. 

Gney's  Action  against  them. 

A  month  or  two  later  it  assumed  an  acute  form.  With 
the  impression  of  the  discovery  still  hot  in  his  mind,  Grey 
learnt  that  a  number  of  persons  had  acquired  large  tracts 
of  land  from  the  Maoris,  and  for  sums  that  now  seem 
insignificant.  These  (he  informed  Lord  Grey  in  a 
despatch  dated,  June,  1846)  included  "among  them  those 
connected  with  the  public  press,  several  members  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  and  numerous  families  of 
those  gentlemen,"  together  with  "various  gentlemen 
holding  important  offices  in  the  public  service. ' '  He  went 
on  to  say  that  "these  individuals  could  not  be  put  into 
possession  of  those  tracts  of  land  without  a  large  expendi- 
ture of  British  blood  and  money;"  hence,  the  despatch 
came  to  be  known  as  "the  Blood  and  Treasure 
Despatch."  It  would  have  to  be  decided  whether  (and 
he  manifestly  advised  the  Colonial  Secretary  not  to 
decide  that)  "British  naval  and  military  forces  should 
be  employed  in  putting  these  individuals  into  possession 
of  the  land  they  claim."  The  despatch  was  marked, 
"confidential,"  but  Lord  Grey  broke  the  seal  of  secrecy 
by  promptly  communicating  the  contents  of  it  to  the 
Church  Missionary  Society.  The  act  set  a  questionable 
example  to  his  namesake  in  New  Zealand,  who,  twenty 
years  after,  communicated  to  his  cabinet  a  confidential 
despatch  from  the  Secretary  for  War  and  bitterly 
expiated  the  offence.  The  unfortunate  Governor  was 
twice  punished — once  for  a  despatch  he  wrote  and  again 
for  a  despatch  written  to  him. 

One  set  of  facts  could  not  be  gainsaid.  The  mission- 
aries had  acquired  extensive  estates,  and  they  had  paid 
sums  that  by  no  rule  of  proportion  could  be  deemed  the 


^'^jMl 


\ 


llKNKV    WIMJAMS. 


GOVEENOK   OF    ISTEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  45 

equivalents  of  tlie  so-called  purchases.  Of  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  missionaries  no  fewer  than  eight 
— six  actual  and  two  past  missionaries — possessed  an 
amount  of  land  exceeding  the  maximum  fixed  by  colonial 
ordinance  at  2,560  acres,  while  the  others  were  doubtless 
provided  for  on  a  smaller  scale.  There  was  nothing  in 
itself  unjust  in  such  purchases.  The  Government  of  the 
mother-colony  of  New  South  Wales  recognised  that  men 
who  had  made  such  heavy  sacrifices  for  love  of  their  kind, 
and  who  were  so  situated  that  they  could  not  provide  for 
their  families,  should  have  their  families  provided  for 
by  the  State,  and  such  provision  was  made  in  the  form 
easiest  to  the  Government  that  had  fallen  heir  to  the 
fee-simple  of  an  entire  continent  by  making  grants  of 
land  to  the  children  of  chaplains.  Unlike  the  early  (and 
some  later)  politicians  of  the  Colony,  who  made  a  fortune 
in  New  Zealand  and  then  returned  to  England  to  spend  it, 
the  missionaries  had  resolved  to  dwell  with  their  families 
in  the  land  whither  they  had  been  sent  and  among  the 
people  they  had  converted  to  a  new  life.  It  is  perhaps 
little  to  say  that  the  missionaries  did  not  ask,  as  Grey's 
despatch  cynically  implied  they  did,  to  be  put  in  posses- 
sion of  the  lands  they  claimed — least  of  all,  by  the 
' '  effusion  of  blood  and  treasure. ' '  They  were  already  in 
possession  of  them,  and  the  Maoris  never  contested  the 
missionary  claims.  The  influence  of  the  missionaries  was 
so  great  that  the  natives  would  probably  have  given  up 
to  them  still  more  extensive  tracts  of  land. 

A  Theocmacy. 

It  is  an  old  question.  As  early  as  the  first  Christian 
centuries  it  was  realised  that  the  devotion  of  the  faithful 
was  a  source  of  public  danger,  and  statutes  of  the  early 
emperors  limited  the  amount  of  the  donations  they  could 
legally  make.  The  triumph  of  the  Church  over  a 
moribund  power  augumented  the  evil.  Throughout  the 
Middle  Ages  the  'dead  hand'  of  the  Church  was  over  all. 
In  several  European  countries  it  was  estimated  that  the 
Catholic  Church  held  one-third  of  the  landed  wealth,  and 


46  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

similar  statements  are  made  of  the  Oriental  theocracies. 
The  acquisition  of  land,  at  least  in  early  times,  is  mani- 
festly the  material  foimdation  of  the  spiritual  power. 
Through  this  means  the  Pope  attained  his  primacy. 
Through  it  all  the  national  churches  sustained  their 
energies  and  maintained  their  consequence  in  the  world. 
At  this  day,  the  spiritual  communions  par  excellence, 
such  as  the  Methodists,  the  Congregationalists,  and  the 
Baptists  assure  their  material  existence  by  trust  deeds 
which  give  them  a  legal  title  to  their  chapels,  schools, 
and  endowments.  Sometimes  their  most  saintly  ministers 
have  tarnished  their  repute  by  their  pertinacious  pursuit 
of  such  wealth,  and  several  ministers  in  all  the  colonies 
have  impaired  their  spiritual  usefulness  by  an  undue 
addiction  to  the  acquisition  of  it- 

The  danger  of  a  theocracy,  buttressed  by  large  material 
resources,  arising  in  New  Zealand  was  not  wholly 
imaginary.  One  of  the  missionaries  claimed  30,000  acres. 
Another  claimed  about  10,000  acres,  and  a  Government 
commissioner,  to  whom  the  Governor  had  remitted  the 
settlement  of  the  dispute,  assigned  him  the  full  amount 
of  his  claim.  To  several  others  the  same  commissioner 
rashly  awarded  amounts  exceeding  the  legal  maximum. 
Grey  had  not  the  smallest  intention  of  conceding  any 
such  extravagant  claims.  Of  the  missionaries  Henry 
Williams  was  the  most  intractable.  He  positively  stated 
that  he  claimed  no  excess  over  the  legal  maximum.  On 
the  contrary,  as  he  jesuitically  admitted,  he  made  his 
very  extensive  purchases  of  land  for  the  sole  benefit  of 
his  eleven  children,  and  he  never  derived  a  shilling  from 
any  of  them.  Men,  other  than  misers,  usually  accumulate 
for  the  benefit  of  their  heirs,  but  they  are  not  generally 
considered  the  less  selfish  on  that  account.  Nor  was  it 
literally  true  that  Williams  did  not  benefit  by  the  lands 
he  bought.  When,  in  consequence  of  these  transactions, 
he  was  dismissed  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
he  withdrew  to  an  estate  owned  by  one  of  his  sons,  and 
there  continued  his  noble  missionary  toils.  He  had 
imwittingly  been  providing  for  his  old  age. 


GOVERNOR    OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  47 

The  Missionaries'  Land  Purchases. 

The  missionaries  had  immediately  adopted  the  practice 
sanctioned  by  the  Government  of  New  South  Wales. 
In  order  to  provide  for  their  children  they  had  proposed 
to  the  Church  IMissionary  Society,  which  had  hitherto 
granted  a  limip  sum  in  satisfaction  of  all  demands, 
that  it  should  purchase  for  each  child  of  a  missionary 
200  acres.  The  Society  agreed,  but  annexed  con- 
ditions that  made  the  proposal  unacceptable  to  the 
missionaries.  They  then  decided  to  purchase  land 
on  their  own  account  and  place  their  children  on  it 
as  they  grew  up.  The  Society  did  not  disapprove  of  the 
practice,  and  the  Bishop  of  Australia,  then  their 
diocesan,  openly  countenanced  it.  At  the  same  time  he 
gave  them  wise  counsel.  Let  them  provide  for  their 
children,  and  a  blessing  attend  them,  but  let  them  reserve 
no  land  for  their  own  use.  Not  otherwise  could  they 
escape  aspersions. 

Aspersions  had  already  been  made,  and  by  one  who 
fought  without  the  gloves.  When  he  was  in  England  in 
1840  Grey  may,  probably  must,  have  seen  four  published 
letters  addressed  to  Lord  Durham  by  a  famous  Austra- 
lian Presbyterian,  John  Dunmore  Lang.  Dr.  Lang 
had  touched  at  New  Zealand  on  his  way  to  England  in 
1839.  He  had  kept  his  eyes  open,  and  when  he  arrived 
in  England,  he  told  what  he  had  seen.  He  asserted  that 
the  missionaries,  especially  the  agents  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  had  been  the  ''principals  in  the  grand 
conspiracy  of  the  European  inliabitants  to  rob  and 
plunder  the  natives  of  their  land,"  and  that  their  sys- 
tematic practice  was  "one  of  the  grossest  breaches  of 
trust  witnessed  for  a  century  past."  It  was  a  scathing 
indictment,  and  matters  were  still  worse  than  Lang  had 
made  out.  It  was  Anglican  missionaries  whose  mis- 
deeds he  had  heard  of  at  the  Bay  of  Islands,  but,  further 
south,  missionaries  of  the  other  denominations  had 
carried  it  to  perilous  lengths.  The  same  pretext  that 
induced  the  Anglicans  to  make  extensive  purchases 
induced  the  Rev.  Richard  Taylor,  so  creditably  known 
in  the  literature  relating  to  New  Zealand,  to  purchase 
50,000  acres. 


48  LIFE   OF   SIE   GEOKGE   GEEY 

Two  things  strike  one  in  connection  with  the  matter. 
Where  did  men  who  were  presumably  poor  procure  the 
money  for  making  such  extensive  purchases?  Mr. 
Taylor  paid  £681  for  his  50,000  acres ;  Mr,  Fairburn  paid 
£923  for  his  40,000.  They  must  have  borrowed  the  money. 
That  is,  they  engaged,  through  the  ordinary  channels, 
in  land  speculations.  Were  such  speculations  consistent 
with  their  professional  character? 

Next,  the  missionaries  estimated  the  value  of  land  at 
five  shillings  the  acre.  This  is  shown  by  their  proposal 
that,  instead  of  giving  their  children  at  fifteen  years  old 
a  final  gift  of  £50,  the  Society  should  buy  for  them  200 
acres.  It  was  also  the  estimate  adhered  to  by  the  Govern- 
ment commissioners.  At  that  rate  Mr.  Fairburn  would 
have  paid  a  sum  of  £10,000  instead  of  less  than  £1,000, 
and  Mr.  Taylor  £12,500  instead  of  less  than  £700.  And 
what  was  the  money  value  of  the  tools,  etc.,  Mr.  Williams 
gave  for  his  thousands  of  acres? 

Williams  never  surrendered  the  lands  he  had  so  easily 
acquired.  In  his  heated  controversy  with  the  Governor, 
the  Bishop  (who  sided  with  the  Governor),  and  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  he  took  high  ground.  He 
demanded  that  the  Governor's  grave  charges  should 
"be  either  fully  established  or  fully  and  honourably 
withdrawn."  They  seem  to  have  been  sufficiently 
established  by  the  mere  enumeration  of  the  lands  owned 
by  Williams's  sons — almost  the  only  fertile  lands  in 
the  beautiful  but  barren  and  unproductive  Bay  of  Islands. 
Withdrawn  they  never  were,  unless  a  friendly  visit  to  the 
Bay  of  Islands  during  Grey's  second  term  as  Governor 
of  New  Zealand  be  considered  such.  The  historians  have 
taken  sides  with  Williams.  Not  only  his  son-in-law,  the 
scholar  Carleton  (who  used  to  cite  Aeschylus  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  where  there  was  no  Sheridan 
to  check  him)  in  a  biography  of  his  father-in-law  and  in 
a  special  vindication,  but  the  historian  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  New  Zealand,  the  good  Dean  Jacobs;  the 
historian  of  New  Zealand,  the  Draconian  Eusden;  and  the 
biographer  of  Wakefield,  the  all-accomplished  and  impar- 
tial Dr.  Garnett,  have  with  one  accord  set  themselves 


GOVEENOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  49 

to  laud  and  justify  the  brave  old  missionary.  Two 
demurrers  may  be  entered.  First,  let  the  unbiased  reader 
peruse  in  the  Parliamentary  Papers  the  list  of  articles 
given  by  Williams  in  exchange  for  the  tracts  of  land  he 
purchased  from  the  Maoris.  It  compares  favourably 
with  the  collection  of  looking-glasses  and  Jew's  harps 
given  by  William  Wakefield  for  his  alleged  purchases, 
but  it  is  still  edifying.  Next,  let  him  remember  that  some 
of  Williams's  sons  are  among  the  largest  landholders  in 
New  Zealand. 

The  Governor's  Tpiumph. 

The  entangled  affair  issued  in  a  victory  for  the 
militant  Governor.  The  peccant  missionaries  were 
stringently  dealt  with  by  their  ecclesiastical  superiors 
and  by  the  New  Zealand  courts.  In  1849-50  Henry 
Williams  was  dismissed  by  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  and  one  of  the  most  potent  influences  for  good 
was  for  a  time  partially  extinguished.  The  account  of 
his  departure  from  his  "old  and  much-loved  home,  all 
untouched  in  Sabbath  peace,"  reminds  one  of  the  depar- 
ture of  the  seceding  Free  Church  ministers  from  their 
manses  only  seven  years  before,  which  has  been 
pathetically  painted  by  Sir  George  Hervey.  The  root 
of  both  severances  was  the  same — collision  with  the  civil 
power;  but  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  went  out  with 
clean  hands,  while  the  Anglican  went  out  gorged  with 
the  spoils  of  the  Maori.  If  the  biographers  and  his- 
torians vindicate  Williams,  they  fling  the  other  mission- 
aries to  the  wolves.  Clarke,  who  had  been  a  catechist, 
and  then  was  appointed  Chief  Protector  of  the 
Aborigines,  a  capacity  in  which  he  rendered  them  signal 
services,  was  likewise  dismissed,  though  a  legal  decision 
had  been  given  in  his  favour.  He  offered  to  surrender 
the  excess,  provided  it  could  be  held  by  the  Church  in 
trust  for  the  education  of  the  natives,  and  when  this  con- 
dition was  rejected,  he  divided  his  estates  among  the 
members  of  his  family  and  was  again  condemned  by  his 
society  for  so  doing.  Fairbum  was  also  dismissed,  and 
he  too  offered  to  surrender  his  excess  land  on  similar 


E 


50  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

terms,  but  in  his   case   the   Government   acted   with   a 
stringency  that  no  legal  decision  impeded.    It  seized  the 
greater  part  of  his  30,000  acres,  which  had  been  a  bone 
of  contention  between  two  hostile  tribes,  and  were  bought 
by  him  at  the  instance  of  Williams  (who  refused  to  pur- 
chase them  for  himself),  because  on  no  other  terms  could 
peace  be  made.     Some  grasping  Wesleyan  missionaries, 
who  had  yielded  to  the  same  overpowering  temptation, 
were   also    dismissed.     The    Governor    had    triumphed. 
Shall  we  condemn  him?        For  once  at  least  in  his  life 
his  motives  were  pure.    A  professing  Christian  and  an 
Anglican,  he  can  have  had  no  prejudice  against  either 
Anglican   or   Wesleyan  missionaries,   and   it   is   surely 
doubtful  whether  he  was  animated,  as  Mr.  Rusden  alleges, 
by  jealousy  of  the  power  wielded  by  the  consecrated  band. 
He  saw  the  natives  being  robbed  of  their  chief,  almost 
their  sole,  possessions   by  men  whose  offence  was  all  the 
deeper  that  they  were  self-dedicated  to  an  unworldly  life, 
and   whose   influence   over   the    Maoris    was    the    more 
irresistible.    He  stood  between  the  helpless  natives  and 
his  own  conscienceless  countrymen;  should  he  not  stand 
between  them  and  those  of  his  fellow-countrymen  who 
ought  to  have  been  the  living  embodiment  of  the  con- 
science of  their  race?    We  shall  not  condemn  him.    The 
whole  episode  forms  almost  the  brightest  chapter  of  a 
life  where  pure  motives,  noble  passions,  and  high  ends 
were    strangely    mingled    with    egoist    aims,    vindictive 
passions,  and  unworthy  means. 


Chapter  VI. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 
A  Proposed  Political  Constitution. 

Its  Terms. 

Early  in  1847  the  Governor  received  from  the  Secretary 
of  State  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  of  New  Zealand 
framed  by  Parliament  for  the  government  of  the  Colony. 
It  had  been  drafted  after  two  of  the  fullest  inquiries  ever 
made  by  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  the  reports  of  the  Committee  abound  in  matter  indis- 
pensable to  the  historian  and  useful  to  the  sociologist. 
An  ordinary  Governor,  whether  he  liked  the  new  Con- 
stitution or  not,  would  have  taken  the  necessary  steps  to 
carry  it  into  effect ;  but  Captain  Grey  was  not  an  ordinary 
Governor.  He  closely  examined  the  Act  and  found  a 
number  of  provisions  that  appeared  to  him  to  be  highly 
obnoxious.  The  Colony  was  to  be  divided  into  two  pro- 
vinces, with  a  Lieutenant-Governor,  appointed  in 
Downing  Street.  The  chief  officials  of  each  province 
were  likewise  to  be  appointed  in  Downing  Street. 
There  was  to  be  a  Legislature,  elected  by  the 
local  bodies.  There  was  no  provision  for  the 
representation  of  the  Maoris.  The  greater  part  of  the 
administration  and  apparently  the  entire  legislation  were 
to  be  made  independent  of  the  Governor-in-Chief,  who 
saw  himself  shorn  of  three-fourths  of  his  power. 

Grey's  First  Rebellion. 

Grey  did  not  act  precipitately.  He  approached  Bishop 
Selwyn  and  Chief -Justice  Martin,  and,  with  his  unrivalled 
powers  of  persuasion,  he  can  have  had  little  difficulty  in 
convincing  these  two  upright  but  as  yet  unsophisticated 
men  that  the  proposed  constitution  would  place  in 
jeopardy  equally  the  rights  of  the  natives  and  the  inde- 
pendence   of    the    settlers.      We    do    not    know    what 

51 


52  LIFE   OF   SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

arguments  he  used.  Eeviewing  the  whole  subject  forty- 
five  years  later,  he  alleged  that  in  1847  he  was  actuated 
by  two  motives.  He  believed  that  the  popular 
sovereignty  would  be  imperilled,  and  he  dreaded  the  effect 
upon  the  natives  of  a  policy  that  would  practically  exclude 
them  from  all  control  of  the  affairs  of  New  Zealand. 
Whether  he  also  used  the  argument  that  the  natives' 
secure  possession  of  their  lands  would  be  endangered, 
we  do  not  know.  We  may  suspect  that  it  was,  because  this 
was  evidently,  as  we  may  judge  from  their  subsequent 
public  action  and  printed  utterances,  the  consideration 
that  most  weighed  with  both  of  these  just  and  able 
men,  who  were  pronounced  philo-Maoris.  Either  they 
failed  to  perceive  the  mixture  of  selfish  ends  with  loftier 
motives  in  the  mind  of  the  Governor,  or  they  elected  to 
overlook  it.  At  all  events,  however  it  may  have  been 
managed,  these  high  officials  were  gained  over,  and,  with 
them  at  his  back,  the  Governor  felt  strong  enough  to  take 
one  of  the  boldest  steps  the  Governor  of  a  British  colony 
ever  took.  He  ignored  his  Instructions,  refused  to  allow 
the  Imperial  Act  to  have  the  force  of  law,  and  suspended 
the  operation  of  the  Constitution. 

So,  at  least,  it  appears  on  the  face  of  it,  and  so  the 
incident  is  commonly  narrated.  The  real  manner  of  his 
defiance  was  less  Promethean.  Earl  Grey's  despatch  (of 
December  23,  1846)  left  to  the  Governor  the  discretionary 
power  of  fixing  the  date  at  which  he  should  promulgate 
the  new  charter.  Of  this  power  Grey  prepared  to  avail 
himself.  In  the  reply-despatch  of  May  3,  1847,  he 
stated  the  chief  objection  to  the  new  constitution. 
Eequiring  that  every  elector  should  be  able  to  read  and 
write  the  English  tongue,  it  would  disfranchise,  on  its 
own  territory,  the  entire  Maori  race,  of  whom  not  one  was 
known  to  the  Governor  to  possess  the  required  qualifica- 
tion. Yet  the  great  majority,  taught  by  a  band  of 
devoted  missionaries,  could  read  and  write  the  Maori 
language.  Not  only  so.  "In  natural  sense  and  ability," 
the  Governor  urged,  the  Maori  race  was  equal  to  the 
majority  of  the  European  population.  And  he  depre- 
cated the  attempt  to  force  on  a  proud  and  high-spirited 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  53 

people  a  form  of  government  that  would  bring  them  into 
subjection  to  an  insignificant  minority  of  European 
settlers.  He  would  therefore,  with  the  leave  of  the 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  refrain  from  giving  effect  to 
the  portion  of  his  Instructions  that  provided  for  the 
creation  of  representative  institutions.  All  else  should 
be  carried  out.  Even  this  obnoxious  portion  he  was 
prepared  to  put  in  force,  if,  after  perusing  this  despatch, 
Earl  Grey  still  adhered  to  his  resolution.  He  neverthe- 
less requested  that  the  Instructions  should  be  revoked, 
if  the  reasons  he  had  stated  should  ' '  command  the  assent 
of  Her  Majesty's  Government."  Thus,  in  the  substance 
of  the  despatch  there  is  little,  in  the  manner  of  it  there  is 
not  a  trace,  of  the  Titanic  rebellion  with  the  glamour  of 
which  it  has  dazzled  the  eyes  of  posterity. 

The  Right  of  Occupancy. 

That  he  cannot  have  urged  to  Bishop  Selwyn  and 
Chief-Justice  Martin,  in  opposition  to  the  new  Constitu- 
tion, the  considerations  that  had  most  apparent  weight 
with  himself,  is  manifest  from  the  stand  they  took  and 
the  lines  of  reasoning  they  followed,  so  different  are  they 
from  his  own.  He  makes  no  reference  to  the  breach  of 
the  Treaty  of  Waitangi  implied  and  virtually  authorised 
in  the  Royal  Instructions.  Earl  Grey  frankly  avowed  that 
he  "entirely  dissented"  from  the  doctrine  ''that  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  any  country  are  the  proprietors 
of  every  part  of  its  soil  of  which  they  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  make  any  use,  or  to  which  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  assert  any  title."  He  proposed  to  set  up 
district  land  courts,  in  which  no  claim  of  the  natives  to 
lands  shall  be  admitted  unless  it  be  proved  that  they  had 
occupied  or  been  accustomed  to  enjoy  these,  "either  as 
places  of  abode  or  for  tillage,  or  for  the  growth  of  crops, 
or  for  the  depasturing  of  cattle,  or  otherwise  for  the  con- 
venience and  sustentation  of  life,  by  means  of  labour 
expended  thereupon."  In  reading  these  instructions, 
which  seem  so  explicit,  the  Governor  jesuitically 
professed  to  assume  that,  when  Earl  Grey  referred 
to     unoccupied     waste     lands,     he     meant     unclaimed 


54  LIFE  OF  SIK  GEORGE  GREY 

lands.  Yet  he  is  careful  to  explain  to  Earl 
Grey  that  the  Maoris  supported  themselves,  not  only 
by  cultivation,  but  by  digging  fern-root,  by  fishing  and 
eel-catching,  by  hunting  wild  pigs  ''(for  which  they 
require  extensive  runs);"  and  that  to  deprive  them  of 
the  "wild  lands"  would  be  to  cut  off  some  of  their  most 
important  means  of  subsistence. 

It  was  no  accusation  against  Earl  Grey,  or  the  direc- 
tors of  the  New  Zealand  Company,  who  prompted  him, 
that  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  state  of 
countries  that  were  still  at  the  clan  stage ;  not  for  twenty 
or  thirty  years  were  publicists  to  learn  that  in  the  greatest 
of  British  dependencies,  where  the  clan  stage  is  station- 
ary, there  is  no  waste  land,  properly  speaking.  "Of 
uncultivated  land  there  is  abundance;  but,  with  some 
trifling  exceptions,  the  entire  country  is  appropriated 
and  is  divided  among  the  different  village  communities."* 
England  itself,  in  so-called  Anglo-Saxon  times,  was 
covered  with  a  network  of  such  communities.  In  1847 
New  Zealand,  so  far  as  it  was  occupied  by  the  Maoris, 
was  at  that  stage,  and,  with  similarly  trifling  exceptions, 
there  was  no  portion  of  the  land,  at  least  in  the  North 
Island,  that  was  not  claimed  by  one  or  another  of  the 
clans. 

What  was  the  value  of  the  claim?  In  theory,  all  the 
most  eminent  jurists  and  all  the  great  discovering 
powers  have  recognised  a  "right  of  occupancy"  as 
inhering  in  the  aboriginal  or  indigenous  possessors  of 
the  soil  of  a  conquered  country,  and  such  a  right  can  be 
extinguished  only  by  treaty.  In  practice,  history  shows 
that,  in  America,  at  least  in  later  years,  the  native  right 
of  occupancy  has  been  steadfastly  set  aside  by  aggressive 
Governors  and  Presidents  or  encroaching  Legislatures. 
In  all  the  records  of  mankind  there  is  hardly  told  such 
a  long-drawn-out  tragedy  as  is  revealed  by  Mrs.  Helen 
Hunt  Jackson  in  her  work,  A  Century  of  Dishonour, 
where  the  earnest  and  accomplished  authoress  does  what 
Burke  declared  that  he  could  not  do — draws  an  indict- 
ment against  a  whole  people.     No  such  charge  can  be 

*W.  B.  Hearn,  The  Aryan  Household,  pp-  214-6- 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  55 

made  against  the  rulers  of  New  Zealand.  The  day  was  to 
come  when  a  whole  province  of  acknowledged  Maori 
territory  was  after  a  protracted  war,  to  be  confiscated 
by  right  of  conquest,  and  there  had  previously  been 
numberless  disputes  in  detail,  some  of  them  sanguinary, 
about  the  possession  of  this  or  that  portion.  Some  of  the 
treaties,  especially  in  the  South  Island,  but  also  in  the 
North,  have  not  been  strictly  observed.  But  the  alleged 
right  of  occupancy  has  ever  been  held  sacred.  Would  it 
have  been  so  held  had  the  principle  laid  down  by  Thomas 
Arnold,  and  accepted  on  his  authority  by  Earl  Grey,  been 
adopted  and  acted  upon?  The  historian  of  ancient  Rome 
and  professor  of  history  at  Oxford  maintained  that  such 
a  right  is  ''inseparably  united  with  industry  and  know- 
ledge." Wherever  these  had  not  been  applied,  he  con- 
tended, and  Earl  Grey  agreed  with  him,  that  the  right 
lapsed. 

The  drift  of  public  opinion  in  the  forties  was  against 
the  contention,  and  perhaps  it  was  well.  Ugly  questions 
were  thus  not  raised,  and  implacable  animosities  were  not 
aroused.  For  one  reason  or  another  the  Maoris  parted 
with  their  lands  as  speedily  as  the  needs  of  the  colonists 
demanded,  and  the  advance  of  colonisation  did  not,  as  in 
the  United  States  it  did,  outstrip  the  decline  of  the  Native 
race.  In  our  days  the  trend  of  settlement  is  all  the  other 
way,  and  the  Maoris  are  about  to  be  dispossessed  on  a 
large  scale  in  order  that  their  lands  may  be  thrown  open 
to  cultivation.  It  is  a  consequence  of  the  more  strenuous 
temper  of  our  generation. 

Two   Philo-Maoris. 

Against  the  principles  stated  in  the  despatches  of  Earl 
Grey  and  incorporated  in  the  juridical  portion  of  the  new 
Constitution  the  two  leading  men  already  named 
took  up  strong  groimd.  In  later  days  high 
officials  of  the  Colony  seemed  always  to  have  an 
animus  against  the  poor  Maoris ;  in  the  earlier  days  they 
had  a  pronounced  bias  in  their  favour.  After  Grey  him- 
self the  Maoris  never  had  better  friends  than  Bishop 


56  LIFE  OF  SIR  GEORGE  GREY 

Selwyn  and  Chief-Justice  Martin.  Through  long  terms 
of  office  and  protracted  lives  these  eminent  men  appeared 
to  hold  a  moral  brief  for  a  race  which,  without  their 
advocacy,  would,  in  New  Zealand  at  least,  have  been 
friendless  indeed.  On  this  supreme  occasion,  when  the 
rights  and  the  future  existence  of  the  race  were  at  stake, 
both  of  them  stepped  into  the  breach  and  hazarded  their 
good  name  as  well  as  their  official  position  in  the  defence 
of  the  Maoris.  Selwyn  not  only  recorded  his  ' '  formal  and 
deliberate  protest"  against  the  principles  avowed  by 
Earl  Grey;  he  stated  that  he  was  resolved  "to  use  all 
legal  and  constitutional  measures"  to  assist  the  natives 
"in  asserting  and  maintaining"  their  "rights  and 
privileges  as  British  subjects."  Chief- Justice  Martin 
printed,  but  did  not  publish,  a  pamphlet  on  England  and 
the  New  Zealanders.  Both  were  sent  to  the  Secretary  for 
the  Colonies  by  the  Governor.  If  the  Bishop's  appeal 
was,  like  Antigone's,  to  "the  infallible,  unwritten  laws 
of  Heaven,"  the  Chief -Justice's  appeal  was  to  the  con- 
sensus of  jurists.  Earl  Grey,  in  his  turn,  might  have 
appealed  to  the  practice  of  the  United  States,  which,  in 
those  very  years,  was  setting  the  maxims  of  its  own 
eminent  jurists  at  defiance. 

Two  points  specially  invite  notice.  Long  afterwards, 
when  the  disastrous  Waikato  war  was  raging.  Bishop 
Selwj^n  expressed  the  belief  that  "the  new  Constitution" 
(which  was  to  supersede  the  rejected  Constitution  of 
1846)  was  the  ultimate  cause  of  the  war.  He  meant,  of 
course,  the  power  conveyed  by  it  to  take  the  lands  of  the 
Maoris  without  the  consent  of  the  tribes.  It  was  truly  so. 
The  exercise  of  that  power,  against  which  he  was  now 
contending,  was  the  real  cause  of  the  war. 

Next,  the  Chief-Justice  predicted  that,  if  these  Royal 
Instructions  were  carried  out,  and  the  Maoris  came  to 
believe  that  their  secure  possession  of  their  lands  was 
threatened,  "the  Christian  religion  will  be  abandoned 
by  the  mass  of  those  who  now  receive  it. ' '  The  prediction 
was  fully  realised  only  sixteen  years  later.  Selwyn  then 
wrote  that  the  rise  and  acceptance  of  the  new  Hau-Hau  or 


GOVERNOR    OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  57 

Pai  Marire  religion  (religion  of  "Good  Tranquillity") 
were  the  outcome  of  the  aversion  of  the  Maoris  for 
everything  English. 

A  petition,  signed  by  Selwyn,  Martin,  and  many  others, 
and  protesting  against  the  Constitution  and  the  Instruc- 
tions, was  presented  to  the  Governor  and  forwarded  by 
him  to  the  Colonial  Office.  The  Wesleyan  Missionary 
Society  in  London  took  the  same  view.  Naval  officers, 
who  had  been  travelling  through  the  native  districts, 
made  known  the  dread  of  the  Maori  chiefs  at  the 
threatened  loss  of  their  lands.  All  possible  influences 
conspired  against  the  unfortunate  measure. 

It  is  indeed  doubtful  if  any  proposals  emanating  from 
the  Government  of  the  Mother-country  ever  met  with 
such  serried  opposition.  Mr.  Rees  states,  manifestly  on 
authority,  that  if  he  had  been  required  to  carry  the 
Instructions  into  effect.  Grey  would  have  resigned  his 
office,  and  the  assurance  is  confirmed  by  contemporary 
evidence.  According  to  Bishop  Selwyn,  Grey  assured 
both  Selwj^n  and  Chief -Justice  Martin  that  he  "neither 
could  nor  would  carry  them  into  practice  in  New 
Zealand. ' '  The  other  high  officers  of  the  Colony  were  no 
less  determined.  The  Chief-Justice  put  forth  a  keen 
discussion  of  their  legality  and  a  strong  protest  against 
them,  and,  after  flinging  this  firebrand  into  the  Colonial 
Office,  he  declared  that  it  was  for  the  Home  Government 
to  determine  whether  he  could  fitly  retain  his  office.  The 
Bishop  of  New  Zealand  was  no  less  emphatic.  "A  little 
more,"  he  said,  "and  Lord  Grey  would  have  made  me  a 
missionary  bishop,  with  my  path  upon  the  mountain 
wave,  my  home  upon  the  rolling  deep."  His  clergy  were 
as  outspoken  as  their  chief.  Earl  Grey's  despatch, 
wrote  Archdeacon  Maunsell,  "strikes  at  the  very  root 
of  the  life  and  liberty  of  the  aborigines."  The  only 
course  open  to  sons  of  the  missionaries  would  be  to  leave 
in  sorrow  the  country  which  they  were  civilising  and  had 
won  for  the  British. 


58  LIFE  OF  SIK  GEORGE  GREY 

Surrender  of  the  Colonial  Office. 

We  need  not  now  hesitate  to  say  that  the  Governor  was 
wholly  in  the  right.  It  was  a  thoroughly  bad  Constitution. 
We  may  go  further,  and  admit  that  it  was  better  for  the 
Colony,  at  that  stage,  to  be  governed  by  an  enlightened 
despot  than  by  a  packed  Legislature.  The  Colonial  Of&ce 
took  the  same  view.  Lord  Grey  confessed  that  he  was 
staggered  by  the  fact  that  no  single  Maori  could  read  or 
write  the  English  language.  He  could  not  understand 
that  the  missionaries  should  be  teaching  the  natives  to 
read  and  write  their  own  language  instead  of  that  of  the 
English.  None  the  less,  he  meekly  accepted  the  snub,  and 
even  turned  the  other  cheek.  He  made  haste  to  procure 
the  passing  of  an  Act  suspending  the  Constitution  for  a 
period  of  five  years. 

The  debates  that  took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons 
in  December,  1847,  and  February,  1848,  were  highly 
flattering  to  the  young  Governor.  With  his  habitual 
exaggeration  or  malapropism,  Disraeli  described  him  as 
being  "appalled"  by  the  receipt  of  the  copy  of  the  Con- 
stitution, but  he  lauded  the  Governor's  ''discretion  and 
abilities."  Lord  Lincoln,  the  future  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
thought  the  Act  should  be  repealed,  not  suspended.  Some 
future  notabilities  took  part  in  it.  A  trio  of  friends, 
inspired  perhaps  by  common  ecclesiastical  sympathies — 
Gladstone,  Eoundell  Palmer,  and  Cardwell,  approved  of 
the  Bishop's  protest.  Earl  Grey  admitted  that  the  Sus- 
pensory Act  was  ''founded  almost  entirely  on  the 
recommendations  of  Captain  Grey,"  who  "so  thoroughly 
understood  the  position  and  interests  of  the  Colony." 
With  a  comic  want  of  penetration  the  Secretary  of  State 
apologised  to  the  Governor  for  throwing  on  his  shoulders 
the  burden  of  personal  rule.  Next  year  he  was  knighted. 
The  force  of  complaisance  could  no  further  go.  An  act 
of  rebellion  has  seldom  met  with  such  complete  success 
or  brought  such  a  harvest  of  renown  to  its  author. 


Chapter  VII. 
GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

Civilising  the  Maoris. 

The  Governor  now  gathered  all  the  powers  of  Govern- 
ment into  his  own  hands  and  was  henceforth  free  to 
devote  himself  to  the  most  interesting,  as  it  was  doubtless 
the  most  important,  part  of  his  mission  to  New  Zealand. 
Having  fought  and  conquered  the  natives — always  an 
essential  preliminary  with  him — he  devoted  himself  to 
the  work  of  pacificating  and  civilising  them.  He  was 
well  fitted  for  the  task.  Genuine  kindness  of  heart, 
sympathy  with  the  wronged,  a  horror  of  injustice,  and 
perhaps  something  of  the  savage  in  his  own  nature  made 
him  a  born  mediator.  His  schemes  embraced  nothing 
less  than  the  amalgamation  of  the  two  races.  Like 
Samuel  Marsden  and  the  missionaries,  Lawry  and  Buller, 
like  the  New  Zealand  Company  and  a  well-informed 
writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Revieiv,  as  also  like  Samuel 
Stanhope  Smith,  an  old-time  president  of  William  and 
Mary  College,  with  respect  to  the  population  of  the 
United  States,  Sir  George  Grey  believed  that  the  future 
inhabitants  of  New  Zealand  would  be  a  mixed  population, 
a  blend  of  British  and  Maoris.  He  certainly  believed 
that,  as  two  noble  Spanish  houses  trace  back  their  descent 
to  Montezuma,  and  Australians  as  well  as  Virginians  are 
proud  to  count  Pocahontas  among  their  ancestors.  New 
Zealand  families  might  one  day  boast  of  having  in  their 
veins  the  blood  of  a  Christian  hero  like  Te  Waharoa  or 
a  mighty  warrior  like  Te  Rauparaha.  The  latter  expecta- 
tion has  hardly  been  realised,  save  in  a  few  isolated 
instances;  while  the  former  has  been  signally  disap- 
pointed; and  both  did  more  credit  to  the  hearts  than  to 
the  heads  of  those  who  thus  hoped  to  save  a  doomed 
race. 

59 


60  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Amalgamating  the  Races. 

No  more  destructive  policy  could,  indeed,  be  conceived- 
The  mixture     of  the  primary  races  stands  condemned 
as  producing  ''chaotic"  constitutions,  of  body,  mind,  and 
character,  and  leading  to  the  inevitable  degeneracy  of  the 
mixed    breed.      The    experience    of    breeders    is    here 
decisive.    No  experienced  breeder  would  dream  of  blend- 
ing radically  different  species,  save  now  and  then  for  a 
special   purpose,   as   when   the  horse   and  the   ass   are 
interbred  to  produce  the  mule,  or  even  widely  separated 
varieties  of  the  same  species,  as  when  the  horse  and  the 
zebra  are  interbred  for  fancy  or  scientific  objects.     He 
unites   closely  allied  varieties   of  the  same  species,  or 
members  of  "the  same  variety  that  have  some  different 
points.    To  unite  disparate  individuals  would  be,  not  to 
imperil,  but  to  wreck,  the  slowly  acquired  results  of  long 
inheritance  or  accumulated  selection.     The  rules  of  the 
advisable  mixture  of  human  races  are  identical  with  the 
rules  of  the  intermixture  of  animal  races.  Shun  mixtures 
of  the  primary  races  and  blend  only  varieties,  is  the  one 
clear  imperative  rule  in  human  societies,  as  among  domes- 
ticated animals.    Doubly  is  the  mixture  of  primary  races 
condemned  when  one  of  the  races  is  very  high  and  the 
other  very  low  in  the  scale.    x\ll  history  testifies  against 
it.     Canada   under   the   French   regime   is   a    speaking 
example.    During  the  hundred  years  of  French  occupa- 
tion,  when   the   French   immigrants   mingled   with   the 
Indians,   they   sank   so   rapidly   in   the   anthropological 
scale  that  they  gloried  in  resembling  savages  in  mind 
as  well  as  in  manners.     The  South  American  republics 
at  this  day  contain  visible  evidence  of  the  ''chaotic  con- 
stitutions" resulting  from  the  mixture  of  the  immigrant 
Spaniards  with  the  natives.     Their  political  instability 
and  their  moral  deterioration  alike  prove  the  injurious 
character  of  the  blend.     At  the  other  end  of  the  scale, 
the  union  of  the  Germanic  races  of  Northern  Europe  in 
North  America  furnishes  proof  of  the  happy  effects  of 
the  mixing  of  allied  varieties.    We  need  not  too  severely 
censure    the    short-sighted    promoters    of    an    injurious 
measure.      In    those    pre-Darwinian    days    the    most 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  61 

instructed  individuals  were  unable  to  realise  at  what  cost 
the  purity  of  a  race  is  maintained.  It  is  only  by  the 
unintermitted  action  of  natural  selection,  as  also  of  that 
artificial  selection  which  follows  in  its  steps,  that  each 
human  race  preserves  the  attributes  that  have  been  with 
such  difficulty  acquired. 

Organising  the  Maoris. 

The  end  desired  was  happily  unattainable,  but  the 
means  used  subserved  wiser  purposes.  Adopting  the 
suggestion  of  James  Busby,  the  first  official  British 
Resident  in  the  Islands,  the  Governor  pensioned  some 
of  the  tribal  chiefs ;  others  received  regular  rations ;  and 
to  others  were  given  presents.  Realising,  as  Hongi  had 
long  ago  realised,  that  the  possession  of  arms  of 
precision  was  the  chief  source  of  Maori  strength  against 
the  English  and  at  the  same  time  the  chief  cause  of  wars 
with  one  another,  he  succeeded,  after  a  long  struggle  with 
his  Council,  in  stopping  the  sale  of  fire-arms  to  the 
natives;  and  he  otherwise  endeavoured  to  abolish  inter- 
tribal wars.  He  restricted  the  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors 
among  them  and  thus  checked  their  ravages.  One  has 
seen,  at  the  Hot  Lakes,  a  stately  Maori  wrapped  in  his 
blanket,  with  the  port  of  an  ancient  Roman  clothed  in 
his  toga,  assisting  a  tipsy  Maori  woman,  with  a  child  on 
her  back,  along  the  road;  and  one  could  conceive  the 
hatred  of  the  pakeha  that  smouldered  in  the  heart  of  the 
old  chief. 

Grey  next  reverted  to  the  policy  of  Governor  Hobson, 
unliappily  reversed  by  FitzRoy,  of  prohibiting  the  sale  of 
Maori  lands  to  private  individuals  and  re-asserted  the 
pre-emptive  right  of  the  Government.  He  proceeded 
to  organize  the  natives.  He  formed  and  armed  a  body 
of  Native  police  under  Eur-opean  officers.  Some  of  the 
more  intelligent  he  intended  to  use  on  juries  and  other- 
wise employ  in  connection  with  the  administration  of 
justice.  Courts  were  created ;  resident  magistrates  were 
appointed,  with  the  powers  of  commissioners;  and  one  of 
these  was  afterwards  Sir  John  Gorst.     A  lawyer  was 


62  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

made  standing  counsel  to  the  Maoris,  with  a  salary  and 
a  commission  on  sums  received.  The  courts  thus  consti- 
tuted were  at  first  freely  resorted  to  by  the  natives. 
During  one  year  211  cases  were  tried  and  £490  recovered 
from  Europeans  in  Auckland  alone  for  the  Maoris. 

Hospitals. 

Pursuing  his  habitual  policy,  Grey  reared  hospitals 
for  the  natives  in  the  four  chief  northern  settlements, 
and  at  two  of  these,  by  1852,  nearly  a  thousand  patients 
had  been  treated.  He  hoped  thus  to  eradicate  the  belief 
in  witchcraft,  but  it  appears  that  in  this  he  was  no  more 
successful  than  afterwards  in  South  Africa. 

Schools. 

As  previously  in  South  Australia,  he  endeavoured  to 
civilise  the  Maoris  by  educating  the  young.  This  time, 
however,  he  set  up  no  State  schools,  but  wisely  left  the 
teaching  of  the  Maori  children  in  the  efficient  hands  of 
the  missionaries.  A  proportion  of  the  Colonial  revenue, 
a  larger  proportion  of  the  proceeds  of  land  sales,  and  a 
fixed  proportion  of  the  funds  contributed  by  the  Imperial 
Government  were  paid  to  the  Anglican,  Wesleyan,  and 
Catholic  missionaries.  A  total  sum  of  £5,900  was  thus 
annually  expended.  The  only  conditions  annexed  were 
that  Government  inspectors  should  be  permitted  to 
examine  the  schools,  and  that  English  should  be  taught 
in  them.  Grey  also  induced  the  Maoris  to  set  apart 
landed  reserves  as  permanent  endowments  that  would 
constantly  be  rising  in  value.  The  schools  were  indus- 
trial as  well  as  educational.  Carpenters  and  farm 
labourers  were  to  train  the  young  Maoris  in  the  primary 
arts.  Agricultural  implements,  horses,  and  cows  were 
to  be  provided  by  the  Government.  Grey  congratulated 
himself  on  the  amount  of  success  these  institutions 
attained.  It  was,  at  all  events,  the  beginning  of  a  system 
of  education  which,  to  the  credit  of  the  Colony,  has  never 
been  pretermitted. 


GOVERNOR   OF   NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  63 

Public   Works. 

It  was  everywhere  a  constant  part  of  Grey's  policy  to 
employ  the  natives  on  public  works.  Buildings  were  raised 
by  them  under  European  supervision.  Like  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  he  was  a  great  believer  in  roads.  In  South 
Australia  he  had  made  the  Great  Eastern  Road  across 
Mount  Lofty,  and  thus  laid  open  the  valuable  Mount 
Barker  district ;  and  he  opened  up  great  lines  of  internal 
communication  that  gave  access  to  rich  agricultural 
districts.  He  now  employed  the  Maoris  in  the  making 
of  roads  near  Auckland  and  Wellington,  associating  them 
with  the  English  soldiery,  and  placing  them  under  their 
own  chiefs.  When  he  is  criticized  for  breaking  up  the 
tribal  system  by  destroying  the  authority  of  the  chiefs, 
and  thus  precipitating  the  ruin  of  the  race,  both  in  New 
Zealand  and  South  Africa,  the  fact  should  be  remembered. 
Earl  Grey  dreaded  that  just  this  would  be  the  effect  of 
his  native  policy,  and  it  is  the  main  thesis  of  Professor 
Henderson's  biography  that  this  result  was  actually  thus 
produced  in  New  Zealand.  There  it  was  in  all 
probability  rendered  inevitable  by  the  work  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, who  held  the  soul  of  everv  Maori  to  be  of 
infinite  worth  and  therefore  hastened  the  development 
of  individualism  within  the  tribes.  In  Cape  Colony  the 
place  of  the  chief  has  been  taken  and  perhaps  more  than 
filled  by  the  black  editors  of  journals,  the  ministers  of 
the  new  Ethiopian  church,  and  the  leaders  of  Ethi- 
opianism. 

Agriculture. 

Grey  also  actively  exerted  himself  to  induce  the  Maoris 
to  take  to  agriculture.  To  believe  his  sanguine 
despatches,  he  was  largely  successful.  In  the  valley  of 
the  Waikato  they  had  1,000  acres  under  wheat,  and  in 
Nelson,  in  the  South  Island,  340  acres.  Fruit,  potatoes, 
and  maize  were  also  grown.  Almost  every  village  had  a 
water-mill,  and  on  one  river  there  were  ten.  It  is 
melancholy  to  reflect  that  all  this  fine  blossom  of  civil- 
isation was  not  destined  to  mature.  Here  and  there  in 
the  North  Island  the  Maoris  grow  patches  of  wheat,  and 


64  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

everywhere  they  grow  sweet  potatoes;  but  the  bulk  of 
their  land  has  been  taken  from  them,  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  rest  is  on  the  eve  of  being  taken.  They  are 
examples  of  arrested  development. 

Grey's  Personal  Sympathy. 

Grey  evidently  did  much  for  the  Maoris;  perhaps  he 
did  all  that  it  was  possible  to  do.  Only  one  more  gift  could 
he  bestow  on  them,  and  this  he  did  not  withhold.  He 
gave  them  himself.  With  none  of  the  repugnances  which 
make  wholesome  contact  with  lower  races  impossible  to 
most  Englishmen,  he  moved  among  them  as  one  of  them- 
selves. He  learnt  their  language,  studied  their  traditions, 
wrote  down  their  legends.  The  aggrieved  told  their 
wrongs  into  the  Governor 's  own  ear  and  received  the  pro- 
mise of  redress  from  the  Governor's  own  lips.  There  was 
no  condescension,  no  affectation  of  dignity  or  authority, 
but  no  one  who  saw  him  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  chiefs 
could  doubt  where  the  real  ascendancy  lay.  The  Maoris  on 
their  side  took  him  to  their  hearts.  With  the  nobler 
leaders,  like  Waka  Nene  and  Rewi,  he  formed  a  high, 
respectful  friendship,  such  as  he  had  with  Martin  and 
Selwyn.  To  the  end  the  great  body  of  them  never  knew 
any  other  Governor  than  Kaivana  Kerei,  and  to  the  last 
they  spoke  of  him  with  an  affectionate  veneration  such  as 
few  savage  peoples  have  felt  for  a  civilised  ruler.  When 
the  good  and  evil  of  his  life  comes  to  be  balanced  in  the 
eternal  scales,  his  noble  work  among  the  Maoris,  and 
afterwards  among  the  more  degraded  races  of  South 
Africa,  will  weigh  down  all  else.  It  will  be  his  passport 
to  Walhalla. 


Chaptee  vni. 

GOVEENOE  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

The  Mythologist, 

It  used  to  be  said  that  three  leading  men  in  New 
Zealand  entered  into  a  compact  (a  holy  compact,  this 
time)  to  contribute  each  his  share  to  the  literature  or 
the  literary  history  of  the  Colony.  Governor  Grey  was 
to  collect  and  edit  the  legends  of  the  Maoris.  Hugh 
Carleton,  one  of  the  many  good  scholars  early  New 
Zealand  had  to  boast  of  and  long  a  prominent  legislator, 
was  to  compose  the  history  of  the  historically  most 
picturesque  of  the  provinces.  And  James  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald  was  to  write  the  history  of  Anglican  Canterbury, 
of  which  he  was  at  one  time  Superintendent,  which  he  long 
represented  in  the  Legislature,  and  where  he  founded 
and  edited  a  newspaper.*  None  of  the  three  altogether 
failed  to  redeem  their  pledges.  Fitz Gerald  did  not  write  a 
history  of  Canterbury,  but  he  edited  from  the  newspapers 
the  earlier  Hansard  of  the  colony,  where  the  struggle 
towards  self-government  manifested  itself  in  the  debates, 
and  he  prefixed  to  it  a  historical  sketch.  Carleton  did  not 
compose  a  history  of  Auckland,  but  he  composed  A  Page 
from  the  History  of  New  Zealand,  describing  an  import- 
ant episode  in  its  history;  and  the  biography  of  liis 
father-in-law,  Archdeacon  Williams,  is  almost  a  history 
of  Northern  New  Zealand.  Grey,  perhaps  the  most 
constitutionally  indolent  of  the  three,  nobly  fulfilled  Ms 
undertaking  and  a  good  deal  more.  He  collected  and 
translated  both  the  mythology  and  legends  and  the 
proverbs  of  the  Maoris. 

*  The  story  is  possibly  a  pervorsion.  In  his  Page,  etc.,  Carloton  describes  as  "  the  three 
most  interesting  episodes  in  the  annals  of  the  Colony  "  the  Native  war,  the  struggle  for 
self-government,  and  the  controversy  over  the  purchase  of  Native  lands  by  the  mission- 
aries. These  three  episodes  may  have  been  the  tasks  self-assigned  to  the  three  magnates. 
At  all  events,  Carleton  avows  that  ho  had,  for  his  part,  undertaken  the  third. 

65 

P 


66  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GEEY 

The  task  had  an  earlier  origin  and  a  deeper  source  than 
any  compact.    In  1883,  when  he  was  handing  over  to  the 
city  of  Auckland  the  second  magnificent  collection  of 
books  he  had  formed,  he  avowed:  ''I  have,  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  present,  done  my  utmost  to  preserve 
and  record  the  languages  and  dialects  of  each  of  the 
nations   [did  he  say,  peoples?]   amongst  whom  I  have 
lived. ' '    He  had  made  a  worthy  beginning  with  the  blacks 
of  "Western  Australia.     He  now  undertook  a  more  dif- 
ficult task  with  a  nobler  race.     Ambition,  enthusiasm, 
and  sympathy  were  all  at  the  bottom  of  it.     Literary 
ambition  had  burned  in  him  ever  since,  at  Sandhurst,  he 
had  translated  Schiller  and  acquired  the  rhythmical  lilt 
that  never  afterwards  deserted  his  style.    He  had  tasted 
of  the  intoxicating  juice  of  the  grape  in  his  Journals;  he 
was  now  to  essay  a  work  of  recovery  and  reconstruction 
that   would   raise   him   almost   to   the   level  of   Snorro 
Sturleson.    Enthusiasm  too  was  inspired  by  a  theme  that 
aroused  equally  his  instincts  of  romance,  his  sense  of 
poetry,  and  his  thirst  for  science.     And  his  heartfelt 
sympathy  with  a  race  that  all  the  world  has  agreed  to 
aggrandise  was  a  no  less  potent  motive.    He  caught  the 
Maoris  at  the  critical  point  when  the  shock  of  collision 
between  two  races  projected  such  an  image  of  the  natives 
on  the  minds  of  the  immigrants  as  readily  translated 
itself  into  literature.    He  found  the  Maoris  at  their  best, 
with  their  valour,  beauty,  and  poetry  still  intact.    Heroic 
and  romantic  qualities  clung  to  them  like  a  garment. 

Grey  lost  little  time  in  setting  to  work.  In  the  summer 
(Southern  summer)  of  1849-50  he  made  an  expedition 
overland  from  Auckland  to  Taranaki,  and  he  passed 
through  the  picturesque  country  of  Eotorua  and  Taupo 
to  the  West  Coast.  In  course  of  it  he  gathered  some 
characteristic  pieces  of  Maori  literature  from  the  lips  of 
tohungas,  or  priests,  and  of  high  chiefs.  The  short 
collection  contains  two  imprecations,  of  the  kind  common 
in  mythologies,  a  poetical  welcome  to  strangers,  and  two 
legends,  one  of  which  alone  would  have  rewarded  his 
insatiable  curiosity.  It  was  a  "gem  of  purest  ray 
serene" — the  legend  of  Hinemoa,  the  Maori  maiden,  who, 


GOVEENOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIEST    TERM  67 

reversing  the  Greek  tale,  swam  out  to  an  island  in  the 
green  lake  of  Rotorua  to  meet  her  lover.  The  legend  was 
finely  translated  by  the  Governor  and  dictated  to  his 
secretary,  Mr.  G.  S.  Cooper,  long  Under-Secretary  for 
the  Colony,  and  incorporated  by  him  in  a  Journal 
nominally  written  by  him,  but  possibly  dictated  by  the 
Governor.  The  Journal,  with  these  gems  enchased  in 
it,  was  published  at  Auckland  in  1851. 

The  enthusiast  continued  his  self-imposed  task,  and 
three  years  later  the  indefatigable  worker  issued  in 
London  a  collection  of  Maori  legends  in  the  original.  In 
the  following  year  (1855)  Grey  published  his  masterpiece 
— the  Polynesian  Mythology,  and  Ancient  Traditional 
History  of  the  Neiv  Zealand  Race,  as  furnished  hy  their 
Priests  and  Chiefs.  It  consists  of  translations  of  the 
legends  and  myths  in  the  foregoing  work,  but,  as  we  learn 
from  the  catalogue  of  the  Grey  Library  at  the  Cape,  it 
does  not  contain  the  whole  of  these,  translations  of  some 
of  them  existing  only  in  manuscript.  Should  not  these 
'lost  leaves'  be  rescued  from  their  banishment  and  pro- 
duced in  an  English  dress*? 

In  an  interesting  preface  the  author  relates  how  he 
came  to  collect  the  legends.  In  the  constant  intercourse 
with  the  natives  which  the  duties  of  government  imposed 
on  him  he  discovered  that  the  chiefs  continually  cited 
proverbs  or  fragments  of  ancient  poems,  or  made 
allusions  to  things  mentioned  in  their  legends;  and  he 
soon  found  that  he  could  neither  successfully  govern  the 
'Native  race  nor  hope  to  conciliate  its  good-will,  if  he 
remained  in  ignorance  of  their  literature,  which  was  none 
the  less  really  such  that  it  was  still  unwritten.  ''My 
Native  friends,"  as  he  called  them,  aided  him,  and  in 
after-years  he  recited  the  names  of  the  chiefs  and  priests 
from  whose  mouths  he  took  down  the  legends  and  myths. 
First  and  foremost  figures  "the  Tiger  of  the  Wairau," 
the  formidable  Rangihaeata;  next  came  Te  Rou,  King 
Potatau,  the  ill-fated  Te  Heuheu,  Patuone,  and  Te  Tani- 
wha;  while  men  so  authorised  as  John  White,  most, 
instructed  of  Maori  mythologists.  Primate  Iladfield,  who 
must  have  known  the  Maori  intus  et  in  cute,  Chief -Justice 


68  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Martin,  another  philo-Maori,  Archdeacon  Maunsell,  the 
philologist,  and  the  missionary  Wohlers  contributed 
elucidations.  Many  of  the  Maoris,  he  says,  sent  him 
voluminous  manuscripts.  On  the  whole,  few  works  of  the 
kind  have  been  drawn  from  more  authoritative  or 
authentic  sources. 

The  work  has  long  been  a  storehouse  of  information 
on  Polynesian  mythology.  It  has  not  escaped  criticism. 
Grey  himself  claimed  that  it  was  a  "close  and  faithful" 
rendering,  and  its  general  truthfulness  has  not  been 
denied.  Yet  Maori  scholars  have  alleged  that  the  trans- 
lator sometimes  sacrificed  literality  to  elegance,  and  it 
is  certain  that,  once  at  least,  he  sacrificed  truth  to 
decency.  In  fact,  he  admitted,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Tylor, 
that  he  had  necessarily  expurgated  the  myth  of  Maui, 
relating  to  the  creation  of  the  world;  and  Mr.  Tylor 
states  that  he  received  from  Grey  "a  more  explicit  and 
mythologically  more  consistent"  version  of  the  myth 
than  the  one  Grey  first  published.  It  is  also  asserted  that 
he  was  less  deeply  conversant  with  the  hieratic  form 
of  the  language  than  with  colloquial  Maori.  Let  all 
allowances  be  made  on  these  two  scores,  and  the  Poly- 
nesian Mythology  will  still  remain  a  classic. 

A  closer  scrutiny  shows  that  Sir  George  did  much  more 
than  Bowdlerise  the  legends  and  polish  their  phraseology. 
A  later  publication  of  them  reveals  a  mass  of 
discrepancies  among  the  various  versions  contributed  by 
the  different  tribes.  To  reconcile  these  Grey  "has 
smoothed  out  the  inconsistencies  and  rejected  the  dis- 
agreements and  variations,  in  order  that  the  stories  might 
have  their  full  effect  as  romances  of  the  primitive  mind. ' ' 
He  is  thus,  according  to  Professor  Macmillan  Brown,  "a 
harmonizer  of  the  legends  rather  than  a  reporter. ' '  The 
professor's  final  judgment  is  severe.  While  "the  result 
is  very  satisfactory  to  the  seeker  of  fairy  stories  and 
romances, "  it  is  "  anything  but  satisfactory  to  the  student 
of  ethnology  or  folklore,  or  even  the  history  of  the 
Polynesian  mind."*    Had  the  author  fulfilled  the  title  of 


"Maori  and  Polynesian,  p.  219. 


GOVEENOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIEST    TERM  69 

his  book  and  sought  to  harmonize  the  sacred  stories  of 
other  branches  of  the  Polynesian  race,  he  would  have 
found  his  task  tenfold  harder.  The  book  contains  no  more 
than  the  myths  and  legends  of  the  Maoris ;  it  is  in  only 
a  restricted  sense  a  *' Polynesian  mythology." 

A  few  months  after  it  was  published,  it  was  translated 
into  French  by  Dr.  Eene  Primaverre  Lesson,  who  had 
accompanied  as  naturalist  the  French  corvette.  La 
Coquille,  and  who  visited  the  Bay  of  Islands  in  1824. 
According  to  his  own  account,  he  appended  long  notes  to 
the  translation,  which  was  addressed  to  the  Anthropo- 
logical Society  of  Paris.  Nineteen  months  later  a  member 
of  the  Society,  M.  Gaussin,  reported  on  it,  but  it  seems 
not  to  have  been  published.  Should  not  the  Government 
of  New  Zealand,  which  in  1886  issued  a  second  edition 
of  the  original,  see  to  it  that  those  doubtless  valuable 
notes  are  recovered  and  done  into  English?  Polynesia 
has  long  been  a  subject  of  predilection  with  French 
writers,  and  an  appraisement  of  French  contributions  to 
the  literature  of  New  Zealand  would  be  particularly 
interesting. 

Grey's  classic  has  been  the  source  of  many  articles 
and  many  chapters.  It  has  furnished  materials  to  science 
and  been  used  to  buttress  conflicting  conclusions. 
Through  it  and  some  subsequent  inquiries  Mr.  Tylor  has 
discovered  that  Maui  is  a  solar  hero  and  the  death  of 
Maui  *'a  nature-myth  of  the  setting-sun."  An  equal 
authority,  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  on  the  other  hand,  disputes 
the  solar  character  of  the  Maui-myth  and  sees  in  the 
story  of  the  death  of  Maui  a  myth  of  the  origin  of  death. 
With  all  his  mastery  Mr.  Tylor  is  still  enmeshed,  even 
as  another  evolutionist,  John  Fiske,  was,  in  that  ancient 
solar  mythology  which  the  late  John  Crawford  called 
"mere  modern  moonshine." 

The  work  has  also  supplied  materials  for  poetry,  and 
in  his  Ranolf  and  Amohia:  a  South-Sea  Day-Dream, 
Alfred  Domett,  Browning's  ''Waring,"  has  poetically 
paraphrased  a  number  of  the  songs  in  Grey 's  collection. 


Chapter  IX. 
GOVERNOE  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

Three  Colonising  Associations. 

The  New  Zealand  Land  Company. 

The  Maoris  having  thus  been  conquered,  conciliated, 
and  organised,  Grey  had  grave  tasks  before  him.  He 
had  to  measure  himself  against  a  not  less  formidable 
power,  at  least  for  the  time — the  New  Zealand  Company, 
which  for  a  decade  played  a  large  part  in  English  Par- 
liamentary history,  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Colonial 
OfSce,  and  in  the  founding  of  a  British  colony  in  New 
Zealand.  The  Company  was  an  emanation  from  the  brain 
of  one  of  the  deepest  political  thinkers,  the  subtlest 
schemers,  and  the  most  cunning  manipulators  of  men  that 
England  has  seen.  Edward  Gibbon  Wakefield's  dedica- 
tion to  a  colonial  career  was  an  accident,  of  the  Darwinian 
sort,  and  it  was  to  this  'accident'  that  the  settlement  of 
South  Australia  and  New  Zealand  is  ascribable.  From 
the  hour  of  the  new-birth  of  his  spirit  he  lived  but  for  his 
colonies,  true  offspring  of  his  genius.  Grey  was  to  come 
into  personal  contact  with  him  only  towards  the  end  of 
his  first  term  in  New  Zealand,  when  the  Company  was 
extinct,  but  he  was  brought  into  collision  with  the  Com- 
pany as  soon  as  his  hands  were  free  of  the  Maoris. 

Jts  Aims  Thwarted. 

It  seemed  specially  constituted  to  arouse  his  distrust 
in  advance,  if  not  to  excite  his  hostility.  Its  pretensions 
were  high  and  its  practices  imperious.  It  virtually  estab- 
lished an  imperium  in  imperio.  Before  they  landed  in 
New  Zealand,  its  officers  and  settlers,  inspired  by  the 
theories  of  Hooker,  Hobbes,  and  Rousseau,  formed  a 
social  compact.  Soon  after  they  landed,  they  hoisted  a 
flag,  which  was  saluted  by  twenty-one  guns  from  the  ship 

70 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  71 

that  brought  them.  They  proceeded  to  set  up  a  pro- 
visional government.  They  created  a  legislative  and 
executive  council,  in  emulation  of  the  councils  usually 
attached  to  the  governors  of  Crown  colonies,  and  they 
levied  taxes.  They  appointed  magistrates,  who  exercised 
judicial  authority.  They  founded  and  named  a  settle- 
ment. Withal,  the  Company  in  England  disclaimed  all 
intention  of  establishing  an  independent  polity.  All  its 
acts  ran  in  the  teeth  of  its  professions.  Three  years  later 
it  denied,  on  legal  authority,  that  the  British  government 
in  New  Zealand  rested  on  a  lawful  foundation,  and  con- 
tested the  validity  of  its  acts.  Governor  Hobson  dealt 
sternly  with  its  pretensions  in  New  Zealand,  and  Lord 
Stanley  brutally  suppressed  its  reclamations  in  England. 
Within  an  hour  after  he  had  learnt  of  the  Company's 
proceedings  at  Wellington,  Captain  Hobson  proclaimed 
the  Queen's  sovereignty  over  the  North  Island,  and  in 
another  proclamation  he  declared  the  Association  to  be 
''illegal  and  usurping."  He  held  its  doings  to  ''amount 
to  high  treason ; "  he  sent  an  officer  with  a  body  of  troops, 
who  were  authorised  to  "displace  all  persons  holding 
office  under  the  usurping  Government;"  and  he  ordered 
him  to  restore  to  all  persons  any  property  of  which  they 
had  been  deprived  by  the  so-called  magistrates.  Finally  a 
proclamation  summoned  all  persons  to  withdraw  from  the 
Association  and  submit  to  the  proper  authorities. 
Hobson  has  been  accused  of  weakness  by  people  who  mis- 
take bluster  for  force  and  brutality  for  firmness,  but  he 
seems  to  have  acted  with  equal  promptitude  and  energy. 
His  action  was  ominous  of  the  attitude  of  the  New 
Zealand  Government  towards  the  Company  through  the 
remainder  of  its  history. 

Its  Land  Purchases  Fettered. 

With  the  destruction  of  its  independent  civic  existence 
the  Company  was  hamstrung.  For  with  its  polity  went 
its  unrestricted  power  of  purchasing  land  on  its  own 
terms.  The  Company  might  well  proceed,  as  it  did,  to 
make  extensive  direct  purchases  of  land  from  the  natives, 


72  LIFE   OF   SIK   GEOEGE   GREY 

seeing  that  this  was  one  of  the  privileges  conferred  on  it 
by  Act  of  Parliament.  The  British  Parliament  went  still 
further.  In  accordance  with  the  Wakefield  system  of 
colonisation,  the  Company  was  empowered  to  sell  such 
lands  at  a  minimum  fixed  price  of  £l  per  acre.  Grey 
took  strong  exception  to  an  arrangement  that  trenched 
upon  the  powers  of  the  Governor.  He  also  objected  to 
any  portion  of  the  amount  thus  received  being  paid  as 
interest  on  capital  and  dividends  on  stock.  Surely,  with 
injustice.  Could  a  colonising  company,  in  which  the 
shareholders  embarked  large  sums  of  money,  be  formed 
or  conducted  on  any  other  terms  than  by  paying  dividends 
and  interest?  The  directors  and  shareholders  of  the  New 
Zealand  Company  had  made  a  bad  business  of  it,  if  the 
pecuniary  returns  were  their  only  reward. 

Two  ordinances,  annulling  all  land  purchases  made 
prior  to  the  proclamation  of  sovereignty  over  the  Islands, 
and  another  subjecting  all  such  purchases  made  after  a 
certain  date  to  revision  by  a  commissioner,  smote 
the  Company  with  paralysis.  Thus  fettered  by  the  action 
of  the  local  Government,  it  excited  the  resentment  of  its 
settlers,  who  described  themselves  as  "smarting  under 
a  sense  of  wrong."  They  censured  its  failure  to  fulfil 
its  obligations  and  asserted  its  disregard  of  the  interests 
of  the  settlers.  They  complained  that  they  were  the  vic- 
tims of  the  differences  between  the  Company  and  the 
Colonial  Office.  The  Company  retorted  that  the  refusal 
of  the  Governor  to  grant  the  rights  of  self-government 
had  turned  away  the  tide  of  immigration  and  consequently 
put  a  stop  to  land-sales.  It  had  been  truer  to  say  that, 
with  the  blood  shed  at  the  Wairau  on  its  head,  the  Com- 
pany was  hopelessly  at  variance  with  the  Maoris,  who 
bitterly  remembered  its  high-handed  dealings  and  its 
perfidy,  and  would  sell  it  no  lands.  Its  offspring  were 
also  contributing  to  its  difficulties.  The  Canterbury 
Association  could  not  pay  for  the  land  it  had  bought  of 
the  Company  and  at  the  same  time  pay  its  way.  The 
Otago  Association  was  also  in  difficulties.  The  Govern- 
ment had  practically  to  take  over  both  associations. 


GOVEKNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  73 

Its  Embarrassments. 

By  1848  the  embroilment  had  reached  its  height,  and 
in  March  of  that  year  Earl  Grey  and  the  Company  agreed 
to  entrust  Governor  Grey  with  the  uncontrolled  power 
of  deciding  disputes  between  the  Company  and  its 
settlers.  Six  months  later  the  chief  officer  of  the  Com- 
pany in  New  Zealand,  Colonel  William  Wakefield, 
suddenly  died,  of  a  stroke  of  apoplexy.  As  if,  when  his 
functions  had  been  taken  from  him  and  his  mana  was 
gone,  his  life  naturally  came  to  an  end.  He  had  lived 
for  the  Company,  and  loved  it  not  wisely,  but  too  well. 
Once  more,  Governor  Grey  had  triumphed. 

He  assumed  its  chief  function  and  acquired  from  the 
natives  extensive  tracts  of  land  on  easy  terms.  He 
succeeded  where  the  Company  had  failed,  in  part  because 
he  gathered  into  his  own  hands  all  the  powers  of  Govern- 
ment and  some  amount  of  treasure,  but  still  more  because 
he  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  natives.  His  manifest 
unbounded  trust  in  them  inspired  a  like  trust  on  their 
part  towards  him. 

Its  Death. 

We  need  further  note  only  the  last  struggles  of  the 
expiring  Company.  So  unprofitable  had  grown  its  tran- 
sactions, and  so  seriously  had  its  land  sales  fallen  away, 
that  its  solvency  was  threatened,  and  the  British  Parlia- 
ment had  to  come  to  the  rescue.  Two  successive  loans, 
amounting  to  £236,000,  were  granted  in  1846  and  a 
following  year,  on  the  understanding  that  they  should 
be  repaid  in  1850.  So  unprosperous  was  the  Company 
that  in  1850  it  could  not  meet  its  liabilities,  and  it  peti- 
tioned to  be  wound  up.  Parliament  again  came  to  its 
aid  and  arranged  that  the  Government  of  New  Zealand 
should  pay  it  the  sum  of  £268,000  by  reserving  the  sum  of 
five  shillings  an  acre  on  all  future  land-sales. 

It  is  the  way  that  colonising  companies  have  usually 
ended — in  virtual  insolvency  and  in  absorption  by  the 
governing  State  or  by  some  other  State.  There  is  one 
notable  exception.    The  Massachusetts  Company  merged 


74  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

in  the  Massachusetts  colony,  and  the  form  of  government 
of  the  colony  repeated  the  form  of  government  of  the 
Company.  The  New  Zealand  Company  might  have  had 
a  similar  euthanasia.  It  was  fashioned,  and  for  some  time 
it  was  engineered,  by  men  who  were  large  of  heart  and 
brain.  They  had  conceived  high  ends:  their  object  was 
nothing  less  than  to  annex  and  rule  over  an  extensive  new 
country,  and  there  build  up  a  grand  new  society,  modelled 
indeed  on  the  mother-society,  but  free  from  its  defects. 
They  rendered  services  of  inappreciable  worth:  they 
rescued  New  Zealand  from  impending  foreign  domination, 
and  they  made  it  for  ever  the  home  of  an  Anglo-Saxon 
community.  They  begat  on  it  another  association  of  the 
same  or  a  still  higher  type,  and  they  aided  a  third 
association  to  settle  still  another  province.  Lastly,  they 
endowed  New  Zealand  with  bodies  of  colonists  equalled 
only  by  the  colonisers  of  New  England  and  never 
surpassed. 

The  Cantenbupy  and  Otago  Associations! 

Grey's  relations  with  the  Canterbury  Association  and 
the  Otago  Association  were  scarcely  more  harmonious 
than  they  were  with  the  New  Zealand  Company.  The 
friction  between  him  and  them  was,  indeed,  constant. 
From  the  Canterbury  Association,  at  all  events,  he 
received  provocation.  Arriving  in  Canterbury  in  advance 
of  his  immigrants,  J.  R.  Godley,  the  agent  of  the  Associa- 
tion in  New  Zealand,  apparently  just  to  keep  his  hand 
in,  or  perhaps  openly  to  identify  himself  with  the  New 
Zealand  Company,  of  which  the  Canterbury  Association 
was  the  daughter,  went  to  Wellington  in  order  to  join 
the  officers  of  the  Company  and  other  settlers  in  the 
agitation  against  the  Governor.  Grey  took  a  divine 
revenge.  Years  afterwards  Godley  admitted  that  he  had 
been  able  to  consummate  his  task  only  by  "the  wisdom 
and  considerateness  of  Sir  George  Grey,  who  had 
hitherto  practically  given  to  its  officers  nearly  the  whole 
administration  of  public  affairs."  He  took  a  more 
human  revenge  by  thwarting  the  attempt  made  in  1851 
to  extend  the  Canterbury  block. 


GOVERNOR  OF   NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  75 

He  was  no  less  in  constant  conflict  with  the  Otago 
Association,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Burns,  the  spiritual  head 
of  the  community,  said  that  Sir  George  Grey's  treatment 
of  Captain  Cargill,  its  civil  head,  had  moved  in  him 
feelings  of  something  more  than  Christian  indignation. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  jealous  of  these 
imperia  in  wiperio,  which  diminished  his  prerogatives, 
trenched  upon  his  functions,  and  hardly  lightened  his 
responsibilities.  The  Company  and  the  two  Associations 
had  good  reason  for  boasting,  when  he  left  New  Zealand, 
that  they  "had  given  him  a  lively  time. ' ' 


Chapter  X. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

The  New  Constitution. 

Colonial  Discontent. 

Grey  would  not  have  been  Grey  if  lie  had  not  excited 
active  discontent  in  some  portion  of  the  colony  he 
governed.  Naturally,  it  was  at  the  head-quarters  of  the 
New  Zealand  Company  that  he  had  the  most  and  the 
bitterest  enemies.  The  main  charge  against  him  in 
Wellington  was  that  he  wielded  all  the  powers  of  an 
autocrat.  In  1848  he  was  told  that  his  government  was 
"more  absolute  than  that  of  any  other  dependency  of 
the  British  Crown,  with  the  exception  of  Norfolk  Island. ' ' 
In  the  following  year  the  agitation  took  shape,  and  a  Set- 
tlers' Constitutional  Association  was  founded  by  men  who 
were  afterwards  eminent  in  the  public  life  of  the  Colony — 
Fitzherbert,  Fox,  Featherston,  (/'the  three  F's"— a 
fourth  F,  FitzGerald,  was  in  opposition)  and  Weld,  who 
all  spoke  at  a  public  meeting  in  support  of  resolutions 
strongly  condemnatory  of  the  Governor.  The  agent  in 
New  Zealand  of  the  Canterbury  Association,  the  great 
and  good  Mr.  Godley,  did  not  scruple  to  censure  Dr. 
(afterwards  Sir  David)  Munro  for  contributing  '' towards 
the  infliction  of  a  most  serious  and  irreparable  injury 
upon  the  colonists"  by  merely  accepting  a  seat  in  the 
Legislative  Council,  and  he  denounced  the  "anti-colonial 
policy"  of  Sir  George  Grey.  Only  a  year  or  two  later 
Grey  was  to  heap  coals  of  fire  on  Godley 's  head,  as,  many 
years  later,  on  Weld's.  At  Nelson  a  future  Premier, 
Mr.  Stafford,  four  "magistrates"  (probably  mere 
justices  of  the  peace),  and  some  private  citizens  com- 
plained to  Earl  Grey  of  the  Governor's  absolutism. 
Even  Auckland,  the  seat  of  government,  and  long  his 

76 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  77 

city  of  predilection,  took  sides  against  him,  and  in  1849 
drew  up  in  public  meeting  assembled  a  petition  to  Earl 
Grey,  which  the  Governor  loyally  forwarded,  commenting 
upon  it  in  excellent  temper;  the  animus  of  the  meeting 
will  appear  from  the  fact,  disclosed  by  Grey  himself  in 
1876,  that  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  apologised  ten 
years  later  for  signing  a  petition  containing  "assertions 
made  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  give  personal  annoy- 
ance."* And  in  1851,  Mr.  Fox,  who  had  succeeded  Col. 
Wakefield  as  agent  in  the  Colony  of  the  New  Zealand 
Companj^  gathered  into  a  head  the  flood  of  denunciation 
in  a  long  and  elaborate  indictment,  where,  on  many 
counts,  he  arraigned  the  policy  and  conduct  of  the 
Governor. 

The  Governor's  Absolutism. 

There  was  abundant  truth  in  one  at  least  of  the  charges. 
In  1853,  reviewing  his  career  as  Colonial  Minister,  Earl 
Grey  took  credit  to  the  Ministry  for  the  freedom 
it  had  left  the  Governor  and  the  powers  it  had 
clothed  him  with.  In  December,  1849,  he  reminded  the 
Governor  that  "the  whole  colonial  revenue  was"  to  be 
appropriated  by  the  Governor  himself,  "with  the  aid  of" 
a  Legislative  Council ' '  nominated  by  the  Crown  and  acting 
under  the  direction"  of  the  British  Government.  No 
wonder  that  self-respecting  members  of  such  a  council 
should  resign  seats  which  could  not  be  held  on  terms  of 
independence.  This  state  of  things  could  not  be  indefi- 
nitely maintained.  The  settlers  grew  clamorous  for 
representative  institutions.  In  1848  and  again  in  1849 
the  Governor  replied  diplomatically  to  such  clamours 
and  firmly  resisted  popular  pressure.  To  Earl  Grey  he 
maintained  that  only  a  self-supporting  community  was 
entitled  to  be  self-governing.  Always  deferential  in 
form,  he  professed  to  be  equally  willing,  as  his  lordship 
desired,  to  decline  to  introduce  free  institutions  till  he 
believed  they  could  be  safely  conferred,  and  not  to  delay 
introducing  them  for  a  single  day  beyond  what  necessity 

*N.Z.  Parliamentary  Debates,  xxi,  368. 


78  LIFE  OF  SIE  GEORGE  OBEY 

dictated.  For  constitutional  government  was  ''a  boon 
which  I"  (the  most  autocratic  Governor  any  British 
colony  has  had)  ''am  most  anxious  to  see  conferred 
upon"  the  inliabitants.  In  1849,  as  in  1847,  he  implied 
that  the  Maoris  would  rise  in  rebellion  if  they  were 
handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  colonists.  Do 
not  the  subsequent  course  of  events,  the  Wellington  and 
the  Wanganui  little  wars,  and  far  more  the  protracted 
and  disastrous  conflicts  in  Taranaki  and  the  Waikato 
that  dragged  through  a  great  part  of  the  sixties,  vindicate 
his  prescience? 

Provincial  Legislatures. 

Yet  some  twenty  thousand  colonists,  most  of  them 
belonging  to  a  good  class  and  not  a  few  of  them  men  of 
exceptional  ability  and  culture,  could  not  be  kept  indefi- 
nitely in  a  state  of  pupilage.    Men  like  Fox,  FitzGerald, 
Featherston,  and  Fitzherbert,  like  the  poet  Domett,  the 
naturalist  Swainson,  and  the  geologist  Mantell,  like  the 
whole  body  of  settlers  in  Canterbury  and  Otago,  were 
the  equals   and   the   superiors   of    the  voters  in  most 
European    countries,    and    were,    perhaps,    still     more 
capable     of     governing     than     of     being     governed. 
Grey    was    well    aware,    to    his    cost,    of    their    moral 
and     intellectual     superiority.       In     many     a     wordy 
battle     they     had     shown     themselves     a     match     for 
the    Governor    and    for    a  still    greater    than    he,    the 
Colonial  Minister  himself.    That  minister  now  authorised 
his  deputy  to  introduce  a  measure  of  local  government, 
and  in  the  Act  of  1846  he  had  himself  furnished  a  pattern. 
That  Act  contained  provisions  for  the  creation  of  pro- 
vincial   legislatures    and    a    General    Assembly.      The 
General  Assembly  was  dropped  for  the  time,  but  the 
Colony  was  ripe  for  the  creation  of  provincial  administra- 
tions.    Physical  accidents  have  sometimes  diverted  the 
course  of  public  policy  or  affected  the  fates  of  nations. 
A  shower  of  rain  during  the  French  Eevolution  averted 
a  meditated  rising.     An  earthquake  in  Wellington,  the 
permanent  seat  of  earth-tremors  and  earthquakes,  pre- 
cipitated the  innovation.    In  October,  1850,  the  Governor 


GOVEKNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIEST    TERM  79 

passed  an  ordinance  establisMng  Legislative  Councils 
in  each  of  the  provinces  into  which  the  mode  of  colonisa- 
tion had  divided  the  Colony.  There  were  some  novel 
and  some  reactionary  features  in  the  new  ordinance. 
The  franchise  was  liberally  granted  to  the  Maoris — at 
least,  to  those  who  resided  in  settlements  where 
Europeans  were  in  a  majority;  other  electoral  districts 
there  were  to  be  none.  Leaseholders  to  a  fixed  amount 
and  all  freeholders  were  to  have  votes.  Note  also  that 
there  were  to  be  nominee  members  appointed  by  the 
Governor  for  two  years  only;  Grey  had  no  objection  to 
nominee  members  so  long  as  they  were  nominated 
by  himself.  Leading  colonial  citizens,  such  as 
Mr.  Stafford,  held  that  the  proposed  reform  was 
not  radical  enough.  Ahead  of  their  time,  they 
demanded  universal  suffrage  and  vote  by  ballot,  two 
elected  chambers,  and  the  removability  of  the  Governor 
by  address  of  the  two  houses.  These  proposals  should 
have  commended  themselves  to  the  Governor,  who  in 
later  days  advanced  further  still,  but  either  the  Radical 
in  him  was  not  yet  full-grown,  or  else  he  held  that  a 
colonial  constitution  should  not  grant  political  privileges 
too  much  beyond  those  enjoyed  by  citizens  of  the  Mother- 
land. They  were  more  satisfactory  to  Earl  Grey,  who 
felt  that  the  Governor  had  ''removed  all  obstacles  to  the 
establishment  of  representative  government  in  New 
Zealand. ' ' 

Grey's  Authorship. 

Sir  George  Grey  was  doubtless  prepared  to  take  further 
steps  in  the  way  of  constitutional  legislation,  but  he  held 
his  hand  when  he  learnt  that  a  constitution  for  New 
Zealand  was  being  prepared  in  the  Colonial  Office. 
Though  of  English  origin,  it  was  of  colonial  parentage. 
The  putative  father  of  it  was  Sir  John  Pakington,  who 
had  succeeded  with  the  Ministry  of  Lord  Derby  to  a 
brief  tenure  of  the  Colonial  Secretaryship.  The  real 
author  of  it  was  Sir  George  Grey.  On  this  point  the 
evidence  is  conclusive.  Here  is  the  English  evidence. 
In  February,  1852,  Earl  Grey  acknowledged  that  the 


80  LIFE   OF   SIR    GEOEGE    GREY 

Provincial  Councils  Ordinance  ''has  been  of  great  service 
in  preparing"  the  Bill  about  to  be  submitted  to  Parlia- 
ment. Meanwhile,  a  change  of  Ministry  took  place.  On 
July  1,  Sir  John  Pakington  transmitted  the  new  constitu- 
tion, and  he  acknowledged  in  writing  to  the  Governor, 
that  the  measure  "owes  its  shape  in  a  great  degree  to 
your  valuable  suggestions."  The  Parliamentary  Under- 
Secretary,  Sir  Frederick  Peel,  went  still  further.  He 
asserted  that  the  "bill  just  passed  was  framed,  excepting 
in  one  particular,  by  Governor  Grey  himself,  and  it  was 
to  him  that  the  colonists  were  indebted  for  the  constitu- 
tion which  Parliament  had  granted  them. ' ' 

Sir  George  Grey  might  therefore  seem  to  be  within 
Ms  rights  when  he  claimed  the  constitution  of  New 
Zealand  as  his  handiwork.  Yet  there  is  a  very  different 
account  of  the  matter.  When  Sir  Jolin  Pakington  suc- 
ceeded Earl  Grey  as  Secretary  for  the  Colonies  in  1852, 
he  found  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  Colonial  Office  a  bill 
prepared  by  his  predecessor,  granting  a  constitution  to 
New  Zealand.  He  did  not  accept  it  en  bloc.  According 
to  Mr.  Eees,  here  as  everywhere  expressing  the  belief  of 
Sir  George  Grey,  he  summoned  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir 
William)  Fox,  who  had  gone  to  London  to  launch  a  for- 
midable indictment  at  the  head  of  the  Governor,  and  this 
most  determined  of  Grey's  opponents  aided  the  Minister 
in  mangling  a  perfect  constitution.  There  is  better 
evidence  on  the  subject.  Sir  Charles  Adderley,  after- 
wards Lord  Norton,  expressly  states  that  the  measure 
*'was  based  on  a  draft  I  drew  up  under  the  guidance  of 
Gibbon  Wakefield."*  If  Gibbon  Wakefield's  narrative 
be  correct,  Adderley 's  statement  errs  by  unduly  simplify- 
ing the  actual  process.  The  draft  referred  to  had  been 
"drawn  up  at  Hams,  Adderley 's  seat,  by  a  committee 
consisting  of  Lord  Lyttelton,  Mr.  Adderley,  Messrs.  Fox 
and  Weld,  afterwards  New  Zealand  Premiers,  and  Wake- 
field."! Wakefield,  who  contributed  this  interesting  detail 
in  a  letter  to  Lord  Lyttelton,  also  virtually  claimed  the 

*Seview  of  "  The  Colonial  Policy  of  Lord  J.  Russell's  Administration,"  p.  137. 
\  Edward  Qihbon  Wakefield,  by  Dr.  Garnett,  pp.  330-1. 


GOVEENOR   OF    KEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  81 

authorship  of  the  constitution  by  petitioning  the  House 
of  Commons  in  its  favour.* 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  Grey  should  have  set 
such  store  by  his  claims  to  originality  in  connection  with 
the  constitution.  These  circle  round  the  Provincial 
Councils.  Earl  Grey  had  anticipated  this  feature. 
Wakefield  identified  himself  with  it  so  passionately  that 
he  might  seem  to  be  claiming  it  for  his  own.  It  was 
through  Wakefield's  persistent  advocacy  that  this  part 
of  the  Act  was  carried,  notwithstanding  the  opposition 
of  Sir  W.  Molesworth  and  Robert  Lowe;  while  Moles- 
worth,  Cobden,  and  Bright,  we  may  interpolate,  voted 
against  the  clause  that  provided  for  a  nominee  second 
chamber.  But  the  provincial  system  was  forced  upon 
constitution-makers  by  the  different  origins  of  the  various 
settlements  and  in  part  by  their  geographical  situation. 
There  would  seem  to  be  little  merit  in  accepting  the 
dictates  of  history  and  nature. 

So  peculiarly  did  Grey  regard  the  creation  of  the  pro- 
vincial system  of  government  as  his  own  that,  as  he 
informed  the  present  writer,  he  deliberately  modelled  it 
upon  the  State-system  of  the  United  States.  In  order  to 
mask  the  source  of  the  loan,  as  he  confessed,  he  named  the 
units  'provinces'  instead  of  'States.'  For  the  same 
reason  he  named  their  elective  heads  'superintendents' 
instead  of  'governors.'  He  was  radically  disloyal  to  the 
British  Government  when  he  made  these  admissions, 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  he  was  equally  disloyal  when 
he  devised  the  system  and  proposed  the  designations. 
His  good-name  is  happily  shielded  behind  a  far  greater 
name.  In  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
constitution,  which  he  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  carry- 
ing through  the  House,  Mr.  Gladstone  avowed  his 
preference  for  Grey's  plan  of  electing  the  second  chamber 
in  New  Zealand  by  the  Provincial  legislatures.  But  no 
Cleon  has  ever  impeached  the  loyalty  of  such  an  Aristides 
as  Gladstone.  Nay,  it  was  by  Earl  Grey  himself  that  the 
Governor's  attention  was  drawn  to  the  models  he  might 

*  Wakefield's  letter  was  published  in  the  Lyttelton  Times,  October  30th.  1852. 

G 


82  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

find  in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  Lord  Grey- 
had  asked  him  whether  he  had  considered  American 
methods  of  government. 

Mutilations- 
Grey's  plan  of  a  constitution  was  mutilated  by  one 
organic  alteration  and  two  amputations.  According  to 
his  own  account,  he  designed  that  the  Legislative  Council 
should  be  elected  by  the  Provincial  Councils,  and  the  pro- 
ject was  another  of  the  many  loan-ideas  he  had  derived 
from  the  United  States.  This  seems  to  be  a  partial  error. 
One-third  of  the  Council  was,  by  this  scheme,  to  consist 
of  members  nominated  by  the  Crown.  He  was  therefore 
not  as  much  of  an  innovator  or  as  perfectly  consistent 
as  he  fancied.  Be  that  as  it  may,  in  the  new  constitution 
the  Legislative  Council  was  to  consist  entirely  of  members 
nominated  by  the  Crown,  and  such,  in  spite  of  all  attempts 
to  introduce  the  principle  of  election,  the  constitution  of 
the  Council  still  is.  The  granting  of  responsible  govern- 
ment changed  the  character  of  this  nomination.  Under 
the  old  dispensation,  when  New  Zealand  was  a  Crown 
Colony,  the  members  of  the  Council  were  appointed  by 
the  Governor  in  the  name  of  the  Crown;  under  the  new, 
they  were  appointed  by  the  Ministry.  Grey  never  ceased 
to  regret  what  he  deemed  a  blunder.  A  nominated  Upper 
House,  he  mourned,  ' '  destroyed  the  glorious  fabric  I  had 
been  privileged  to  frame."  That  roystering  Eadical, 
Sir  W.  Molesworth,  agreed  with  him,  and  spoke  against 
the  clause,  while  such  advanced  Liberals  as  Cobden  and 
Bright  gave  silent  votes  against  it.  A  chamber  of  such 
nominees,  he  believed,  would  necessarily  consist  of  politi- 
cal Conservatives  hostile  to  all  important  reforms,  as  in 
fact  they  have  often  been ;  and  they  were  bitterly  hostile 
to  Grey's  own  advanced  projects  when  he  was  Premier, 
especially  his  system  of  land-taxation.  What  would  he 
have  said  had  he  lived  to  see  a  Legislative  Council  con- 
verted from  a  highly  Conservative  chamber  into  a 
thorough-going  Eadical  one  by  the  simple  device  of 
changing  the  life-tenure  of  its  members  into  a  seven  years' 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  83 

term,  and  then  passing  measures  of  a  Socialistic  character 
that  have  attracted  the  attention  of  all  the  world?  The 
reason  for  the  change  to  a  nominee  House  was  that  an 
elected  chamber  would  have  been,  like  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  too  strong  a  body.  The  same  dread  has 
been  an  obstacle  to  making  it  elective  ever  since. 

The  two  amputated  limbs  of  Grey's  abortion  of  a  con- 
stitution were  the  municipal  and  rural  organizations.  They 
were  wisely  left  to  be  shaped  by  the  new  legislature.  Not 
till  many  years  after  were  they  perfected.  The  rural 
organs  of  self-government,  particularly  its  county 
councils  and  parish  councils  (or  townships),  were  one 
day  to  be  adopted  from  her  daughter  by  the  Motherland. 
They  were  only  the  first  links  in  a  tributary  chain  that  is 
binding  the  mother  more  closely  to  the  daughter,  and  the 
daughters  more  closely  to  one  another.  . 

The  Land  Question. 

A  semi-political,  semi-agricultural  problem  of  no  less 
difficulty  was  more  urgent.  The  land  question  was,  as  it 
is,  a  standing  perplexity.  Till  1852-4  the  disposal  of  the 
waste  lands  in  all  the  colonies  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  Home  Government.  In  these  years  it  was,  in  one 
colony  after  another,  definitely  handed  over  to  the  self- 
governing  colonies  as  apart  of  the  grand  boon  of  constitu- 
tional freedom  and  representative  institutions.  High 
authorities  have  esteemed  it  a  questionable  step.  Gibbon 
Wakefield,  who  had  founded  on  the  colonial  land  question 
the  edifice  of  his  reputation  and,  indeed,  his  career  as 
a  coloniser,  held  that  the  extensive  waste  lands  in  the 
colonies  should  be  retained  by  the  Crown  with  the  object 
of  promoting  emigration  from  the  Motherland  and  plant- 
ing settlements  in  the  colonies.  Doubtless  reflecting 
Wakefield's  sentiments,  with  which  he  was  well 
acquainted,  John  Stuart  Mill,  a  disciple  on  this  theme, 
advocated  the  same  view.  The  great  renunciation  was 
by  no  means  a  "Greek  gift,"  for  it  was  generously 
intended;  it  was  rather  a  gift  of  the  Centaur,  and  it  has 
often  proved  a  shirt  of  Nessus.  A  distinction,  very 
flattering  to  Grey,  was  made  in  the  case  of  New  Zealand. 


84  LIFE   OF   SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

The  power  to  make  regulations  for  the  disposal  of  Crown 
lands,  previously  exercised  by  the  Colonial  Office  in  the 
name  of  the  Crown,  was  unconditionally  conceded  to  the 
Governor.  He  did  not  undervalue  the  magnitude  of  the 
concession.  As  he  exorbitantly  expressed  it,  he  was 
"endowed  with  powers  which  perhaps  no  single  man 
had  before  exercised."  He  forgot  the  conquerors  of 
Mexico  and  Peru.  He  forgot  the  early  Governors  of  New 
South  Wales,  who  dealt  far  more  autocratically  with  far 
more  extensive  tracts.  He  also  forgot  the  fact  that  such 
powers  were  granted  only  to  the  Governor-in-Council,  but 
he  doubtless  made  light  of  that.  In  fact,  he  never  had 
been  effectually  thwarted  by  his  council,  and  he  was  not 
now. 

He  was  not  slow  to  avail  himself  of  the  vast  powers 
thus  placed  in  his  hands.  If  his  own  account  may  be 
trusted,  he  was  at  heart  a  democrat  from  his  youth  up, 
and  he  explored  North- West  Australia  in  the  hope  of 
discovering  tracts  of  land  on  which  the  landless  masses 
of  England  might  be  settled.  Fortune  had  brought  to 
him  a  richer  Eldorado  than  Western  Australia  was  for 
many  a  year  to  prove.  In  New  Zealand,  where  millions 
of  acres  lay  expectant,  awaiting  the  advent  of  the 
pastoralist  and  the  agriculturalist,  he  had  been  kindled 
to  indignation  by  fanciful  schemes  of  colonisation  that 
barred  the  door  against  proletarian  settlement.  He 
resolved  to  make  an  end  of  all  that.  On  May  14,  1853, 
he  issued  a  proclamation  embodying  a  plan  of  rural 
administration  and  land  settlement  that  must  have  been 
forgotten  by  those  who  describe  him  as  a  dreamer  and  a 
political  mystic.  It  reveals  a  clear  conception  of  the  end 
he  had  in  view  and  a  iBrm  grasp  of  the  means  by  which 
it  was  to  be  gained.  There  were  to  be  three  classes  of 
lands ;  limits  were  set  to  the  number  of  acres  that  could 
be  held;  and  all  were  to  be  sold  by  auction.  Above  all, 
lands  that  had  hitherto  been  sold  at  £l,  £2,  and  £3  per 
acre  were  to  be  sold  at  ten  shillings  and  five  shillings. 

The  ordinance  roused  a  storm  of  disapprobation,  but 
in  certain  districts  it  scored  a  signal  success.  The  small- 
farm  settlements  of  Greytown,  Masterton,  and  Carterton 


GOVEKNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  85 

were  reared  on  the  ordinance,  and  in  the  province  of 
Auckland  the  lands  were  dealt  with  in  the  interests  of 
the  great  body  of  the  people.  Grey  claimed  that  he  had 
''made  an  end  of  the  practice  of  closing  the  land  against 
the  poor. ' '  It  might  have  been  replied  that  he  threw  open 
the  gates  of  large  landed  estates  to  the  rich.  By  "grid- 
ironing"  the  land  and  ''taking  the  eyes  out  of  it"  wealthy 
individuals  were  able  to  defeat  the  Governor's  designs. 
Just  so  had  Earl  Grey  suspected  that  they  would  be 
defeated.  And  just  so  have  similar  projects  been 
thwarted  in  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales.  Grey's 
whole  career,  especially  with  its  many  contrivances  for 
the  advancement  of  indigenous  races,  is  a  palmary 
instance  of  the  futility  of  high  ends,  even  when  they  are 
ministered  to  by  suitable  instrumentalities. 


Chapter  XI. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

The  Chuechman. 

His  Relations  with  Bisliop  Selwyn. 

In    1845    Mr.    Gladstone,    who    had    succeeded    Lord 
Stanley  as  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  wrote  to  Grey,  who 
had  just  been  appointed  Governor  of  New  Zealand,  intro- 
ducing to  him  George  Augustus  Selwyn,  whom  Gladstone 
had  known  at  Eton.     Selwyn  had  been  for  three  years 
Bishop  of  New  Zealand — its  first  and  long  its  sole  bishop 
— and  he  was  already  playing  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Colony.    It  was  of  vital  importance  that 
two  such  high  officials  should  harmoniously  co-operate 
on  all  questions  where  the  spheres  of  Church  and  State 
overlapped  or  intersected,  and  Gladstone  expressed  the 
hope  that  there  would  be  ''a  general  concurrence   of 
judgment ' '  between  two  such  men  in  all  matters  of  public 
importance.    The  hope  was  realised.    During  the  whole  of 
both  of  Grey's  terms  in  New  Zealand  the  Governor  and 
the  Bishop  thought  and  planned,  felt  and  acted  in  unison. 
Seldom  before  had  the  secular  and  the  spiritual  powers 
been   so   united.      When   the   Treaty  of   Waitangi  was 
believed  to  be  imperilled  by  the  action  of  Earl  Grey,  and 
the  secure  tenure  of  their  lands  by  the  Maoris  was  placed 
in  jeopardy,  Selwyn  strenuously  concerted  measures  with 
the  Governor  and  the  Chief  Justice  to  avert  the  calamity. 
On  all  things  affecting  the  interests  of  the  natives  they 
were  at  one.     It  was,  indeed,  the  chief  sphere  of  the 
activity  of  both.     During  Grey's  first  term  the  Maoris 
formed  the  great  majority  of  the  population,  and  the 
immigrant  white  element  was  comparatively  unimportant. 
Consequently,  the  Governor  was  governor  mainly  of  the 
Maoris,  and  the  Bishop  was  largely  bishop  of  the  Maoris. 


J^>isH()r  Si:l\vy.\". 


GOVERNOR   OF   NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST   TERM  87 

On  the  government  of  the  Maoris  the  Governor  confessed 
that  he  often  took  counsel  with  the  Bishop. 

Both  being  men  of  culture,  of  high  talent,  and  of  strong 
character,  they  became  fast  friends  and  close  associates. 
More  than  once  they  traversed  on  foot  the  difficult 
country,  some  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length, 
between  Auckland  and  Wellington,  scaling  mountains, 
fording  rivers,  and  threading  forests  in  company,  and  in 
the  houses  of  Maori  chiefs  they  were  often  joint  guests. 
Together  they  voyaged  in  the  Pacific.  They  grew  to  be 
firm  allies,  naturally  lending  one  another  aid  in  times 
of  trouble.  When  the  great  trial  of  his  life  came — the 
apostasy  of  the  Maori  race — Selwyn  did  not  forsake  his 
old  converts,  but  continued  to  minister  to  them  in  war 
as  in  peace,  while  Grey  strove  to  suppress  the  Hau-hau 
movement;  and  when,  in  1863,  Grey  was  assailed  on  all 
hands  during  the  Waikato  war,  Selwyn  wrote  to  him 
urging  him  to  '^uphold  the  right  calmly  and  firmly 
against  the  weakness,  the  impatience,  and  the  ignorance 
of  men."  But  for  the  interlude  of  Grey's  High  Commis- 
sionership  in  South  Africa,  their  terms  of  office  in  New 
Zealand  would  have  been  nearly  synchronous.  Selwyn 
arrived  in  the  Colony  a  few  years  earlier  and  remained 
in  it  a  few  months  later.  To  the  last  Grey  spoke  of  Selwyn 
with  affection,  and  after  Selwyn 's  death  the  tears  started 
to  his  eyes  at  the  mention  of  the  heroic  prelate's  loved 
and  honoured  name. 

A  Church  Constitution. 

All  his  days  Grey  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  State 
establishment  of  religion,  and  he  reckoned  it  as  one  of 
his  achievements  that  he  had  prevented  the  creation  of 
State  Churches  in  South  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and 
South  Africa.  None  the  less,  he  was  always,  at  least  in 
profession,  a  staunch  churchman,  and  it  was  only  natural 
that,  with  his  contriving  brain  and  his  passion  for  build- 
ing up,  he  should  busy  himself  with  the  affairs  of  the 
branch  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Colony.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  repeated  by  Bishop  Selwyn,  he 
was  lying  on  a  sickbed  at  Taranaki  in  the  month  of  June, 


/ 


88  LIFE  OF  SIR  GEORGE  GREY 

1852,  when  he  drafted  a  constitution  for  the  Church. 
There  is  no  room  for  doubt  about  the  fact.  Selwyn 
admitted  that  the  first  draft  of  the  constitution  was  pre- 
pared by  Grey.  ''I  believe  I  have  now  in  his  handwrit- 
ing," he  told  the  assembled  Synod,  the  document  "upon 
which  the  Church  is  founded."  And  he  confessed  that 
Grey  had  given  the  Church  its  ''outward  framework." 
Grey  constantly  claimed  the  paternity  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical, as  he  did  of  the  political,  constitution.  His  claim 
has  been  disputed,  and  the  historian  of  the  Church  does 
not  admit  it.  Touring  the  Australasian  colonies  a  few 
years  ago.  Bishop  Welldon  was  ' '  shown  in  Auckland  the 
little  chapel  in  which  Selwyn  drew  up  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  New  Zealand,"  and  he  asserts  that  that  church, 
"in  its  charter  as  in  its  character,  still  retains  the 
impression  of  his  mind. ' ' 

Its  AuthoB^ship. 

To  neither  Grey  nor  Selwyn  can  the  authorship  of  the 
new  ecclesiastical  constitution  be  plausibly  assigned,  at 
least  without  qualification.  Ecclesiastical,  like  political, 
constitutions  are  not  created;  they  are  evolved,  and  it 
took  five  years  for  Grey's  embryo  to  grow  into  a  fully 
formed  organism.  Sir  George  Grey  addressed  a  letter 
to  Earl  Grey,  enclosing  a  copy  of  his  draft  constitution, 
explaining  the  necessity  for  such  organization,  and  dip- 
lomatically defending  it  in  advance  against  the  possible 
charge  of  disloyalty  to  the  Church  of  England.  That 
church,  fashioned  by  the  State  and  possessing  little  of  the 
flexibility  of  Nonconformist  organizations,  was  not  well 
adapted  for  transplantation.  Yet  a  local  government  of 
some  kind  was  indispensable,  and  a  constitution  was 
therefore  necessary.  Grey  did  not  conceal  the  source 
of  his  inspiration.  He  admitted  that  his  "outline  of  a 
plan  of  church  government"  resembled  "in  many  points 
that  which  we  are  informed  has  proved  so  beneficial  to  our 
brethren  in  America."  In  later  life  he  openly  avowed 
that  he  had  taken  his  model  from  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States.  The  letter  was  signed  by  hundreds 
of  Anglican  members.     In  order  to  carry  its  proposals 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  89 

into  effect,  public  meetings  were  held  in  all  the  settle- 
ments to  consider  the  "general  principles  of  a  constitu- 
tion for  the  Church  in  New  Zealand."  A  commission  or 
committee  was  appointed  to  frame  a  constitution.  When 
we  read  the  list  of  the  commission,  we  can  imagine 
something  of  the  process  of  evolution  the  institution 
went  through.  Among  the  clergy,  besides  Selwyn,  there 
were  Bishop  Harper,  head  of  the  new  diocese  of  Christ- 
church,  Mr.  Abraham  and  Mr.  Hadfield,  first  and  second 
bishops  of  Wellington,  William  Williams,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Waiapu,  and  his  more  famous  brother.  Arch- 
deacon Henry  Williams.  Among  the  laity  there  were 
such  men  as  Sir  Edward  Stafford,  Sir  Frederick 
Whitaker,  both  subsequently  Premiers  of  the  Colony,  and 
Mr.  Swainson,  the  very  able  Attorney-General  of  the 
infant  Dominion  in  pre-constitution  days.  Is  it  credible 
that  men  of  such  talent  and  forcefulness  of  character, 
little  given  to  passive  acquiescence  in  any  man's  doings, 
should,  in  such  a  matter,  have  submissively  followed 
another  man's  lead!  We  may  be  sure  that  every 
principle  and  every  detail,  every  clause  and  almost  every 
word,  were  objects  of  keen  scrutiny  and  prolonged  dis- 
cussion. Grey  may  have  laid  down  the  foundation; 
others  reared  the  pile.  His  was  the  sculptor's  hand  that 
deftly  moulded  the  clay  model;  the  others  were  the 
master-workmen  who  carved  the  finished  statue. 

Take  it  as  we  will,  the  constitution  is  to  Grey  an 
additional  title  to  fame.  It  has  won  high  repute.  An 
Australian  bishop  has  spoken  of  the  iVnglican  Church 
in  New  Zealand  as  *'the  best-organized  church  in  the 
Anglican  communion  throughout  the  world."  In  Aus- 
tralia, Canada,  and  elsewhere  it  has  been  accepted  as  a 
pattern.  Some  of  its  laws  and  regulations,  it  is  stated, 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  one 
of  the  earliest  reactions  of  a  colony  on  the  Motherland. 


Chapter  XII. 
GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND— continued. 

His  Departure. 

He  had  thrown  open  the  wide  waste  lands  of  the 
Colony  to  the  whole  people  and  to  future  generations 
of  immigrants.  He  had  framed  a  constitution  for  the 
Church,  as  he  had  for  the  State.  He  had  left 
everything  in  readiness  for  bringing  into  operation 
the  constitution  he  had  shaped,  loyally  accepting 
its  deformities  and  its  blots.  What  was  left  for  him 
to  do?  As  if  conscious  that  he  had  no  longer  a  place  in 
a  constitutionally  governed  country,  he  then  prepared 
to  leave  New  Zealand.  He  did  not  leave  it  without  com- 
mitting one  more  act  of  insubordination.  The  Constitu- 
tion Act  provided  that  one-fourth  of  all  sums  derived 
from  the  sales  of  land  throughout  the  Colony  should  be 
remitted  to  London  and  there  paid  to  the  account  of  the 
New  Zealand  Company  in  compensation  for  the  expendi- 
ture it  had  incurred  in  settling  the  central  portions  of 
the  Colony.  The  Governor  loyally  remitted  the  bulk  of 
the  money  thus  received,  but  directed  that  the  portion  of 
it  derived  from  land-sales  in  the  province  of  Auckland 
should  be  retained  in  the  Colonial  Treasury,  on  the 
ground  that  that  province  had  all  along  lain  outside  of 
the  Company's  operations.  The  reason  assigned  was 
good,  or  at  least  the  case  was  arguable,  but  the  terms  of 
the  statute  were  express  and  left  him  no  alternative.  It 
was  not  the  first  time  he  had  flown  in  the  face  of  an  Act 
of  Parliament.  Yet  even  then  the  rebellion  was  closely 
veiled.  Should  his  "reasons  fail  to  command  the  assent 
of  Her  Majesty's  Government,"  he  said,  he  desired  that 
the  Colonial  Office  should  draw  on  the  New  Zealand 
Treasury  for  the  amount  in  defect.    As  a  matter  of  fact, 

90 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW   ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  91 

the  sum  was  never  paid  till  it  was  made  a  part  of  the  first 
loan  raised  in  England  by  New  Zealand.  We  shall  see 
how  the  Colonial  Office  dealt  with  the  rebel. 

Invalid  Excuses. 

His    very    departure   was    an    act    of   mutiny.      His 
official  biographer  states  that  he  went  "nominally  on 
leave  of   absence."     The  leave  must  have  been  very 
nominal  indeed,  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  was 
either  asked  for  or  granted.    All  the  evidence  is  the  other 
way.    Another  and  equally  authorised  biographer  states 
that  his  term  of  office  had  come  to  an    end.    He  was 
appointed  for  no  fixed  term.    Unaware  of  his  departure 
the  Secretary  of  State  continued  to  address  him  as  if  he 
were  still  in  New  Zealand,  and  he  was  expressly  charged 
with  having  left  the  Colony  prematurely.     He   simply 
wanted  a  holiday  and  took  it.     The  pretext  was  his 
mother's  failing  health.    Eighteen  years  ago  (in  1890) 
a  high  Chinese  official  applied  to  the  Court  at  Pekin  for 
permission  to  resign  the  government  of  his  province  and 
return  to  his  native  place  in  order  to  nurse  his  aged 
grandmother.    A  reason  that  was  at  length,  after  more 
than  one  application,  held  valid  in  ancestor-worshipping 
China    could    have    no    force    in    ancestor-eating    New 
Zealand.    It  must  still  have  had  some  force  in  England, 
and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  in  defending  the  derelict 
Governor  against  attack  in  the  House  of  Lords,  urged 
the  fatal  illness  of  his  mother  as  a  valid  excuse  for  his 
departure,  and  disarmed  opposition  by  mentioning  that 
he  had  arrived  in  England  too  late  to   see  his  dying 
parent. 

Colonists'  Regrets. 

Grey  was  not  to  be  permitted  to  leave  New  Zealand 
like  an  ordinary  man  or  even  an  ordinary  Governor. 
Save  only  the  Marquis  of  Ripon,  the  philo-Indian  viceroy, 
no  other  Governor's  departure  has  been  so  lamented. 
The  settlers  at  Wellington,  to  whom  his  name  had  been 
an  offence,  forgot  their  grievances  against  him,  overcame 


92  LIFE  OF  SIK  GEOBGE  GEEY 

their  animosities,  and  joined  in  the  chorus  of  regrets. 
They  presented  to  him  a  piece  of  plate,  which  of  course 
he  could  not  personally  receive,  the  Colonial  Office 
assimilating  the  representative  of  the  Sovereign  to  the 
Sovereign  herself;  it  was  deposited  in  the  Museum  at 
Auckland  and  bore  the  suitable  inscription:  Fundatori 
Quietis— ''To  the  Author  of  the  Peace."  From  such  a 
trusty  ally  as  Bishop  Selwyn,  moving  his  acquiescent 
clergy,  he  received  an  address  that  seemed  to  add  the 
approbation  of  Heaven  to  that  of  Earth,  and  it  greatly 
affected  him  as  ''one  of  the  highest  rewards  he  could 
conceive. ' ' 

Maori  LamentSi 

But  it  was  from  the  Native  race  he  had  conquered  by 
arms  and  then  conquered  by  genuine  sympathy  and  true 
friendship  that  the  most  touching  farewells  were  to  come- 
Chiefs  of  note  composed  odes  of  grief.  Other  chiefs 
travelled  long  distances  in  those  railwayless  and  roadless 
days  in  order  to  see  their  loved  benefactor  once  more 
before  he  departed.  Some  presented  him  with  valuable 
greenstone  meres  and  other  heirlooms,  which,  thirty 
years  later,  the  writer  saw  him  exhibit  to  the  sons  of 
those  chiefs.  They  came  from  the  Waikato  plains  which, 
twelve  years  later,  he  was  to  receive  from  this  very  race 
and  these  very  chiefs  and  from  Native  villages  that  were 
to  be  burnt  in  war.  But  no  second-sighted  vision  of  any 
Maori  Cassandra  then  darkened  the  prospect.  All  old 
sores  were  healed,  and  all  old  scores  wiped  out.  Not 
only  chiefs  of  staunch  and  tried  loyalty,  like  Patuone,  Te 
Whero  Where,  and  Te  Rangitake,  but  the  son  of 
Rauparaha  whose  spirit  he  had  broken  by  treacherous 
capture  and  prolonged  imprisonment,  and  "the  tiger  of 
the  Wairau,"  the  formidable  Rangihaeata,  now  loyal  and 
a  Christian,  lamented  the  loss  of  the  great  Governor,  the 
great  reconciler.  In  a  collective  address  Grey  appealed 
to  their  nobler  instincts.  Together  they  had  reared 
churches,  hospitals,  and  schools.  The  natives  had 
abandoned  their  false  gods.  Mills  had  been  built.  Good 
roads   had  been   made.     Agriculture   had   spread,   and 


GOVERNOR   OF    NEW    ZEALAND:    FIRST    TERM  93 

• 

prosperity  everywhere  prevailed.  His  parting  request 
was  that  they  would  not  hereafter  suffer  any  evil  deeds 
to  sully  the  names  of  the  patriots  of  early  days,  or  obscure 
the  good  works  that  had  been  accomplished.  Alas!  less 
than  a  decade  later,  the  very  men  to  whom  he  appealed 
were  to  rise  in  rebellion,  and  were  to  do  such  evil  deeds 
as  would  leave  an  ineffaceable  stain  on  the  memory  of 
their  race,  while  the  churches  and  schools  would  be 
abandoned,  the  false  gods  would  be  reverted  to,  or  new 
false  gods  devised,  the  mills  would  cease  their  whirr,  the 
highways  would  echo  with  the  tramp  of  armed  bands, 
prosperity  would  disappear,  and  a  whole  race  sink  back 
many  degrees  in  the  scale  of  civilisation. 


Chaptee  XIII. 
AN  INTERLUDE. 

At  the  Colonial  Office. 

It  was  the  fate  of  Grey  that,  even  when  he  was  at  the 
height  of  success,  he  was  dogged  by  the  shadow,  if  not  of 
failure,  yet  of  misdoing;  the  croaking  voice  of  censure 
jarred  upon  the  ear  just  sahited  with  the  shouts  of 
triumph.  He  had  hardly  set  foot  in  London  when  he  was 
chilled  by  the  cold  air  of  official  disapproval  that  blew 
through  the  icy  corridors  of  the  Colonial  Office.  The 
Colonial  Office,  in  fact,  turned  its  back  on  him.  His 
official  friend,  Lord  Lincoln,  now  Duke  of  Newcastle  and 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  positively  refused  to  see  him; 
and  the  Permanent  Under-Secretary  treated  him  sternly. 
What  had  he  done?  He  had  been  guilty  of  the  worst  of 
all  faults  in  the  eyes  of  a  State  department — he  had  dis- 
obeyed its  behests.  The  Duke  had  already,  in  December, 
1853,  replied  to  the  despatch  of  May,  1852,  where  Grey 
explained  the  course  he  had  taken  in  respect  of  the  land 
fund.  In  a  despatch  that  crossed  his  homeward 
journey  he  was  told  that  his  disobedience  was  unpardon- 
able. All  the  considerations  he  urged  were  already  known 
to  his  superiors.  He  was  imperatively  ordered  to 
transmit  the  money  without  delay.  This  single  statement 
seems  to  prove  that  he  had  never  received  leave  of 
absence.  The  Colonial  Office  was  unaware  that  he  was 
on  his  way  to  England. 

In  Parliament. 

He  had  not  only  the  cold  chills  of  the  Colonial  Office 
to  encounter.  He  had  to  meet  the  fury  of  the  British 
Parliament.  In  the  House  of  Commons  the  attack  was 
led  by  legislators  so  authorised  as  Sir  John  Pakington. 

94 


AN  INTEKLUDE  95 

and  Sir  Charles  'Adderley,  and  withstood  by  the  Under- 
Secretary,  Sir  Frederick  Peel;  in  the  House  of  Lords 
Grey  was  attacked  by  Lord  Lyttelton  and  defended  by 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  He  might  well  have  been  sum- 
moned, a  new  Clive  or  Hastings,  to  the  bar  of  either 
Chamber  when  he  was  thus  virtually  impeached.  Grey 
claimed,  or  his  official  apologist  claimed  for  him,  that  he 
had  often  been  silent  when  he  was  attacked  or  condemned. 
This  was  not  an  occasion  for  being  silent,  and  in  a 
memorandum,  dated  July  1854,  he  made  a  capital  defence 
of  himself.  We  will  not  say  that  he  practically  exoner- 
ated himself  from  the  charges  brought  against  him,  nor 
that  this  was  proved,  as  he  himself  held,  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  motions  in  both  chambers.  A  Parlia- 
mentary resolution  is  often  moved  with  the  sole  object 
of  drawing  public  attention  to  the  facts  stated  and 
withdrawn  when  that  object  has  been  gained.  But  the 
charges  made,  though  grave  in  the  eyes  of  the  Colonial 
Office,  were  light  in  the  public  eye,  and  he  left  the  court, 
so  to  speak,  without  a  stain  on  his  character.  His  mana 
was  still  unimpaired,  and  his  fame  was  augumented. 
High-handed  doings  are  not  often  visited  with  censure  at 
Oxford,  and  the  honorary  degree  of  D.C.L.,  bestowed  on 
a  man  who  had  just  turned  forty,  amid  the  frenzied 
applause  of  the  Sheldonian  Theatre,  must  have  consoled 
him  for  the  disapproval  of  the  Tite  Barnacles  and  biased 
legislators. 


Chapter  XIV. 
HIGH  COMMISSIONEE  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA. 

His  Native  Policy. 

However  it  might  condemn  its  officer's  recalcitrancy, 
the  Colonial  Office  could  not  afford  to  stand  on  its  dignity. 
It  wanted  its  strongest  man  for  its  most  difficult  post. 
Sir  George  Grey  was  sent  to  South  Africa.  The  situation 
there  was  in  many  respects  analogous  to  the  one  he  had 
just  quitted.  The  Governor  was  practically  absolute. 
There  were  mutinous  Native  races  still  unsubjugated. 
There  were  allied  peoples,  whom  he  might  endeavour  to 
federate.  In  South  Africa,  accordingly,  he  found  a  field 
of  labour  after  his  own  heart.  He  had  gone  to  Western 
Australia  on  a  quest  worthy  of  Saul,  the  son  of  Kish, 
but  he  found  a  kingdom  in  the  natives  whom  he  strove 
to  win  over  to  a  new  life,  to  raise  and  improve.  A  more 
important  sphere  of  the  same  kind,  with  larger  powers, 
was  opened  up  to  him  in  South  Australia,  and  there  he 
laboured  earnestly  to  effect  the  advancement  of  a 
degraded  race.  In  New  Zealand  he  was  given  a  still 
grander  task,  and,  with  all  the  energy  of  an  enthusiastic 
nature,  he  schemed  and  toiled  to  develop  an  inchoate 
civilisation  and  arrest  the  decline  of  a  dying  people. 
Once  more  he  was  granted  a  fresh  commission  of  a 
similar  order  and  placed  in  a  position  to  lift  one  or 
another  of  the  lower  members  of  the  human  family  from 
its  slime. 

The  blacks  of  South  Africa  did  not  belong  to  a  race  that 
excited  a  like  enthusiasm  with  the  Maoris.  Most  of  them 
1  were  negroes,  far  down  in  the  scale,  and  there  was  then  no 
evidence  that  they  could  be  raised.  Unlike  the  Maoris, 
they  were  not  personally  attractive.  It  made  no  difference 
to  Grey.    With  a  heart  large  enough  to  embrace  all  the 

96 


/ 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IX    SOUTH    AFRICA  97 

failures  and  abortions  of  humanity,  he  set  himself  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  Bantus  as  he  had  done  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  Maoris.    His  efforts  were 
'  -  remarkable,  and  his  apparent  success  was  notable. 

British  Kafraria. 

He  set  to  work  in  the  province  nearest  his  hand,  where 
he  possessed  consular  powers.     There  he  repeated  the 
policy  he  had  striven  to  carry  out  in  New  Zealand.    Dis- 
regarding   the    warnings    of    Earl    Grey,    who    urged, 
/publicly  in  1848  and  privately  in  1853,  that  the  power  of 
the   chiefs   should   be   maintained   with   a   view   to   the 
preservation  of  order,  he  strove  to  break  the  power  of 
the  Kafir    chiefs    by   undermining    their    influence    and 
secretly  sapping  their  authority.     From  1856  onwards 
^-  he  appointed  them  magistrates,  and,  in  lieu  of  the  fines 
they  had  arbitrarily  levied  on  defaulting  or  offending 
kraals,   he   assigned   them   a    salary    or   pension,   paid 
monthly  and  calculated  on  the  fines.    By  the  side  of  the 
chief,  sitting  in  his  own  court,  he  proposed  to  place  a 
European  assessor,  who  was  a  virtual  magistrate,  and 
who  thus  supplanted  the  chief  in  his  judicial  capacity. 
It  was  intended  that  the  fines  thus  levied  should  meet  the 
cost  of  the  arrangement,  but  it  soon  proved  that  the 
institution  would  cost  as  much  as  £3,000  a  year  in  excess 
^  of   them.      The    scheme   was    reported    against   by   the 
/     British   Resident  in   Kafraria,   whom   Grey  must   soon 
/     after  have  got  rid  of,  on  the  Turkish  principle,  but  Grey 
I      induced  the  Secretary  of  State  to  assent  to  it,  on  the 
v^  understanding  that  the  expenditure  in  connection  with  it 
should  be  drawn  from  colonial  funds.    This  was  far  from 
being  Grey's  intention.    He  designed  that  the  Imperial 
Government  and  the  British  tax-payer  should  bear  the 
chief  burden,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  this  that 
happened. 

The  new  system  had  a  measure  of  success.  Two  of  the 
chiefs  promptly  accepted  the  magistrates  nominated  by 
Grey,  and  four  others  had  agreed  to  do  the  same.  It  was 
characteristic  of  his  optimism  that  he  believed,  after  a 
tour  through  Kafraria,  that  the  natives  had  generally 


98  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

found  the  system  acceptable.    We  shall  soon  see  how  far 
they  were  from  accepting  it. 

Native  Reserves. 

Grey  next  segregated  the  Native  tribes  by  setting  apart 
tracts  of  land  for  their  exclusive  occupation.  The  chief 
source  of  trouble  with  the  indigenes  in  all  countries  has 
been,  not  the  invasion  of  native  territories  in  force,  but 
the  steadfast  encroachment  of  settlers  on  the  lands  of 
the  Natives  as  their  own  give  out  or  their  numbers 
increase.  By  the  assignment  of  reserves  or  locations  the 
Kafirs  were  parked  off  and  protected  against  the  stealthy 
invasions  of  the  colonists.  It  is  the  policy  that  has  been 
more  or  less  fitfully  pursued  in  other  countries  that  have 
been  at  handgrips  with  the  same  difficulty.  The  United 
States  also  has  set  apart  such  reserves  for  the  Indian 
tribes,  if  it  has  not  always  kept  them  sacred.  It  has  been 
feebly  attempted  in  Australia,  and  both  there  and  in  New 
Zealand  it  is  now  proposed  as  a  settled  policy — in  Aus- 
tralia, with  the  object  of  saving  the  remnants  of  the 
aborigines ;  in  New  Zealand,  with  the  intention  of  appro- 
priating the  greater  part  of  the  Maori  lands,  which  are 
no  longer  wanted  for  the  dwindling  Native  population. 
Grey's  object  was  not  only  to  preserve  the  Kafirs,  who 
were  in  little  danger  of  disappearing,  but  also  to  provide 
scope  for  British  settlement.  We  shall  see  how  he  aimed 
at  settling  the  country. 

Schools. 

Wherever  he  went,  Grey  introduced  the  means  of 
education.  He  had  initiated  public  schools  among  the 
Maoris,  and  he  now  founded  a  great  industrial  school 
at  Lovedale  that  seems  to  have  been  an  unqualified  suc- 
cess. By  1890,  it  is  stated,  as  many  as  2,000  youths  had 
passed  through  it  and  there  received  both  general  and 
technical  training.  So  highly  was  it  appreciated  that 
Kafir  chiefs  for  seventeen  years  contributed  as  much  as 
£1,000  a  year  towards  its  support,  and  the  testimonies 
to  its  utility  are  abundant  and  strong.     Similar  schools 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  99 

for  the  training  of  youths  in  agriculture  and  carpentry 
were  established  elsewhere  in  Kafirland.  Of  these  the 
first  was  set  up  at  Heald  Town.  So  successful  was  it  that 
in  a  single  year,  1857,  the  Fingoes  contributed  £220  to 
its  support.  High  schools  were  also  founded  for  the  sons 
of  chiefs  and  the  training  of  teachers.  On  all  these  Grey 
reported  in  terms  of  high  commendation,  as  was  his 
custom  in  respect  of  all  his  experiments;  but,  as  with 
similar  institutions  in  South  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
the  Imperial  Government  was  sceptical  of  his  success. 
It  had  a  right  to  make  a  jealous  scrutiny  of  the  results. 
A  large  part  of  the  cost — apparently,  the  greater  part  of 
it — fell  on  the  Imperial  Government  and  the  missionary 
societies. 

Hospitals. 

Grey  had,  moreover,  a  hospital  policy  that  no  less 
merits  commendation.  He  schemed  to  build  hospitals  all 
over  Cape  Colony,  and  he  made  a  beginning  with  a 
hospital  at  King  William's  Town.  He  employed  the 
Kafirs  in  quarrying  stones  for  it  and  the  military  in 
rearing  it.  Soldiers  were  used  as  day-labourers  and 
sappers  as  skilled  mechanics,  and  military  waggons  were 
requisitioned.  When  it  was  finished,  he  summoned  from 
Wellington  Dr.  Fitzgerald,  whom  he  had  known  in  New 
Zealand,  to  take  the  place  of  resident  physician.  It  was 
a  tribute  to  both  Grey  and  Fitzgerald  that  the  Doctor 
was  induced  to  come  to  South  Africa  mainly  by  the  strong 
affection  he  felt  for  the  Governor.  The  hospital  seems 
to  have  proved  a  great  practical  success.  The  natives 
travelled  long  distances  by  waggon  and  on  foot  to  seek 
medical  aid  at  the  new  temple  of  -^sculapius.  By  1858 
11,380,  by  1886  111,000,  by  1890  130,000  patients  had  been 
treated  in  it.  One  notable  result  was  the  revolution  it 
effected  in  the  minds  of  the  Kafirs.  By  them,  as  by  all 
primitive  peoples,  diseases  were  believed  to  be  of  super- 
natural origin  and  could  be  treated  only  by  preternatural 
means.  Now  the  superstition  was  destroyed,  as  false 
beliefs  are  best  destroyed,  by  the  inculcation  of  true 
beliefs  through  the  use  of  natural  agencies,  and  the 


,100  LIFE   OF   SIK    GEORGE    GREY 

power  of  the  witch-doctor  was  as  effectually  broken  as 
the  power  of  the  chiefs. 

Such,  at  least,  was  the  claim  made  by  Grey.  It  appears 
to  have  been  one  of  his  many  delusions  about  the  effects 
of  his  measures.  Witchcraft  survived  in  South  Africa, 
as  it  survived  for  centuries  the  establishment  of  hospitals 
among  the  most  advanced  European  peoples,  and  survives 
indeed,  to  the  present  day.  The  hospital  has  not  been 
enlarged  for  half  a  century,  and  the  matron  confessed 
to  Professor  Henderson  that  the  natives  do  not  resort 
to  it  as  much  as  might  be  desired. 

Public  Works, 

The  Governor  further  acquired  influence  over  the 
Kafirs  by  employing  them  on  public  works,  as  he  had 
employed  the  Maoris,  and  in  opening  up  the  country. 
Two  long  lines  of  roads,  dotted  with  forts,  near  which 
Europeans  were  to  be  settled,  were  carried  through  the 
country.  The  roads  were  made  by  Kafirs,  graded  as 
overseers,  second-class  men,  and  ordinary  labourers,  and 
paid  accordingly;  all  were  imder  European  superin- 
tendents. The  scheme  was  excellent — in  theory,  but  it 
wrecked  itself  on  three  rocks.  First,  the  Kafirs,  like  most 
indigenous  peoples,  could  not  be  got  to  work.  Next,  it 
was  hard  to  find  capable  European  superintendents. 
Lastly,  as  we  shall  see,  the  Imperial  Government  kicked 
against  the  burden  of  expense  thus  thrown  on  it. 

A  Kafin  Rising. 

Meanwhile,  Grey's  civilising  schemes  had  been  exciting 
the  distrust  of  the  Kafir  chiefs,  who  saw  their  judicial 
functions  being  absorbed  by  white  assessors  and  their 
authority  over  their  tribesmen  undermined  by  white 
superintendents.  They  must  have  believed  that,  in  the 
mind  of  so  far-seeing  a  Governor,  there  was  a  deeply  laid 
plot  to  conquer  the  natives  by  pacific  means.  They  met 
plot  by  counterplot  and  hatched  a  conspiracy  which,  had 
it  been  successfully  carried  out,  would  have  reconquered 
British  Kafraria  for  the  blacks. 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  101 

Two  very  different  versions  of  the  events  have  been 
given.  On  one  side  there  is  the  picturesque  and  poetical 
narrative  of  Mr.  Eees,  probably  inspired  by  Grey  and 
told  just  as  Grey  was  in  the  habit  of  telling  it.  On  the 
other,  we  have  the  far  balder  and  more  prosaic,  but  pos- 
sibly more  exact,  narrative  of  Professor  Henderson,  who 
presumably  derived  his  facts  from  the  copies  of  Grey's 
despatches  in  the  Government  archives  at  Capetown.^ 
The  discrepancies  between  the  two  at  first  sight  transcend 
the  discordances  among  the  Roman  legends  that  whetted 
the  ingenuity  of  Niebuhr  or  those  that  baflfle  the  harmon- 
izers  of  the  Pentateuch  or  the  Gospels.  Examined  more 
closely,  they  are  seen  to  be  mutually  complementary. 
Each  is  by  itself  imperfect  and  incomplete.  Either  states 
what  the  other  omits,  and  vice  versa.  The  two,  taken 
together,  contain  the  whole  truth.  We  will  try  to  fuse 
them. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  chain  of  events,  and  underlying 
it,  we  discern  a  Kafir  conspiracy  against  the  British 
occupation  of  Kaf  raria.  Kreli,  the  paramount  chief  of  the 
Kafirs,  was  the  soul  of  it.  His  fellow-conspirators  were 
named  Fadanna,  Quesha,  and  Macomo.  They  cleverly 
used  the  priesthood,  which  was  probably  sympathetic,  as 
a  collaborator.  The  high-priest,  Umhlakaza,  cunningly 
created  an  instrument  in  a  prophetess,  who  professed 
to  be  in  communication  with  the  dead  ancestors  of  the 
race.  A  secret  subterranean  passage,  known  only  to 
herself,  took  her  below  the  waters  of  a  lake  and  brought 
her  into  the  presence  of  the  dead  chiefs.  There  the  eye 
was  gladdened  bj'^  evergreen  pastures  where  grazed  count- 
less herds.  Receiving  the  ancestral  commands,  she  told 
them  that  homes  would  there  be  provided  for  them  and 
never-failing  supplies  of  food;  never  again  would  they 
need  to  toil.  It  was,  of  course,  a  mere  lure,  but  it  misled 
a  whole  people,  numbering  60,000  warriors  and  200,000 
souls.  In  obedience  to  it,  and  by  command  of  their  chiefs 
and  priests,  the  infatuated  tribesmen  promised  to  destroy 
their  crops,  cattle,  and  stores  of  food  on  an  appointed 
day — February  18,  1857 — and  sacrifice  them  to  the  spirits 
of  their  ancestors.    All  who  disbelieved  in  this  prophecy 


102  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

and  refused  to  make  the  required  sacrifices  would  be 
destroyed.    The  real  object  was  to  reduce  the  Kafirs  to 
desperation  by  the  destruction  of  their  supplies,  and  thus 
induce  them  to  rise  against  the  British.    To  indicate  the 
day,    a   great   miracle   would    be    performed.      On    the 
appointed  day  the  sun  would  rise  as  usual,  but  would,., 
soon  turn  back  and  set  in  the  quarter  whence  it  hadf^ 
risen.    A  hurricane  would  spring  up.    The  Kafirs  would^ 
then  advance,  and  the  Europeans  would  be  swept  into" 
the  sea.    A  new  and  brighter  era  would  dawn. 

The  colonists  waited  in  suspense  for  the  arrival  of  the 
dread  day.  A  British  force,  under  an  English  general, 
guarded  the  frontier.  The  great  day  arrived.  The 
voluntary  promises  were  kept,  and  the  destruction  duly 
effected.  Then  the  Kafirs  prepared  to  advance.  Greatly 
outnumbered  and  evidently  alarmed,  the  general  pro- 
posed to  retreat,  and  he  sent  a  message  to  Grey  to  that 
effect.  With  a  statesmanlike  eye  Grey  saw  at  once  the 
impolicy  of  a  retrograde  movement,  and  promptly 
ordered  the  general  to  hold  his  ground.  If  he  dared  to 
retreat.  Grey  threatened  to  supersede  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  and  himself  take  the  command.  It  was  no  idle 
menace.  He  believed  he  had  the  power,  and  he  certainly 
had  the  will.  Needless  to  say,  he  was  submissively 
obeyed.  To  the  end  of  his  days  he  recalled  the  incident 
with  satisfaction  and  pride. 

The  Kafirs  did  not  venture  to  attack.  The  expected 
miracle  was  not  performed.  A  schism  broke  out  in  the 
/  Kafir  camp  between  the  believers  and  the  unbelievers, 
which  latter,  as  is  usual,  were  blamed  for  the  failure  of 
the  prophecy.  The  two  sides  fought,  and  some  were 
killed.  Feeling  that  he  had  gained  his  end,  Grey  set  out 
to  return  to  Capetown,  and  he  captured  several  leading 
chiefs  on  his  way  back.  Having  destroyed  their  supplies 
of  food,  the  Kafirs  were  overtaken  by  famine,  and  the 
appalling  number  of  50,000  died  of  starvation.  Grey's 
humanity  was  as  energetic  as  his  hostility.  He  immedi- 
ately devised  measures  of  relief.  He  brought  34,000 
natives  into  Cape  Colony  and  distributed  them  as  ser- 
vants. For  the  rest  he  built  villages  and  supplied  them 
with  food,  agricultural  implements,  seeds,  and  cattle. 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFEICA  103 

Several  of  the  chiefs  captured  were  sentenced  to 
longer  or  shorter  terms  of  imprisonment,  j  But  Grey  was 
not  the  man  to  leave  his  work  unfinished.  i^Eealising  that 
there  could  be  no  lasting  peace  in  South  Africa  while 
Kreli  remained  powerful,  he  gathered  together  a  small 
force  of  colonial  irregulars  and  the  mounted  police  he 
had  created  and  attacked  the  chief  in  his  own  country, 
where  he  lay  in  fancied  security.  Then  he  drove  him 
into  the  interior,  where  for  years  he  was  kept  powerless, 
and,  on  his  own  humble  petition,  permitted  to  return 
to  a  location  in  his  former  territory  only  when  he  could 
no  longer  be  active  for  mischief.  The  case  was  parallel  to 
the  seizure  of  Kauparaha,  and  its  effects  were  similar. 
It  broke  the  back  of  the  Kafir  resistance,  as  the  seizure 
of  Rauparaha  ensured  the  definitive  ascendancy  of  the 
British  in  New  Zealand.  Grey  won  great  repute  in  South 
Africa  by  the  decisive  stroke,  and  he  received  high 
laudation  from  the  Colonial  Office  in  a  despatch  that  bears 
the  traces  of  Bulwer  Lytton's  lofty  diction.  Well  might 
the  Secretary  of  State  commend  his  ''firm  and  benevolent 
dealing  with  the  native  races,"  his  ''sagacity  in  fore- 
seeing and  averting  collisions,  and"  his  "able  policy  in 
using  unexpected  and  strange  incidents  in  the  histoiy  of 
the  Kafirs  for  their  advantage  and  for  the  security  of 
the  Colony. 


J  > 


The  Cost  of  Civilising  the  People. 

Grand  civilising  projects  cannot  be  carried  out  without 
money,  and  all  of  Grey's  civilising  schemes,  in  Western 
Australia,  South  Australia,  New  Zealand,  South  Africa, 
and  again  in  New  Zealand,  demanded  a  large  expenditure, 
of  which  the  greater  portion  fell  on  the  Imperial  Trea- 
sury. When  he  pensioned  the  chiefs  in  British  Kafraria, 
he  calculated  the  amount  of  the  pensions  on  the  amount 
of  the  fines  previously  levied,  but  it  was  found  that  a 
sum  of  £3,000  more  would  be  annually  required.  The 
Secretary  of  State  sanctioned  the  arrangement  only  on  the 
understanding  that  the  corresponding  expenditure  should 
be  met  out  of  colonial  funds.  By  the  end  of  1854  Grey 
estimated   that   the  total   expenditure   on   his   complete 


104  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

schemes,  now  fully  developed,  would  amount  to  £60,000, 
and  he  asked  that  the  Imperial  Government  should  con- 
tribute two-thirds  of  the  amount,  the  remainder  being 
provided  from  the  revenues  of  British  Kafraria.  So 
powerful  was  the  mana  of  Grey  with  both  the  English 
Ministry  and  the  Parliament  that  that  sum  was  cheer- 
fully, indeed,  enthusiastically  voted,  and  Mr,  Labouchere 
(Lord  Taunton),  then  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  con- 
gratulated him  on  the  popularity  of  his  administration 
and  the  credit  it  reflected  on  the  ministry. 

For  three  successive  years  a  subsidy  was  voted, 
and  for  only  three  years  had  it  been  originally  asked  for. 
At  the  end  of  that  period.  Grey  professed  to  believe  it 
would  no  longer  be  wanted,  because  the  necessity  for 
employing  Kafirs  on  public  works  would  then  cease,  the 
education  of  young  Kafirs  would  become  self-supporting, 
their  increasing  civilisation  would  increase  the  demands 
for  English  commodities  and  thus  enlarge  the  revenue, 
and  progressive  settlement  by  Europeans  would  augment 
the  prosperity  of  the  province.  Grey's  expectations  were 
not  realised.  In  drawing  up  his  estimates  for  1858  he 
made  no  allowance  for  a  reduction,  and  Lord  Stanley,  the 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies  in  the  new  Derby  Ministry, 
advised  that  there  should  be  no  reduction.  The  Lords 
of  the  Treasury,  vigilant  guardians  of  the  public  purse, 
protested,  and  Lord  Stanley  was  constrained  to  intimate 
to  Grey  that  the  vote  for  the  dependency  would  be  cut 
down  by  one-half. 

Grey  was  thrown  into  a  panic.  What  was  he  to  do? 
Should  he  break  up  his  administrative  apparatus,  dismiss 
his  magistrates  and  unpension  his  chiefs,  close  his  hos- 
pitals and  his  schools?  He  could  not  and  he  would  not 
do  it.  He  was  pledged  for  another  year  to  support  the 
institutions  he  had  called  into  existence.  As  Daniel 
Webster  once  threatened  to  pay  the  United  States' 
national  debt  out  of  his  own  impecunious  pocket.  Sir 
George  Grey  more  seriously  resolved  to  carry  on  the 
system  at  his  own  expense,  and  he  laid  out  £6,000  on  this 
benevolent  object.  Of  course,  he  well  knew  that  the 
British  Government  could  not  remain  indebted  to  one 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH   AFRICA  105 

of  its  own  servants,  and  the  sum  was  ultimately  repaid 
him. 

Meanwhile,  he  fought  hard  for  his  cherished  system. 
He  was  reminded  that  he  was  laying  heavy  burdens  on 
the  British  taxpayer,  and  he  might  have  remembered  that 
the  taxes  on  the  prime  necessaries  of  life,  such  as  tea  and 
sugar,  were  then  burdensome.  In  vain  did  he  plead  that, 
by  averting  war,  his  civilising  schemes  made  a  vast  saving 
to  the  country.  None  the  less,  he  had  not  the  smallest 
intention  of  accepting  the  retrenchment.  Professing  sub- 
mission, as  always,  he  practised  rebellion,  as  always.  He 
continued  his  expenditure  as  before,  unreduced.  The 
Treasury  accounts  for  the  following  year  showed  that 
he  had  exceeded  the  annual  vote  by  no  less  a  sum  than 
£46,000.  Truly,  here  was  a  man  who  knew  how  to  flout 
his  superiors.  And  this  was  only  one  of  several  direc- 
tions in  which  he  outran  the  constable. 

The  Results. 

To  what  extent  were  these  costly  schemes  successful? 
Historians  cast  doubt  on  the  results.  Some  assert  that, 
■with  his  recall  in  1859  and  his  departure  from  South 
Africa  two  years  later,  his  structure  of  beneficent 
administration  tumbled  to  the  ground.  The  grand- 
fatherly  government  of  a  Native  race  came  to  an  end. 
He  himself  claimed  that  he  had  been  signally  successful. 
The  Kafirs  throve,  and  throve  in  consequence  of  the 
institutions  he  had  planted.  Almost  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury later  another  High  Commissioner,  Sir  Henry  Loch, 
visited  the  community  and  was  received  by  8,000  Kafirs 
mounted  on  horseback,  who  were  wealthy  and  inde- 
pendent. They  had  not  forgotten  the  old  Governor  who 
had  done  so  much  for  them,  and,  when  Loch  recalled  his 
name,  they  vividly  remembered  him.  So  did  the  Maoris 
in  after  years.  Evidently,  he  made  a  deep  impression 
wherever  he  went.  He  was  a  force  and  his  administra- 
tion a  reality.  He  undoubedly  counted  for  much  in  the 
improvement  now  so  observable- 


Chapter  XV. 

HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA— 

continnecl. 

The  Gekman  Legion. 

A  Military  Colony. 

Another  matter  on  which  Grey  came  into  collision  with 
the  Imperial  Government  was  closely  connected  with  the 
colonisation  of  British  Kafraria.  He  asked  the  British 
Government  to  send  him  out  1,000  military  pensioners 
for  settlement  on  the  frontiers  of  Cape  Colony  and  in 
Kafraria,  where  they  could  at  once  lead  the  lives  of 
farmers  and  be  a  bulwark  of  the  settlers.  It  seemed  a 
well-conceived  scheme.  Colonies  of  veterans  had  been 
planted  by  Imperial  Rome  in  many  of  the  countries  of 
the  Empire  and  by  Napo]eon  in  Northern  Italy,  and 
within  a  decade  they  were  to  be  planted  by  Grey  himself 
in  the  North  Island  of  New  Zealand.  The  Roman  military 
settlements,  at  all  events,  were  a  success;  could  not 
Imperial  England  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  her  ancient 
homologue?  He  could  not  know  that  the  New  Zealand 
pensioner-settlements,  like  the  Napoleonic,  were  to  prove 
failures.  The  War  Office  announced  the  scheme,  but 
South  Africa  was  so  little  known  in  those  days  that  few 
applications  were  received,  and  the  matter  was  allowed 
to  drop.  Many  of  Grey's  schemes,  though  beneficent  in 
themselves,  were  in  advance  of  his  time. 

Then  it  occurred  to  the  War  Office  in  1856,  when  the 
Crimean  war  was  over,  that  this  would  be  a  convenient 
way  of  disposing  of  the  German  Legion  which  the 
refusal  of  the  British  populace  to  enter  the  army  had 
obliged  the  Government  to  enlist  for  the  war  in  German 
cities.  Grey  was  attracted  by  the  proposal  and  induced 
the  Cape  Parliament  to  aid  in  carrying  it  out  by  con- 
tributing a  sum  of  £40,000,  or  £5  a  head.    Then  the  first 

106 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  107 

hitch  was  felt.  Grey  understood  that  the  whole  8,000 
legionaries  would  be  sent  out  and  accompanied  (as  he 
phrased  it)  by  ''a  fair  proportion"  of  marriageable 
women.  His  expectations  were  woefully  disappointed. 
Only  1,930  agreed  to  emigi'ate,  and  with  these  were  only 
330  females.  Grey  had  some  excuse  for  maintaining  that 
the  War  Office  had  not  kept  faith  with  him,  but,  after  all, 
it  could  not  compel  the  legionaries  to  South  Africa,  and 
nearly  2,000  military  settlers  should  have  been  hardly 
less  welcome  than  8,000. 

Grey's  Insubordination, 

Still  less  did  Grey  keep  faith  with  the  War  Office.  On 
the  plea  or  pretence  that  he  could  not  settle  in  Kafraria 
men  who  had  no  families  (as  if,  in  all  countries,  most 
emigrants  had  not  been  males,  unaccompanied  by 
females !),  he  kept  them  under  arms  and  on  full  pay.  This 
was  a  manifest  breach  of  the  understanding  with  the  War 
Office.  That  department  had  stipulated  that,  if  the  legion- 
aries were  employed  in  active  service,  they  should  receive 
full  pay,  but  if  not  so  employed,  they  should  be  struck 
off  the  pay-list.  Having  ascertained  that  the  Legion  was 
not  acting  against  an  enemy  in  the  field,  the  War  Office 
directed  the  Lieutenant-General  commanding  the  forces 
in  South  Africa  to  strike  off  the  legionaries.  Grey  there- 
upon directed  the  Lieutenant-General  to  keep  them  on  the 
pay-list  "until  we  can  hear  again  from  Her  Majesty's 
Government."  It  was  his  stereotyped  formula  in  carry- 
ing on  his  rebellions.  The  War  Office  persisted  in  its 
demand,  and  the  Governor  persisted  in  his  refusal, 
winding  up  and  declaring,  in  a  style  he  was  to 
repeat  in  New  Zealand,  that  the  censures  of  the  War 
Office  had  only  made  him  more  resolved  to  persevere  in 
his  resistance.  He  added  that  he  would  follow  this  line 
without  regarding  the  cost  or  the  sacrifice  that  such  a 
course  would  entail  on  him.  He  had  grown  reckless,  and 
then  he  was  astounded  when  the  necessary  consequences 
of  his  acts  burst  upon  him. 

Grey  was  no  less  imperious  in  his  way  of  clothing  his 
Legion.  He  coolly  ordered  the  necessary  clothes  and  boots 


108  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

from  the  military  department  and  sent  the  bill  to  the 
astonished  War  Office.  The  War  Office  was  furious,  and 
reiterated  its  instructions  (as  he  admitted)  in  ''per- 
emptory and  positive  terms."  Grey  remained  deaf  to 
the  official  thunder  and  loftily  left  it  to  be  settled  by  the 
Imperial  Government  which  department  should  bear  the 
cost.  Once  more  the  rebel  was  victorious.  The  Lords  of 
the  Treasurv  decided  that  the  War  Office  should  foot  the 
bill. 

His  Rebellion, 

The  Governor  was  not  yet  done  with  the  German 
Legion.  Having  humanely  provided  it  with  boots  and 
clothes,  he  now,  with  equal  benevolence,  proposed  to 
supply  the  legionaries  with  German  wives.  He  first 
sought  to  attain  his  object  by  constitutional  means,  and 
he  proposed  to  the  Colonial  Office  that  it  should  despatch 
to  Capetown  a  number  of  German  families,  from  which 
the  legionaries  might  select  help-meets.  The  Secretary 
of  State  made  the  obvious  criticism  that,  if  the  young 
women  of  these  families  were  old  enough  to  marry,  their 
parents  would  be  almost  past  the  age  of  suitable 
emigrants;  and  he  suggested  that  some  Irish  girls  of 
good  family  should  be  assisted  (apparently  by  the  High 
Commissioner)  to  emigrate.  It  is  in  connection  with 
this  affair  that  Grey's  insubordination,  now  amounting 
to  positive  rebellion  can,  as  at  first  appears,  be  most 
definitely  sheeted  home  to  him. 

For  the  despatch  of  Mr.  Labouchere  was  received  by 
Grey  on  July  27,  1857,  and  acknowledged  by  him  on 
August  22.  Yet  we  are  informed  that  on  August  19  he 
took  the  extraordinary  step  of  entering  into  negotiations 
with  a  German  trading  firm,  Goddefroy  and  Co.,  of  Ham- 
burg, and  on  August  25  he  signed  the  contract.  Four 
thousand  Germans  were  to  be  sent  out;  the  cost  was  to 
be  £50,000 ;  and  it  was  to  be  met  by  bonds  on  the  revenues 
of  British  Kafraria.  The  arrangement,  doubtless 
through  the  British  Consul  at  Hamburg,  got  to  the  ears 
of  Lord  Stanley,  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  who  took 
prompt    measures    to    arrest    the    proceedings    of    the 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFEICA  109 

Hamburg  firm.  He  informed  them  of  the  true  nature  of 
the  security,  and  instructed  them  to  abandon  their  plans. 
This,  they  explained,  they  could  not  at  once  do,  seeing 
that  emigrants  had  been  already  selected.  Lord  Stanley 
was  constrained  to  assent  to  the  despatch  of  1,600 
emigrants,  and  to  pay  down  £5,000  to  compensate  them 
for  the  breach  of  further  undertakings.  He  then  called 
Grey  sharply  to  account  for  acting  in  defiance  of  the 
instructions  he  had  received.  Grey  replied  that  he  was 
unaware  that  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies  disapproved 
of  his  action.  Stanley  reminded  him  of  the  despatch  of 
June  5. 

The  facts  are  not  quite  conclusive  nor  the  dates  quite 
damning.  We  are  told  that  he  received  the  inhibitory 
despatch  on  July  27.  If  he  then  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  the  Hamburg  firm  on  August  19,  he  committed 
an  act  of  insubordination  of  the  most  definite  character. 
But  we  are  also  told  that  he  signed  the  contract  six  days 
later.*  How  could  he  have  conducted  such  negotiations 
to  a  conclusion  in  six  days  with  persons  in  a  country 
situated  at  a  distance  of  7,000  miles?  Evidently,  these 
negotiations  had  been  going  on  for  some  months  and 
cannot  have  been  initiated  on  August  19.  The  carriage 
of  a  mail  from  England  then  consumed,  as  it  appears,  52 
days,  and  between  Capetown  and  Hamburg  the  distance 
was  greater.  Allow  fifteen  weeks  for  the  double  journey 
and  as  many  days  for  the  drawing  up  of  the  contract,  and 
it  is  plain  that  Grey  must  have  instructed  Goddefroy  and 
Co.  as  early  as  the  previous  April.  By  that  time,  as  he 
quite  truly  said,  the  Secretary  of  State  had  expressed 
no  opinion  on  the  subject,  nor,  we  may  add,  could  he 
possibly  have  done  so.  He  was  in  total  ignorance  of  the 
matter.  Grey  therefore  stands  partially  acquitted  of 
the  major  charge  of  flying  in  the  face  of  a  prohibition 
issued  by  the  Colonial  Office.  But  he  is  not  wholly 
acquitted  even  of  that.  For  he  signed  the  contract  29 
days  after  he  had  received  a  despatch  that  practically 
forbade  him  to  take  such  action.     And  he  is  not  even 


*  Henderson,  Sir  George  Orey,  pp.  179-80. 


110  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

partially  acquitted  of  the  charge  of  taking  such  action 
as  no  subordinate  had  a  right  to  take.  Nor  was  it  other 
than  a  blunder  to  send  for  German  emigrants  when 
English  emigrants  were  available.  Did  he  not  believe  in 
the  mixture  of  races — he  who  advocated  a  blend  between 
the  Maoris  and  the  English? 

The  matter  did  not  end  there.  The  German  firm 
pressing  him  for  money  on  account  of  the  emigrants  sent, 
he  had  personally  to  meet  the  expenditure  incurred. 
Some  banking  relatives  of  his  own,  according  to  his  own 
account,  temporarily  met  his  liabilities.  Of  course,  they 
had  ultimately  to  be  discharged  by  the  Imperial 
Government. 


Chapter  XVI. 

HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA— 

continued. 

A  South  African  Kingdom. 

A  grave  problem  demanded  settlement  immediately 
after  he  arrived.  It  concerned  the  policy  to  be  pursued 
towards  the  Native  races.  He  had  already  served  his 
apprenticeship  to  this  department  of  statesmanship  in 
two  very  different  countries,  and  was  thus  prepared  for 
grappling  with  it  on  an  ascending  scale  of  difficulty.  The 
rapid  decline  and  steadfast  retreat  of  the  Australian 
blacks  were  gradually  withdrawing  them  from  inter- 
course with  the  colonists  and  supervision  by  the  Govern- 
ments. The  Maoris  were  far  more  formidable,  but  they 
too  were  wasting  away  before  the  white  advance,  and 
their  total  disappearance  was  only  a  question  of  time. 
It  was  quite  otherwise  in  South  Africa.  What  to  do  with 
the  blacks?  was  a  question  that  kept  sleep  from  the  eyes 
of  every  High  Commissioner  in  turn.  The  problem  was 
at  its  acutest  in  Zululand,  where  the  colonists  were,  as 
they  still  are,  enormously  outnumbered  by  the  Zulus. 
A  plausible  solution  of  a  particular  portion  of  the  problem 
had  already  been  proposed.  Mr.  (now  so  well  known  as 
Sir)  Theophilus  Shepstone  was  the  son  of  an  African 
missionary,  and  as  such  had  ample  opportunities  of 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  Zulus.  So  completely  was 
he  master  of  everything  connected  with  the  subject  that 
he  had  for  years  been  confidential  adviser  to  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Natal  on  Native  affairs. 

Proposed  Zulu  Province. 

To  this  connection  it  was  owing  that  he  made  proposals 
to  Sir  Benjamin  Pine,  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  respect- 
ing  the  disposal   and  management    of   some   50,000    or 

lU 


112  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEOEGB   GEEY 

60,000  Zulus  who  had  fled  into  Natal  to  escape  from  the 
tyranny  of  three  ferocious  Zulu  chieftains — Chaaka, 
Dingaan,  and  Panda.  This  huge  horde  of  natives  formed 
a  source  of  disturbance  and  unrest  in  Natal.  Could  they 
not  be  organized  into  one  of  those  non-genealogical 
tribes  which  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  discovered  in  India,  and 
which  Dr.  W.  E.  Hearn  believed  to  be  the  origin  of  the 
State?  Yes,  certainly,  thought  Mr.  Shepstone;  provided 
a  suitable  location  could  be  found.  One  such  was  lying 
invitingly  ready  at  hand.  To  the  west  of  Natal,  between 
the  colony  and  British  Kafraria,  lay  a  beautiful  and 
fertile  territory,  where  forests  flanked  wide  and  well- 
watered  pasture-lands.  What  specially  recommended  it 
for  settlement  was  the  fact  that  it  was  a  waste  domain, 
occupied  only  by  a  few  white  settlers  and  a  few  kraals, 
but  mainly  by  wild  beasts.  Mr.  Shepstone  proposed  that 
he  should  march  the  entire  body  into  this  no-man's-land. 
There,  under  more  favourable  conditions,  he  was  to  con- 
tinue to  rule  over  them  and  pursue  his  civilising  work. 
"Who,  indeed,  so  well  fitted  to  play  to  them  the  part  of 
an  Earthly  Providence? 

Undesirable! 

The  proposal  had  been  heartily  seconded  by  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Natal  and  conditionally  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Home  Government.  The  matter  was  suh 
judice  when  Grey  arrived  at  the  Cape.  Sir  John 
Pakington,  still  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  required  him 
to  report  on  the  proposal.  He  examined  it  thoroughly, 
as  was  his  custom,  viewed  it  under  a  variety  of  lights,  and 
probed  it  to  the  bottom.  On  December  3,  1855,  he  at 
length  made  his  report.  His  imagination,  which  led  him 
astray  in  Western  Australia  and  misled  him  so 
grievously  in  New  Zealand,  again  played  a  prominent 
part.  In  a  vision  he  beheld  Shepstone 's  Goshen  occupied 
by  a  numerous  and  thriving  white  population.  Forget- 
ting Matabeleland,  now  Ehodesia,  he  described  it  as  the 
last-remaining  uncolonised  part  of  South  Africa  that  was 
suited  for  European  colonisation.  Situated  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  great  range  of  the  Drakensberg,  it 


4 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  113 

was  the  key  of  South  Africa  (surely  a  gross  exaggera- 
tion!) and,  held  by  British  colonists,  it  would  safeguard 
States  that  were  now  in  jeopardy.  More  than  half  a 
century  has  rolled  by  since  then.  Have  his  prophecies  in 
respect  of  the  disputed  territory  been  more  completely 
fulfilled  than  they  were  in  North- Western  Australia? 

But  the  root  of  his  objections  to  the  scheme  did  not 
really  lie  there.  They  lay  in  the  position  to  be  granted 
to  Shepstone.  That  touched  him  to  the  quick.  That  an 
imperium  should  be  created  in  imperio  of  the  real  ruler 
of  South  Africa  was  intolerable.  That  it  should  be 
assigned  to  a  missionary's  son,  and  that  son  Shepstone, 
was  monstrous.  That  such  a  man  should  be  placed  in 
the  position  of  a  sovereign,  possessing  absolute  powers 
and  without  giving  guarantees  for  his  loyalty,  was  noth- 
ing less  than  a  scandal.  Yet  it  was  the  position  he  had 
himself  assumed  in  South  Australia  and  New  Zealand; 
it  was  the  position  he  would  himself  have  accepted  in  New 
Zealand  so  recently  as  1884.  It  took  on  quite  a  different 
complexion  when  it  was  to  be  assumed  by  another.  What 
was  Shepstone 's  record?  For  ten  years  he  had  had  com- 
plete control  over  the  Zulus  of  Natal  (Grey's  later 
account  was  only  that  he  had  been  ''confidential  adviser 
to  the  Lieutenant-Governor").  He  had  magistrates  to 
aid  him,  missionaries  and  a  military  force.  Yet  the  Zulus 
were  as  great  savages  as  they  had  been  a  thousand  years 
before  (how  did  he  know  that?).  If  Great  Britain 
designed  to  set  up  an  independent  kingdom,  let  her  select 
as  its  ruler  one  whose  public  service  and  experience 
proved  his  fitness  to  govern  both  natives  and  Europeans 
(Grey  himself,  namely). 

There  were  other  objections  to  the  scheme,  he  held. 
The  removal  of  the  Zulus  into  the  new  country  would 
breed  disorder.  The  massing  of  men  was  always  dis- 
astrous (how  many  examples  there  have  been,  all  over 
the  world  and  all  through  history,  of  voluntary  or 
constrained  collective  migrations  that  have  not  been 
disastrous!).  Fresh  hordes  would  flow  into  Zululand 
to  fill  the  places  of  those  who  had  gone,  and  these  would 
be  a  source  of  peril  to  Cape  Colony. 


114  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE    GREY 

Scheme  Arrested. 

So  far  had  the  matter  proceeded  that  Shepstone  had 
actually  procured  the  cession  of  the  territory  from  the 
few  native  chiefs  who  occupied  it,  and  he  prepared  to 
enter  into  possession.  But  the  High  Commissioner  would 
bear  no  brother-ruler  near  his  throne.  After  instructing 
Sir  Benjamin  Pine  to  proceed  no  further  in  the  matter, 
he  reported  adversely,  and  the  Home  Government  could 
do  no  otherwise  than  accept  the  verdict.  Mr.  Shepstone 
had  to  wait  for  his  kingdom.  We  cannot  help  regretting 
that  the  experiment  was  not  made.  Shepstone  could  pro- 
bably have  assured  its  success,  if  anyone  could.  It  was 
not  to  be,  and  the  Zulus  are  still  a  menace  to  Natal. 


Chapter  XVII. 

HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA— 

continued. 

An  Episode. 

Grey  sends  Troops,  etCi,  to  India, 

Grey  was  never  parochial,  and  the  strands  of  his  varie- 
gated career  were  continually  being  crossed  by  threads 
from  the  Motherland  or  from  other  provinces  of  the 
Empire.  In  August,  1857,  he  professed  to  have  received 
from  Lord  Elphinstone,  Governor  of  the  province  of 
Bombay,  a  despatch  informing  him  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
mutiny  in  India.  As  the  Governor  of  Bombay  and  the 
High  Commissioner  of  the  Cape  could  have  no  official 
relations  with  one  another  save  through  the  Home 
Government,  the  term  'despatch'  is  obviously  inaccurate. 
The  fact  remained,  and  it  was  grave.  Grey  at  once 
realised  the  gravity  of  the  situation  as  neither  the 
Governor-General  of  India  nor  the  English  Ministry 
realised  it.  His  action  was  prompt  and  decisive.  A  man- 
of-war  then  lying  in  Table  Bay  was  at  once  sent  to  India, 
two  batteries  of  the  Royal  Artillery  stationed  at  Cape- 
town were  also  sent,  and  with  them  were  sent  ammunition, 
military  stores,  and  some  horses,  including  the  Governor's 
own  carriage  horses.  Grey's  public-spirited  action 
received  the  warm  approval  of  Queen  Victoria. 
*'I  hear,"  wrote  Monckton  Milnes,  afterwards  Lord 
Houghton,  "the  Queen  is  in  great  admiration  of  Sir 
George  Grey,  at  the  Cape,  having  sent  his  carriage  horses 
to  India  and  going  afoot.  "  Grey  had  no  more  power  to 
despatch  the  man-of-war  than  the  Governor  of  New  South 
Wales  would  have  to  despatch  to  India  the  British 
squadron  anchored  in  Sydney  Harbour.  It  is  also  doubt- 
ful whether  he  had— indeed,  it  is  hardly  doubtful  that  he 

115 


116  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

had  not — power  to  despatch  the  Eoyal  Artillery,  and  it 
is  certain  that,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Home  Government,  he 
incurred  Talleyrand's  reproach  of  trop  de  zele.  Pos- 
terity will  not  ratify  the  judgment.  The  verdict  of  history 
will  be  that,  if  he  acted  ultra  vires,  he  was  justified  in  so 
acting.    His  action  was  that  of  a  statesman  and  a  patriot. 

Conciliates  Natives. 

According  to  his  own  account.  Grey  continued  to 
despatch  to  India  all  the  Imperial  troops  he  could  possibly 
spare,  numbering  5,000.  As  these  were  under  the  com- 
mand of  English  officers,  who  could  obey  only  the  orders 
of  the  War  Office,  he  must  have  superseded  those  officers 
and  thus  supplanted  the  War  Office.  It  is  possible,  but 
not  very  credible.  One  thing  is  certain.  Resolving  to  trust 
to  his  personal  influence  to  maintain  peace  in  the  midst 
of  hostile  races,  he  showed  his  customary  energy  in  fore- 
arming himself  against  possible  dangers.  He  set  out  on  a 
series  of  visits  to  the  kraals  of  the  Kafir  chiefs  in  order 
to  extract  from  them  solemn  assurances  of  fidelity,  or  at 
least  to  arrange  for  a  truce  so  long  as  the  Empire  was  in 
danger.  It  is  a  tribute  to  his  powers  of  persuasion,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  testimony  to  the  loyalty  of  character 
of  these  savages,  that  he  was  completely  successful  and 
met  with  no  refusals.  Had  they  fallen  on  the  defenceless 
settlements  as  the  Zulus  fell  twenty  years  later,  the 
British  colonies  would  have  been  wiped  out.  He  climbed 
the  heights  of  Thaba-Bosigo,  and  from  Moshesh,  the  aged 
chief  of  the  Basutos,  he  received  an  assurance  of  friend- 
ship. From  all  others  he  received  similar  assurances. 
All  were  kept,  and  the  whole  of  South  Africa  remained 
at  peace,  not  only  during  the  struggle  in  India,  but  for 
many  years  after.  Grey  was  a  fighting  Governor,  but  he 
fought  to  end  wars,  not  to  begin  them,  and  he  established 
peace. 

Levies  Troops. 

He  was  not  content  with  taking  these  energetic 
measures.  In  answer  to  a  second  appeal  from  Lord 
Elphinstone   (so  he  asserted)   he  summoned  to  its  old 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  117 

standards  the  disbanded  German  Legion,  or  a  large  por- 
tion of  it,  and  despatched  it  to  Bombay.  For  a  subject  to 
levy  troops  without  the  authority  of  the  Sovereign  was 
an  act  of  high  treason,  and  Grey  undoubtedly  incurred  the 
risk  of  the  severe  penalties  attached  to  such  a  procedure. 
Though  the  German  Legion  took  no  part  in  suppressing 
the  Mutiny,  it  aided  in  keeping  the  peace  in  Bombay, 
which  must  have  been  denuded  of  white  troops.  Here 
again,  therefore,  the  action  of  the  High  Commissioner, 
taken  in  contravention  of  the  law  though  it  was,  will  meet 
with  the  approval  of  posterity. 

Advises  Use  of  Maoris. 

We  are  not  sure  that  the  same  approbation  will  be 
meted  out  to  another  measure  that  he  proposed  or  recom- 
mended. Some  old  friends  of  his,  leading  Maori  chiefs 
in  the  North  Island  of  New  Zealand,  offered  to  raise  regi- 
ments of  Maoris  for  service  in  India.  For  a  number  of 
reasons  Grey  strongly  advised  the  Home  Government  to 
accept  the  offer.  Recalling  the  employment  of  Indians 
in  the  war  of  American  Independence,  where  the  Indians 
were  yet  matched  with  hostile  Indians  in  the  American 
service,  the  English  Government  refused  to  accept  the 
offer.  Grey  had  been  misled  by  his  romantic  attachment 
for  a  race  whose  virtues  he  probably  overestimated  and 
to  whose  savagery  he  chose  to  shut  his  eyes.  In  the 
matter  of  savagery  there  was,  indeed,  little  to  choose 
between  the  brown  race  and  the  white.  A  touch  of  canni- 
balism would  hardly  have  been  out  of  place  at  a  time 
when  Indian  natives  were  blown  from  the  mouths  of  guns. 
At  all  events,  the  civilised  world  will  probably  not  again 
sanction  the  use  of  savage  troops  against  even  semi- 
civilised  peoples. 

Diverts  the  China  Contingent. 

The  condemnation  thus  affixed  to  an  ill-advised  and 
ill-timed  offer  is  of  a  mild  nature  compared  with  the 
astonishment  raised  by  another  phase  of  the  same 
episode.     Not  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  but  in 


118  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

cold  blood  and  to  the  last  years  of  his  life,  Grey 
seriously  maintained  that  it  was  he,  and  not  Lord  Elgin, 
who  diverted  the  troops  on  their  way  to  support  the 
British  plenipotentiary  in  China  and  despatched  them  to 
India.  To  himself  alone  he  calmly  arrogated  the  merit 
ascribed  to  that  act,  of  having  ' '  saved  India. ' ' 

A  Delusion' 

It  is  a  case  for  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 
From  the  beginning  to  end  the  narrative  is  a  pure  hal- 
lucination, or  a  tissue  of  hallucinations.  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  that  a  sane  mind  can  have  entertained  such 
delusions  or  through  forty  years  persisted  in  such 
beliefs.  Mr.  Rees  charitably  assumes  that  Grey  believed 
that,  in  an  emergency,  when  the  existence  of  the  Empire 
was  at  stake,  a  high  officer  of  that  Empire  could  ignore 
all  precedents,  supersede  all  rules,  and  act  upon  prin- 
ciples he  had  himself  originated.  But  this  is  much  too 
charitable  a  view  of  the  case.  There  is  no  doubt  at  all 
that  in  1857  Grey  believed— in  1884,  as  the  writer  can 
testify,  he  still  believed — that,  as  Commander-in-Chief 
within  the  Colony,  he  possessed  the  supreme  command 
of  all  forces  in  the  Colony,  could  direct  military  move- 
ments, and  supersede  the  English  general  if  such 
movements  were  not  made.  That  was  an  extraordinary 
straining  of  his  powers,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  not 
in  imagination  only.  But  it  was  mild  in  comparison  with 
the  incredible  assumptions  he  made  when  the  transports 
destined  for  China,  to  support  Lord  Elgin  in  forcibly 
concluding  a  treaty  with  the  Chinese  Government, 
touched  at  Capetown  to  take  in  supplies.  He  then  claimed 
that,  as  the  troops  had  come  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  Colony,  he  was  empowered  to  direct  their  movements. 
This  was  his  deliberate  belief.  In  pursuance  of  it  he 
required  of  the  commander  of  the  troops  that  he  should 
disobey  the  orders  he  had  received  from  the  War  Office, 
diverge  from  the  route  he  had  been  instructed  to  take, 
and  steam  straight  to  Calcutta.  Through  his  biographer 
he  asserts  that  the  commander.  Col.  Hope,  yielded  to  his 
insistence   or   rather   obeyed   his   orders,   and    steamed 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER   IN    SOL'TH   AFRICA 


119 


straight  for  Calcutta.  The  troops  arrived  in  India  in 
time  to  enable  Sir  Colin  Campbell  to  relieve  Liicknow. 
But  for  this  unexpected  reinforcement  Lucknow  would 
have  fallen,  and  India  itself  might  have  been  reconquered. 

Against  the  Evidence. 

Not  a  tittle  of  evidence  supports  this  chain  of  assump- 
tions.   The  officer  in  command  only  laughed  at  the  mock 
orders  he  received  from  the   Governor  and  continued 
his  voyage  to  Singapore,  as  he  had  been  instructed  to  do. 
There^  Lord    Elgin    received    a    despatch    from    Lord 
Canning,  the  Governor-General  of  India,  informing  him 
of  the  outbreak  of  the  Mutiny  and  the  critical  situation 
of  Central  India.     Then  he  rose  from  the  table,  where 
he  sat  at  dinner,  and  paced  the  balcony  for  two  or  three 
hours,  evidently  deliberating  what  steps  he  should  take 
in  this   grave   emergency.     "  To   his   eternal   honour," 
according  to  Lord  Malmesbury,  he  decided  to  sacrifice 
the  means  of  accomplishing  the  mission  that  had  been 
entrusted  to  him,  and  divert  to  India  the  troops  that 
had  just  arrived  at  Singapore,  as  had  been  arranged.    Is 
it  not  plain  that  the  transports  did  not  steam  straight 
from  Capetown  to  Calcutta,  as  Grey  had  ordered  they 
should,  and  as  he  professes  to  believe  they  really  did, 
but  simply  pursued  the  course   to   Singapore,   whither 
they  had  been  sent?    Lord  Elgin,  and  he  alone,  diverted 
them  to  Calcutta;  and  Sir  George  Grey  had  no  more  to 
do  with  the  diversion  than  the  Man  in  the  Moon.     The 
facts,  clearly  stated  and  irresistibly  argued,  were  placed 
before  him  in  a  New  Zealand  journal  in  1890,  by  an  officer 
who  had  been  on  board  the  transports  when  they  touched 
at  Capetown,  but  nothing  could  eradicate  the  deep-seated 
delusion.    By  deputy  (for  he  was  too  proud  to  enter  per- 
sonally  into  controversy   with   any  colonist),   and   that 
deputy (  if  I  do  not  mistake)  Mr.  Rees,  he  maintained  in 
the  same  journal  his  old  contentions,  as  he  had  done  for 
thirty-three  years  to  all  who  would  listen  to  him,  and  thus 
furnished  convincing  proof  that  megalomania  had  per- 
manently disturbed  the  balance  of  his  mind. 


120  LIFE    OF   SIR   GEOEGE    GREY 

One  more  piece  of  evidence  is  available.  When  Mr. 
Eees  's  narrative  was  published,  Sir  Henry  Loch,  who  had 
been  Secretary  to  Lord  Elgin,  wrote  to  the  Times,  giving 
his  statements  a  specific  denial  and  scouting  the  claims 
made  by,  and  on  behalf  of,  Sir  George  Grey.  Nothing 
more  conclusive  is  ever  likely  to  be  produced. 

The  True  Actor. 

It  is  little  to  add  that  Mr.  Rees,  by  his  own  confession, 
was  unable  to  discover  that  any  fitting  recognition  of 
Sir  George  Grey's  signal  services  on  this  historic  occa- 
sion had  ever  been  made.  What  he  really  means  is  that 
he  can  find  no  evidence  that  things  had  happened  as  Grey 
said  they  did.  All  who  follow  him  in  the  same  track  will 
be  in  equal  perplexity.  One  is  surprised,  on  looking 
through  the  histories  of  the  Mutiny,  to  observe  how 
indefinite  are  all  the  statements  made  about  the  incident. 
Even  in  the  book  that  ought  to  have  contained  an 
authorised  narrative  there  are  only  the  haziest  references 
to  it.  The  unpretending  volume,  indeed,  might  have  been 
more  luminously  compiled.  Elucidative  notes  or  illustra- 
tive words,  such  as  Carlyle  appended  or  prefixed  to 
Cromwell's  letters  or  intermingled  with  his  speeches; 
Lord  Elgin's  meagre  accounts  filled  out  from  authorita- 
tive histories;  above  all,  some  glimpses  of  a  striking 
personality,  would  have  greatly  added  to  its  historical 
value.  The  Earl  of  Elgin  was  no  ordinary  man.  Driven 
by  inherited  financial  embarrassment  to  seek  a  remunera- 
tive career  by  honourable  public  service  abroad,  he 
exercised  a  wise  despotism  over  Jamaica  in  his  early 
manhood,  brought  constitutional  government  in  Canada 
into  successful  working  in  his  maturity,  and  when  the 
snows  of  age  had  prematurely  whitened  the  finely 
shaped  head  he  went  forth  to  rule  the  great  dependency 
he  had  saved.  The  writer  well  remembers  listening  with 
all  the  reverence  of  boyhood  to  the  address  he  gave  in  the 
town  hall  of  the  city  near  his  seat  at  Broomhall  on  the 
eve  of  his  departure  for  India.  An  Anglican  rector  who 
had  been  his  contemporary  at  Oxford  said  that  he  was 
there   the  finest   elocutionist  of  his  time,    and    all   who 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER   IN    SOUTH    AFRICA  121 

heard  him  at  Dunfermline  in  the  early  sixties  must  have 
felt  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion.  A  slight  tremor  shook 
his  voice  as  he  spoke  of  the  unlikelihood  of  his  return 
from  the  sphere  of  his  new  labours,  but  true  eloquence 
was  lacking  to  match  the  polished  enunciation  and  the 
finished  elocution.  He  never  returned,  and,  djnng 
tragically  at  his  post,  he  unwittingly  bequeathed  to  his 
son  both  the  reversion  of  the  viceroyalty  and  a  seat  in  the 
present  Cabinet. 

He  was  lying  at  Singapore,  impatiently  waiting  for  the 
arrival  of  the  troops  that  were  to  support  his  mission  in 
China.  Instead  of  them  came  a  messenger,  grim  and  ter- 
rible, to  tell  of  the  rising  of  the  Sepoys  in  Central  India, 
and  with  it  an  appeal  to  his  generosity  and  patriotism. 
So  far  from  its  being  the  case,  as  Grey  always  alleged, 
that  Lord  Canning  underestimated  the  danger  and  asked 
only  that  some  horses  and  other  trifling  reinforcements 
should  be  sent  him,  it  is  stated  in  the  Letters  that  Canning 
urgently  entreated  Lord  Elgin  to  send  him  troops— the 
troops,  namely,  that  were  destined  for  the  China  Expedi- 
tion. And  '*I  have  not  a  man"  to  send,  he  writes  to  his 
wife.  His  troops  were  still  at  sea.  He  did  exactly  what 
Grey  claimed  to  have  done.  He  despatched  fast  steamers 
to  intercept  the  slow-sailing  transports  and  divert  them 
towards  the  Hoogly.  After  consulting  with  the  local 
general,  he  had  resolved  on  a  great  act  of  renunciation. 
He  determined  to  sacrifice  the  China  mission,  and  thus 
relinquish  in  advance  all  the  glory  he  might  have  hoped  to 
win.  As  it  happened,  he  reaped  the  higher  glory  of 
renouncement,  and  he  did  not  in  the  long  run  sacrifice 
the  impurer  fame  of  negotiating  a  questionable  treaty. 

Evidence  is  deficient  on  the  one  side  and  altogether 
lacking  on  the  other.  In  a  matter  in  which  there  ought 
to  be  thousands  of  witnesses,  many  of  them  still  living, 
we  are  unable  positively  to  say  that  the  transports  com- 
plied with  the  requests  of  Grey  or  obeyed  the  orders  of 
Elgin.  Grey's  contention,  which  looks  like  the  delusion 
of  a  distempered  brain,  is  at  least  arguable.  Whately's 
Historic  Doubts  about  Napoleon  might  have  a  counter- 
part in  Historic  Doubts  about  Lord  Elgin. 


Chapter  XVIII. 

HIGH     COMMISSIONER    IN     SOUTH     AFRICA— 

continued. 

South  African  Federation. 

Sir  George  Grey  had,  years  before,  schemed  a  federa- 
tion of  New  Zealand  with  the  South  Sea  Islands.  He 
now  proposed  that  the  various  States  of  South  Africa 
should  be  united  by  a  common  bond,  (hi  a  despatch 
written  at  the  end  of  1855  he  advocated  "a  federal  union 
among  all  these  territories,  in  which  great  individual 
freedom  of  action"  should  be  "left  to  each  province, 
whilst  they"  would  "yet  all  be  united  under  British 
rule.".  "He  vainly  endeavoured  to  induce  the  Imperial 
Government  to  resume  the  sovereignty  of  the  Orange 
River  State.  In  the  following  year  he  intimated  that  the 
State  would  ask  to  be  included  in  a  federal  government 
with  Cape  Colony,  and  he  requested  instructions.  In  a 
private  communication  or  a  secret  despatch,  dated 
in  September,  1858,  Bulwer  Lytton,  now  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies,  reminded  Grey  that  he  had  frequently  urged 
the  union  of  British  Kafraria  with  Cape  Colony  and  of 
the  various  South  African  States  with  one  another.  He 
was  informed  that  "a  high  value  in  the  eyes  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government"  attached  "to  the  expression  of 
his  deliberate  judgment  on  such  a  question,"  and  he  was 
instructed  that  "it  would  be  expedient  to  keep  in  view  the 
ultimate  policy  of  incorporating  British  Kafraria  with 
the  Cape  Colony,  and  even,  if  possible,  of  uniting  all  her 
Majesty's  dominions  in  South  Africa  under  some  common 
,  .  .  .  government. ' '  The  limitation  of  the  reference 
will  be  observed.  But  no  thought  of  limitation  entered 
the  mind  of  the  High  Commissioner.  He  had  schemed 
a  Commonwealth  of  all  South  African  States  without 
regard  to  differences  of  race  or  colour. 

122 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER   IN    SOUTH   AFRICA  123 

His  Ideal. 

His  views  were  expounded  in  August,  1858,  in  the 
greatest  despatch  he  ever  wrote — this  man  of  many 
despatches.  It  was  remarkable  for  its  large  and  states- 
manlike views,  its  prevision  of  eventualities,  its  imagina- 
tive delineation  of  future  social  states,  and  the  glowing 
ardour  that  animated  it.  Such  a  commonwealth  as  he 
designed  would  form  an  impregnable  rampart  against 
the  native  tribes.  It  would  create  an  extensive  industrial 
system  and  a  vast  commerce.  It  would  exalt  the  character 
of  the  colonists  and  breed  new  types  of  statesmen  and 
law^^ers,  divines  and  men  of  letters.  And  it  would  pro- 
mote the  highest  interests  of  mankind.  Evidently,  the 
man  who  could  conceive  such  a  vision  was  endowed  with 
an  imagination  that  was  ardent,  capacious,  and  construc- 
tive. Was  it  the  imagination  of  a  statesman  or  an 
utopianist?  Half  a  century  has  gone  by,  and  the  things 
he  foresaw  are  still  unrealised. 

Was  he  any  more  a  statesman  in  his  grasp  of  details 
than  he  was  in  his  general  conception?  He  proposed  to 
leave  large  powers  to  the  States.  Yet  this  was  the  blunder 
he  had  committed  in  New  Zealand  only  a  few  years 
before.  There  he  had  left  too  large  powers  to  the  pro- 
vinces, and,  after  attaining  maturity  through  a  brief 
existence  of  twenty-one  years,  the  federal  constitution 
of  New  Zealand  was  abolished  in  1876. 

His  Action. 

CHe  did  not  content  himself  with  writing  despatches. 
Exceeding  his  instructions,  he  invited  the  Orange  River 
Free  State  to  indicate  its  willingness  to  join  such  a  com- 
monwealth. He  presumably  sent  a  similar  invitation  to 
the  Boers  of  the  Transvaal ;  he  certainly  looked  forward 
to  the  eventual  adhesion  of  the  Republic.  The  Orange 
River  Volksraad  promptly  responded,  approving  of  the 
advisableness  of  a  union  or  alliance  with  the  Cape.  The 
terms  of  the  response  should  be  noted,  for  in  them  lies 
the  key  to  the  situation.  It  was  an  alliance  of  equal  States, 
not  a  federation  of  dependent  colonies,  that  the  Volksraad 


124  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEOEGE    GREY 

contemplated.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Orange 
Eiver  republic,  a  few  years  before,  had  successfully- 
asserted  its  independence,  and  constrained  Great  Britain, 
not  then  over-greedy  of  new  territory,  to  relinquish  its 
sovereignty.  The  High  Commissioner  deplored  the 
surrender  of  a  country  that  was  sensibly  British  by  its 
sympathies,  as  it  was  largely  British  by  its  ethnical  com- 
plexion. Almost  as  a  consequence  his  relations  with  the 
State  had  continued  to  be  of  a  strangely  friendly 
character.  He  had  sought  to  commend  himself  to  the  sons 
of  the  expatriated  French  Protestants  by  boasting  that 
he  was  himself  descended  from  an  exiled  Huguenot  noble. 
He  had  founded  in  the  capital  of  the  State  a  college  where 
he  advised  that,  while  English  was  not  neglected,  literary 
Dutch  should  be  the  language  of  instruction.  Well  did 
he  know,  moreover,  that  the  population  of  the  Cape, 
originally  a  foreign  colony,  was  largely  of  Dutch  extrac- 
tion. When  he  projected  a  federation  where  two  English 
colonies,  one  of  them  more  than  half -Dutch,  would  be 
balanced  by  two  Dutch  States,  he  therefore  projected  a 
federation  on  a  Dutch  base,  with  Dutch  necessarily  as 
the  official  language,  Dutch  affinities,  interests,  and 
antipathies — a  federation  that  never  would  have  acted 
harmoniously  with  British  policy  or  taken  its  place  as 
a  constituent  member  of  the  British  Empire — a  federa- 
tion that  would  eventually  have  hoisted  an  alien  flag 
and  declared  itself  independent  of  Great  Britain. 
Whether  the  High  Commissioner  contemplated  this  result 
or  not,  he  deliberately  prepared  the  means  to  this  inevit- 
able end,  and  if  he  did  not  foresee  it,  he  either  ignored 
the  possibility  of  it,  or  was  indifferent  to  it.  The  Colonial 
Office  took  this  view.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the 
despatches  from  Downing  Street  without  perceiving  the 
belief  that  inspired  them.  In  the  eyes  of  the  department 
the  High  Commissioner  of  South  Africa  and  Governor 
of  Cape  Colony  stood  convicted  of  disloyalty,  if  not  to 
the  nation  to  which  he  belonged,  at  least  to  the  Govern- 
ment he  served. 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH   AFRICA 


125 


His  Recall. 

-^  Without  waiting  to  receive  the  approval  of  the  Colonial 
Office,  he  opened  the  Parliament  of  Cape  Colony  in  1859 
with  a  speech  in  which  he  advised  that  that  body  should 
take  steps  to  bring  about  the  federation  of  the  South 
African  States.  This  was  the  final  straw  that  broke 
the  endurance  of  the  long-suffering  Colonial  Office.  On 
Mav  5  a  despatch  had  been  sent  to  him  expressing  dis- 
satisfaction with  his  proceedings,  but  it  must  have  been 
received  too  late  to  arrest  him.  On  June  4,  as  soon  as 
the  tenor  of  the  Governor's  speech  was  known  in  London, 
he  was  peremptorily  recalled.  He  was  treated  with  high 
consideration.  The  Secretary  of  State,  whether  Lytton 
or  Carnarvon,  but  more  probably  Carnarvon,  acknow- 
ledged "the  large  and  comprehensive  nature  of"  his 
views;  he  even  admitted  the  "fairness"  of  the  High 
Commissioner.  But  he  was  plainly  informed  that  he  was 
''committed  to  a  policy  of  which"  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment "disapproved  on  a  subject  of  the  first  importance." 
The  steps  he  had  taken  would  "have  to  be  retraced." 

The  blow  was  by  no  means  a  clap  of  thunder  in  a  clear 
sky.  Ominous  muttering  preceded  the  explosion. 
Kumours  of  his  probable  recall  had  been  for  months 
floating  on  the  wings  of  many  winds.  They  had  not 
escaped  his  ears.  In  a  despatch  that  would  have  been 
pathetic,  if  it  had  not  been  pitiful,  he  again  struck  a  chord 
that  he  had  harped  on  during  his  first  term  in  New 
Zealand,  and  told  the  Secretary  of  State  how  he  was 
worn  with  anxiety  and  broken  down  with  toil.  If  to  such 
vexations  and  labours  were  to  be  added  misconstruction 
and  distrust  at  the  Colonial  Office,  his  situation  would 
be  rendered  untenable.  Above  all,  if  her  Majesty's 
Government  were  dissatisfied  with  his  administration  to 
the  point  that  they  had  meditated  his  recall,  as  his 
enemies  in  the  Colony  rumoured,  then  he  hoped  that  they 
would  treat  him  as  English  gentlemen  are  wont  to  be 
treated,  and  say  plainly  what  they  designed. 

We  are  reminded  of  the  querulous  tone  of  the  State- 
papers  written  by  English  statesmen  who  enjoyed  the 


126  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

questionable  distinction  of  serving  the  virgin  Queen. 
Burleigh,  Walsingham,  and  Davison  are  continually 
deploring  their  lot  in  having  to  carry  out  the  behests 
of  a  capricious  and  intractable  woman.  Alone  in  them, 
of  all  English  State-papers,  the  note  of  personal  feeling 
constantly  recurs,  and  alone  in  the  despatches  of  Grey, 
of  all  British  Governors,  is  the  same  chord  struck.  Like 
them  too,  and  like  another  Grey,  not  perhaps  greater 
or  less  high-handed.  Lord  Grey  of  Wilton,  what  he  had  to 
dread  was  deposition  or  recall.  Governors  have  been 
recalled  for  a  variety  of  reasons.  They  have  been 
recalled  because  they  were  too  old  or  too  young,  because 
they  were  too  meddlesome  or  too  slothful,  because  they 
offended  the  immigrants  or  alienated  the  natives,  because 
they  were  Pharisaical  or  were  immoral,  because  they 
made  war  or  failed  to  make  peace.  Grey  was  recalled 
because  he  was  a  King  Stork,  and  chiefly  because  he  was  j 
endeavouring  to  bring  about  a  federation  in  South  Africa/ 
tthat  would  prove  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  Empire. 
All  his  other  offences,  strongly  though  they  were  con- 
demned at  the  time,  could  have  been  forgiven ;  they  were 
over  and  done  with.  In  relation  to  federation  he  was 
active  for  mischief,  and  if  his  mischievous  activity  were 
not  checked,  there  was  no  saying  what  the  incorrigible 
meddler,  who  believed  that  he  was  ruler  of  South  Africa, 
would  be  tempted  to  do. 

r  The  nominal  author  of  his  recall  was  Sir  Edward 
K&lwer  Lytton,  but  the  real  author  of  it  Grey  believed 
to  be  the  young  Earl  of  Carnarvon,  the  Under-Secretary 
who  governed  the  department  in  the  absence  of  his  chief 
through  ill-health  consequent  on  a  nervous  break-down. 
Grey  himself,  inspiring  Mr.  Rees,  gives  an  animated 
account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  recall  was  effected. 
As  an  act  of  more  than  ordinary  gravity,  it  had  to 
receive  the  approval  of  the  Cabinet  and  the  final  sanction 
of  the  Queen  in  Council.  In  Grey's  belief,  the  Queen 
resisted  the  decision,  and  the  Earl  of  Derby,  returning 
from  Windsor,  where  the  meeting  of  the  Privy  Council 
was  held,  confided  to  Clerk  Greville  the  expression  of 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER    IN    SOUTH    AFRICA.  127 

his  appreliensions :  ^'I  fear,  we  have  done  a  bad  day's 
work  in  recalling  Grey." 

^  Just  so  did  it  appear  in  South  Africa.  Addresses  of 
regret  poured  in  upon  the  disgraced  Governor  from  all 
quarters;  Dutch  leaders,  Kafir  and  Zulu  chiefs,  and 
English  missionaries,  including  the  heroic  Livingstone^ 
voiced  their  sincere  sorrow  that  so  sympathetic  a 
Governor  was  leaving  them,  and  leaving  them  under  a 
cloud.  Never  before,  it  was  rightly  felt,  had  such  a 
Governor  been  vouchsafed  to  South  Africa.  The  injunc- 
tion of  the  Colonial  Minister  was,  however,  imperative; 
a  few  written  words,  at  a  distance  of  5,000  miles,  were  as 
potent  as  the  stroke  of  a  sword;  believing  the  decision 
to  be  final,  the  popular  Governor  broke  up  his  home  and 
prepared  to  take  his  departure.  We  can  imagine  his 
melancholy  reflections  on  the  miserable  Homeward 
voyage.    He  was  going  Home  to  disgi'ace. 

Happily,  it  proved  to  be  far  otherwise.  His  sun  had 
not  yet  set.  He  was  still  on  Sunium's  heights.  His 
.deposition  was  a  boomerang  that  recoiled  on  his  authors. 
^/The  returning  steamer  was  boarded  off  Southampton 
by  a  reporter,  who  brought  the  thrice-welcome  news  that 
the  Ministry  which  had  recalled  him  had  been  driven 
from  office,  and  that  he  was  to  be  reinstated  in  the 
governorship  of  the  Cape.  A  condemned  criminal  to 
whom  the  news  of  a  reprieve  has  been  brought  could 
hardly  feel  greater  joy  than  the  deposed  Governor  must 
have  felt.  He  could  now  afford  to  take  the  matter 
jovially.  Meeting  a  New  Zealand  ex-official  (Walter 
Mantell,  once  Protector  of  the  Aborigines),  he  told  him 
that  he  only  wanted  a  holiday  and  took  steps  to  obtain 
it.  Long  afterwards,  when  he  saw  the  significance  of  the 
event  in  the  light  of  later  happenings,  he  spoke  of  it  as 
''a  great  fall."  He  had  then  taken  it  to  heart;  he  never 
took  it  to  head. 

The  cold  reception  by  the  Colonial  Office  after  his 
return  from  New  Zealand  in  1854  had  been  offset  by 
the  enthusiastic  greeting  he  received  from  the 
undergraduates  of  Oxford.     His  condemnation  by  the 


128  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

same  department  was  now  virtually  reversed  by  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  In  company  with  Mr. 
Gladstone,  he  was  granted  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws.  Young  England  admired  the  large  views  and 
bold  spirit  of  the  Governor,  who  was  a  man  after  its  own 
heart ;  it  was  indifferent  to  the  alleged  errors  of  his  policy. 


Chapter  XIX. 

HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA: 

SECOND  TERM. 

On  Sunium's  Heights. 

Grey  had  left  South  Africa  under  a  cloud ;  he  returned 
to  it  almost  a  conqueror,  having  been  enthusiastically 
acclaimed  by  the  jeunesse  doree  of  England,  enjoying 
the  sunshine  of  the  Colonial  Office,  and  welcomed  alike 
by  English  and  Dutch.  He  returned,  indeed,  with  his 
hands  tied,  but  he  soon  threw  off  the  handcuffs.  In  cer- 
tain matters  that  involved  legislation  or  expenditure  he 
could  act  only  in  conjunction  with  the  Legislative  Council ; 
he  soon  let  it  be  known  that  the  Council  would  have  to  act 
as  he  wished. 

An  Autocratic  Governor. 

He  had  long  had  at  heart  the  building  of  a  breakwater 
at  Table  Bay,  where  stormy  winds  from  the  south-west 
still  make  anchorage  insecure.  A  bill  laid  before  the 
council  prior  to  his  departure  had  been  thrown  out  in  his 
absence  by  the  influence  of  the  narrow-minded  Dutch 
members,  who  saw  a  future  for  agricultural  or  pastoral 
occupations  in  their  country,  but  could  not  perceive  the 
importance  of  creating  facilities  for  commercial  inter- 
course. At  the  very  first  session  of  the  council  after  he 
returned.  Grey  acquainted  its  members  with  his 
determination  to  have  the  breakwater  made.  He  accord- 
ingly placed  a  sufficient  sum  on  the  Estimates  for  the 
purpose,  and  announced  his  resolution  not  to  let  a  single 
vote  be  passed  unless  this  project  was  sanctioned.  One 
day's  debating  sufficed.  The  vote  was  carried  by  a  small 
majority,  and  next  year  the  first  stone  of  the  structure 
was  laid  by  an  illustrious  visitor,  Prince  Alfred. 

129 


K 


130  LIFE    OF   SIR    GEORGE    GREY 

A  Royal  Prince  at  the  Cape. 

A  great  social  triumph  was  to  crown  his  second  term 
in  South  Africa.  The  Prince  Consort  and  the  Queen, 
resolving  to  give  their  second  son,  Prince  Alfred,  the 
unique  experience  to  be  gained  by  witnessing  the 
administration  of  a  British  colony  under  one  of  the 
greatest  colonial  rulers,  sent  the  Prince  to  South  Africa 
on  his  way  to  Australia.  There,  as  everywhere,  he  was  of 
course  royally  received,  as  only  Britons  and  British 
colonists  can  receive  their  sovereign  or  their  sovereign's 
son.  Grey  was  nominally  only  a  secondary  figure  in  the 
pageant,  but  in  reality  he  played  the  leading  part.  The 
Prince  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  the  breakwater  that 
Grey  had  wrung  from  the  narrow-minded  and  close- 
fisted  Boers  of  the  Cape.  He  turned  the  first  sod  of  the 
first  railway.  He  was  entertained  at  a  banquet  where 
Grey  was  the  chief  speaker  and  the  best.  To  crown  all, 
the  Prince  was  taken  by  his  magnificent  entertainer  on 
a  tour  of  1,200  miles  across  South  Africa — through  Cape 
Colony,  British  Kafraria,  the  Orange  Free  State,  Natal, 
and  back.  A  picturesque  procession  at  Capetown  led  it 
off.  A  great  hunt  was  arranged  on  a  gigantic  scale.  A 
thousand  Barolongs  had  for  days  or  weeks  been  employed 
beating  up  game  and  afforded  the  royal  party  (shade  of 
Rhadaman thine  Freeman  forgive  the  epithet!)  royal 
sport.  Ostriches  and  zebras,  wildbeestes,  bonteboks, 
and  springboks,  jerboas  and  antelopes  were  bagged 
in  multitudes.  Talk  of  the  Caledonian  Hunt,  whether 
of  ancient  Greece  or  modern  Scotland !  The  tour  filled  up 
a  month,  and  when  the  Prince  got  back  to  Capetown,  he 
must  have  felt  that  he  had  witnessed  a  unique  sight  and 
gained  a  priceless  experience. 

Both  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  Consort  were  highly 
gratified  with  Grey's  treatment  of  their  son,  and  they 
expressed  their  satisfaction  in  cordial  terms.  The  Queen 
commissioned  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  to  convey  her  warm 
thanks  to  the  High  Commissioner  for  the  reception  he 
had  given  the  young  prince.  But  she  did  not  content  her- 
self with  this   vicarious    expression   of  her  gratitude. 


HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  :  SECOND  TERM       131 

She  was  "anxious  to  express  personally  both  the  Prince 
Consort's  and  her  own  thanks  for  the  very  great  kindness 
Sir  George  Grey  showed  our  child  during  his  most  inter- 
esting tour  in  that  fine  colony."  She  believed  that  it 
would  be  "beneficial  to  Prince  Alfred  to  have  witnessed 
the  manner  in  which  Sir  George  devotes  his  whole  time 
and  energy  to  promote  the  happiness  and  welfare"  of 
the  colonists.  Grey  had  some  excuse  for  imagining  that 
he  was  not  like  other  colonial  governors,  but  stood  in  a 
peculiar  relation  to  the  Sovereign  and  was  held  by  her  in 
special  esteem. 


Chapter  XX. 

HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA:', 
SECOND  TERM— continued. 

The  Library  Founder. 

None  of  the  acquisitive  passions  is  so  respectable  as 
the  avidity  of  collecting  books.    It  is  pre-eminently  the 
scholar's  passion.     These  are  his  quarry,  his  mines  of 
Golconda,  his  Kimberley  diamond  fields,  where  he  will 
find  who  knows  what  massive  jewel  or,  in  any  case,  the 
solid  substance  of  his  erudition.    The  wife  of  his  bosom 
may  grumble,  as  Lady  Hamilton  gently  repined  when  her 
helluo  lihrorum  carted  home  fresh  additions  to  the  stores 
of  which  the  philosopher  made  so  little  visible  use.    Even 
the  literary  worker  who  makes  no  pretensions  to  learning, 
and  who  cares  less  for  the  form  than  for  the  intrinsic 
utility  of  the  volumes  he  uses,  is  pleased  when  he  picks 
up  for  a  few  shillings  a  rare  treatise  of  the  seventeenth 
or  eighteenth  century.     But  these  are  only  amateurs, 
timorous  paddlers  in  deep  waters,  while  men  with  tastes, 
curiosity,  and  means  set  out  in  quest  of  rare  old  editions, 
or  have  agents  in  many  countries.     Thus  equipped  and 
thus  advised,  in  a  few  years  they  may  gather  huge  or 
valuable  collections  with  which  to  feast  their  own  eyes, 
while  they  feast  the  eyes  of  others.    Then,  when  they  die, 
they  bequeath  them  to  their  descendants,  like  the  Earls 
Spencer,  or  to  a  college,  as  did  Victor  Cousin  to  the  Sor- 
bonne.      Now    and    then,    but    far    seldomer,    such    a 
connoisseur  may  part  with  his  hoards  in  his  lifetime. 
What  motive  then  governs  him  ?  Love  of  praise  perhaps, 
but  also  an  honest  desire  to  diffuse  the  benefits  of  erudi- 
tion and  the  materials  of  research.    Such  mixed  motives 
we  may  conceive  to  have  animated  Grey  when  he  decided 
to  present  to  the  Cape  the  splendid  accumulation  of  books 
and  manuscripts  he  had  been  getting  together  during  a 


132 


HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA :  SECOND  TERM      133 

good  many  years — nearly  twenty,  he  himself  stated  in 
the  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  his  Polynesian 
Mythology. 

Unfortunate  Allocation, 

In  the  same  preface  Grey  confesses  that,  in  depositing 
at  Capetown  a  large  collection  of  volumes  and  MSS- 
relating  to  the  Polynesian  languages,  mythology,  and 
traditions,  he  "must  seem  to  have  acted  injudiciously." 
The  defence  he  makes  is  that  at  the  time  he  made  the 
donation  he  was  residing  at  the  Cape  and  that  he  hoped, 
in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Bleek,  the  librarian,  who  had  come 
to  the  Cape  on  a  philological  mission,  to  work  on  the 
philological  and  mythological  portions  of  the  collection, 
especially  those  relating  to  New  Zealand.  He  had 
apparently  quite  forgotten  that  he  had  ceased  to  reside 
at  the  Cape  and  was  then  residing  in  New  Zealand.  Not 
till  some  months  after  he  had  entered  on  a  second  term 
as  Governor  of  New  Zealand  did  he  offer  to  present  the 
collection  to  the  Cape  Library.  The  books  were,  more- 
over, no  longer  in  Capetown,  but  in  England.  The  whole 
narrative  makes  his  action  appear  worse  than  inju- 
dicious. It  was  an  act  of  folly  to  send  that  fine  collection 
of  Polynesian  literature  to  Capetown,  where  it  could  only 
rot  on  the  shelves,  and  deprive  of  it  New  Zealand,  where 
alone  it  could  be  studied  by  experts.  It  looked  like  a 
vindictive  act.  It  was  an  ominous  beginning  to  a  term 
of  administration  that  was  to  be  brought  to  an  end  by 
a  virtual  recall. 

We  can  forgive  him  for  depositing  at  Capetown  the 
415  publications  and  MSS.  in  or  relating  to  78  African 
languages;  but  the  40  books  in  or  on  West  Australian 
dialects  should  have  been  deposited,  if  not  in  London  or 
Oxford,  Paris  or  Berlin,  then  at  (Australian)  Perth. 
The  42  works  in  or  on  the  various  Fijian  dialects,  the 
four  on  or  in  the  dialect  of  Rotuma  Island,  the  many  more 
on  other  Polynesian  tongues,  and  above  all,  as  already 
said,  the  Kohinoor  of  the  collection,  the  524  volumes  and 
MSS.,  containing  poems,  legends,  translations,  letters, 
grammars,    and    vocabularies    in    or    from    the    Maori 


134  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

language  should  have  been  placed  in  Wellington  or  Auck- 
land. It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  injury  thus  done 
to  Philology.  All  the  great  Maori  scholars  of  New 
Zealand — Colenso,  Maunsell,  White,  Grey  himself — have 
passed  away  without  having  an  opportunity  of  using  the 
treasures  he  had  gathered.  The  chance  of  finding  men 
to  edit  them  who  had  themselves  spoken  with  the  old 
chiefs  and  tohungas  from  whose  lips  they  had  been  taken 
down  has  passed  away  with  them  and  can  never  recur. 
It  was  an  irreparable  blunder. 

Bibliographic  Treasures. 

The  other  treasures  thus  buried  at  the  extremity  of  a 
continent,  likewise  away  from  the  scholars  who  could 
use  them,  are  not  imica,  but  they  could  have  been  far 
more  profitably  placed  elsewhere.  They  consist  of  53 
MSS.,  in  the  Greek,  Latin,  Coptic,  and  Hebrew  languages. 
Twenty-four  works  belong  to  the  fifteenth  century — such 
a  collection  as  probably  no  other  library  south  of  the 
Line  can  boast  of;  and  60  are  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
One  hundred  were  published  within  fifty  years  of  the 
invention  of  printing,  and  these  include  an  English  trans- 
lation of  the  Polychronicon,  printed  by  Caxton  in  1482. 
I  said  just  now  that  the  Library  contained  no  unicum,  but 
Grey  claimed  that  the  copy  of  the  first  folio  of  Shakspere 
there  is  the  only  complete  copy.  The  MSS.  are  remark- 
able. There  are  no  fewer  than  120  ranging  from  the  tenth 
to  the  fifteenth  century,  on  vellum  and  illuminated,  and 
in  eight  languages.  Two  of  them  are  Dantean  (what 
would  not  Signor  del  Balco  or  Signor  D'Ovidio  give  to 
examine  these?),  several  of  Petrarch,  one  the  earliest 
edition  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  and  a  Flemish  transla- 
tion of  Mandeville's  Travels.  There  are  50  chap-books, 
so  precious  to  historians,  and  there  are  42  works  pub- 
lished by  or  attributed  to  Defoe.  One  great  division  of 
literature  which  he  never  forgot  is  splendidly  repre- 
sented. There  are  374  Bibles  or  parts  of  the  Bible  in  160 
languages,  and  there  was  no  portion  of  the  collection, 
perhaps,  of  which  he  was  more  proud.  Two  or  three 
thousand  manuscript  letters — a  passion  with  him  to  the 


HIGH  COMMISSIONER  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA :  SECOND  TEEM      135 

end  of  his  days — adorn  it.  Among  them  are  some  letters 
of  Cromwell^  which  Grey  offered  to  Carlyle,  but  the 
wearied  editor  sorrowfully  admitted  his  unwillingness  to 
unhoop  his  cask.  As  we  write,  every  line  increases  our 
regret  that  for  so  many  years  such  rarities  and  such  trea- 
sures have  been  or  will  yet  be  lost  to  the  world. 

A  Great  Bibliography. 

Only  the  catalogue  is  accessible.  By  a  piece  of  good  for- 
tune, on  a  par  with  the  splendid  gift,  a  German  scholar 
had  come  to  South  Africa  on  a  philological  mission, 
or  it  may  be,  like  a  well-known  New  Zealand  geologist,  on 
a  mission  of  his  own,  and  was  transformed  into  a  phil- 
ologist. With  some  aid  from  Grey,  a  virtuoso  rather 
than  a  connoisseur  in  letters,  Bleek  compiled  a  catalogue 
of  the  collection  that  is  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind.  The 
arrangement  is  detailed  and  scientific;  the  description 
full  and  exact.  The  notes  are  invaluable,  and  they  incor- 
porate original  information  of  importance.  In  the 
opinion  of  an  authority  the  catalogue  is  ''virtually  a 
handbook  of  African,  Australian,  and  Polynesian  phil- 
ology." How  exhaustive  it  is  will  appear  from  the  fact 
that  it  gives  an  account  of  198  publications  and  manu- 
scripts (the  bulk  of  them  Maori)  in  the  Grey  Library  at 
Capetown. 

Scholarly  Homage. 

The  Catalogue  was  the  best  advertisement  the  Library 
could  have  received.  To  foreign  scholars  it  must  have 
been  as  the  waters  of  Tantalus.  They  were  not  slow 
to  make  their  acknowledgements.  Max  Muller  hesitated 
over  an  article  for  the  Quarterly  Revieiv,  which  Grey 
seems  to  have  suggested  to  him,  but  he  publicly  stated 
that  ''Sir  George  Grey's  services  to  the  science  of 
language  have  hardly  been  sufficiently  appreciated  as 
yet,  and"  held  that  "the  Linguistic  Library  which  he 
founded  at  the  Cape  places  him  of  right  by  the  side  of 
Sir  Thomas  Bodley."  But  the  Bodleian  is  used,  whereas 
the  Grey  Library  is  useless.     Baron  Bunsen  made  a  no 


136  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

less  glowing  recognition  of  the  "rich  treasures,"  ''the 
enlightened  and  indefatigable  researches  and  collections, ' ' 
Grey  had  "heaped  on  all  scholars  of  African  ethnology 
and  comparative  philology."  The  Bonn  philologist, 
Lassen,  was  hardly  less  laudatory,  and  Professor  Sayce 
was  duly  recognisant.  The  Catalogue,  taken  by  itself  and 
also  as  the  s^Tnbol  of  a  great  collection,  will  be  one  of 
Grey's  most  enduring  monuments. 


Chapter  XXI. 

GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND: 
SECOND  TERM. 

It  was  a  source  of  legitimate  pride  to  Grey — and  in 
later  years  he  reminded  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies — 
that,  on  four  different  occasions,  he  had  been  appealed 
to  by  the  Colonial  Office  to  accept  the  governorship  of 
a  colony  that  was  passing  through  a  crisis.  First  in 
South  Australia,  when  the  high-minded  but  injudicious 
Colonel  Gawler  had  brought  the  Colony  to  the  verge 
of  insolvency.  Next,  in  New  Zealand,  when  a  Governor 
possessing  many  fine  qualities,  but  lacking  in  judgment, 
had  been  found  unequal  to  a  difficult  situation.  Again,  in 
South  Africa,  where  troubles  of  many  sorts  had  been 
brewing.  Now  once  more  to  New  Zealand,  where  the 
relations  between  the  Maoris  and  the  settlers  had  become 
hopelessly  entangled,  he  was  summoned  from  a  country 
where  he  was  doing  splendid  work,  to  restore  order  and 
peace  in  a  country  distracted  by  a  prolonged  Native  war. 
The  Duke  of  Newcastle,  recalling  Governor  Gore  Browne, 
explained  that  he  considered  it  desirable  that,  at  a  critical 
moment  in  its  history,  the  Colony  should  have  the 
advantage  of  "the  authority  attaching  to  the  name  and 
character  of  Sir  George  Grey."  And  the  recalled 
Governor  himself,  with  a  generosity  which,  to  the  credit 
of  human  nature,  is  happily  not  rare  in  such  circum- 
stances, acknowledged  that  the  Colony  had  everything 
to  gain  from  the  experience  and  prestige  of  his 
predecessor. 

Origin  of  the  War. 

Yet  the  incoming  ruler  was  hardly  less  at  fault  than 
the  outgoing  one,  and  he  was  almost  as  deeply  implicated 
in  the  causes  of  the  war.  Governor  Browne  had,  indeed, 
made  the  purchase  of  land  that  was  to  set  the  whole 

137 


138  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

country  in  flame,  but  the  root  of  the  strife  goes  farther 
back  and  deeper  down.  Grey  is  accused  of  having,  in 
1847,  committed  a  grave  error  of  judgment  by  refusing, 
out  of  complaisance  to  Gladstone,  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  in  July,  1846,  to  confirm  a  wise  decision  of  his 
predecessor,  Governor  FitzEoy.  The  war  that  desolated 
the  North  Island  in  the  sixties  was  already  germinating 
in  1846.  The  Ngatiawa  tribe,  resident  in  Taranaki,  had 
been  defeated  by  Te  Whero  in  1831,  and  the  remnant 
fled  southwards  before  the  victor,  settling  on  the  south- 
west coast,  as  other  members  of  it  had  previously  done, 
but  thereby  relinquishing  none  of  their  rights  of  occu- 
pancy. The  New  Zealand  Company  bought,  on  its  usual 
terms,  a  large  tract  of  land  once  occupied  by  the  Ngati- 
awa, and  the  sale  of  a  portion  of  the  land  was  duly 
ratified.  But  a  large  part  of  the  tribal  territory  had  been 
nominally  sold,  and  to  this  the  absentee  Ngatiawa,  repre- 
sented by  Te  Rangitake,  an  ally  of  the  Government  and 
chief-peacemaker  in  the  southern  district,  would  not 
consent.  Though  he  was  well  acquainted  with  Maori 
land-law,  which  is  that  of  all  Aryan  peoples,*  Grey  held 
that  the  rights  of  the  absentees  lapsed  by  non-assertion, 
and  while  he  informed  the  tribe  that  he  would  make 
''most  ample  reserves  for  their  present  and  future 
wants,"  he  validated  the  sale.  He  thus  aided  in  hatch- 
ing the  brood  of  war  that  overspread  the  whole  island 
twelve  or  fifteen  years  later.  Could  he  have  succeeded  in 
preventing  the  return  of  the  exiled  members  of  the  tribe, 
as  he  strenuously  and  secretly  endeavoured  to  do,  he 
might  have  killed  the  seed  of  the  hydra.  Hearing  that  the 
exiles  intended  to  return,  Grey  sent  orders  from  Auckland 
to  Wellington  to  ask  Te  Puni,  a  friendly  chief,  to  dis- 
mantle the  canoes ;  if  he  refused,  they  were  to  be  seized  or 
destroyed.  He  completely  failed  in  his  purpose.  The 
canoes  were  neither  dismantled  nor  destroyed,  and  in  them 
the  surviving  members  of  the  tribe  safely  effected  their 
collective  return.  They  reoccupied  their  old  locations, 
and  their  occupancy  of  these  was  the  fountain  and  origin 

*  Sir  C-  Metcalfe,  in  Elphinstone,  History  of  India ,  p.  214. 


GOVEENOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :  SECOND  TERM  139 

of  the  Waitara  struggle.  Grey  too  had  returned,  and  he 
found  the  serpent-brood  preparing  to  strangle  the  Colony 
in  its  Lernaean  coils. 

It  boded  little  good  for  his  new  term  of  governorship 
in  New  Zealand  that  Mr.  Fox  was  Premier  of  the  Colony 
when  he  entered  on  it.  Fox,  who  had  inherited  the  feud 
of  the  New  Zealand  Company  against  Grey,  had  been 
one  of  his  most  rancorous  opponents  during  his  first 
term.  His  animosity  against  Grey  waxed  hotter  as  the 
collisions  inevitable  with  such  an  animus  multiplied,  and, 
before  Grey's  second  term  came  to  an  end.  Fox  was  to 
resign  his  seat  in  the  legislature  on  the  pretext  that 
nothing  could  be  done  so  long  as  Sir  George  Grey  was 
in  office.  If  such  were  his  feelings  when  Grey  returned 
to  New  Zealand,  they  were  carefully  dissembled.  At  all 
events,  coming  back  clothed  with  prestige  as  a  kind  of 
political  Messiah,  Grey  found  him  professedly  friendly 
and  met  with  cordiality  from  his  Ministry. 

Organizing  the  Maoris. 

He  needed  all  the  aid  he  could  receive.  His  ingenious 
and  inventive  mind  had  already  devised  a  plan  for  organ- 
izing the  Maori  race  and  making  future  conflicts  between 
it  and  the  colonists  impossible.  He  was  not  the  first  to 
make  the  attempt.  The  high-minded  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
the  previous  year,  had  introduced  a  bill  to  establish  a 
Native  Council,  his  guiding  principle  being  that  the 
Natives  should  be  governed  through  institutions  of  their 
own,  with  the  Imperial  Government  to  stand  as  an  arbi- 
trator betwixt  them  and  the  colonists.  Grey's  distinctive 
idea,  on  the  contrary,  according  to  Sir  Charles 
Adderley,  ''seems  to  have  been  rather  to  introduce  Eng- 
lish institutions  among  the  Natives  as  an  alternative,  than 
to  make  use  of  theirs."  If  this  were  the  case,  it  would  now 
be  considered  an  error.  It  seems  to  be  equally  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  evolution  and  with  common  sense  to 
pursue  the  policy  of  perfecting  Maori  institutions.  No 
others  would  be  practicable,  or  would  survive.  As  we 
examine  Grey's  measure,  there  does  appear  to  be  a 
peculiar  mixture  of  English  and  Maori  ideas.    The  North 


140  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEOEGE   GREY 

Island,  the  only  portion  of  New  Zealand  where  the  Maoris 
were   numerous   enough   to   be   formidable,   was   to   be 
divided  into  about  twenty  districts  and  each  subdivided 
into  six  hundreds.     The  subdivision,  the  hundred,  was, 
as   we   remember,   an   old  notion   of   Grey's,  in   whose 
original  constitution  for  New  Zealand  it  has  a  prominent 
place ;  how  questionable  a  name  it  was  may  appear  from 
the  fact  that  historians  are  still  in  doubt  about  its  true 
signification   in   early   England.     In   each   district   and 
hundred  there  was  to  be  a  runanga,  or  assembly,*  and  the 
runangas  of  the  hundreds  were  to  elect  the  nmangas  of 
the  districts.     The  district  runangas  were  to  consist  of 
a    Civil    Commissioner,    appointed    by    the    Governor, 
together  with  twelve  elected  Maoris.     There  seems  to 
have  been  no  attempt  to  create  a  General  Native  Assembly 
or,  as  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  named  it,  a  Native  Council ; 
perhaps  the  unity  of  the  Native  race  was  held  to  be  not 
yet  sufficiently  assured.    But  the  district  assemblies  were 
clothed  with  administrative  and  legislative  functions,  to 
be  exercised  with  the  approval  of  the  Governor.     They 
were  to  pass  measures  for  the  suppression  of  nuisances 
and  of  drunkenness.    The  administration  of  justice,  the 
organization  of  education,  and  the  relief  of  the  sick  in 
hospitals  were  committed  to  them.     The  all-important 
subject  of  land-disputes,  whether   tribal    or    individual, 
which  had  been  the  cause  of  the  late  war,  was  entirely 
remitted  to  them.    The  sales  of  Native  lands  had  hitherto 
been  effected  through  the  Government.    Now,  when  the 
Civil  Commissioner  had  settled  the  boundaries.  Native 
owners  might  sell  land  to  purchasers  approved  by  the 
Government  and  recommended  by  a  runanga,  but  not 
more  than  was  enough  for  a  farm.     Chiefs  were  to  be 
appointed  magistrates   of  hundreds  and  other  natives 
constables.    A  revenue  was  to  be  provided  through  the 
receipt  of  fines  and  fees  and  a  house  or  land  tax.    But 
Grey  did  not  expect  that  the  revenue  thus  accruing  would 
suffice,  and,  as  in  all  his  plans  for  the  improvement  of 
indigenous  races,  a  considerable  Imperial  expenditure 


*  Another  Aryan  institution.    Hearn,  The  Aryan  Household,  pp.  137-30. 


GOVEEXOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TEEM      141 

was  involved.  In  this  case  he  estimated  that  £50,000 
would  be  wanted,  but  this  sum  would  cancel  an  expendi- 
ture of  £629,000,  of  which  the  Colonial  Treasury- 
contributed  £129,000.  Sir  Charles  Adderley's  account 
is  slightly  different.  He  says  that  Grey  ''induced  the 
Home  Government  to  contribute,  besides  their  military 
expenditure  in  New  Zealand,  a  special  grant  for  Native 
improvement."  As  if  to  confuse  the  impartial  historian, 
the  colonial  Ministers  asserted  that  the  Governor,  *'as 
Imperial  Native  Administrator,  was  spending  more  than 
a  million  a  year  for  the  English  Government."  It  is 
a  fact  that  the  high  consideration  in  which  Grey  was 
held  induced  the  Imperial  Government  to  grant  him 
liberal  sums  for  such  expenditure  which  it  refused  to 
other  and  less  esteemed  Governors. 

This  hopeful  scheme  might  have  had  the  effect  of  build- 
ing up  the  race  and  healing  all  old  sores,  had  it  ever  come 
into  operation.  It  was  passed  through  the  Assembly  as 
the  "Native  Districts  Eegulation  Act."  The  Ministers 
frankly  accepted  it,  and  the  Premier  accompanied  the 
Governor  on  tour  through  Native  districts  in  order  to 
support  and  expound  the  new  constitution.  First,  they 
went  to  the  Bay  of  Islands,  where  Grey's  old  friend, 
Thomas  Walker  (Waka  Nene)  warmly  welcomed  hira; 
and  there  his  policy  was  enthusiastically  received. 
Apparently,  in  only  one  district  were  the  new  institutions 
materialised.  At  Taupiri,  on  the  Upper  AVaikato,  a 
village  runanga  was  elected,  and  a  village  headman  was 
appointed,  with  a  salary;  but  no  district  runanga  was 
called  into  existence.  One  Civil  Commissioner  is  after- 
wards mentioned  in  a  different  district,  but  no  runanga. 
In  fact,  only  a  beginning  was  made  of  carrying  the  scheme 
into  practical  operation,  even  in  the  parts  of  the  country 
that  were  likely  to  be  the  most  favourable  to  it,  and  that 
beginning  was  not  maintained.  It  was  difficult,  says 
Adderley,  to  get  the  natives  either  to  sell  their  land  or 
to  cultivate  it,  or  in  case  of  a  dispute  to  resoii  to  the  new 
courts,  or  to  accustom  the  Commissioner  judicially  to 
admit  their  claims.    The  time  was  ill-choscn  for  making 


142  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

an  experiment  that  might,  under  more  favourable  cir- 
cumstances, have  been  successful.  The  laws  were  about 
to  be  struck  dumb  by  the  clang  of  arms. 

Surrender  of  the  Waitara;  seizure  of 
Tataraimaka. 

The  Governor  resolved  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the 
Waitara  imbroglio.  Visiting  Taranaki,  he  called  for  a 
map  of  the  Waitara  district  he  remembered  to  have  seen 
during  his  first  term  of  office — for  he  forgot  nothing. 
The  Minister  accompanying  him  denied  that  any  such 
map  existed.  At  last  it  was  happily  recovered.  When 
he  had  found  the  map  and  seen  the  boundaries  of  the  land 
occupied  by  the  Ngatiawa,  his  mind  was  at  once  made  up. 
He  determined  that  the  land  bought  from  Teira  (Taylor) 
should  be  given  back  to  Wiremu  Kingi,  the  head  of  the 
tribe,  and  all  possible  reparation  made.  (Here  we  are 
following  his  own  account  of  the  matter — not  perhaps 
to  be  implicitly  trusted,  but  still  to  be  carefully  heeded.) 
He  then,  he  says,  or  Mr.  Rees  says  for  him,  summoned 
a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet;  he  means,  the  Executive 
Council.  He  expressed  his  conviction  that  a  great  wrong 
had  been  done.  The  natives  were  wholly  in  the  right. 
And  he  urged  that  steps  should  be  publicly  taken  to 
acknowledge  the  justice  of  their  cause.  The  Ministry 
should  issue  a  proclamation  declaring  that  the  land- 
purchase  should  be  rescinded  and  amends  made.  The 
Premier  of  the  hour  was  Alfred  Domett,  Browning's 
*' Waring"  and  Grey's  personal  friend  and  guest,  with 
whom  in  after-years  he  was  in  regular  correspondence; 
and  surely  the  author  of  Ranolf  and  Amohia  should  have 
been  a  philo-Maori?  The  Native  Minister  was  Sir  Francis 
Dillon  Bell,  who  had  reluctantly  found  the  incriminatory 
map.  The  two  agreed  upon  a  plan.  On  April  4  the  land 
taken  at  Waitara  should  be  abandoned  or  restored.  But 
either  Grey  or  the  Ministry  (and  apparently  it  was  both) 
seemed  not  to  have  magnanimity  enough  to  make  an 
absolute  surrender.  Like  Danton  on  his  way  to  the 
guillotine,  they  must  show  no  weakness  at  a  critical 
moment.    They  must  duly  evacuate  the  Waitara  on  April 


AT,Fiu;i)  hoMi'/r-r 


I 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :  SECOND  TERM  143 

4  1863,  but  on  the  very  same  day  they  must  take 
possession  of  Tataraimaka,  which  they  claimed. 
The  action  was  equivocal  on  the  face  of  it.  Ihe 
best-laid  schemes  "gang  aft  agley,"  and  an  lU-laid 
scheme  was  almost  certain  to  go  awry  Ever  .. 
anxious  to  show  strength  and  assert  superiority,  (jrey 
instructed  General  Cameron  to  march  into  the  Tatarai- 
maka and  take  possession  of  the  district  hefore  the 
Waitara  was  abandoned.  It  was  unfortunate,  and  it  was 
a  fresh  fatality.  Were  the  Maoris  to  be  blamed  for  mis- 
taking the  intentions  of  the  Governor? 

One  fatality  breeds  another.  In  answer  to  the  seizure 
of  Tataraimaka,  the  Maoris,  on  May  4,  laid  an  ambuscade 
between  New  Plymouth  and  Tataraimaka,  where  a 
number  of  British  officers  and  soldiers  were  killed  or 
taken  Four  days  later  in  hot  haste,  alarmed  at  last,  the 
Ministry  issued"  the  long-delayed  proclamation.  It  was 
too  late.  The  distrust  of  the  Maoris  had  been 
thoroughly  aroused,  not  again  to  be  allayed,  or  not  for 
many  years. 

The  Authorship  of  the  Wan. 
The  responsibility  for  the  outbreak  of  the  war  would, 
then  seem  to  lie  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Ministry.  Others, 
and  these  among  the  best-informed,  lay  all  its  weight 
on  the  Governor.  A  once  well-known  colonist,  Mr.  O.  t . 
Hursthouse,  and  a  former  Premier,  who  latterly  occupied 
the  position  of  Auditor-General,  Mr.  FitzGerald,  uncom- 
promisingly maintained  that  it  was  the  Governor's  war. 
Proper  efforts,  thev  asserted,  had  not  been  made  to 
arrange  terms  of  peace,  and  the  advance  of  the  army 
compelled    the   Maoris    to    fight    with    the    courage    of 

despair.  , 

We  must  go  back  a  month  or  two.  On  New  lear  s 
Day  1863,  Grey  paid  his  last  friendly  visit  to  Waikato. 
On  January  3  he  rode  alone  to  Ngaruawahia.  The 
Maori  King,  Tawhiao,  came  to  the  neighbourhood,  but 
not  quite  to  the  place.  With  the  king-maker  Grey  had 
a  long  interview.  Other  chiefs,  who  were  anxious  to 
avoid  war,  desired  a  longer  interview.     A  great  Native 


144  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

meeting  was  arranged.  It  was  not  held.  ''Tired  and 
nnwell,"  in  fact,  feeling  that  his  mission  had  failed,  Grey 
returned  to  Auckland,  on  the  pretext  of  public  business. 
We  are  reminded  of  the  fictitious  telegram  that  Ruskin 
had  arranged  should  be  sent  to  him  when  he  went  on  a 
visit  at  Hawarden,  expecting  to  find  the  company  of  the 
Grand  Old  Man  unendurable.  Whether  it  was  business  or 
chagrin,  or  the  perception  that  a  reconciliation  was  hope- 
less, the  withdrawal  of  the  Governor  rang  the  knell  of 
peace.  The  natives  resumed  their  hostile  attitude.  With 
the  approval  of  the  Governor  a  British  force  occupied 
the  Waikato.    War  was  henceforth  inevitable. 

One  last  opportunity  of  making  peace  was  granted.  In 
December  of  the  same  year  General  Cameron  was  advanc- 
ing inwards  to  the  heart  of  the  Waikato.  Recognising  the 
importance  of  the  position,  as  the  king's  headquarters, 
he  urged  that  Ngaruawahia  should  be  occupied.  The 
Ministers  pressed  the  Governor  to  accompany  or  precede 
the  General  and  offer  the  Maoris  terms  of  peace.  The 
Governor  expressed  his  willingness,  and  he  was  possibly 
sincere,  for  he  was  a  true  lover  of  peace.  But  the 
Ministers  insisted  on  accompanying  the  Governor,  and 
to  this  he  refused  to  consent.  Neither  would  yield,  and 
the  mission  never  came  off.  Another  and  a  last  chance 
of  making  peace  sped  into  the  limbo  of  unfulfilled 
possibilities. 

A  few  days  later,  on  December  18,  Grey  issued  a 
memorandum  explaining  that  he  could  not,  as  Governor, 
have  made  overtures  to  the  Maoris,  who  might  not  have 
accepted  them,  when  the  odium  of  failure  would  have 
fallen  on  the  Governor.  It  was  an  illogical  inference  and 
applied  far  more  to  a  mission  without  Ministers  than  with 
them.  Perhaps  we  should  recall  our  assertion  of  his 
sincerity.  His  principle  all  through  life  was  to  treat 
only  with  a  vanquished  enemy,  and  he  may  have  been 
determined  to  defeat  the  Maoris  before  he  would  negotiate 
with  them.  Fox  affirms  in  his  book  on  the  war  that,  if 
Grey  had  accepted  the  mission  proposed  to  him  by  his 
Ministers,  peace  would  have  been  made.  Many  months 
afterwards,  in  a  despatch,  Grey  denied  the  assertions  of 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  145 

FitzGerald  and  Fox,  and,  thirty  years  later  still,  instruct- 
ing Mr.  Rees,  he  repeated  the  denial.  Well-informed 
Maori  chiefs  affirm  that,  after  the  taking  of  Rangiriri, 
the  making  of  peace  was  impossible.  "Fire  had  been 
set  to  the  fern,"  said  a  chief,  and  it  is  all  too  probable 
that,  the  passions  of  the  natives  having  been  kindled, 
there  was  no  other  issue  than  the  disastrous  war  that 
ended  in  the  total  subjugation  of  the  Maori  race  and  the 
confiscation  of  great  part  of  their  territory. 

The  Condominium. 

On  one  score  Grey  was  assuredly  in  the  wrong,  and 
his  Ministers  as  certainly  in  the  right.  He  desired  to 
negotiate  alone  with  the  Maoris.  He  would  have  acted 
unconstitutionally  if  he  had.  A  great  change  had  taken 
place  in  the  Governor's  relations  with  the  Maoris  in  the 
previous  year.  Wlien  the  constitution  had  been  brought 
into  operation,  the  administration  of  Native  affairs  was 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor,  as  representing  the 
Imperial  Government.  This  reservation  was  undoubtedly 
made  to  restrain  the  rapacity  of  the  colonists.  The 
Secretary  of  State  could  control  his  own  appointee  and 
representative ;  he  could  not  control  a  colonial  legislature. 
After  seven  or  eight  years'  trial  the  condominium  had 
proved  a  failure.  Accounts  again  vary  respecting  the 
manner  of  the  devolution.  Sir  Charles  Adderley  asserts 
that  Grey  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  retaining  his  con- 
trol of  Native  affairs,  and  this  best  consists  with  our 
knowledge  of  his  character.  Mr.  Rusden  on  the  other 
hand  afiSrms  that  Grey  himself  proposed  to  his  Ministers 
to  surrender  his  autocracy.  A  series  of  conflicts  ensued. 
We  might  think  that  Ministers  would  gladly  accept  com- 
plete control  of  the  Native  race,  realising  all  the  power 
that  such  control  would  give.  But  they  also  realised  that 
greater  responsibility  would  involve  a  larger  expenditure; 
and  the  Imperial  Government  would  not  even  then  relin- 
quish the  right  of  vetoing  distasteful  or  oppressive 
measures.  In  1862  the  Fox  Ministry  was  defeated  in 
attempting  to  maintain  the  separate  system  of  Native 
guardianship,  and  the   Domett-Bell  Ministry  succeeded 


146  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

to  carry  it  out.  For  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  had  cut  the 
Gordian  knot  by  pronouncing  that  the  attempt  to 
administer  Native  affairs  by  the  Imperial  Government 
had  been  "a  shadow  of  responsibility  without  any 
beneficial  exercise  of  power."  An  Imperial  Act 
empowered  the  Colonial  Legislature  to  repeal  the  73rd 
section  of  the  Constitution  Act,  and  Ministers  took  over 
the  department  of  Native  Affairs.  The  Ministry  had  now 
"a  clear  title  to  guide  and  influence  deliberations  that 
might  have  peace  or  war  for  their  issue.  The  Ministers 
were  therefore  in  the  right  to  insist  on  being 
present  with  the  Governor  at  Ngaruawahia  when  he  dis- 
cussed the  terms  of  a  possible  peace.  He  could  not  act 
but  on  the  advice  of  his  Ministers.  Grey's  contention 
was  untenable,  and  the  results  of  the  refusal  to  open 
negotiations  therefore  rest  on  his  shoulders. 

Onakau. 

Guerilla  wars  have  no  history,  and  the  war  in  the 
Waikato  was  a  guerilla  war.  It  had  its  picturesque 
features  and  varying  fortunes.  The  Maoris  fought  with 
the  desperate  bravery  of  men  defending  their  national 
existence,  and  the  English  too  often  with  the  lack  of  skill 
usually  shown  in  bush  warfare.  One  particular  passage- 
at-arms  has  evoked  the  unstinted  admiration  even  of 
unfriendly  historians  and  has  been  enshrined  in  not 
unworthy  verse.  The  siege  of  Orakau  stands  out  as  one 
of  the  most  heroic  incidents  in  the  war.  A  chief  of  the 
Maniopoto,  Rewi  (the  Maori  transliteration  of  Levi), 
short,  wiry,  and  fiery,  held  the  pah  with  some  three  or 
four  hundred  Maoris,  women  and  children  included.  It 
was  besieged  by  a  British  force  of  1,250  men,  consisting 
of  artillery  armed  with  Armstrong  guns,  infantry,  and 
militia.  Every  natural  advantage  had  been  used  with 
the  science  of  a  Vauban  to  make  it  impregnable-  Gabions 
and  sap-rollers,  earthworks  with  flank  defences,  deep 
ditches,  posts  and  rails,  all  concealed  from  view  behind 
flax  bushes,  trees  and  high  ferns,  enabled  the  small 
garrison  to  resist  many  assaults.  Hand-grenades  and 
shells  poured  from  the  heavy  guns  had  no  effect.    At  last 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  147 

the  situation  grew  untenable  while  the  fortification  was 
still  unbroached.  The  water  supply  of  the  garrison  was 
exhausted,  and  they  had  little  food  left.  Their  ammuni- 
tion was  almost  spent.  Still  they  had  no  thought  of 
yielding.  Summoned  to  surrender,  the  heroic  leader 
answered  in  a  single  repeated  memorable  word :  ake,  ake, 
ake!  Never,  never,  never!  His  word  was  kept  to  the 
letter.  They  sang  a  hymn  to  the  Christian  God,  who 
seemed  to  have  deserted  them.  Then,  as  if  by  a  sudden 
revulsion  of  feeling,  they  flung  back  to  their  old  beliefs 
and  the  gods  they  had  deserted,  and  shouted  a  frenzied 
karakia,  or  imprecation  on  their  enemies.  Finally,  in 
broad  daylight,  and  in  the  face  of  the  foe,  all  the 
occupants  of  the  pah  marched  out  in  a  solid  column,  the 
greater  chiefs  and  the  women  and  children  in  the  centre. 
They  were  hotly  fired  on,  yet  with  some  restraint  arising 
from  the  respect  felt  for  such  a  deed,  but  succeeded  in 
making  their  way  to  a  place  of  safety.  "Does  ancient 
or  modern  history,"  asks  Sir  W.  Fox,  "or  even  our  own 
rough  island  story,  record  anything  more  heroic?" 
Twenty  years  later  the  writer  was  present  when  the  poem 
composed  by  Thomas  Bracken,  immortalising  the  event, 
and  marked  by  the  ringing  refrain,  ''ake,"  etc.,  was 
shown  to  Rewi,  now  loyal  to  the  bone  and  a  pensioner,  but 
no  unmanly  exultation  betrayed  itself  at  the  pointed 
reminder.  An  hour  or  two  before  in  the  great  drawing- 
room  of  Sir  George  Grey's  mansion  at  Kawau,  Rewi 
had  sternly  arraigned  the  Maori  king,  Tawhiao,  who  sat 
beside  him,  accused  him  of  giving  way  to  intemperate 
habits,  and  threatened  him,  unless  he  could  overcome 
these,  with  the  total  failure  of  his  projected  mission  to 
England.  It  was  a  striking  scene.  "He  is  a  man,"  said 
Sir  George  Grey,  "to  whom  life  is  a  reality." 

The  Werei*oa  Pah. 

Grey's  first  term  in  New  Zealand  was  adorned  by  a 
striking  incident  where  he  personally  figured  to  advant- 
age— the  capture  of  Ruapekapeka ;  his  second  term  there 
was  brightened  by  a  similar  episode — the  capture  of  an 
equally  fortified  pah,  that  of  Wereroa.  It  was  an  unfailing 


148  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

theme  of  his  conversation;  it  figures  in  Mr.  Rees's 
biography  as  Grey  told  it ;  and  it  was  evidently  a  source 
of  inward  pride  to  the  old  Governor.  Things  did  not 
happen  quite  as  Grey  narrated,  and  Professor  Henderson 
has  rendered  a  service  in  telling  the  ''true  story"  of  the 
incident,  which  a  British  officer,  some  years  ago,  had 
previously  set  in  its  true  light. 

Away  down  near  the  south-west  coast  of  the  North 
Island,  at  the  confluence  of  two  rivers,  stood  the  historic 
fortress  of  Wereroa.  There,  perceiving  with  a  military 
eye  the  strength  of  the  situation,  the  Maoris  had 
entrenched  themselves  as  strongly  as  once  at  Ruapeka 
and  (under  Rangihaeata)  near  the  Hutt.  Esteeming  it 
**the  centre  and  focus  of  disaffection,"  the  Governor  and 
the  Ministers  (for  once  in  agreement)  deemed  it 
important  that  the  pah  should  be  taken.  The  English 
general,  Sir  Duncan  Cameron,  believing  that  it  could  not 
be  captured  with  the  force  under  his  command,  and  asking 
for  2,000  additional  troops,  on  his  march  westwards 
passed  it  by.  His  decision  excited  so  much  dissatisfac- 
tion that  the  Governor  determined  to  attack  the  fortress 
himself.  Gathering  a  small  force  of  less  than  500  militia, 
he  quickly  marched  across  country  from  Wellington  to 
the  Wanganui  River.  Arriving  in  front  of  the  pah,  he 
did  not  at  once  show  fight.  On  the  contrary,  he  used 
all  his  powers  of  suasion  to  induce  the  garrison  to  sur- 
render. He  nearly  succeeded.  The  chief  in  command 
of  the  pah  came  out  when  Grey  appeared,  and  invited 
him  to  take  possession  of  it.  As  it  proved,  the  chief  did 
not  represent  an  undivided  garrison.  An  irreconcilable 
and  stronger  section  broke  away  from  his  leadership, 
threatened  to  kill  the  Governor,  who  was  shielded  by  the 
chief,  and  determined  to  fight  on. 

Grey  soon  discerned  the  vulnerable  part  of  the  Maori 
Gibraltar.  Impregnable  on  two  sides  of  its  triangular 
formation,  it  was  commanded  in  the  rear  by  a  tongue  of 
land.  He  promptly  sent  a  strong  party  to  capture  the 
eminence.  On  a  Thursday  at  midnight  the  storming 
party  started,  misleading  the  Maoris  by  leaving  their 
tents  standing  in  face  of  the  pah.     They  dauntlessly 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  149 

plunged  into  the  forest,  guided  by  a  young  Maori,  who 
curiously  bore  the  name  of  the  Governor,  (Hori  Kerei, 
or  George  Grey),  and,  emerging  on  the  heights  in  the 
rear,  by  dawn  on  Friday  they  had  taken  the  outworks 
and  captured  some  50  natives.  Realising  that  they  had 
been  outwitted,  the  garrison  evacuated  the  pah  by  that 
back-door  which  was  made  in  all  Maori  fortifications, 
and  the  colonial  troops  entered  the  fort  on  Saturday. 
Not  a  man  had  fallen  in  this  bloodless  victory.  The 
Governor  might  well  crow  over  the  General,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  crow  for  the  rest  of  his  days. 

It  was  a  meritorious  exploit,  and  almost  deserved  the 
eulogies  it  received  from  friend  and  foe.  Almost,  but  not 
quite.  It  must  be  said,  in  defence  of  Cameron,  whose 
soldierly  courage  had  never  been  questioned,  that  he  pro- 
fessed to  be  willing  to  attack  the  pah,  with  or  without 
reinforcements,  if  the  Governor  required  him  to  do  it. 
This  the  Governor  refrained  from  requiring  in  set 
terms,  but  it  is  plain  that  he  expected  the  General  to 
attack  the  fortress.  All  that  Cameron  asserted  was  that, 
if  it  could  be  taken  at  all,  it  could  be  taken  only  at  a 
ruinous  loss.  Next,  the  fighting  power  of  the  garrison 
had  weakened  since  he  passed  it  by;  the  garrison  was 
now  torn  bj^  internal  dissensions,  and  its  commander 
was  in  favour  of  surrendering  the  pah.  Again,  Cameron 
hoped  to  compel  the  garrison  to  yield  without  fighting 
by  cutting  off  their  supplies;  the  heroic  defence  of 
Orakau  and  the  Gate  Pah  had  taught  him  at  what  cost 
such  rude  fortresses  are  taken  by  storm.  Lastly,  the 
taking  of  the  Wereroa  pah  was  nothing  like  so  important 
as  was  alleged.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  its  capture  had 
absolutely  no  effect  on  the  progress  of  the  war.  All  this 
being  ungrudgingly  admitted,  it  none  the  less  casts  a 
grave  shadow  on  the  military  capacity  of  General 
Cameron  that  he  should  have  failed  to  discover  how  the 
fortress  could  be  taken  without  being  stormed.  He  was 
evidently  no  strategist.  Grey  on  the  other  hand,  was  all 
that  Cameron  was  not,  and  if  his  triumph  was  marred  in 
a  military  sense,  while  it  was  purified  in  a  moral  sense,  by 
its  being  an  easy  victory,  it  is  certain  or  probable  that  he 


150  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

would  still  have  won,  had  the  defence  been  more 
obstinately  maintained.  Wereroa  is  now  the  site  of  a 
State  experimental  farm. 

Gi*ey  and  Cameron. 

The  incident  led  to  a  breach  of  the  friendly  relations 
between  the  Governor  and  the  General.  Sir  W.  Fox 
wittily  observes  that  a  correspondence  which  began  with 
the  familiar  form  of  address,  ''My  dear  CAMERON," 
on  one  side  and  * '  My  dear  GREY, ' '  on  the  other,  wound 
up  sternly  with  ''SIR"  on  both  sides.  From  this 
moment  the  General  grew  ever  more  opposed  to  the  war 
he  reluctantly  carried  on,  while  the  Governor  grew  ever- 
more in  sympathy  with  the  colonists  who  carried  it  on. 
And  when  Cameron  plainly  said,  on  being  sent  to  conduct 
hostilities  at  Wanganui,  that  it  was  being  carried  on  in  the 
selfish  interests  of  self-seeking  colonists,  who  had  cast 
greedy  eyes  on  the  Native  lands.  Grey  bluntly  expressed 
the  opinion  that  the  Colony  would  do  better  if  the  English 
troops  were  sent  out  of  it.  In  a  despatch  he  even  formally 
advised  that  the  troops  should  be  withdrawn,  and  that  in 
their  place  an  Imperial  guarantee  should  be  given  for  a 
three-million  loan,  or  else  that  a  Parliamentary  grant 
(Grey's  chief  instrument  at  all  times)  should  be  made 
for  three  or  five  years.  The  judicious  Cardwell  point- 
blank  refused  to  sanction  either  loan  or  grant.  An  angry 
correspondence  ensued,  and  the  Ministry,  at  the  end  of 
its  resources,  resigned. 

Separation  of  Civil  and  Military. 

That  was  not  the  only  issue  of  the  quarrel  between  the 
Governor  and  the  General.  The  Colonial  Office  intervened 
to  define  and  limit  the  prerogatives  of  the  Governor.  In 
1865  the  Department  laid  it  down  that  a  Governor,  though 
Captain-General  and  Commander-in-Chief  by  the  patent 
of  his  office,  "is  not  entitled  to  take  the  immediate  direc- 
tion of  any  military  operation."  In  the  following  year, 
standing  by  his  colleague  at  the  War  Office,  Lord 
Carnarvon,  who  had  succeeded  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 


GOVEENOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  151 

at  the  Colonial  OflSce,  instrncted  the  Governor  that  he  was 
not  at  liberty  to  exercise  control  over  the  movements  of 
the  troops.  As  proud  as  a  savage  chief,  Grey  keenly  felt 
the  indignity  that  was  put  upon  him.  His  reply  was  not 
unworthy  of  himself.  While  deeply  feeling  the  disgrace 
of  such  a  reprimand  and  such  a  rule,  he  would  make 
it  his  "pride  to  serve  the  Queen  in  disgrace  as  in 
prosperity."  He  argued  against  the  adoption  of  the 
rule,  and  his  contention  was  supported  by  the  Duke  of 
Cambridge  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  July,  1867.  The 
Field-Marshal  Commanding-in-Chief  magnanimously 
held  that  "no  more  dangerous  step  could  be  taken,"  and 
he  laid  it  down  as  a  principle  that  "the  military  authori- 
ties must  and  ought  to  be  subject  to  the  civil."  We 
are  not  surprised  that,  in  this  conflict  of  authorities,  the 
Governor  was  threatened  with  removal. 

Two  Policies. 

The  development  of  the  topic  has,  however,  led  us  to 
anticipate  the  course  of  events.  The  virtual  rupture  o| 
Grey's  relations  with  Cameron  brought  him  more  intd 
harmony  with  his  Ministers.  He  claimed,  or  his  official 
biographer  claims  for  him,  that,  during  his  second 
governorship  in  New  Zealand,  he  was  in  more  har- 
monious relations  with  his  Ministers  than  with  the 
Colonial  Office.  It  is  a  very  bad  account  of  his  relations 
with  the  Colonial  Office.  During  at  least  one-half  of  his 
second  governorship  he  was  on  almost  the  worst  possible 
terms  with  his  Ministers.  In  one  chief  department  which 
absorbed  all  others — that  of  Native  affairs — he  was  cer- 
tainly not  continuously  in  harmony  with  his  Ministers, 
and  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  he  was  in  general 
agreement  with  the  Seoetary  for  the  Colonies.  The 
disagreement  was  no  accident,  and  it  concerned  principles, 
not  details.  For  a  period  of  thirty  years,  almost  from  the 
granting  of  representative  institutions  in  1854  till  1884, 
the  New  Zealand  Ministry,  save  at  rare  and  brief  inter- 
vals, was  strongly  anti-Maori.  The  conflicts  and  collisions 
on  this  line  between  the  Governor  and  his  Ministers  were 
incessant.    They  stood  for  two  different  causes — the  one 


152  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

for  the  preservation  of  an  indigenous  race,  the  other  for 
the  expansion  of  a  young  immigrant  community.  They 
could  not  but  collide ;  collision,  was  in  fact,  their  chronic 
state.  On  the  Governor's  side  there  were  abundant  con- 
sideration and  conciliation,  the  weapons  of  one  whom 
real  force  had  deserted.  On  the  other,  the  forms  of 
reverence,  too  often  accompanied  by  the  reality  of  dis- 
respect. His  Ministers  led  him  into  error,  inducing  him 
to  issue  instructions  he  disagreed  with,  and  he  had  some- 
times to  thank  subordinates  for  revealing  the  real  object 
of  them.  They  kept  him  in  the  dark  about  their  purposes 
and  even  about  their  doings.  They  then  suddenly  called 
upon  him,  as  in  connection  with  the  change  of  the  seat 
of  government,  to  do  things  requiring  deliberation.  They 
suppressed  despatches  from  the  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  that  were  favourable  to  him  and  unfavourable  to 
them.  He  must  at  times  have  thought  that  they  exhausted 
the  forms  of  irritation  and  annoyance  with  no  other 
object  than  to  persecute  him  out  of  his  office.  Of  course, 
there  was  no  such  design,  but  had  he  allowed  a  morbid 
imagination  to  play  over  the  facts,  as  he  did  in  after- 
years,  he  might  have  been  maddened  by  a  multitude  of 
acts  that  were  certainly  motived  by  public  principle  alone. 

Te  Oriori. 

One  of  the  first  occasions  on  which  they  came  into  sharp 
conflict  was  over  the  treatment  of  some  Maori  prisoners 
taken  in  war.  A  well-known  chief,  Te  Oriori,  was  kept 
in  durance  by  the  Ministry.  Grey  almost  pathetically 
pleaded  with  the  Ministers  to  release  the  chief  on  parole, 
as  he  had  himself  released  Te  Rauparaha.  He  pointed  to 
the  character  of  Te  Oriori,  who  had  on  several  occasions 
acted  nobly  by  the  colonists.  He  spoke  of  the  effect  the 
imprisonment  of  so  great  a  chief  would  have  in 
prolonging  the  war.  He  told  how  he  ''had  done 
his  utmost  at  all  times  to  promote  the  views 
of  his  Ministers,  and  wished  to  show  that  on 
a  point  where  he  felt  so  strongly  a  responsibility 
really  rested  on  him,  which  gave  him  a  strong  claim  on 
their    consideration,    which   he   hoped    they   would   yet 


GOVEKNOK  OF  NEW  ZEALAND :  SECOND  TERM  153 

recognise. ' '  It  was  all  seemingly  in  vain.  Ministers  would 
not  yield.  They  even  flung  in  his  face  his  treatment  of 
Eauparaha  as  a  parallel  that  justified  their  own  action. 
Grey  reported  the  incident  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  the 
firm  and  judicious  Cardwell,  who  thoroughly  approved 
of  the  stand  the  Governor  had  taken.  The  Governor, 
that  great  official  held,  was  empowered  to  decide  on  the 
fate  of  prisoners  of  war  without  the  concurrence  of  his 
Ministers.  It  was  for  him  to  determine  what  course 
should  be  taken.  He  should  be  fully  prepared  to  support 
Grey,  should  the  Governor  decide  to  take  action  at 
variance  with  the  opinions  of  his  Ministers.  And  when 
the  Governor  asserted  that  he  owed  a  high  responsibility 
to  the  people  of  England,  who  were  supplying  the  troops 
which  were  suppressing  the  rebellion,  the  Secretary 
informed  him  that  he  rightly  interpreted  his  position. 
''Your  responsibility  to  the  Crown,"  he  stated,  "is 
paramount."  Yet  Grey  did  not  and  could  not  release 
Te  Oriori,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government,  not  of  the  Governor.  Ministers  themselves 
solved  the  problem  by  secretly  releasing  their  prisoner 
on  parole.  It  seemed  a  triumph  for  the  Governor,  but 
it  was  also  a  humiliation.  The  Ministry  had  not  the  grace 
even  to  inform  the  Governor  of  their  action.  It  was 
a  propos  of  this  incident  that  Fox  refused  to  publish 
Cardwell's  despatches. 

Confiscation. 

That  was  an  episode,  but  it  revealed  a  mere  crack  in 
the  relations  between  the  Governor  and  his  Ministers.  A 
far  larger  question  opened  up  a  deep  fissure  that 
threatened  to  yawn  into  an  impassable  gulf.  Grey  was 
not  from  the  first  intractable.  Two  bills  were  passed 
through  both  Houses — the  Suppression  of  the  Rebellion 
Act,  and  the  New  Zealand  Settlements  Act — which  Sir 
John  Richardson,  afterwards  Speaker  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  described  as  "savouring  of  the  darkest  periods 
of  legislation, ' '  and  which  Sir  Frederick  Weld,  afterwards 
Premier  of  New  Zealand,  denounced  as  "unconstitu- 
tional and  tyrannical."     The  first  was  Draconian,  and 


154  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

the  second  provided  for  a  measure  of  confiscation  of 
Native  lands  as  a  consequence  of  the  war.  The  extent  of 
land  to  be  confiscated  was  left  indefinite,  and  Grey  made 
no  difficulty  in  giving  the  Royal  Assent  in  December, 
1863,  to  both  Acts.  They  appeared  in  a  different  light 
to  the  incorruptible  Sir  William  Martin,  now  retired  from 
the  Bench.  The  old  Chief-Justice  wrote  and  this  time 
published,  in  November,  1863,  a  pamphlet  where  he  said 
that  the  proposals  of  the  New  Zealand  Government  had 
aroused  in  him  "a  feeling  of  sorrow,  if  not  of  shame," 
and  Grey,  forgetting  that,  sixteen  years  before,  Sir 
William  had  loyally  stood  by  him,  attacked  his  old  com- 
rade-in-arms. He  feared  that  Martin's  Observations 
''might  be  misunderstood  by  persons  at  a  distance,"  and 
he  assured  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  in  transmitting  the 
Acts,  that  he  would  see  to  it  that  the  confiscation  was 
"not  carried  too  far."  The  sequel  throws  a  lurid  light 
on  the  assurance. 

The  battle  raged  on  this  line  all  through  1864.  The 
Duke  of  Newcastle  had  reluctantly  assented  to  the  pro- 
posed measure  of  confiscation  on  the  strength  of  Grey's 
assurance  that  it  was  to  be  kept  within  reasonable  limits. 
His  successor,  Mr.  Cardwell,  was  less  pliable.  He  agreed 
to  a  measure  of  confiscation  only  because  none  could 
be  carried  out  without  Grey's  concurrence.  He  relied 
on  Grey's  "sagacity,  firmness,  and  experience"  and  on 
his  "long-recognised  regard,  as  well  for  the  interests 
of  the  colonists  as  for  the  fair  rights  and  expectations 
of  the  Maori  race. ' '  The  greater  part  of  the  cost  of  sup- 
pressing the  rebellion  had  been  borne  by  the  Motherland,, 
which  had  therefore,  as  represented  by  the  Governor,  a 
right  to  a  deciding  voice  on  such  a  question.  He  laid  down 
large  principles  and  deduced  from  them  a  law  of  modera- 
tion regarding  the  amount  of  confiscation  that  would  be 
consonant  with  natural  equity.  The  Ministry  was  not 
prepared  to  listen  to  counsels  of  moderation.  They 
affirmed  that  3,000  colonists  had  taken  service  on  the 
understanding  that  they  would  be  assigned  farms  scooped 
out  of  the  confiscated  land,  and  they  said  that  they 
intended  to  enrol  20,000  men,  who  would  all  of  them  be 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND  :  SECOND  TERM      155 

settled  as  military  pensioners.  The  wranglings  and 
bickerings  between  the  Governor  and  his  Ministers  were 
incessant.  A  violent  scene  took  place  one  day,  May  28, 
1864,  in  the  Executive  Council.  Grey  then  positively 
refused  to  issue  certain  Orders  in  Council,  relating  to 
proclaimed  districts,  till  he  had  definitely  ascertained 
what  extent  of  land  the  Ministry  proposed  to  confiscate. 

On  the  demand  of  the  Governor  the  Ministers  stated 
the  extent  of  the  confiscation  they  proposed.  They 
craved  territory  enough  to  defray  the  war  expenditure 
and  provide  for  military  settlements.  Once  Grey  had 
definitely  ascertained  that  it  would  amount  to  eight 
millions  of  acres,  he  unhesitatingly  opposed  it.  He 
resisted  it  as  ''contrary  to  law  and  equity,  contrary  to 
his  duty  to  the  Imperial  Government,  and  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  responsibilities  imposed  by  the  presence 
and  aid  of  the  British  forces  and  the  expenditure  of  large 
sums  of  British  money. ' '  He  would  not  drive  a  nation  to 
despair.  He  drafted  a  proclamation,  offering  a  free  and 
absolute  pardon  to  all  Maoris  who  surrendered,  took  an 
oath  of  allegiance,  and  made  such  cessions  of  land  as  the 
Governor  and  the  General  (not  the  Ministry,  it  will  be 
observed)  approved.  Should  Ministers  refuse  to 
acquiesce,  he  would  adhere  to  his  intention  of  issuing  the 
proclamation.  His  decision  excited  the  wrath  of  the 
Colonial  Ministry.  Hostile  and  angry  communications 
passed  between  the  Ministry  and  the  Governor.  It  rained 
minutes  and  memorandums.  A  witty  ex-Minister  said 
they  were  living  under  a  Memorandummiad ;  the  historian 
describes  it  as  a  slough  of  despond.  The  Secretary  of 
State  supported  the  Governor,  urging  him  to  act  on  his 
own  judgment.  With  this  force  at  his  back  the  Governor 
felt  strong  enough  to  defy  his  Ministry.  "A  just,  satis- 
factory, and  permanent  peace  has  been  indefinitely 
postponed  by  the  vacillation  and  indecision  of  his 
Excellency. ' '  So  wrote  Attorney-General  Whitaker,  and 
with  this  Parthian  arrow  the  Ministry  passed  away. 

It  was  succeeded  by  a  Ministry  with  Sir  Frederick 
Weld  as  Premier.  Suddenly,  the  Governoi  showed  him- 
self unexpectedly  pliable.     He  had  always  held  a  high 


156  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEOEGE   GREY 

opinion  of  Weld,  who  belonged  to  an  old  English  Catholic 
family,  and  had  something  of  the  manners  that  stamp 
the  caste  of  Vere  de  Vere.  In  1876,  when  Grey  was  an 
unofficial  legislator,  he  warmly  eulogised  Weld.  He  was 
now  willing  to  do  for  Weld  what  he  refused  to  do  for  Fox 
or  Whitaker.  On  December  17,  1864,  he  issued  a  pro- 
clamation confiscating  "all  the  lands  in  the  Waikato 
taken  by  the  Queen's  forces,"  and  all  lands  north  of  a 
certain  boimdary  line,  practically  the  whole  of  the 
Waikato  plain.  As  Mr.  Rusden  wittily  says,  the 
Governor's  conscience  had  stretched  from  Ngaruawahia 
to  Raglan.  In  1867  General  Peel  left  the  Disraeli 
Ministry  because  there  was  nothing  so  elastic  as  the  con- 
science of  a  cabinet  Minister.  Only  three  years  earlier 
he  might  have  found  that  there  was  one  thing  more 
elastic  still — the  conscience  of  a  colonial  Governor. 

An  Armed  Truce. 

The  war  was  struggling  to  its  close.  The  Maoris 
writhed  in  the  toils  of  the  troops  like  Laocoon  and  his 
sons  in  the  folds  of  the  serpents.  They  never  had  the 
smallest  chance.  More  than  seventeen  years  had  passed 
since  Grey  had  informed  the  Colonial  Office  of  the  com- 
parative increasing  strength  of  the  colonists  and  the 
increasing  unlikelihood  of  a  successful  rising  on  the  part 
of  the  Maoris.  They  had  risen,  but  they  had  been  every- 
where defeated.  Their  brave  fight  and  flight  at  Orakau — 
the  fight  and  the  flight  of  the  lion — were  considered  to 
be  their  last  stand.  After  the  capture  of  Wereroa  the 
war  was  held  to  be  virtually  at  an  end.  The  campaign 
in  the  Waikato  was  deemed  to  be  brought  to  an  end  by 
the  Maoris'  evacuation  of  Maungatautari  in  April,  1864, 
and  leading  chiefs — the  indomitable  Rewi,  the  Christian 
Waharoa,  and  others  desired  that  the  war  should  be  con- 
sidered as  being  at  an  end.  In  anticipation  of  its  ending, 
on  September  2,  1865,  the  Governor  gratified  the  confis- 
cationists  by  annexing  large  blocks  of  specified  lands 
belonging  to  the  Ngatiawa  and  Ngatiuranui  tribes, 
which  were  to  be  duly  set  apart  as  eligible  sites  for 
colonisation.    Yet,  in  a  proclamation  declaring  the  war 


SIR  FRKDI'.KUK   Wkld. 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM      157 

at  an  end,  the  Governor  stated  that  he  would  respect  the 
lands  of  all  the  loyalists  and  restore  those  that  had  been 
taken  from  them,  Tvhile  commissioners  would  be  sent  to 
place  them  in  possession.  We  read  with  profound  regret--- 
that  these  and  other  repeated  promises  remained  unful- 
filled. Awards  solemnly  made  in  the  new  Native  land 
courts  were  never  carried  into  effect. 

A  Disagreeable  IncEdent. 

Proclamations  might  declare  the  war  at  an  end,  but 
the  troops  were  still  kept  on  a  war  footing.     General 
^Chute    marched    down    the    west    coast    storming    and 
destroying  the  pahs.    Indeed,  some  of  its  ugliest  incidents 
were  still  to  excite  horror  on  one  side  and  simulated 
indignation  on  the  other.    An  English  officer  on  duty  with 
the    troops    in    New    Zealand— Colonel    Weare— wrote 
letters  to  his  brother  in  England,  a  clergyman,  denounc- 
ing the  war  as  being  conducted  in  a  "  degrading  and 
brutalising  manner,"  asserting  the  greed  of  the  colonists 
for  land  as  its  sole  end,  and  attributing  the  barbarities 
that  were  committed  to  the  wish  of  the  colonial  Govern- 
ment to  have  no  prisoners.    He  gave  a  specific  instance. 
He  told  how  a  Maori  prisoner  of  war  had  been  butchered 
without  a  trial  by  order  of  the  General,  and  as  a  death- 
sentence  could  be  carried  out  only  after  it  had   been 
approved    by    the    Governor,    the    charge    against    the 
General  was  equivalent  to  a  charge  against  the  Governor. 
The  accusations  were  communicated  to  Grey  by  Mr.  Card- 
well,  now  Secretary  for  War,   in  a  despatch  marked, 
*' confidential."    Grey  ignored  the  superscription,  flouted 
the  Secretary,  and  laid  the  confidential  despatch  before 
his  Ministers,  who  were  as  deeply  compromised  as  the 
Governor  himself.    With  the  Ministry  at  his  back.  Grey 
passionately  retorted   the  shameful   accusations,  which 
Weare  afterwards  withdrew,  and  demanded  an  inquiry. 
Cardwell  was  indignant  at  the  breach  of  confidence  and 
induced  his  colleagues  likewise  to  regard  the  breaking 
of  the  seal  as  an  offence  against  official,  if  not  personal, 
honour.    Never  was  Grey  forgiven.    His  successor.  Sir 
George  Bowen,  was  twice  guilty  of  a  similar  breach  of 


158  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GEEY 

confidence,  but  he,  a  lighter  nature,  was  let  off  with  a 
reprimand.  His  offence  was  venial;  Grey's  sin  was 
mortal  and  unto  death — official  death.  Vainly  did  he 
solicit  an  inquiry  into  charges  backed  with  so  little  weight 
of  authority.  It  was  refused  by  Lord  Carnarvon  in  1867 
and  by  his  successor,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in  1868. 
He  was  condemned  without  trial,  and  the  condemnation 
was  fatal — fatal  to  the  official  and  fatal  to  the  man. 

Open  Defiance. 

The  measure  of  his  offences  was  now  complete  and  the 
cup  of  indignation  brewed  at  the  Colonial  Office  full  to 
overflowing.  In  July,  1867,  his  old  enemy,  the  Earl  of 
Carnarvon,  took  the  extraordinary  course  of  attacking 
his  own  subordinate  in  his  absence  and  in  a  chamber 
where,  if  he  had  been  present,  he  could  not  have  defended 
himself.  The  pretext  was  that  Grey  had  kept  him  in 
ignorance  of  things  happening  in  New  Zealand  that  he 
had  a  right  to  know.  The  charge  was  amazing.  When  he 
had  been  first  appointed  to  the  governorship  of  New 
Zealand,  Lord  Stanley  instructed  him  to  keep  the  Home 
Government  in  constant  touch  with  the  Colony  by  the 
writing  of  frequent  despatches.  He  did  not  need  the 
injunction.  In  every  colony  where  he  had  resided  he 
had  been,  of  all  Governors,  the  most  copious  despatch- 
writer.  His  despatches  from  New  Zealand  in  particular 
are  little  less  than  a  history  of  the  colony  from  his  own 
point  of  view.  If  he  did  not  write  voluminous  despatches 
to  Lord  Carnarvon,  it  may  have  been  that  he  bitterly 
remembered  how  he  had  been  recalled  from  South  Africa 
at  his  lordship's  instance.  But  it  is  more  probable  that 
he  did  not  narrate  certain  events  because  he  did  not 
believe  that  those  events  had  happened.  He  had  not 
done  the  things  he  was  charged  with,  and  therefore  he 
could  not  say  that  he  had  done  them.  The  earl,  it  seems, 
had  the  grace  to  apologise,  and,  in  any  case,  it  was  less 
a  definite  charge  that  he  made,  than  an  outbreak  of  old 
resentment  or  distrust.  That  was  in  July,  1867.  Grey's 
anger  at  last  boiled  up  and  boiled  over.  Four  months 
later  he  wrote  to  the   Duke  of  Buckingham,   the  new 


GOVERiSrOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  159 

Colonial  Minister,  in  terms  where  his  passion  is  hardly 
veiled.  If  the  Colonial  Office  required  of  him  blind 
acquiescence  in  their  behests,  he  for  his  part  owed  it  no 
obedience,  but  only  owed  his  duty  to  the  Queen  and 
the  Empire.  He  had  a  right  to  withstand  those  who 
had  committed  violent  acts  or  supported  others  in 
doing  them.  And  he  would  show  that  he  had  a  will  as 
strong  as  their  own,  recking  nought  of  consequences.  All 
was  now  said.  He  had  flung  down  a  gage  of  defiance. 
If  it  had  any  self-respect  at  all,  the  Colonial  Office  could 
not  but  accept  the  haughty  challenge. 

His  Virtual  Recall. 

The  great  department  was  not  slow  to  take  up  the  gage 
of  battle.  Grey  had  once  been  its  pride  and  fondling. 
It  freely  and  without  solicitation  gave  him  one  high  and 
responsible  post  after  another.  Long  before  he  had 
reached  middle  age,  and  while  he  was  still  young  in  its 
service,  it  bestowed  on  him  one  of  its  highest  distinctions. 
In  its  hours  of  difficulty  and  danger  it  fell  back  upon  him 
when  others  of  its  servants  failed  it.  It  destined  him 
for  the  most  exalted  position  in  its  gift.  It  lavished 
praise  on  him  in  despatches,  in  Parliament,  and  in  semi- 
official treatises.  It  permitted  him  to  do  what  it 
condemned  and  recalled  other  Governors  for  doing.  It 
meekly  accepted  snubs  at  his  hands.  It  pardoned  rebel- 
lion. It  could  not  pardon  open  defiance.  In  May,  1867, 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  wound  up  a  general  despatch 
with  the  offhand  announcement  that,  next  time  he 
happened  to  be  writing  to  the  Governor,  he  would  inform 
him  of  the  name  of  his  successor.  It  was  as  if  one  should 
conclude  an  animated  conversation  with  a  knock-down 
blow. 

It  appears  that  the  assommeur  was  not  the  Duke.  He 
afterwards,  when  Grey  visited  him  in  Loudon,  disclaimed 
all  knowledge  of  the  insult  and  all  intention  of  giving 
offence.  The  despatch  was  written  (as  we  know,  from 
the  biographies  and  autobiographies  of  high  officers  of 
the  Department,  that  such  despatches  are  commonly 
written)  by  a  clerk  m  the  Colonial  Office.    None  the  less, 


160  LIFE   OF   SIE   GEORGE   GEEY 

it  bore  the  signature  of  the  Minister  and  carried  all  the 
weight  of  his  authority.  It  was  not  formally  a  recall. 
The  Governor's  six  years'  term  was  up,  and  the  despatch 
simply  drew  his  attention  to  the  fact.  The  Colonial 
Office  denied  that  it  was  a  recall.  Yet  it  appeared  to  him- 
self in  that  light,  and  it  was  accepted  as  such  by 
Ministers  and  throughout  the  Colony. 

A  recall  it  practically  was.  At  his  age,  in  the  prime  of 
his  strength,  with  more  than  twenty  years  of  active 
service  ahead  of  him,  and  not  yet  qualified  for  a  pension, 
he  would  have  naturally  been  appointed  to  another 
governorship.  No  other  was  offered  or  mentioned.  He 
might  have  been  sent  to  more  populous  Australian 
colonies,  such  as  Victoria  or  New  South  Wales.  The 
governor-generalship  of  Canada  might  once  more  have 
been  dangled  before  his  eyes.  He  might  have  claimed, 
as  it  is  understood  that  Governors  are  permitted  to  do, 
a  year's  additional  service  in  New  Zealand.  Of  all  or 
any  of  this,  not  a  word.  He  would  be  informed  of  the 
designation  of  his  successor — and  the  rest  was  silence- 
He  was  at  Queenstown,  on  Lake  Wakatipu,  when  the 
obnoxious  despatch  was  received,  and  the  news,  which  he 
made  no  attempt  to  disguise  or  withhold  spread  like  wild- 
fire. The  shock  was  great.  His  pride,  his  self-consequence 
were  deeply  wounded.  When  he  was  recalled  from 
the  Cape,  he  entered  London  like  a  conqueror,  knowing 
that  the  verdict  against  him  had  been  already  reversed, 
and  he  treated  the  matter  jovially.  It  was  far  otherwise 
now.  He  was  unceremoniously  called  away  from  a  Colony 
to  which  he  had  been  twice  commissioned  in  hours  of 
stress  and  danger.  He  had  been  its  Governor  for  periods 
amounting  to  fifteen  years  in  all,  at  first  with  virtually 
uncontrolled  powers,  then  with  high  authority  and 
unequalled  prestige,  at  all  times  the  peer  of  the  greatest 
in  his  special  vocation — the  rule  of  nascent  communities 
in  their  relations  with  barbarous  indigenous  peoples.  He 
had  done  great  things  for  them  and  for  the  Empire — and 
this  was  his  reward.  '  *  The  gods  declare  my  recompense 
this  day."  Now  he  was  superseded  by  one  who  was 
scholarly  and  cultured  indeed,  but  did  not  possess  a  tithe 


GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  ZEALAND:  SECOND  TERM  161 

of  his  governing  force.  He  was  going  Home  in  disgrace, 
and  he  would  re-enter  London  like  a  condemned  male- 
factor. He  appealed  to  the  Queen,  whom  he  believed  to 
be  favourably  inclined  to  him,  and  the  appeal  was  heard. 
But  his  Sovereign,  who  had  aided  him  before  in  crises  of 
his  fate,  could  no  more  help  him  now  than  Apollo  could 
aid  Orestes  in  the  grip  of  the  Furies. 

His  Departure. 

He  did  not  at  once  return  to  England.  The  Executive 
Council  and  both  chambers  of  the  Legislature  passed 
votes  of  respectful  sympathy  and  eulogized  his  courage 
in  withstanding  the  calumnious  assailants  of  the  Colony 
and  his  devotedness  to  its  interests.  The  citizens  of 
Wellington  organized  a  grand  send-off  in  the  harbour  on 
the  day  appointed  for  his  departure.  By  one  of  those 
pei*versities  that  so  often  did  him  wrong,  though  he 
seemed  more  on  his  guard  against  them  than  other  men, 
he  refused  to  take  part  in  the  demonstration.  Instead 
of  letting  himself  be  triumphantly  escorted  to  the  steamer 
by  a  flotilla,  he  took  refuge,  of  all  places,  in  the  house  of 
an  ofiScer  of  the  Treasury,  who  ever  after  spoke  of  the  act 
as  the  proudest  distinction  of  his  life.  There,  in  his  bor- 
rowed tent,  Achilles  sulked  till  ''the  tumult  and  the 
shouting"  died  away.  Then,  in  the  dark  he  skulked  on 
board  of  the  ship  that  conveyed  him  to  Auckland,  en  route 
for  his  hermit-island  of  Kawau,  where  he  lay  perdu  till 
the  hour  of  parting  struck.  Once  he  emerged.  A  public 
banquet  was  given  in  Auckland  in  his  honour,  and  his 
successor.  Sir  George  Bowen,  who  had  arrived  from 
Queensland  to  take  over  the  reins  of  government,  as  if 
he  were  going  to  do  something  that  required  apology, 
somewhat  defiantly  informed  the  Colonial  Office  that  he 
intended  to  be  present  on  the  occasion.  The  devolution 
of  office  should  have  been  no  more  melancholy  than  the 
handing  over  of  authority  by  the  retiring  to  the  incoming 
president  at  Washington,  when  the  ceremony  takes  place 
in  the  presence  of  a  crowd;  but  the  circumstances  made 
it  tragic.  It  was  the  last  public  dinner  he  ever  attended, 
or  the  last  but  one.    Twenty-six  years  later  he  declined 

M 


162  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE    GREY 

a  banquet  given  in  his  honour  by  the  Colonial  Office  in 
London,  accepting  a  luncheon  instead.  In  February, 
1868,  he  shook  the  dust  of  the  Colony  off  his  feet,  doubt- 
less inwardly  resolving  that  he  would  never  again  set 
eyes  on  it.  After  vainly  offering  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment his  mediation  with  the  rebel  guerilla  chief,  Titoko- 
waru,  he  set  sail  for  England  to  seek  justice  at  the  hands 
of  the  British  Government  for  the  foul  wrongs  he  believed 
it  had  done  him,  to  solicit  further  employment  if  he  could 
not  have  that,  and  to  wreak  his  revenge  upon  it  if  he 
could  have  neither.  He  was  to  have  neither.  He  was 
never  again  to  be  employed  by  the  Colonial  Office,  and  the 
only  justice  he  was  ever  to  receive  from  it,  save  the  barren 
honour  of  a  public  entertainment,  was  a  tomb  in  St. 
Paul's. 


Chapter  XXII. 

AN  ENGLISH  PROXENOS. 

Thirteen  thousand  miles  away  from  it,  Grey  remained 
the  friend  of  the  Colony  in  which  he  had  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  days.  He  might  well  have  been 
appointed  Agent-General  or  High  Commissioner  for  it 
in  London,  and  it  is  known  that  in  later  years  he  would 
have  accepted  the  office,  which  was  created  in  1870;  but 
the  interests  of  colonial  politicians  had  to  be  regarded, 
and  perhaps  he  was  distrusted  by  Ministers,  while  he 
might  not  have  been  a  persona  grata  at  the  Colonial 
Office.  He  was  to  act  like  a  Greek  proxenos,  keeping 
watch  and  ward  over  its  relations  with  the  Motherland, 
as  Rudyard  Kipling  professed  to  sit  on  the  boimdary  of 
Maine  like  the  watch-dog  of  the  British  Empire.  As  there 
were  once  volunteer  laureates  in  England,  Grey  was  for  a 
brief  space,  before  the  office  had  been  created,  a  volunteer 
Agent-General.  He  was  the  intermediary  between  the 
colonists  and  the  Colonial  Office,  but  he  failed  to  avert 
the  total  withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  New  Zealand. 
Yet  once  he  was  to  render  it  a  signal  service. 

Te  Kooti. 

Evidently  inspired  by  Grey,  Mr.  Rees  tells  a  strange 
story  that  is  authenticated  by  the  source  from  which  it 
comes.  An  irreconcilable  Maori  chief,  Te  Kooti  Riki- 
rangi  by  name,  had  risen  in  rebellion.  It  is  proved,  and 
it  was  known,  that  he  had  fought  on  the  side  of  the 
colonists  in  the  Waikato  war.  His  reward  was  that  he 
was  transported  to  the  Chatham  Islands,  with  the 
prospect  of  being  interned  there  for  an  indefinite  time. 
Indignation  at  his  ill-usage  led  him,  as  indignation 
against  the  colonists  led  so  many  of  his  couutiymen,  to 
revolt  against  Christianity  and  found  a  new  religious 

163 


164  LIFE    OF   SIR    GEORGE    GREY 

sect,  whicli  was  suppressed.     Resenting  his  slavery,  he 
and  his  followers  seized  a  ship  that  lay  in  the  harbonr, 
and  compelled  the  officers  to  navigate  it  to  New  Zealand. 
There,  on  the  east  coast,  at  Poverty  Bay,  near  his  old 
haunts,  he  landed  in  force,  and  for  months  he  led  the 
colonial  troops  and  their  Native  allies  a  dance.      Four 
months  after  he  had  landed  he  swooped  down  on  the 
English  settlement  at  Gisborne  and  massacred  a  large 
number  of  its  population.    A  thrill  of  horror  went  through 
the  Colony.    A  still  greater  danger  threatened  it  on  the 
west  coast,  where  Titokowaru  was  on  the  war-path.    The 
colonists  were  terror-stricken  and  dreaded  a  rising  of  all 
the  Hau-Hau  tribes.    A  reward  of  £1,000  was  offered  for 
the  body  of  Te  Kooti,  dead  or  alive.    The  Governor  and 
the  Premier  appealed  for  aid  to  the  loyal  Maoris.    Yet 
at  this  very  time  the  British  Ministry  was  finally  with- 
drawing its  last  regiments.     Lord  Granville  scornfully 
asked  the  colonial  Ministry  whether  it  was  not  exaggerat- 
ing the  magnitude  of  the  danger.    He  had  good  grounds 
for  his  scorn.     It  is  now  proved  that  there  were  never 
more   than   2,000  Maoris   under   arms,  and  there    were 
220,000  colonists.    Where  was  the  need  of  Imperial  aid? 
The  panic  at  length  spread  to  the  Colonial  Office  and  the 
English  Ministry,  which  then  conceived  an  extraordinary 
design.     Speaking  through  Mr.  Rees,  Grey  revealed — 
presumably,  for  the  first  time — the  plan  of  the  Ministry 
for  settling  the  affairs  of  New  Zealand.     A  proposal, 
definitely  formulated  and  drawn  out  in  detail,  was  laid 
before  the  Cabinet— probably,  by  the  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies.    It   provided   that   constitutional   government 
should  be  provisionally  withdrawn  from  New  Zealand, 
and  that  General  Gordon,  who  afterwards  acquired  a 
tragic  fame  as  the  Egyptian  victim  of  the  Gladstone 
Ministry,  should  be  appointed  dictator,  like  an  ancient 
Roman,  with  absolute  powers.    The  proposal  was  by  no 
means  so  outrageous  as  it  now  seems.    One  half  of  it,  at 
least — nay,  both  halves — had  been  publicly   advocated, 
and  by  persons  in  authority  within  the  Colony  itself. 
A  high  legislative  officer,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  openly    advised    that    the   constitution 


AN    ENGLISH    PROXENOS  165 

should  be  suspended  in  the  North  Island,  proposed  that 
the  Home  Government  be  asked  to  resume  the  control 
of  Native  affairs,  and  held  that  the  North  Island  should 
be  governed  by  an  Imperial  Commission.  The  Superin- 
tendent (elective  governor)  of  the  province  of  Otago 
spoke  to  the  same  effect.  The  policy  of  self-reliance, 
he  asserted,  had  failed.  All  wars  with  the  Maoris  were 
matters  of  Imperial  concern.  Mr.  Justice  Richmond 
declared  that  it  had  become  impossible  to  enforce  the  law 
in  the  North  Island.  In  January,  1869,  at  a  public  meet- 
ing held  in  Auckland,  a  petition  was  adopted,  praying 
for  the  suspension  of  the  Constitution  as  demanded  by 
' '  the  evident  incapacity  of  the ' '  local  government,  and  the 
petition  was  forwarded  by  the  Governor  to  the  Colonial 
Office.  A  petition  from  Southland  (the  southern  division 
of  Otago)  was  to  the  same  effect.  The  Governor  weighted 
the  recommendations  with  his  own  urgencies.  Another 
Indian  mutiny  might  break  out,  and  massacres  like  those 
of  Cawnpore  and  Delhi  were  to  be  dreaded. 

A  Proposed  Dictatorship. 

In  receipt  of  such  alarming  statements  and  prognostics, 
is  the  British  Government  of  the  day  to  be  blamed  if  it 
contemplated  the  appointment  of  a  dictator?  Before  it 
decided,  it  resolved  to  take  the  counsel  of  the  Englishman 
who  knew  New  Zealand  best — of  the  Governor  who  knew 
it  supremely  well.  A  military  officer  was  sent  to  wait 
upon  Sir  George  Grey  and  solicit  his  advice.  Sir  George 
prudently  asked  time  to  consider  the  proposal,  and  mean- 
while, on  this  pretext,  he  cunningly  retained  the 
document  that  had  been  left  with  him.  He  condemned  the 
scheme.  Colonists  who  had  for  a  decade  and  a  half 
enjoyed  representative  institutions  would  never  submit 
to  the  withdrawal  of  them  and  would  themselves  rise  in 
mutiny  at  the  mere  mention  of  a  dictator.  By  his  own 
account,  Grey's  opposition  to  the  proposal  extinguished 
it,  and  it  was  never  heard  of  again.  He  carefully 
preserved  the  document,  however,  and  it  is  now  in  his 
archives. 


166  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Would  Grey  himself  have  accepted  the  mission  which 
he  refused  to  another?  He  certainly  would.  No  position 
on  earth  would  have  appealed  more  magnetically  to  his 
ambition — an  ambition  that  had  its  noble  side.  He 
would  have  gone  out  once  more  to  New  Zealand,  but  as 
an  ordinary  Governor,  with  extraordinary  powers.  He 
would  have  proclaimed  martial  law  in  certain  disturbed 
districts,  as  he  several  times  did  during  the  Wellington 
war  of  1846  and  the  Wanganui  war  of  1847.  Had  he 
deemed  it  necessary,  he  would  not  have  scrupled  to  place 
the  whole  North  Island  under  martial  law — which  is,  of 
course,  the  same  thing  as  suspending  the  Constitution. 
Te  Kooti  would  have  been  captured,  as  he  was.  The 
rebel  Maoris  would  have  been  conquered,  as  they  easily 
were.  The  loyal  Maoris  would  have  proved  themselves 
devoted  and  serviceable,  as  under  Rangihiwinui  they  did. 
And  the  neutral  Maoris  would  have  gone  over  to  the 
winning  side.  Then  the  ban  would  have  been  removed, 
and  the  colony  would  have  become  the  peaceful  com- 
munity it  had  long  been.  And  Grey,  who  knew  how  to 
arrogate  the  credit  that  should  often  have  redounded  to 
others,  would  have  been  deemed  the  wonder-worker  of  it 
all. 


Chapter  XXIII. 

IN  THE  DESERT. 

The  gates  were  doubly  barred  against  his  return  to 
office  as  a  colonial  Governor.  In  1867,  at  the  instance  of 
Disraeli,  always  allured  by  the  show  of  things,  and  this 
time  imitating  an  innovation  that  had  been  made  by 
the  Spaniards  in  South  America,  a  new  principle  was 
introduced  into  the  selection  of  colonial  Governors.  It 
was  required  that  the  Governor  of  a  self-governing 
colony  "should  be  born  in  the  purple,"  as  the  Byzantine 
emperors  were  born  in  the  purple  chamber.  Grey 
plumed  himself  on  his  aristocratic  connections.  They 
were  not  recognised.  His  alleged  descent  from  Huguenot 
nobles  and  his  visit  to  the  abodes  of  his  mother's  ances- 
tors in  Normandy  did  not  avail  him.  He  had  not  been 
*'born  in  the  purple."  His  pride  was  cut  to  the  quick, 
and  his  democratic  partialities  were  heightened  almost 
to  madness — *'that  worst  madness  which  wears  a 
reasoning  show. ' ' 

A  Fresh  Rebuff. 

Yet  he  did  not  despair  of  recovering  the  favour  of  the 
Colonial  Office.  When  troubles  were  brewing  in  South 
Africa  in  the  late  seventies,  he  sat  sullen  in  his  island, 
waiting  for  a  summons.  Just  so  had  Lord  Melbourne, 
who  had  sworn  himself  out  of  office,  as  out  of  men's 
respect,  sat  ''waiting  to  be  sent  for."  The  summons 
did  not  arrive,  and  Mahomet  went  to  the  mountain  that 
refused  to  come  to  him.  He  applied  to  be  sent  to  South 
Africa.  The  application  was  refused.  Ten  or  twelve 
years  afterwards  Froude  was  sympathetic.  "South 
Africa  is  moving  again,"  he  wrote  to  him  in  1889;  "you 
might  set  all  straight,  but  the  Office,  I  suppose,  would  as 
soon  invite  the  help  of  the  King  of  Darkness."     Lord 

167 


168  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Carnarvon  was  then  ruler  at  "the  OflSce,"  and  he  was 
neither  a  Satan  nor  his  ally,  but  he  was  implacably  con- 
vinced that  Grey  "was  a  dangerous  man,"  who  would 
wreck  any  colonial  government  to  which  he  might  be 
appointed. 

Spurned  by  the  Colonial  Office  and  by  the  governing 
powers,  he  was  for  the  first  time  in  nearly  thirty  years 
a  free  man.  He  no  longer  owed  loyalty  to  any  department 
of  State,  and  both  political  parties  having  employed  and 
promoted  him,  he  owed  none  to  either  of  the  great 
parties  in  particular.  He  was  still  in  his  prime,  with 
thirty  years  of  life  and  twentj^  years  of  administrative 
and  legislative  activity  ahead  of  him.  The  world  lay  all 
before  him.    What  path  of  activity  should  he  choose? 

A  Piatfopm  Oraton. 

He  had  the  prestige  of  a  great  name,  which  opened  to 
him  halls  and  platforms.  He  was  now  to  create  a  new 
instrument,  which  would  fill  those  halls  and  convert 
those  platforms  into  arenas  of  triumph.  He  used  to  say 
that  he  had  hardly  ever  spoken  in  public  till  he  was  past 
fifty.  He  doubtless  referred  to  his  first  oratorical  tour 
in  England  in  1868-9.  He  understated  the  facts.  It  would 
be  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  he  had  been  speaking  all 
his  days.  He  must  have  delivered  many  speeches  to  the 
nominee  bodies  that  formed  his  privy  council  in  three 
successive  colonies,  but  only  two  of  them  have  been 
reported.  Mr.  Button  gives  the  substance  of  a  long 
speech  made  before  the  Legislative  Council  of  South 
Australia  about  1844,  expounding  his  land  policy.  The 
Wellington  /S'^^ec^aior  reported  a  somewhat  lengthy  speech 
made  in  the  Legislative  Council  of  New  Zealand  in  1851, 
opposing  the  projected  extension  of  the  Canterbury  block. 
Both  speeches  are  transparent  with  the  lucidity  that  never 
failed  to  shine  through  all  his  utterances,  but  they  are 
naturally  in  a  different  tone  to  his  later  condones  ad 
popuhim  or  his  impassioned  harangues  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  There  seems  to  be  no  record  of  any 
important  public  address  before  1859.  Then  he  lay  under 
the  transient  shadow  of  a  State  disgrace,  happily  soon 


IN   THE   DESERT  169 

lifted ;  but  no  cloud  rested  on  him  at  Cambridge  when  the 
University  honoured  him  by  making  him  one  of  its 
adopted  sons.  The  custom  then  was  that  each  honorary 
graduate  should  deliver  an  address  at  the  ceremony,  and 
he  heard  of  the  rule  at  the  last  moment.  He  professed 
to  have  been  alarmed  at  the  prospect — he,  an  unpractised 
speaker,  and  without  a  theme.  For  once,  he  himself 
related,  the  most  self-possessed  of  men  lost  his  self- 
command.  Providence  came  to  his  aid.  Gladstone  had  not 
then  forfeited  the  favour  of  the  great  universities,  and 
he  too  was  that  day  capped.  Speaking  before  Grey,  he 
furnished  Grey  with  a  topic.  Following  a  line  of  thought 
more  familiar  to  freethinkers  than  to  believers  in 
revealed  religion,  he  recommended  that  philanthropists 
should  concentrate  their  energies  on  the  reclamation  of 
the  lapsed  masses  of  England,  in  place  of  expending  their 
surplus  wealth  and  strength  in  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen.  The  thesis  was  right  in  the  teeth  of  Grey's 
life-work,  which  was  mainly  devoted  to  the  realisation 
of  that  very  end.  For  more  than  an  hour  this  inex- 
perienced orator  held  the  attention  of  so  choice  an 
audience  while  he  enlarged  on  the  obligation  and  neces- 
sity of  foreign  missions.  It  was  the  contention  of  Max 
Miiller  in  Westminster  Abbey  about  1874,  when  he 
showed  that  a  religion — we  might  generalise  and  say,  a 
people,  an  institution,  a  cause — is  propagandist  in  exact 
proportion  to  its  vitality.  It  was  Grey's  maiden  speech, 
and  it  bore  the  pledge  and  promise  of  future  oratorical 
successes. 

He  was  to  receive,  if  he  had  not  already  received, 
further  training  from  the  mouths  of  a  race  of  natural 
orators.  During  his  second  term  in  New  Zealand  he  had 
once  especially  (at  Taupiri,  in  December,  1862),  but 
doubtless  more  than  once,  occasion  to  address  bands  of 
assembled  Maoris,  chiefs  and  people.  He  then  spoke — 
effectively,  we  may  believe — in  their  own  highly  figurative 
manner.  Was  it  without  influence  on  his  own  later  Par- 
liamentary and  popular  style?  It  was  said  of  him  that 
he  modelled  his  electoral  addresses  and  appeals  on 
Napoleon's    bulletins.      He    may    have    unconsciously 


170  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

moulded  his  dramatic  diction  on  the  declamatory  style 
of  the  Maori  chieftains. 

He  had  one-half  of  the  physical  basis  of  oratory — a 
fine  presence ;  he  lacked  the  other  half — a  sonorous  organ 
of  speech.  His  voice  was  light  and  lacked  carrying 
power;  it  had  no  rich  tones,  small  variety,  little  force 
(save  when  he  was  angry),  and  no  weight.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  not  soon  used  up,  and  he  never  grew  hoarse. 
His  effects  were  all  produced  by  the  things  he  said  and 
the  language  he  used;  never  by  the  manner  of  saying 
them.  He  could  hardly  have  survived  in  that  political 
state  which  he  did  his  best  to  bring  on,  when  stentorian 
oratory  will  be  the  chief  mode  of  appeal,  and  a  strong  or 
a  shrill  voice  will  be  an  indispensable  weapon. 

Advocates  Immigration- 
He  had  a  cause  as  well  as  a  weapon.  According  to 
his  own  account,  he  had  gone  to  explore  West  Australia 
in  the  hope  of  finding  some  extensive  tracts  of  country 
where  the  English  and  (still  more)  the  Irish  proletariat, 
whose  sufferings  he  had  seen  in  the  thirties,  might  be 
successfully  settled.  There  he  realised  his  hope  by 
discovering,  as  he  imagined,  tracts  suitable  for  the 
settlement  of  emigrants  from  the  crowded  Motherland, 
and  his  imagination  was  fired  b}"  the  thought  that  in  future 
years  cities  with  teeming  populations  of  prosperous 
citizens  would  flourish  on  those  wastes.  Thirty  years 
afterwards  he  resumed  the  theme.  He  made  in  England 
and  Scotland  the  first  of  his  oratorical  tours  and 
addressed  large  audiences.  He  spoke  with  unequalled 
knowledge  of  some  of  the  most  desirable  fields  of  emigra- 
tion in  the  British  Empire  or  in  the  world.  He  had  not 
only  explored  both  the  tropical  and  the  sub-tropical  parts 
of  Western  Australia;  he  had  resided  in  its  temperate 
south-west,  so  well  suited  to  agriculture.  As  Governor, 
he  had  resided  in  South  Australia,  for  two  long  terms 
in  New  Zealand,  and  for  two  shorter  terms  in  South 
Africa.  He  had  penetrated  some  distance  into  South 
Australia.  He  had  visited  almost  every  part  of  New 
Zealand,  much  of  it  on  foot.    He  had  ridden  all  over  Cape 


IN   THE   DESERT  171 

Colony,  Kafraria,  Natal,  and  into  the  Orange  State. 
He  had  watched  yonng  and  already  robust  communities 
grow  up  in  such  countries.  He  had  a  glowing  imagina- 
tion and  much  descriptive  power.  Who  so  well  fitted  to 
paint  the  aesthetic  attractions  or  the  real  advantages  of 
emigration  to  such  lands?  He  at  once  took  a  high  point 
of  view.  In  those  days  emigration  was  looked  upon  in 
England  as  little  better  than  transportation,  doubtless 
because  it  was  often  "assisted,"  because  emigrants  were 
often  drawn  from  the  lower  strata  of  society,  and  again 
because  they  were  going  out  to  countries  that  were 
believed  to  be  still  in  a  state  of  semi-savagery.  In  the 
early  eighties  the  sentiment  had  not  passed  away,  and 
those  who  then  went  out  to  New  Zealand  were  regarded  as 
just  objects  of  compassion.  So  recently  as  the  end  of 
1907  a  young  woman  who  had  been  brought  out  to  New 
South  "Wales  as  a  domestic  servant  vigorously  objected 
to  being  described  as  an  'emigrant.' 

Grey  set  himself  to  eradicate  the  prejudice.  He 
described  the  Australasian  colonies  in  particular  as  pos- 
sessing many  attractions — great  natural  beauty,  a  virgin 
soil,  and  a  glorious  climate,  where  life  was  worth  living 
for  its  own  sake,  where  manual  labour  was  light, 
abundant,  and  highly  remunerated,  where  taxation  was 
not  burdensome,  poverty  unknown,  workhouses  non- 
existent, gaols  empty.  Above  all,  he  lauded  the  political 
condition  of  these  happy  countries.  There  reigned 
perfect  equality.  There  aspiring  young  men  might  enter 
any  yjrofession  and  hope  to  rise  to  any  eminence,  that  of 
Governor  alone  excepted.  There  working-men  might 
become  Premiers  and  cabinet  ministers,  chief  justices  and 
judges,  heads  of  departments,  inspectors-general  of  police, 
editors  of  influential  journals,  and  so  forth.  Did  not  the 
hearts  of  his  audience  burn  within  them  as  they  listened 
to  Aladdin  and  saw  the  transfoi-mation-scenes  revealed 
by  his  wonderful  lamp?  Well  might  the  eloquent  s])eaker 
assure  them  that  the  colonies  were  not  places  of  exile, 
but  "a  home  and  a  heritage  for  the  people  of  England." 

He  had  a  definite  policy  of  emigration.  Re  proposed 
that  it  should  be  conducted  by  the  agency  of  parishes 


172  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

and  municipalities,  which  would  select  and  send  out 
emigrants,  bearing  or  assisting  in  bearing  the  cost  of 
emigration,  and  ever  after  retaining  a  maternal  interest 
in  such  bodies.  These  would  be  placed  in  special  settle- 
ments, where  they  would  perpetuate  the  traditions  of  the 
towns  and  parishes  whence  they  had  come.  They  would 
be  organically  connected  with  their  metropolitan  source. 
And  as  aid  had  flowed  out  from  the  municipality  or  parish 
to  the  colonial  settlement,  so  would  it  flow  back  to  the 
parish  or  municipality  and  bring  out  fresh  emigrants. 
Spiritual  children  of  the  old  communities  would  these 
young  communities  be. 

It  was  a  hopeful  scheme— far  more  practicable  than 
many  such  schemes  that  have  been  seriously  tried,  and 
it  deserved  a  better  fate  than  silence  or  extinction.  But 
the  time  was  unfavourable.  The  political  energies  of 
public  men  were  absorbed  by  the  Irish  and  other  ques- 
tions, and  the  country  had  neither  time  nor  attention  to 
spare  for  such  a  topic. 

It  was  doubtless  in  connection  with  this  subject  that 
Grey  came  into  contact  with  Carlyle.  The  Latter-day 
Pamphleteer  had  long  had  a  strong  belief  in  emigration 
as  likely  to  relieve  the  distress  existing  in  England  and 
open  out  new  vistas  of  hope  for  the  poor.  He  was  there- 
fore greatly  attracted  by  a  man  of  the  ruler  or  hero  type 
who  had  set  himself  to  preach  the  same  panacea  for 
English  woes,  and  who  was  furnished  with  a  definite 
scheme  for  carrying  it  out.  He  encouraged  Grey  to 
continue  his  propaganda.  "The  question  of  emigration 
is  the  most  important  of  all  questions  for  this  nation," 
he  wrote,  "and  you,  of  all  men,"  he  told  Grey,  "are  the 
man  to  urge  and  guide  it  to  a  successful  issue."  He 
talked  with  Lord  Derby  about  Grey  and  his  plan  and 
found  him  sympathetic.  He  introduced  Grey  to  his  lord- 
ship, half  apologising  for  performing  what  might  be  a 
superfluous  act.  Grey  certainly  impressed  him  as  a  true 
worker  in  a  good  cause. 

When  a  grander  arena  than  the  platform  opened  up 
to  Grey,  Carlyle  naturally  took  a  deep  interest  in  his 
candidature  for  Newark.     He  wrote  a  letter  which  he 


IN   THE   DESEET  173 

obviously  designed  to  aid  it,  and,  with  the  same  object, 
his  niece  copied  out  the  passages  in  his  writings 
that  bore  on  emigration.  He  averred  that  he 
"took  more  interest  in  that  single  candidature  than 
in  all  the  other  remaining  657."  Edward  Jenkins,  author 
of  a  now-forgotten,  but  once  popular  pamphlet-story, 
Ginx's  Baby,  was  Grey's  most  strenuous  supporter.  The 
election  never  came  ot¥,  or  at  least  Grey  withdrew  from 
the  contest.  The  Liberal  Ministry  of  the  day  was  far 
from  anxious  to  enlist  a  '^supporter"  who  might  have 
exhausted  the  forms  of  Parliament,  but  would  never  have 
exhausted  the  resources  of  an  ever-scheming  brain,  in 
making  the  lives  of  the  occupants  of  the  Ministerial  front 
bench  a  burden  to  them.  Gladstone  himself  intervened. 
He  desired  to  find  a  seat  for  a  general  officer.  Sir  Henry 
Storks,  whose  aid  was  wanted  by  the  Government  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  He  brought  pressure  on  Grey  to 
induce  him  to  retire.  Seeing  that,  opposed  by  the 
Government,  he  would  have  small  chance  of  being  elected, 
or  that,  by  dividing  the  party,  he  might  let  a  Tory  get  in. 
Grey  yielded  to  pressure,  and  was  thus  jockeyed  out  of 
a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  himself  used  to  say 
that  he  was  jockeyed  out  of  a  second  seat.  The  two  events 
were  flung  in  his  face  by  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
New  Zealand,  who  said,  in  a  brief  but  pungent  letter  to 
the  Spectator,  that  two  English  constituencies  had  shown 
their  opinion  of  his  discretion  by  refusing  to  return  him 
to  Parliament.  In  neither  case  had  the  constituency,  in 
all  probability,  anything  to  do  with  the  result. 

Still  another  sphere  was  open  to  him.  He  might 
endeavour  to  mould  public  opinion  by  appealing  to  it 
through  the  press. 

The  Irish  Reformer. 

Grey  seldom  (perhaps  only  once  in  public)  referred 
to  his  partially  Irish  origin.  Probably  moved  less  by  a 
hereditary  strain  that  might  as  well  have  been  hostile 
as  favourable  to  the  repeal  of  the  Union  than  by  his 
sympathy  with  the  pro-Irish  Liberalism  of  the  time,  in 
1869  he  addressed  a  long  letter  to  the  then  chief  organ 


174  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

of  Liberalism  in  the  London  daily  press,  the  Daily  Neivs. 
In  this  he  claimed  to  have  first  proposed  a  solution  of 
the  Irish  problem  that  would  alike  commend  itself  to  the 
Irish  Nationalists  and  at  the  same  time  appear  to  English 
Liberals  less  fraught  with  danger  than  the  total  repeal 
of  the  Union  accompanied  with  Home  Rule.  ...  So 
I  had  written,  remembering  the  account  of  his  scheme  as 
given  to  myself  during  a  visit  to  Kawau  in  1884.  He  then 
contemplated  minimising  the  dangers  of  a  single  parlia- 
ment in  Ireland,  with  a  single  administration,by proposing 
that  there  should  be  four  legislatures,  with  four  adminis- 
trations, answering  to  the  four  provinces;  and  the 
difficulty  that  was  then  perplexing  him  and  exercising 
his  ingenuity  was  homologous  with  that  which  is  now 
puzzling  Australian  legislators — namely,  where  to  plant 
the  site  of  a  federal  capital,  which  could  not  be  at  Dublin. 
A  similar  scheme  was  actually  broached  some  time  in  the 
seventies  by  an  English  barrister  who  is  a  member  of  the 
present  English  Ministry  (1908),  and  I  may  be  con- 
founding the  two.  However  that  may  be,  no  such  scheme 
was  projected  by  Grey  in  1869.  The  one  he  then  put 
forth  simply  proposed  to  grant  to  Ireland  a  single  legis- 
lature which  should  possess  powers  similar  to  those  of 
an  American  State  legislature.  There  was,  in  the  letters, 
no  attempt  to  work  out  the  scheme  or  surmount  in  theory 
the  difficulties  arising  from  conflicting  jurisdictions.  The 
Act  of  Parliament  that  he  drafted  consisted  of  a  single 
clause,  providing  for  the  creation  of  a  legislature  for 
Ireland.  As  then  elaborated,  it  was  to  consist  of  two 
elective  houses,  having  the  same  legislative  powers  as 
a  State  legislature  in  the  United  States,  and  it  was,  as  he 
then  proposed,  to  sit  in  Dublin.  Irish  members  were  to 
remain  at  Westminster,  as  in  the  final  (not  in  the  earlier) 
form  of  Gladstone's  scheme,  but  were  no  longer  to  inter- 
vene or  vote  on  matters  of  purely  English,  Scottish,  or 
Welsh  concernment. 

The  project  met  with  little  notice  when  it  was  pub- 
lished ;  public  opinion  was  not  yet  sufficiently  advanced  to 
give  it  a  favourable  reception.    It  had  an  unmistakable 


IN   THE   DESERT  175 

reception  from  the  Liberal  chiefs.  It  threw  a  bomb-shell 
into  the  Liberal  camp,  where  very  different  measures 
were  being  prepared,  whose  fate  it  might  imperil  or  seal. 
The  leaders  hastened  to  repudiate  an  ally  who  might 
seriously  compromise  them.  Earl  Granville,  only  too 
well  instructed  in  Grey's  colonial  career,  and  inheriting 
the  distrust  of  him  now  entertained  by  the  Colonial  Office, 
violently  attacked  Grey  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Glad- 
stone, not  yet  a  convert  to  Home  Rule,  and  Bright,  who 
never  became  one,  were  strongly  hostile.  Grey  actually 
believed  that  he  had  converted  Carlyle  to  his  views,  but 
a  very  different  measure  would  have  been  dealt  out  to 
the  poor  Irish  by  the  biographer  of  Cromwell. 

Seventeen  or  eighteen  years  later  the  letters  were 
reprinted  in  a  New  Zealand  journal.  Home  Rule  was 
then  in  full  blast.  The  bill  of  1886  was  in  general 
instantly  accepted  by  all  but  the  more  Conservative 
colonists.  They  sought  to  aid  the  movement.  In  1887 
a  cablegram,  signed  by  Grey  in  the  name  of  many  legisla- 
tors, was  addressed  to  Gladstone,  who  now  plumed 
himself  on  the  support  of  the  man  whom  he  had  jockeyed 
out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  whose  action,  eighteen 
years  before,  had  threatened  to  embarrass  him.  It  urged 
the  illustrious  statesman  to  be  strong  and  of  good 
courage;  "faint  not  from  age,"  it  exhorted  him.  Grey 
cannot  but  have  inwardly  exulted  at  his  triumph  over  the 
man  who  had  once  contenmed  him  and  now  adopted  his 
policy,  but  no  word  of  unseemly  or  ignoble  exultation 
escaped  his  lips.  Unlike  many  a  great  thinker  or  great 
man  in  his  old  age — Carlyle  or  Tennyson,  Ruskin  or 
Spencer — he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  world 
going  his  way  at  last,  and  not  the  way  that  more  famous 
advisers  would  have  had  it  go. 

His  Retreat. 

That  hour  of  triumph  lay  far  in  the  distance,  and 
meanwhile  he  was  informed  that  the  Liberal  leaders  were 
embarrassed  by  his  persistent  advocacy  of  a  cause  then 
much  in  advance  of  their  designs.     Told  by  them  that 


176  LIFE   OF  SIB   GEORGE   GEEY 

he  was  compromising  the  party  and  conscious  that  he  was 
compromising  himself  by  association  with  certain  Eadical 
irreconcilables,  he  resolved  on  a  great  sacrifice.  As 
Salinguerra,  in  Browning's  epic,  banished  himself  to 
Padna,  so  that — 

"  Said  he,  my  presence,  judged  the  single  bar 
To  permanent  tranquillity,  may  jar 
No  longer " 

Grey  impulsively  decidedly  to  leave  England.  It  was  an 
irreparable  mistake.  Had  he  chosen  to  bide  his  time, 
no  power  under  heaven  could  have  kept  him  out  of  Par- 
liament. As  a  legislator,  he  would  have  been  only  at  his 
second-best,  for  he  had  no  mastery  of  detail.  But  he  had 
a  large  grasp  of  principles,  a  gift  of  luminous  exposition, 
and  a  zeal  for  propaganda  that  would  have  found  in  the 
Legislature  or  on  the  platform  their  fitting  sphere.  He 
might  eventually  have  done  much  to  organize  a  national 
system  of  colonisation.  He  might  have  become  standing 
colonial  adviser  to  the  House,  or  the  voluntary  spokesman 
of  the  Australasian  colonies.  It  would  have  been 
interesting  to  observe  how  he  confronted  the  great  leader 
of  the  Liberal  party,  whose  rooted  distrust  he  recipro- 
cated with  lifelong  dislike,  and  how  these  two  haughty 
spirits,  like  Michael  and  Lucifer  in  Byron's  most 
splendid  poem,  comported  themselves  in  the  shock  of 
inevitable  battle.  All  such  chances,  useful  and 
ornamental,  were  for  ever  thrown  away  by  the  rash 
decision.  He  had  only  to  bid  adieu  to  the  distinguished 
men  of  letters  and  science  with  whom  he  had  consorted. 

His  Scientific  and  Literary  Associates. 

For  at  all  times  he  cultivated  the  society  of  men  of 
letters  and  science.  In  the  first  years  of  his  residence  in 
New  Zealand  a  letter  addressed  by  Darwin  to  Captain 
Stokes,  who  had  censured  Grey's  surveys  of  West  Aus- 
tralia and  condemned  the  recommendations  based  on 
them,  was  by  a  singular  accident  enclosed  in  a  copy  of 
a  book  sent  out  to  Grey.  How  it  contrived  to  find  its  way 
there  never  transpired;  surely,  "an  enemy  had  done  this 


IN   THE  DESEET  177 

thing. ' '  The  letter  was  sympathetic  with  Stokes  and  con- 
demnatory of  Grey,  but  it  elicited  a  magnanimous  reply 
from  the  high-minded  man,  which  initiated  an  amicable 
correspondence  between  the  naturalist  and  the  Governor, 
who  were  both  rising  into  fame.  The  correspondence 
led  to  further  intercourse,  and  in  after-years,  when  Grey 
happened  to  be  temporarily  resident  in  London,  the  two 
(according  to  Grey's  account)  often  walked  the  streets 
at  night,  discussing  many  things.  Those  who  have 
walked  the  streets  with  Grey  at  night  will  remember  the 
animation  of  the  old  man,  his  interminable  flow  of  talk, 
and  the  apparently  inexhaustible  physical  strength  of  the 
septuagenarian;  and  they  will  easily  imagine  what 
nodes,  if  not  coenasque,  deorum  those  walks  and  talks 
must  have  been.  During  his  intermittent  \'isits  to  the 
metropolis  Grey  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mill,  with 
whom  (he  was  wont  to  relate)  he  discussed  the  uses  and 
abuses  of  the  waste  lands  of  the  colonies,  and  in  conjunc- 
tion with  whom  (he  veraciously  affirmed)  he  devised  the 
economic  doctrine  of  *Hhe  unearned  increment."  He 
met  with  Spencer  at  the  Athenaeum.  Huxley  was  then 
president  of  the  Ethnological  Society,  and,  having  caught 
such  a  very  big  fish,  he  was  eager  to  serve  him  up  as  often 
as  he  could  and  as  highly  sauced  as  possible.  Grey  had 
apparently  figured  to  advantage  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Society,  and  Huxley  desired  to  arrange  for  another  soiree 
to  be  devoted  to  the  ethnology  of  Polynesia,  at  which 
Grey  was  to  read  a  paper  on  Maori  sagas.  He  would 
himself,  he  afterwards  intimated,  open  the  ball;  Grey 
would  come  next;  and  a  bishop  would  wind  up.  Grey 
would  thus,  he  playfully  said,  be  sandwiched  between 
science  and  religion. 

At  the  Athenaeum  he  met  Lecky,  to  whom  he  claimed 
to  have  suggested  the  striking  passage  in  the  History  of 
European  Morals  where  the  eloquent  Irish  historian 
makes  the  apology  of  the  prostitute,  who  vicariously 
sacrifices  her  womanhood  to  shield  the  purity  of  the 
family  and  secure  the  matron  ''in  the  pride  of 
her  untempted  chastity."    Oarlyle  he  saw  at   Chelsea; 

N 


178  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

and  Carlyle  wrote  of  him,  with  some  exaggeration:  "he 
is  born  of  the  Tetragonidae,  built  four-square,  solid,  as 
one  fitted  to  strongly  meet  the  winds  of  heaven  and  the 
waves  of  fate."  To  a  veracious  New  Zealand  humorist 
he  confessed  that  he  could  not  make  out  whether  Grey 
was  a  man  of  genius  or  a  humbug;  but  on  learning  that 
Grey,  who  had  smoked  a  pipe  with  him,  was  no  smoker, 
he  concluded  that  he  was  a  humbug.  We  may  be  sure 
that  Grey  did  not  jest,  practically  or  theoretically,  with 
so  serious  a  reformer  as  John  Morley,  but  found  himself 
in  close  aflfinity  with  the  then  republican.  Rhoda  B rough- 
ton  he  knew,  as  he  also  well  knew  her  model  guardsman 
and  ideal  man,  who  was  long  a  member  of  the  Legislative 
Council  of  New  Zealand.  Grey  associated  by  preference 
with  men  who  had  some  literary  cultivation,  and  though 
his  native  sphere  was  action,  he  seemed  always  glad  to 
escape  from  the  mud-bath  of  politics  into  the  ether  of 
poetical  imagination  or  philosophical  speculation. 


Chapter  XXIV. 

AT  KAWAU. 

It  had  long  been  the  dream  of  Sir  George  Grey — which 
he  used  to  say  he  shared  with  Mrs.  Browning — to  with- 
draw from  the  turmoil  of  public  life  to  a  solitary  island 
and  there  live  at  peace  with  himself  and  the  world.  In 
one  form  or  another  it  is  a  natural  and  common  aspira- 
tion. If  the  days  of  the  years  of  our  pilgrimage  are 
seventy  years,  should  we  not  treat  its  last  decade  as  a 
Sabbatic  period  and  spend  it  in  preparation  for  the  final 
change!  A  Scottish  legislator,  belonging  to  the  historic 
family  of  Baillie  of  Jerviswoode,  deliberately  forsook 
the  world  at  sixty  and  then  wore  himself  out  by  the 
intensity  of  his  devotions.  The  great  Dr.  Chalmers  also 
looked  forward  to  a  seventh  decade  of  Sabbatic  rest,  but 
was  doomed  to  spend  it  amid  the  turmoil  of  ecclesiastical 
strife.  Carlyle  too  dreamt  of  a  closing  period  of  peaceful 
retirement,  but  worked  on  till  he  was  close  on  seventy, 
when  the  oestrus  of  moral  dyspepsia  had  bitten  into  his 
soul  and  poisoned  his  last  years.  Gladstone  likewise 
made  strenuous  efforts  to  wrench  himself  from  public  life, 
in  order  to  dedicate  himself  in  seclusion  to  some  lofty 
task  befitting  the  gathering  of  the  shadows,  but  was,  once 
and  again,  rapt  up  and  carried  away  by  the  genius  of 
politics.  Just  so  did  Grey  meditate  a  complete  self- 
banishment  from  the  world,  though  he  was  only  approach- 
ing his  sixtieth  year  and  was  still  in  the  prime  of  his 
powers.  Probably  with  a  view  to  such  a  closing  sabbath 
he  had  purchased  an  estate  where  he  might  be  as  retired 
as  he  pleased  and  yet  not  too  far  from  such  society  as 
he  cared  to  see. 

Kawau,  or  Shag  Island,  is  one  of  a  group  of  emerald 
isles  that  gem  the  sapphire  sea  near  the  head  of  the 
Hauraki    Gulf.     It    is   a   vision   of    beauty.       Rounde<:l 

179 


180  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

masses  of  low  hills  contimially  open  up  to  the  pedestrian 
wonderful  new  scenes,  as  every  turn  of  the  steamer  on 
Loch  Lomond  discloses  some  enchanting  new  prospect. 
The  shy  deer  could  be  seen  flitting  to  and  fro,  and  on  the 
heights  the  bounding  wallaby  and  kangaroo  were 
descried.  Trees,  shrubs,  and  flowers  from  every  quarter 
of  the  globe  made  it  a  garden  of  delights.  In  this  earthly 
paradise  did  the  disillusioned  statesman  find  the  peace 
that  he  sought?  For  one  thing,  there  was  never  complete 
retirement.  To  a  succession  of  visitors  the  colonial 
LuGullus  extended  a  hospitality  of  mind  as  well  as  of 
hearth,  and  among  crowds  of  excursionists  he  played  the 
patriarch  with  unostentatious  simplicity.  Did  he  have 
a  single  visitor,  of  any  education,  he  would  devote  him- 
self to  his  guest,  hardly  ever  leaving  him  to  himself, 
planning  excursions  for  him,  walking  with  him,  and 
above  all  talking  with  him.  Upon  this  favoured  indi- 
vidual he  would  pour  forth  all  the  treasures  of  his  mind, 
all  his  reminiscences  of  the  past,  and  all  his  hopes  for  the 
future.  Many  times  over  he  must  have  thus  talked 
through  his  whole  past  life.  There  was  no  incident  in 
his  past  career  that  might  not  come  up  for  narrative  or 
discussion.  Such  visitors  as  Froude  he  completely  sub- 
jugated, and  the  chapter  in  Oceana  devoted  to  Sir  George 
is  a  tribute  to  his  fascination.  Baron  Hiibner,  reputed 
son  of  old  Metternich,  came  to  see  the  ex-Governor,  and 
was  no  less  eulogistic.  Not  of  Circe's  train  assuredly 
were  they,  and  yet  cooler  heads  or  more  instructed  minds 
would  have  judged  him  differently.  Few  New 
Zealanders  of  any  importance  visited  him  there,  and  he 
did  not  wish  to  see  them.  He  desired  to  be  left  to 
himself. 

Such  visitors  were  for  the  beautiful  summer  or  still 
finer  autumn  months,  when  Kawau  looked  its  loveliest. 
During  the  rainy  season,  when  for  weeks  or  sometimes 
for  months  it  was  hardly  possible  to  go  out  of  doors,  did 
he  ever  undertake  the  works  of  erudition  we  know  he 
at  one  time  contemplated?  The  materials  for  some  of 
them  had  been  deposited  at  the  Cape,  whereas  the  man 


AT  KAWAU  181 

who  could  have  used  them  best,  now  that  Bleek  was  gone, 
was  held  at  a  distance  of  7,000  miles  remote  from  them ; 
but  with  a  splendid  second  collection  at  his  elbows,  he 
need  not  have  lacked  materials.  The  requisite  gifts  and 
somewhat  of  the  necessary  culture  were  there,  but  the 
equally  indispensable  stimulus  was  wanting.  Though  he 
could  speak  for  three  hours  at  a  stretch,  and  tour  the 
Colony  for  weeks  when  fired  by  a  cause,  he  was  incapable 
of  continuous  solitary  application.  Hence,  the  further 
translation  of  legends  and  myths,  the  elucidations  he 
could  have  given  (for  he  saw  into  the  heart  of  them 
and  severely  condemned  some  of  what  he  deemed  John 
White's  perversions  of  them),  and  the  works  of  com- 
parative mythology  he  might  have  composed,  were  never 
made  and  never  written. 

High  thoughts  doubtless  visited  the  soaring  spirit. 
A  drama  of  his  composition,  probably  produced  in 
those  years,  has  been  found  among  his  papers ;  it  appears 
to  bear  traces  of  his  lofty  spirit.  Light  literary  sketches 
show  his  humour.  In  those  same  years  were  nurtured 
the  principles  and  springs  of  action  that  were  to  give 
him  a  fresh  lease  of  both  public  and  natural  life.  But 
darker  humours  were  too  often  in  the  ascendant.  Ghosts 
of  the  past  came  unbidden — memories  of  great  things 
done,  indeed,  but  also  of  insult,  humiliation,  and 
defeat.  Hypochondria — not  that  of  the  wounded  spirit 
or  of  the  dreamer  astray  in  an  alien  world,  but  begotten 
of  thwarted  ambition  and  outraged  pride — laid  her  mad- 
dening fingers  upon  him  in  the  hot,  still  sunshine  or  in 
the  silent  watches  of  the  night.  Children  alone,  always 
loved  by  the  childless  man,  could  scare  away  the  evil 
spirit.  From  such  vampire-moods  he  was  happily 
rescued  by  a  welcome  summons  to  action. 


Chaptee  XXV. 
LEGISLATOR  AND  PREMIER. 

After  losing  the  battle  of  Pultava,  Charles  the  Twelfth, 
of  Sweden,  lay  for  three  years  at  Bender,  in  (what  was 
then)  Turkey,  sunk  in  torpor,  and  "lost  to  life  and  use 
and  name  and  fame."  Then,  one  day,  he  suddenly  woke 
up,  his  kingly  strength  came  back  to  him,  and  he  rode, 
with  hardly  an  attendant,  across  snow-covered  Europe 
to  the  gates  of  Stralsund.  For  five  years  Grey  remained 
in  seclusion  at  Kawau,  waiting,  or  rather  kept,  as  we  can 
now  perceive,  for  an  appropriate  summons  to  action. 
It  came  at  last.  The  fighting  spirit  of  the  old  warrior 
answered  the  call,  and  he  went  forth  to  battle.  As  if  in 
tardy  recognition  of  his  claims  as  the  creator  of  the 
Provincial  system,  he  was  elected  Superintendent  of  the 
province  of  Auckland.  His  tenure  of  the  office  was  not  a 
success.  His  autocratic  habits  were  incompatible  with 
the  position  of  an  elective  Lieutenant-Governor,  and 
public  men  who  were  well  acquainted  with  the  facts 
positively  asserted  that  he  would  not  have  been  re-elected, 
had  the  occasion  arisen.  But  it  was  destined  never  to 
arise.  He  had  entered  the  Legislature  and  was  now 
deeply  involved  in  the  conduct  of  political  measures  of 
prime  importance. 

M.H.R. 

He  re-entered  public  life  in  no  half-hearted  spirit,  but 
plunged  into  the  thick  of  it.  The  same  year  that  saw 
his  election  to  the  Superintendency  witnessed  his  election 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  was  a 
notable  event.  The  greatest  Governor  the  Colony  had 
known  stooped  from  his  viceroyalty  to  take  his  seat 
as  an  ordinary  legislator  in  the  popular  chamber  of  a 
country  which  he  had  once  autocratically  ruled.     The 

182 


L>0 


LEGISLATOR    A^^D    PEEMIER  18c 

event  was  yet  not  quite  nnprecedented.  Half-a-century 
earlier  John  Quiney  Adams,  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished of  American  presidents,  returned  to  the 
legislature  where  he  had  once  sent  messages  as  a 
sovereign,  and  likewise  took  his  seat  in  the  popular  cham- 
ber. Twenty  years  earlier  Grey's  greatest  rival,  Edward 
Gibbon  Wakefield,  the  real  founder  of  the  colony  of  New 
Zealand,  entered  the  newly-created  legislature,  and  he 
also  sat  in  the  more  powerful  chamber.  Grey  was  to 
surpass  both  Adams  and  Wakefield  in  the  brilliancy 
he  shed  upon  the  office. 

His  Attitude. 

When  a  man  who  has  held  superior  ofiice  condescends 
to  fill  one  of  a  somewhat  lower  kind,  he  may  be  advised  to 
assume  a  position  of  lofty  impartiality.  Such  an  attitude 
was  taken  by  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  his  closing  years.  It 
was  scarcely  possible  for  Adams,  on  fire  with  abolitionist 
zeal,  or  for  Wakefield,  whose  distinctive  ideas  had  been 
assailed  by  Grey's  legislation,  to  become  ''the  acknow- 
ledged arbiter  in  public  questions  and  moderator  of 
political  dissensions."  A  sagacious  and  experienced 
official — the  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives — 
counselled  Grey  to  make  himself  the  judicial  Nestor  of 
public  life  in  New  Zealand.  Never  for  a  moment  did  he 
intend  to  pursue — never  for  an  hour  was  he  capable  of 
pursuing — any  such  policy.  If  ever  such  moderation 
was  possible  for  so  imperious  a  nature  under  any  circum- 
stances, it  was  doubly  impossible  now.  The  Ministry 
of  the  day  was  bent  on  destroying  that  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution which  was  pre-eminently  his  handiwork,  if  any 
part  of  it  were  his — the  Provincial  institutions.  To  the 
grief  of  seeing  the  constitution  he  had  drafted  mangled 
by  ill-informed  Ministers  on  the  advice  of  treacherous 
colonists  was  to  be  added  the  mortification  of  witnessing 
the  last  living  relic  of  it  killed.  All  the  pride  of  a  parent 
in  his  offspring  or  of  an  author  in  his  work,  all  the  anger 
of  an  autocrat  who  saw  the  creatures  of  his  hands  rel)el- 
ling  against  their  maker,  poured  itself  out  in  speeches 


184  LIFE    OF   SIR    GEORGE    GREY 

of  a  kind  never  before  heard  in  a  House  where  the  style 
of  public  speaking  had  been  much  above  the  average  level 
of  that  of  colonial  legislatures. 

A  Pi^oposed  Dichotomy. 

Grey  sought  to  avert  the  event  he  most  dreaded  and 
preclude  the  complete  abolition  of  the  Provinces  by  pro- 
posing a  modified  form  of  it.  He  moved  a  series  of 
resolutions,  of  which  the  gist  was  that,  while  the  Central 
Government  should  be  retained  for  matters  of  general 
concern,  two  administrations  should  be  created  for  the 
North  and  South  Islands  separately.  There  was  much 
to  be  said  for  the  proposal.  A  fundamental  opposition 
between  the  two  islands  was  created  by  the  dif- 
ferent distribution  of  the  Maoris.  They  were  spread 
all  over  the  North  Island,  at  some  parts  in  dense 
masses;  they  were  but  thinly  sprinkled  over  the  South. 
This  deep-lying  difference  was  the  generating  point  of  a 
whole  series  of  oppositions  that  usually  placed  the  public 
opinion,  and  consequently  the  Parliamentary  representa- 
tion, of  the  two  islands  in  different  camps.  Wliile  the 
South  Island,  over  the  greater  part  of  which  the  colonists 
hardly  came  into  contact  with  the  Maoris,  was  largely 
philo-Maori,  the  very  differently-situated  North  Island, 
where  the  settlers  were  almost  everywhere  at  the  mercy 
of  the  natives,  was  fanatically  anti-Maori.  The  argument 
for  the  bifurcation  from  this  point  of  view  was  urged 
by  Grey  in  two  long  speeches,  spoken  on  August  3  and  16, 
1876 — one  filling  fifteen,  the  other  sixteen,  columns  of 
Hansard,  and  it  was  earnestly,  passionately,  sometimes 
nobly  urged.  As  always,  he  was  egoist,  promenading 
his  own  part  in  the  history  of  the  Colony,  as  when  he  told 
how  he  had  himself  legislated  singly  for  the  Colony  by 
drafting  its  Constitution.  He  displayed  before  the 
General  Assembly  "the  pageant  of  his  bleeding  heart," 
as  when  he  said  that  he  ' '  would  bear  the  injuries  heaped 
on"  him.  He  was  no  lamb,  and  he  did  not  bear  them  in 
silence.  He  referred  to  "an  attack  of  a  grievous  kind 
made  on"  him  "within  a  few  days,"  and  for  the  first 


LEGISLATOR    AND    PREMIER  185 

time  he  produced  an  authoritative  letter,  written  years 
before,  that  vindicated  him  against  it.  He  was  persistent, 
and  repeatedly  on  these  and  other  occasions  he  was  called 
to  order  by  other  members  or  by  the  Speaker.  He  made 
passionate  appeals.  "The  Premier  has  shown  through- 
out this  session  a  determination  to  destroy  me,"  he 
declared.  ' '  I  stand  before  the  House  appealing  to  it  and 
possibly  pleading  for  my  life,"  cried  melodramatically 
the  former  Governor  of  the  Colony.  He  aggrandised  the 
subject  by  making  large  allusion  to  the  doings  of  the 
Pitts  and  Addingtons,  the  Wellingtons  and  Peels.  He 
exalted  the  theme  by  representing  the  occasion  as  being 
the  first  when  an  Anglo-Saxon  community  had  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  shaping  its  own  constitution.  He 
denounced  the  existing  constitution  as  "a  mutilated  and 
contemptible  form  of  a  constitution,"  though  he  had 
just  claimed  it  as  his  own,  and  the  chief  mutilation  was 
the  non-elective  character  of  the  Legislative  Council. 
He  sought  to  excite  dread  by  declaring  it  his  belief  that 
a  war  of  races  was  imminent  in  the  Colony  and  might 
even  now  break  out.  He  was  still  suave  in  comparison 
with  his  later  utterances;  he  asserted  that  he  had  "no 
intention  of  blaming  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  no 
desire  to  offend  him. ' '  He  was  still  loyal  in  a  way.  '  *  We 
love  our  Queen,"  he  said,  ''and  will  ever  remain  loyal 
to  her ; ' '  but  he  did  not  love  what  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
called  "the  Queen's  Government." 

Abolition. 

In  a  like  strain  he  spoke  when  the  bill  itself  was 
actually  under  discussion.  His  passion  and  his  rhetoric 
overflowed  in  Demosthenic  orations.  What  rather 
detracts  from  the  value  of  these  masterpieces  is  that,  of 
all  the  disasters  predicted  as  the  consequences  of  the 
abolition  of  the  Provinces,  not  one  has  come  to  pass. 
As  territories  with  semi-sovereign  powers  the  Provinces 
have  been  condemned  by  history,  while  they  naturally 
survive  as  administrative  units.  He  did  not  content  him- 
self with  oratory  or  stop  with  appeals.     Stretching  his 


186  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

rights  and  presuming  on  his  position  and  his  past,  he 
telegraphed  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  urging  him  to  dis- 
allow the  Act.  Needless  to  say,  he  was  not  listened  to. 
He  could  not  avert  the  fate  of  his  beloved  Provinces, 
but  he  helped  to  precipitate  the  doom  that  awaits  all 
destroyers.  The  abolitionists  were  themselves  abolished, 
and  Grey,  with  a  band  of  young  and  able  adherents, 
known  as  ''Greyhounds,"  entered  into  their  places. 

A  Grey  Ministry. 

Like  the  British  constitution,  the  new  Ministry  was  not 
made,  but  grew.  On  October  8, 1877,  a  motion  expressing 
want  of  confidence  in  the  Government  was  moved  by 
Mr.  Larnach  and  was  carried.  As  is  the  rule,  Mr. 
Larnach  was  invited  by  the  Governor,  the  Marquis  of 
Normanby,  to  form  a  Ministry.  He  never  made  the 
attempt.  Having  been  put  forward  by  the  Provincial 
party,  of  which  Grey  was  the  real  leader,  he  at  once  gave 
way  to  his  chief,  who  proceeded  to  select  colleagues. 
On  October  15  Grey  stated  in  the  House  that  he  had  been 
appointed  Premier,  and  that  he  had  also  assumed  the 
position  of  Colonial  Secretary  and  Commissioner  of 
Customs.  He  then  made  a  declaration  of  the  Ministerial 
policy.  The  Ministry  was  still  unstable,  and  a  few  days 
later  he  announced  its  reconstruction.  He  had  dropped 
the  office  of  Colonial  Secretary,  but  retained  that  of 
Commissioner  of  Customs.  A  few  months  afterwards 
the  shifting,  but  not  yet  shiftless,  cabinet  was  again 
reconstructed,  and  it  was  made  more  representative  of 
the  strength  of  the  party  by  the  inclusion  of  two  new 
and  strong  Ministers.  The  good  and  kind,  if  also  self- 
important,  Mr.  Ballance  was  appointed  Colonial  Trea- 
surer, and  the  Herculean  energy  of  Robert  Stout  found 
the  cumulative  offices  of  Attorney-General,  Minister  of 
Lands,  and  Minister  of  Education,  in  addition  to  his 
private  practice  as  a  lawyer,  mere  child's  play. 

Grey's  entry  into  office  was  a  dramatic  event.  He  had 
been  High  Commissioner,  Governor-in-Chief,  Lieutenant- 
Governor;  finally,  he  was  Premier.  He  had  it  now — 
''king,  Cawdor,  Glamis,  all,"  and  most  honourably  had 


LEGISLATOR   AND   PREMIER  187 

he  played  for  it.  What  will  he  do  with  it?  asked  the 
Colony,  still  admiring,  reverential,  trustful.  He  soon 
showed  what  he  would  do  with  it.  For  thirty  years  he 
had  had  a  feud  with  the  landed  monopolists.  He  had 
quarrelled  with  the  New  Zealand  Company  and 
contended  against  the  Canterbury  Association  ostensibly 
because  they  had  sought  to  exclude  the  poorer  settlers 
from  the  soil.  He  had  fought  a  stout  battle  with 
worldly-minded  missionaries  who  had  "bought"  land 
from  the  natives  at  a  rate  per  acre  sometimes  below  the 
price  of  an  old  song.  He  now  told  the  great  landowners 
that  if  they  would  keep  their  wide  pastoral  tracts,  they 
should  pay  for  them:  he  imposed  a  tax  to  confiscate 
the  "unearned  increment."  Nor  would  he  allow  them  to 
keep  their  domains  unconditionally.  He  introduced  a 
measure  authorising  the  State  to  acquire  by  amicable 
treaty  or  compulsory  appropriation,  possession  of  such 
private  lands  as  might  seem  suited  for  settlement.  He 
further  showed  his  democratic  spirit  by  altering  the 
incidence  of  taxation.  Declaring  that  the  tax-gatherer 
should  no  longer  enter  the  homes  of  the  poor,  he  emulated 
the  reforms  of  Peel  and  Gladstone  by  repealing  the  cus- 
toms duties  on  43  articles,  including  such  necessaries 
of  life  as  tea  and  coffee.  All  his  life  temperate,  though 
never  an  abstainer,  he  would  not,  however,  encourage 
drinking-habits  in  the  working-classes,  and  he  proposed 
a  duty  of  a  penny-halfpenny  on  beer.  As  a  mate  to  his 
land-tax,  he  founded  an  income-tax  by  taxing  the  incomes 
of  corporations  and  companies.  He  crowned  his  financial 
reforms  by  bringing  forward  bills  to  enact  manhood  suf- 
frage, with  the  single  vote,  to  redistribute  seats  on  a 
population  basis,  and  to  create  triennial  parliaments. 

Grey  thus  laid  the  chief  planks  of  the  so-called  Liberal 
platform.  Unfortunately  for  him  and  his  policy,  his 
Ministry  lacked  driving  force.  It  could  not  even  carry 
so  reasonable  a  measure  as  the  proposed  beer-tax.  Grey 
showed  his  intractableness  by  refusing  to  accept  the 
electoral  bill  which  the  Legislative  Council  had,  as  he 
believed,  emasculated  by  rejecting  the  clauses  enfranchis- 


ing the  Maoris. 


188  LIFE   OF  SIB   GEORGE   GREY 

To  complicate  the  situation,  a  wave  of  commercial 
depression  swept  over  the  Colony.  The  Government  was 
in  no  way  responsible  for  the  calamity,  which  none  the 
less  brought  discredit  upon  it.  By  just  such  ' '  accidents ' ' 
had  the  reforming  measures  of  the  great  Turgot  and  the 
Russian  dictator,  Loris  Melikoif,  been  defeated.  The 
land  revenue  on  which  Grey  relied  fell  off.  The  unem- 
ployed were  mutinous,  and  they  blamed  the  Government. 
The  very  supporters  of  the  Government  maintained  that 
the  Colony  was  in  an  unsound  financial  position. 

His  Ministers  abandoned  their  chief.  The  Attorney- 
General  retired  in  consequence  of  the  ill-health  of  his 
law-partner.  With  Ballance,  the  least  quarrelsome  of 
men,  Grey,  the  most  quarrelsome,  unfortunately  quar- 
relled. Ballance,  who  had  a  strong  sense  of  personal 
dignity,  resigned.  Ever  afterwards  Grey  spoke  of  him 
with  bitterness.  These  two  able  men  gone,  Grey  was  left 
to  fight  the  battle  of  his  policy  single-handed.  He  fought 
splendidly,  but  his  small  fluctuating  majority  had  for- 
saken him.  He  asked  the  Governor,  the  Marquis  of 
Normanby,  for  leave  to  dissolve  the  House,  and  it  was 
refused.  Hence  his  implacable  enmity  against  Lord 
Normanby,  which,  years  afterwards,  took  every  form  of 
insult  and  mockery.  "He  treated  Lord  Normanby 
brutally,"  said  one  of  Normanby 's  successors.  Sir 
William  Jervois,  to  the  writer.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
Executive  Council  "he  shook  his  fist  at  me,"  Lord  Nor- 
manby told  Major  Campbell,  long  the  able  Clerk  of  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives.  And  when  Normanby  had 
been  appointed  Governor  of  Victoria,  the  insolent 
Premier  crowned  his  discourtesies  towards  his  official 
superior  by  refusing  the  Government  steamer,  the 
Hinernoa,  to  convey  him  to  Australia.  Nor,  it  seems,  was 
this  English  gentleman  less  discourteous  to  Lady 
Normanby. 

Having  unceremoniously  got  rid  of  Ballance  (after- 
wards Premier  of  the  Colony  and  one  of  his  truest  dis- 
ciples) Grey  felt  constrained  to  assume  the  office  of 
Treasurer  himself.  Probably,  a  more  incompetent 
Treasurer  never  was.    He  knew  absolutely  nothing  about 


LEGISLATOR    AND    PREMIER  189 

finance.  He  had  no  grasp  of  details.  Mathematician 
though  he  was  or  had  been,  he  had  no  notion  of  figures. 
He  had  every  possible  qualification  for  being  one  of  those 
''babies  in  finance"  with  whom  one  of  his  successors  was 
to  class  another. 

He  had  a  further  disqualification  for  the  office.  He 
was  not  a  vigilant  guardian  of  the  public  purse.  Once 
in  his  days,  imder  stern  compulsion,  he  had  been,  in  South 
Australia,  economical  and  retrenching;  everywhere  else, 
he  had  been  spendthrift  and  extravagant.  So  was  it  now. 
An  Australian  Premier  boasts  that  he  sits  on  the  Trea- 
sury chest  with  all  his  weight,  and  he  is  a  ponderous  man. 
Grey  sat  by  the  Treasury  chest  with  the  lid  open,  and  he 
recklessly  shovelled  out  its  contents  to  all  comers.  As 
a  consequence,  when  he  was  driven  from  office,  he  left  the 
Treasury  empty,  as  his  successors  did  in  1884  and  1887. 
Nor  was  this  all.  So  low  had  the  credit  of  the  Colony 
sunk  that  the  incoming  Ministry  could  not  for  a  time  go 
on  the  London  market  in  order  to  raise  a  loan.  Grey  left 
the  Colony  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy. 

But  we  are  anticipating.  The  dissolution  Lord 
Normanby  refused  was  conditionally  granted  by  his  suc- 
cessor, Sir  Hercules  Eobinson,  on  August  8,  1879. 
Defeated  in  the  House,  the  Premier  appealed  to  the 
Colony.  Li  a  series  of  glowing  popular  harangues,  some- 
times delivered  from  the  balconies  of  hotels  to  crowds  in 
the  streets,  he  introduced  the  oratorical  stumping-tour, 
which  a  yet  greater  demagogue  was  then  inaugurating 
in  England.  If  eloquence  could  have  won  the  battle,  the 
victory  would  never  have  been  doubtful.  General  elec- 
tions followed.  When  the  House  of  Representatives  met, 
Grey  made  a  magnificent  defence,  ^  ut  it  was  still 
uncertain  to  which  side  the  balance  inclined.  One  doubt- 
ful member,  the  facetious  and  eccentric  Vincent  Pyke, 
voted  against  the  Ministry  and  so  turned  the  scale.  By 
two  votes  Grey  was  driven  from  office.  Early  in  October 
he  resigned,  having  occupied  the  Treasury  bench  for 
almost  exactly  two  years. 


190  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

His  Deposition. 

On  October  15,  1877,  he  had  announced  his  acceptance 
of  the  Premiership.  On  October  15  (a  fateful  day  with 
him!),  1879  he  declared:  ''I  stand  here  as  an  outcast 
among  men — first  of  all,  deposed  from  those  benches, 
and,  secondly,  having  abandoned  the  position  I  held  as 
the  leader  of  a  great  party. ' '  What  had  happened  ?  His 
followers  had  informed  him  that  they  would  no  longer 
submit  to  his  high-handed  ways  or  obey  that  tyrannical 
will.  He  had  not  "abandoned"  the  leadership  of  the 
Opposition;  it  had  abandoned  him.  The  verdict  of  his 
contemporaries  was,  and  apparently  the  judgment  of 
historians  is,  that  his  defects  of  character  and  faults  of 
temper — his  arrogance  and  his  irascibility — ruined  his 
Ministry,  defeated  his  policy,  and  made  his  leadership 
impossible.  Let  this  be  admitted  to  the  full,  and  his 
failure  as  a  leader  is  not  thus  completely  accounted  for. 
He  was  in  advance  of  his  time.  Almost  all  the  measures 
he  proposed  were  right  in  themselves  and  were  ultimately 
carried;  they  were  only  premature. 

His  mood,  in  adversity,  was  not  conciliatory.  Like 
Gladstone,  he  was  more  imperious  in  Opposition  than  on 
the  Ministerial  bench.  "I  will  drag  them  (the  Ministers) 
as  my  slaves,"  he  haughtily  cried,  "at  the  wheels  of  my 
chariot.  They  shall  pass  those  measures"  of  his,  which 
they  had  thwarted.  "Though  they  hate  me,  they  shall 
not  go  into  the  lobby  against  me, ' '  he  declared. 

He  was  a  true  prophet.  The  Electoral  Representation 
Bill,  enacting  manhood  suffrage,  passed  by  his  immediate 
successors  in  office,  was  his  own  bill — not  the  one  he  had 
last  brought  forward,  but  an  earlier  one ;  and  it  was  made 
law  by  the  aid  of  four  Auckland  members,  belonging  to 
Sir  George  Grey's  party,  who  agreed  to  support  the 
Government  only  on  condition  that  it  carried  out  Grey's 
policy.*  Not  till  1889,  though  he  strove  for  it  in  every 
session,  did  he  succeed  in  excising  the  freehold  qualifi- 
cation then  enacted  and  passing  a  bill  restricting  each 
citizen  to  the  exercise  of  a  single  vote.     His  Triennial 

*  Drummond,  The  Life  and  Work  of  Bichard  John  Seddon,  p.  157. 


LEGISLATOR    AND    PREMIER  191 

Parliaments  Bill  was  likewise  passed  into  law  by  the 
opposite  party,  which,  like  Peel,  "found  the  Liberals 
bathing  and  stole  their  clothes."  Grey  continued  his 
self -assumed  tasks.  In  pursuance  of  his  own  early  policy, 
now  forty  years  old,  in  1883  Grey  carried  through  both 
Houses  an  Annexation  and  Confederation  Act,  authoris- 
ing New  Zealand  to  annex  any  islands  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean  not  claimed  by  foreign  powers.  The  Act  never 
received  the  royal  assent.  In  1886  he  introduced  a  Land 
Settlement  Bill,  empowering  the  Government  to  acquire 
landed  property  for  settlement,  either  by  amicable 
purchase  or  by  compulsory  appropriation.  Such  lands 
weie  to  be  retained  by  the  Government  and  leased  on  a 
quit-rent,  though  Grey  must  have  been  aware  that  quit- 
rents  had  not  been  a  success  in  South  Africa.  The  funds 
for  purchasing  them  were  to  be  raised  by  means  of  land- 
bonds.  His  plan  was  superseded  by  the  simpler  system 
proposed  in  the  same  session  by  Mr.  Ballance  and 
ultimately  carried  out  by  Sir  John  McKenzie.  On  several 
lines  Grey  was  the  true  founder  of  the  policy  applied, 
expanded,  and  developed  by  the  Ministries  that  have  been 
in  office  since  the  accession  to  power  of  the  so-called 
Liberal  party  in  1891. 


Chapter  XXVI. 
IN  OPPOSITION. 

A  Greek  Gift. 

I  am  in  a  position  to  affirm  that  in  the  early  months  of 
1884,  he  was  looking  forward  to  entering  into  political 
office  before  the  end  of  the  year.  He  expected  to  defeat 
the  Atkinson  Ministry  in  the  ensuing  parliamentary 
session,  and  he  was  confident  that,  after  fighting  a  general 
election,  he  would  be  appointed  Premier.  Alas,  for  the 
vanity  of  human  expectations!  Living  in  a  fool's  para- 
dise, he  was  unaware  that,  months  before,  one  of  his 
particular  political  friends  had  joined  another  politician 
in  an  arrangement — it  would  be  rude  to  call  it,  as  hostile 
politicians  called  it,  a  conspiracy — that  would  for  ever 
exclude  him  from  office.  They  purposed  to  deal  well  by 
him.  They  offered  to  let  him  nominate,  from  the 
dwindling  band  of  his  followers,  two  members  of  the 
cabinet.  What  were  they  going  to  do  with  himself? 
They  could  not  wish  him  to  remain  in  the  Assembly  in 
order  to  thwart  the  measures  of  the  Ministry  from  which 
he  had  been  deliberately  excluded.  They  proposed  that 
he  should  become  Chief  Commissioner  in  the  King 
Country.  The  proposal  dazzled  him  for  a  space.  Under 
certain  conditions  he  might  well  have  accepted  it.  It  was 
just  such  a  position  as  he  had  refused  to  Shepstone  in 
South  Africa,  but  Shepstone  was  Shepstone  and  Grey 
was  Grey.  It  was  not  ill-advised.  Had  he  been  his  old 
self,  he  might  safely  have  been  entrusted  with  a  quasi- 
absolute  rule  over  the  Maoris.  He  (as  he  said  of  himself 
in  relation  to  Tawhiao  in  1863)  would  have  ''dug  around" 
the  King  tribes  ' '  with  good  deeds ' '  till  their  rebellion  fell, 
and  they  returned  to  their  allegiance.  He  would  have 
sought  to  carry  out  the  work  of  amalgamation  between 
the  two  races.    He  might  have  arrested  the  decay  of  the 

192 


IN   OPPOSITION  193 

Maori  race.  He  miglit  have  won  them  all  back  to 
Christianity,  as  indeed  he  aided  in  extinguishing  Haiihan- 
ism.  He  would  have  introduced  civilisation,  letters,  and 
the  arts.  But  he  could  not  be  trusted.  There  was  no 
saying  what  he  would  do.  The  new  Ministry  had  no  mind 
to  commit  itself  to  rash  experiments  or  dangerous  pro- 
jects. In  order  to  keep  the  Chief  Commissioner  in  check, 
he  was  to  be  sandwiched  between  two  Assistant  Commis- 
sioners, who  would  have  been  controlled  from  Wellington. 
He  would  have  seen  himself  outvoted  by  his  own 
colleagues  and  thus  reduced  to  impotence  in  his  own 
court.  He  refused  to  accept  the  position,  and  he  thence- 
forth acted  as  if  he  had  been  deliberately  humiliated. 

Parliamentary  Intrigues. 

The  Ministry  that  made  him  the  offer  was  flung  out, 
after  an  existence  that  lasted  only  a  few  days,  and  its 
defeat  was  followed  by  a  maze  of  intrigues.  The  member 
who  moved  the  defeating  resolution  was  asked  to  form 
a  cabinet,  and  the  preposterous  jDolitician  made  the 
attempt.  Calling  on  Sir  George  to  invite  him  to  accept 
a  seat  in  the  new  Ministry,  he  was  for  a  moment  listened 
to  with  mock  gravity,  and  then  dramatically  bowed  out 
of  the  room,  with  an  ironical ' '  good  morning,  Mr.  So-and- 
So !"  Grey  was  himself  sent  for,  and  it  was  believed  that 
he  attempted  the  impossible  task.  His  own  incredible 
account  of  the  matter  was  that  he  had  been  endeavouring 
to  bring  together  the  members  of  hostile  parties.  In 
truth,  so  little  had  he  abandoned  the  expectation  of 
entering  upon  office  that,  during  the  Ministerial  crisis 
in  1887,  he  twice  took  steps  with  that  object  in  view. 

All  intrigues  were  ended  for  a  time  by  the  return  to 
office  of  the  conspiring  ex-Ministers.  Grey  was  definitely 
left  out  in  the  cold,  and  towards  the  Ministry,  with  one  of 
his  own  former  colleagues  at  its  head,  he  assumed  an 
attitude  of  irreconcilable  hostility.  The  first  and  chief 
weapon  that  he  resorted  to  was  to  move  a  resolution  of 
want  of  confidence,  and  during  the  session  such  resolu- 
tions followed  in  quick  succession.    They  were  resultless. 


o 


194  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE    GREY 

Members  quickly  perceived  that  he  was  carrying  on  a 
vendetta  against  the  Government,  and  they  soon  let  it 
be  understood,  by  both  words  and  votes,  that  they  would 
support  no  such  motions.    Grey  did  not  therefore  discon- 
tinue his  assaults  on  the  Ministry.    To  one  of  these  the 
Premier  of  the  day  replied  by  a  long-meditated   and 
violently  personal  attack.    The  scene  that  ensued  was  so 
painful  as  to  be  unreportable.    Next  day  Grey  was  in  a 
pitiable    state.     From   that   hour   he   grew   ever   more 
embittered.     His  character  seemed  to  deteriorate.     Till 
then,  under  the  severest  disappointments,  he  had  kept  an 
inner  sanctum  secure  against  all  assaults  of  the  Evil  One. 
Now  the  citadel  of  his  spirit  appeared  to  be  taken  and  its 
holy  of  holies  ravaged.    He  had  been  capable  of  bright- 
ness, of  illuminating  flashes,  of  sage  and  mellow  wisdom. 
Now  his  very  mirth  was  gruesome,  and  the  dignity  of 
bearing  he  had  seldom  lost  before  was  shattered.     The 
cloudy  pillar  had  turned,  and  he  henceforth  pursued  an 
ever-darkening  path. 

A  Vendetta. 

He  set  himself  with  an  inexorable  purpose  to  turn  out 
of  office  the  Ministry  that  had  used  him  so  ill.    He  refused 
to  sit  on  the  same  Parliamentary  committees  with  the 
Premier,  and  when  the  Premier  rose  to  speak,  Grey  left 
the   chamber.     In   the   following   session,    of   1887,   he 
enjoyed  the  gratification  of  seeing  the  Ministry  decisively 
defeated  in  the  House.    A  dissolution  was  obtained,  and 
he  saw  his  opportunity.    For  the  third  time  he  went  on  an 
electioneering  tour  through  the  Colony.    He  spoke  at  the 
chief  cities  and  at  some  of  the  larger  townships.    He  was 
listened  to  with  curiosity,  with  respect,  with  admiration. 
He  gained  no  followers,  but  he  gained  his  end.     The 
Ministry,  by  the  confession  of  its  head,  had  never  a 
majority  in  the  Assembly.    We  may  add  that  it  never 
possessed  the  confidence  of  the  Colony.    Grey  had  there- 
fore an  easy  task.     The  Ministry  suffered  a  decisive 
defeat.     The  Premier  and  several  of  his  Ministers  lost 
their  seats.    Their  party  was  scattered  to  the  winds.    It 
was  not  a  defeat.    It  was  a  rout. 


IN   OPPOSITION  195 

While  he  powerfully  contributed  to  the  result,  Grey 
took  no  %'isible  part  in  the  debacle.  He  had  come  back 
from  his  oratorical  tour  in  a  state  of  complete  nervous 
prostration.  For  a  week  or  more  he  lay  between  life  and 
death.  Then  his  inexhaustible  vitality  reasserted  itself, 
and,  after  some  weeks  of  confinement  to  the  sickroom  and 
the  house,  he  emerged  with  his  strength  unimpaired.  He 
enjoyed  his  convalescence  and  spoke  of  it  as  a  luxurious 
sensation.  He  next  played  a  pretty  little  comedy.  While 
the  elections  were  being  fought  out,  he  ostentatiously  sat 
in  the  Parliamentary  Library,  in  the  building  lately  burnt 
to  the  ground,  professedly  pursuing  from  book  to  book 
a  research  on  the  ethnical  relations  between  the  Portu- 
guese and  the  blacks  of  South  Africa!  ''General  elec- 
tions ! "  "  Contested  seats ! "  He  had  not  heard  of  them. 
"Happy  or  unfortunate  results?"  He  took  no  interest 
in  them.  Of  course,  it  was  all  a  pretence.  In  reality,  no 
one  inwardly  rejoiced  more  at  the  result,  though  his 
exultation  was  discreetly  veiled.  He  had  cause  for 
lamentation  as  well.  He  had  lost  his  last  follower.  The 
little  band  he  had  nominally  led  in  the  preceding  Parlia- 
ment vanished  into  space,  and  Grey  realised  his  own 
political  ideal  of  one-adult-one-vote.  Complete  desertion 
was  the  guerdon  of  the  man  who  had  twice  governed  the 
Colony  through  long  and  critical  periods,  rescued  it  from 
bankruptcy,  given  it  a  political  and  an  ecclesiastical  con- 
stitution, endowed  it  with  its  Provincial  governments, 
subjugated  and  pacified  the  Native  race,  and  whose  mere 
residence  in  it  reflected  distinction  on  the  Colony. 

His  revenge  was  not  then  consummated.  The  day 
came,  in  1893,  when  there  was  to  be  a  conflict  for  the 
Premiership  between  the  ex-Premier  referred  to  and  the 
Minister  who  was  acting  as  Premier.  Grey  threw  all  his 
weight  into  the  scale  of  the  Acting-Premier.  When  Mr. 
Seddon,  whom  no  one  had  before  suspected  of  lacking 
self-confidence,  hesitated  to  accept  the  Premiership 
which  the  Governor  almost  thrust  upon  him,  he 
appealed  for  counsel  to  Grey.  Grey's  advice  was  unquali- 
fied and  almost  peremptory.     Once  and  again  he  urged 


196  LIFE    OF   SIR   GEORGE    GREY 

Seddon  to  accept  the  office;  he  assured  him  of  his  com- 
petence; he  seemed  afraid  that  Seddon  would  refuse. 
Just  so  had  he  pressed  Seddon,  fifteen  years  before, 
when  Seddon  had  likewise  been  hesitant,  to  stand  for  a 
constituency.  He  became  one  of  the  "Greyhounds,"  so 
loyal  did  he  prove.  Ever  afterwards  he  leant  on  Grey 
and  would  seek  counsel  of  him  during  the  Parliamentary 
session.  To  Grey  it  was  owing  that  Seddon  did  not  stand 
aside  in  favour  of  his  rival.  Gre^^  strenuously  supported 
his  nominee  and  follower.  "I  have  never  met  with  a 
manlier  man, ' '  he  said  of  him.  And  when  Seddon  went  to 
London,  Grey  renewed  acquaintance  with  him  and  thus 
gave  him  public  countenance-  Seddon,  for  his  part,  con- 
stantly associated  himself  with  Grey  and  represented 
himself  as  the  continuator  of  his  policy. 

Alone. 

Did  the  strong  man  ever  feel  dispiritment,  or  the  self- 
sufficing  nature  shiver  in  its  loneliness !  Close  observers 
did  discern  traces  of  momentary  weakness,  but  none  were 
visible  to  the  public  eye.  He  did,  indeed,  sometimes 
desire  wholly  to  transfer  his  activity  from  the  wrangling 
arena  of  the  Legislature  to  the  public  platform,  and, 
becoming  a  true  demagogos,  or  leader  of  the  people,  gain 
his  ends  by  popular  agitation;  but  for  that  a  sparsely- 
settled  country  was  not  ripe,  and  in  the  passionate  per- 
sistent pursuit  of  his  ends  there  was  no  relaxation.  With 
scientific  sap  and  mine  he  continued  his  assault  on  the 
classes  and  institutions  that  were  obnoxious  to  him. 
What  was  it  that  sustained  him  f  His  enemies — and  their 
name  was  legion — had  a  consistent  account  to  give  of  his 
motives. 

The  Grov«rth  of  the  Radical. 

* '  He  was  no  democrat, ' '  they  asserted.  ' '  He  had  never 
been  a  lover  of  the  populace.  The  fineness  of  his  organ- 
ization, his  distinguished  manners,  his  personal  habits, 
his  culture,  and  his  aristocratic  pride,  all  marked  him 
as  claiming  to  belong  to  an  exclusive  class.  When  in 
England,   he   associated,   or   endeavoured   to   associate, 


IN    OPPOSITION  197 

largely  with  the  aristocracy.  It  was  only  in  the  last  year 
of  his  residence  there  that,  neglected  by  them,  he  allied 
himself  with  the  extreme  Radicals.  When  he  returned 
to  New  Zealand,  he  lived  for  five  years  in  haughty  isola- 
tion. Delivered  up  to  the  Furies  in  the  shape  of  his  own 
angry  passions,  he  plotted  revenge.  Opportunities 
offering,  he  instituted  a  systematic  vendetta  against  the 
Imperial  Government  and  the  great  landowners.  Again 
thwarted,  he  made  the  same  volte-face  in  the  State  as  the 
great  or  grandiose  Lamennais  had,  forty  years  before, 
made  in  the  Church.  He  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of 
the  democracy.  Aristocrate  par  gout,  he  became  tribun 
par  calcul.  And  thus  the  man  who,  so  late  as  the  last 
year  of  his  second  term  as  Governor  of  New  Zealand, 
was  spoken  of  as  an  'aristocrat  of  the  aristocrats,' 
ended  his  public  life  as  a  democrat  enrage.''^ 

That  a  man  should  become  a  Radical  in  his  old  age  was 
a  metamorphosis  that  puzzled  Goethe  in  his  coeval, 
Bentham.  It  does  not  surprise  us,  who  have  seen  Glad- 
stone blossom  into  Radicalism  in  his  last  decades.  Sir 
George  Grey  was  never  the  man  described.  His  early 
sympathies  appear  to  have  been  with  the  Whigs.  He 
prevented  the  endowment  of  State  churches  in  South 
Australia,  Otago,  and  Canterbury.  He  cheapened  land 
in  New  Zealand,  and  opened  up  the  country  to  the  "free 
selector."  The  constitution  he  drafted  for  that  Colony 
was  acknowledged  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  abound 
in  liberal  provisions.  Animated  by  an  ultra-republican 
passion,  he  treated  the  Maoris  as  the  equals  of  the 
settlers  and  the  Fingo  levies  as  the  equals  of  the  English 
troops.  Evidently,  his  Radicalism  was  no  recantation 
of  Toryism. 

It  had  a  physical  basis.  It  was  in  Bentham,  as  in  Glad- 
stone, an  effluence  of  youth;  Bentham,  like  Bonstetten, 
was  a  boy  to  the  last.  Gladstone  seemed  to  grow  younger 
in  mind  as  he  grew  older  in  .years,  and  advanced,  as 
Swedenborg  says  the  angels  do,  "continually  towards  the 
springtide  of  his  youth."  So  it  was  with  Grey.  None 
of  his  faculties  showed  signs  of  decay.  At  seventy,  at 
eighty,   he  had  the   sanguine   optimism    of   youth.     At 


198  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

seventy-one  he  adopted  the  doctrine  of  the  nationalisa- 
tion of  the  land.  At  seventy-seven  he  took  up  with 
Socialism.  At  eighty-three  he  thrilled  an  audience  of 
English  legislators  with  his  glowing  vision  of  the  federa- 
tion of  peoples.  ''Age  did  not  wither"  him.  In  his  last 
years  he  still  had  youtlifulness  of  mind  enough  to  adopt 
a  new  philosophy,  a  new  religion,  a  new  political  cause, 
and  he  could  have  preached  a  crusade  on  its  behalf.  If 
we  were  to  seek  for  the  first  striking  manifestation  of 
his  Eadicalism,  we  might  find  it  in  the  passion  for 
exploration  that  brought  him  out  to  Australia  in  order 
to  discover  wide  landed  tracts  on  which  the  landless  and 
starving  masses  of  Britain  might  find  homes. 

Its  subdued  manifestations  during  his  Governorships 
we  have  already  seen.  Not  till  thirty  years  later  did  it 
come  to  a  head.  An  exile  from  England  till  1868,  he  then 
found  the  country  swept  hj  a  wave  of  advanced 
Liberalism,  with  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  day  and 
all  "young  England"  on  the  crest.  The  author  of  a  once- 
popular  book,  Ginx's  Bahy,  brought  home  to  him  afresh, 
what  he  had  observed  thirty  years  before,  the  condition 
of  the  very  poor.  These  things  were  the  soil  of  the  new 
growth.  But  this  much  having  been  admitted  and  the 
continuity  having  been  shown,  the  advocatus  Diaholi 
must  have  his  place.  The  germinating  impulse  came 
from  without.  Estrangement  from  the  governing  class 
was  its  motive.  It  was  a  Eadicalism  of  revolt.  The 
rebellious  passions — outraged  pride,  hatred,  revenge, 
thwarted  ambition — supplied  its  nutriment.  And  never 
since  Burke,  Byron,  or  Lameunais  has  passion  armed 
reason  with  such  splendid  powers.  Eloquence  unknown 
to  himself  as  to  others,  dormant  sympathies  evoked, 
visions  of  the  future,  propagandist  enthusiasm,  all  came 
at  call.  And  they  reacted  on  the  man.  No  one  who  ever 
heard  him  speak  in  public  could  doubt  his  sincerity. 
There  are  men,  such  as  Benjamin  Constant  or  Byron, 
who  are  hard  or  cynical  in  conversation,  but  whose 
imagination  takes  wing  when  they  enter  the  ''tribune," 
the  professor's  chair,  or  the  pulpit,  or  sit  down  to  write. 
In  which  are  they  the  truer  to  themselves — the  superficial 


IN    OPPOSITION  199 

scepticism  or  the  imderlying  fanaticism!  We  have  traced 
the  rebellious  spirit  throughout  Grey's  career,  and  are 
not  likely  to  imderestimate  its  power,  but  deep  below  all 
its  manifestations  bunied  unquenohably  the  pure  flame 
of  faith  in  God  and  hope  for  man.  One  move  after 
another  may  have  been  mere  disloyalty  or  revenge  in  its 
inception,  but  as  it  grew  it  became  a  nobler  loyalty.  Or, 
if  that  be  too  much  to  grant,  it  was  at  least  recommended 
by  considerations  so  exalted  that  it  might  have  ''deceived 
the  elect." 

The  Evolution  of  a  Rebel. 

The  story  of  his  career  is  the  evolution  of  a  rebel.  We 
perceive  the  genesis  of  the  rebel  in  his  flight  from  school. 
He  broke  away  from  the  army  to  head  an  exploring 
expedition.  He  started  on  a  second  journey  of  explora- 
tion without  awaiting  the  sanction  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  consequently  without  knowing  that  it  had  been 
withdrawn.  In  South  Australia  the  autocrat  was  matur- 
ing and  the  future  rebel  in  training.  There  he  drew  bills 
on  the  Imperial  Government  after  he  knew  that  his 
predecessor's  bills  had  been  dishonoured.  He  incurred 
unauthorised  expenditure  there,  though  with  a  benevolent 
end — the  improvement  of  the  natives.  During  his  first 
term  in  New  Zealand,  when  he  refused  to  give  effect  to 
the  political  constitution  fashioned  in  the  Colonial  Office, 
the  rebel  flung  his  first  bold,  and  yet  in  terms  respectful, 
defiance.  In  South  Africa,  when  he  put  the  Fingoes  and 
the  German  Legion  on  full  pay  against  the  instructions 
of  the  War  Office,  when  he  continued  his  enlightened 
administration  of  British  Kafraria  in  spite  of  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  necessary  English  Parliamentary  vote,  when 
he  diverted  to  Calcutta  the  British  troops  touching  at 
the  Cape,  when  he  sent  out  troops,  horses,  and  specie  to 
India  during  the  ^Mutiny,  when  he  re-enrolled  the  German 
Legion  and  despatched  it  to  Bombay,  and  when  he  pro- 
moted the  federation  of  South  Africa  in  a  manner 
opposed  to  the  instructions  of  the  Colonial  Office,  his 
rebellion  was  full-blown.  His  second  term  of  office  in 
New  Zealand  was  nobly  humanitarian   as  regards   the 


200  LIFE   OF  SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Maoris,  and  his  squabbles  with  his  Ministers  were  in  a 
good  cause.  But  again  he  quarrelled  violently  with  the 
Colonial  Office,  with  the  War  Office,  with  the  generals 
in  command  of  the  troops,  with  the  Commissary-General, 
with  his  Ministers.  At  last;  his  rebellion  rose  to  the  point 
of  defying  the  Colonial  Office.  The  spirit  that  would 
neither  obey  nor  brook  disobedience  had  grown 
incorrigible. 

Grey  was  thus  a  rebel  all  his  days.  Was  he  in  error 
all  his  days!  With  Carlyle,  we  must  distinguish.  Was 
the  law  or  the  power  he  rebelled  against  that  of  the 
world,  an  earth-born  force,  a  creature  of  error,  where 
it  was  not  an  emanation  of  the  Pit?  Then  his  rebellion 
was  justified.  Was  it  "the  eternal  law  of  God  Almighty 
in  the  universe?"  Then  were  his  revolt  grave  indeed, 
kindled  by  infernal  fires,  led  astray  by  marsh-lights. 
During  the  early  years  of  Grey's  life,  at  least,  it  was  in 
the  main  a  justifiable  rebellion,  even  if  it  was  the  rebellion 
of  a  would-be  autocrat.  During  his  later  years  it  was  the 
revolt  of  a  defeated  autocrat.  He  now  burned  what  he 
had  worshipped,  and,  being  unable  to  govern,  he  rebelled 
against  all  government.  But  he  was  no  vulgar  rebel.  His 
aims  were,  in  a  manner.  Promethean.  He  was  ever  eager 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  individuals  he  knew.  His 
eloquence  rose  to  its  highest  point  when  he  painted  the 
possible  future  of  "the  unborn  millions."  He  resisted 
monopolies.  He  fought  land-grabbers,  lay  and  clerical, 
individually  and  in  mass.  He  was  valiant  in  defence  of 
human  rights.  His  war  against  corporate  exclusiveness 
was  lifelong.  He  would  have  thrown  open  the  closed  pro- 
fessions. He  founded  libraries  and  aided  art-galleries 
to  which  all  had  free  access.  No  human  being  should 
be  shut  out  from  the  loftiest  possibilities  of  our  common 
nature.  The  lower  races  excited  his  compassion  and 
engaged  his  sympathies:  he  seemed  to  see  in  them,  not 
so  much  the  wrecks  of  a  fallen  humanity,  as  the  germs  of 
a  nascent  civilisation.  In  the  artizan  he  recognized  an 
equal — to  others ;  in  the  schoolboy  he  discovered  the  poten- 
tialities of  future  fame.  If  he  was  a  rebel,  he  was 
therefore  endowed  with  a  rebel's  nobler  qualities.    For, 


IN   OPPOSITION  201 

we  repeat  it,  this  man  was  of  heroic  lineage  and  cast  in 
imperial  mould.  If,  instead  of  the  mimic  arena  of  a 
British  colony,  he  had  been  given  a  kingdom  or  a 
continent  for  a  theatre,  he  would  have  achieved  lasting 
renown.  He  had  been  promised  the  Governor-General- 
ship of  Canada  and  might  have  aspired  to  the  Viceroyalty 
of  India,  where,  at  an  earlier  date,  he  might  have  been  a 
Clive  or  a  Hastings. 

He  had  a  rebel's  fate.  Whether  it  is  at  St.  Helena, 
Friederichsruh,  or  Kawau,  inevitable  defeat  is  his  por- 
tion who  sets  his  will  against  the  nature  of  things.  But 
in  the  lives  of  all  there  is  an  earlier  period,  when  the 
recalcitrant  will  was  in  alliance  with  that  same  nature 
and  was  its  organ,  when  alone  that  work  was  done  which 
they  were  sent  here  to  do.  That  fruitful  period  in  Sir 
George  Grey's  life  is  to  be  found  in  his  career  as  Governor 
of  South  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  before  these 
colonies  had  been  granted  responsible  government.  It 
is  different  with  his  High  Commissionership  at  the  Cape. 
There  again  are  two  i^eriods.  Till  1858  he  was  still  loyal 
to  the  Empire,  if  he  was  often  enough  disloyal  to  the 
department  which  controlled  his  relations  with  the 
Empire.  Had  he  been  placed  in  the  position  of  a  Roman 
dictator,  he  would  have  been  acting  legally  and  con- 
stitutionally. In  1858  his  initiation  of  South  African 
federation  was  undoubtedlj'',  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Colonial  Office,  an  act  of  disloyalty  to  the  Empire.  The 
attitude  he  then  assumed  was  the  attitude  of  a  Cirsar  to 
the  Roman  Senate.  Had  he  possessed  a  military  force, 
he  was  capable  of  attempting  a  South  African  Pharsalia. 
It  was  the  rebellion  of  ''the  man  who  was  born  to  be 
king."  With  his  condemnation  and  recall  began  the 
down-grade  movement  and  the  retuiu  of  the  curve. 

The  rebellious  temper  thus  matured  unfitted  him  to 
be  a  constitutional  Minister.  The  testimony  of  his  col- 
leagues is  to  the  effect  that  there  was  no  living  with  him. 
There  have  been  constantly  recurring  specimens  of  that 
type.  Burke,  Chateaubriand,  Brougham,  and  Fichte  were 
all  men  whom  a  domineering  spirit  and  an  irascible 
temper  made  impracticable.     All  were,  in  consequence, 


202  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

driven  from  the  offices  they  held  and  stripped  of  the 
influence  they  should  have  exercised.  Burke  and  Fichte, 
at  all  events,  remained  loyal.  AVhat  thoughts  seethed  in 
Brougham's  ill-balanced  brain  we  do  not  know.  Chateau- 
briand, the  elder  Comte  d'Haussonville  informs  us, 
meditated  an  eighteenth  of  Brumaire.  And  Sir  George 
Grey,  at  least  in  his  wilder  moods,  schemed  an  Imperial 
revolution. 

Speculative  Mutiny. 

On  the  eve  of  his  second  abdication  Napoleon,  walking 
with  Lucien  and  afterwards  with  Benjamin  Constant  in 
the  garden  of  the  Elysee,  heard  the  acclamations  of  the 
crowd,  crying:  ''long  live  the  Emperor!"  and  calling  for 
arms.  For  a  while  the  Emperor  gazed  at  the  surging 
masses  in  silence,  pondering  over  the  suggestion  made 
to  him  by  the  tempter,  Lucien,  of  heading  the  crowd, 
raising  France,  and  sweeping  away  both  legislature  and 
nobles.  To  his  everlasting  honour  he  put  the  temptation 
from  him,  saying:  "I  will  not  be  a  mob-king.  I  did  not 
come  back  from  Elba  to  deluge  France  with  blood. ' '  So 
did  Frederick  William,  in  1848,  refuse  "a  swine-crown" 
at  the  hands  of  the  Parliament  of  Frankfort. 

In  his  abandonment  and  implacable  rage  the  old 
Governor,  spurned  by  the  Colonial  Office  and  scouted  by 
the  colony  he  had  so  long  ruled,  harboured  treasonable 
designs  against  the  Imperial  Government.  On  a  memor- 
able occasion,  to  a  single  auditor,  on  the  midnight  streets, 
with  earnest  accents  that  betrayed  not  a  trace  of  insin- 
cerity, for  a  space  of  two  hours,  he  propounded  a  project 
of  a  military  rising,  by  means  of  which  he  would  gain 
command  of  the  British  army  and  take  possession  of  all 
the  agencies  of  government.  It  would  serve  no  end  to 
detail  his  plans,  which  had  evidently  been  carefully 
elaborated.  At  no  time  since  the  Jacobite  rebellion  in 
1745  has  a  dynastic  revolution  in  England  had  a  ghost  of 
a  chance.  At  no  time  since  the  accession  of  Elizabeth 
could  an  adventurer  or  an  insubordinate  noble  or  official 
have  succeeded  in  raising  a  revolt.  The  design  was  little 
better  than  midsummer  madness.    Had  the  narrative  been 


IN   OPPOSITION  203 

told  about  him  in  Lis  lifetime,  he  would  have  answered 
as  Bishop  Blougram  answered  Mr.  Gigadibs,  ''the 
literary  man,"  who  playfully  threatened  to  expose  the 
bishop's  heresies.  Grey  would  have  disavowed  the 
reporter  as  the  victim  of  a  practical  joke,  the  sport  of 
his  mocking  humour. 

It  can  only  be  said  that  he  seemed  in  deadly  earnest. 
The  scheme  was  so  comprehensive  and  coherent,  so 
minute  and  detailed,  that  it  must  have  been  a  subject  of 
thought  with  him  through  months  and,  perhaps,  years. 
It  was  consistent  with  his  public  utterances.  ""Who  is 
the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies?"  he  scornfully  cried  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  "We  know  absolutely 
nothing  of  him ;  we  care  absolutely  nothing  for  him, ' '  he 
rejoined,  answering  his  own  question.  It  was  con- 
sistent with  his  public  action.  His  bills  for  the  election 
of  future  Governors  of  New  Zealand,  his  proposal  for 
the  election  of  the  Governor-General  of  the  Common- 
wealth and  the  Governors  of  the  States,  had  no  other 
significance.  It  was  the  culmination  of  a  long  course  of 
rebellious  utterances  and  actions.  Happily,  it  exhaled 
in  words,  and,  in  charity  to  his  memory,  it  deserves 
oblivion.  He  seemed  himself  desirous  to  forget  it.  He 
never  returned  to  the  subject,  and,  in  his  lifetime,  his 
solitary  auditor  respected  the  confidence  (not  given  as 
such)  with  which  he  had  been  so  strangely  entrusted. 


Chapter  XXVII.    . 

AUSTRALIA  REVISITED. 

A  quasi-triumphal  winding-up  of  his  colonial  career 
was  staged  for  him  in  Australia.  He  was  appointed  or 
elected  a  delegate  from  New  Zealand  to  the  conference  on 
Australian  federation  held  in  Sydney  in  the  autumn  of 
1891.  From  one  point  of  view  he  was  not  very  suitably 
chosen.  He  had  long  been  firmly  opposed  to  the  federa- 
tion of  New  Zealand  with  Australia.  He  believed  that  the 
employment  of  coloured  labour  would  be  necessitated  in 
Australia  by  the  semi-tropical  climate  of  its  northern 
States,  and  he  professed  to  dread  the  reaction  on  New 
Zealand  of  the  establishment  of  virtual  slavery.  This 
foregone  conclusion  did  not  preclude  his  acceptance  of 
the  nomination,  and  of  course  he  was  a  prominent  per- 
sonage at  the  conference.  He  made  one  great  speech  and 
one  notable  proposal. 

In  the  speech  he  deftly  interwove  his  reminiscences  of 
the  eminent  men  with  whom  he  had  been  associated  in 
public  life,  and  it  is  said  that  the  face  of  the  next-most 
distinguished  member  of  the  Conference,  who  had  a 
similar  weakness,  was  a  study  while  Grey  unwound  his 
beadroll  of  remarkable  names.  Among  his  tales  of 
bygone  days  he  did  not  fail — in  conversation  he  never 
failed — to  tell  of  the  visit  of  Lord  Salisbury  (then  Lord 
Robert  Cecil)  to  New  Zealand  in  1852,  and  of  their  long 
rambles  by  the  sea-shore  in  Wellington,  revolving  many 
things,  like  Achilles.  Nor  did  he  forget  Sir  John  Gorst 
and  his  commissionership  in  the  Waikato,  though  one 
may  doubt  whether  he  related  its  tragi-comic  denouement 
with  the  gusto  and  the  unsuppressed  merriment  of  the 
same  narrative  when  privately  told. 

His  notable  proposal  was  that  the  Governor-General  of 
the  Commonwealth  and  the  Governors  of  the  component 

204 


AL'STEALIA  REVISITED  205 

States  should  be  elected  by  the  people  of  the  Common- 
wealth and  the  States.  It  was  an  old  notion  of  his. 
Session  after  Session,  for  a  dozen  years,  he  moved  the 
reading  of  a  bill  providing  that  the  Governor  of  the 
Colony  should  be  elected  by  the  colonists,  not  appointed 
by  the  Colonial  Office.  Whether  or  not  members  believed 
him  to  be  actuated  by  vindictive  motives,  his  persevering 
efforts  met  with  no  success.  He  had  now  an  opportunity 
of  proposing  the  same  innovation  on  a  larger  scale.  He 
made  a  long  and  impressive  speech.  Judged  by  results, 
it  was  a  total  failure.  Out  of  over  half-a-hundred  dele- 
gates only  two  supported  the  motion — that  Eadical 
stalwart,  C.  C.  Kingston,  and,  less  from  conviction  than 
from  compassion,  we  may  suspect,  Dr.  (now  Sir  John) 
Cockburn.  Grey  was  not  spared.  On  the  larger  as  on  the 
smaller  arena  he  was  openly  accused  of  perversity,  of 
impracticability,  and  even  of  disloyalty. 

Having  flung  his  gage  of  battle  in  the  face  of  the  Con- 
ference, he  went  on  a  tour  through  Australia.  He  had 
been  summoned  from  South  Australia  to  govern  New 
Zealand,  but  he  expected  to  return  to  it  when  his  work 
there  was  done.  He  now  returned  after  forty-five  years 
— two-thirds  of  the  space  of  a  long  lifetime.  He  re- 
entered Adelaide  on  his  seventy-ninth  (or  rather  his 
eightieth)  birthday,  and  in  the  afternoon  he  was 
welcomed  at  the  Town  Hall,  but,  after  attempting  to 
speak,  he  was  too  deeply  affected  to  continue.  He  was 
banqueted  in  the  evening,  and  his  genuine  gratification 
overflowed  in  memorable  words.  "Old  age  is  a  crown  of 
thorns,"  he  might  have  cited  from  the  Talmud,  but  to 
him,  he  said,  it  was  "a  period  of  the  greatest  happiness 
he  had  ever  known."  On  the  following  day  he  addressed 
his  proper  audience,  the  Adelaide  democracy,  and  the 
more  select  circles  of  Adelaide,  as  thenceforth  of  all 
Australia,  perceiving  his  late-born  affinities,  held  aloof 
from  him.  He  proceeded  to  democratic  Broken  Hill,  and 
then  ensued  a  long  procession  of  receptions  and  speeches 
at  a  chain  of  towns  across  the  Continent.  On  one  day, 
May  23,  the  almost-octogenarian  delivered  no  fewer  than 


206  LIFE   OF   SIR    GEORGE   GREY 

five  speeches.  His  reception  in  Sydney  crowned  the  tour. 
Twice  at  least  he  spoke  in  the  provincial  metropolis  to 
enthusiastic  audiences — once  in  the  Centennial  Hall,  when 
an  immense  audience  made  the  event,  it  was  said,  "more 
than  magnificent."  And  the  tour  was  wound  up,  as  the 
veteran  sailed  back  to  New  Zealand,  with  one  of  those 
cordial  send-offs  which  Australia  gives  to  those  whom  it 
delights  to  honour.  Yet,  with  all  its  warmth,  the  tour  fell 
far  below  the  quasi-royal  progress  of  Mr.  Seddon,  who, 
fifteen  years  later,  passed  from  province  to  province  like 
their  sceptred  sovereign.  As  was  afterwards  the  case 
in  London,  Grey  was  only  a  spectacle;  Seddon  was  a 
power. 

Grey 's  last  days  in  New  Zealand  were  the  beginning  of 
a  somewhat  prolonged  euthanasia.  Hankering  to  return 
to  the  arena  of  active  life,  he  weakly  agreed  to  be 
re-elected  for  a  division  of  Auckland,  but,  saying  that,  if 
he  went  to  Wellington,  he  believed  he  should  die  there,  he 
never  reappeared  in  the  halls  of  the  Legislature.  Three 
years  more  he  lingered  in  scenes  once  loved,  and  then  he 
suddenly  took  his  departure. 


Chaptee  XXVIII. 

HIS  LAST  YEARS. 

His  work  iu  New  Zealand  was  done,  and  he  had  long 
been  eager  to  be  gone.  His  departure  at  last  was  unex- 
pected. In  1894  he  left  his  home  in  Auckland,  intending 
only  to  journey  to  the  south  of  the  Colony.  Then,  finding 
on  his  arrival  at  Wellington,  that  a  steamer  was  on  the 
point  of  sailing  for  England,  he  suddenly  decided  to 
return  to  the  Old  Country.  There  was  some  merriment 
in  the  Colony  when  the  sudden  decision  was  made  known. 
He  was  irreverently  compared  with  a  humorous  character 
in  Dickens  who  was  on  his  way  to  be  married,  when  he 
came  to  a  church.  ''Hilloa!  here's  a  church;  let's  go  in 
and  get  married."  "Hilloa!  here's  a  steamer,"  Grey 
seemed  to  have  said  to  himself ;  "  we  will  go  to  England. ' ' 

The  comparison  was  amusing,  but  it  did  him  less  than 
justice.  He  had  always  been  impulsive  in  his  actions, 
and  when  he  was  in  England  in  1868-69,  he  would  order 
his  luggage  to  be  packed  at  an  hour's  notice  and  depart 
for  who  knew  where.  He  had  no  mind  to  spend  his  last 
days  in  the  colony  that  had  cast  him  off,  and  where  every 
familiar  scene  reminded  him  of  past  glories.  He  had 
long  before  intended  to  return.  In  1883  he  cancelled  his 
orders  for  periodicals  in  order  to  leave  at  the  beginning 
of  1884.  Then  things  happened  which  rendered  it  advis- 
able or  imperative  that  he  should  remain.  He  remained 
sorely  against  his  will.  His  longing  still  pointed 
homewards. 

An  unexpected  event  seemed  to  open  a  door.  Mr. 
Gladstone,  from  whom  he  had  nothing  to  hope  for, 
resigned  the  office  of  Premier,  and  Lord  Rosebery,  who 
might  welcome  the  support  of  a  distinguished  name,  suc- 
ceeded him.  This  it  was  that,  happening  just  then, 
precipitated  his  departure.    The  stern  Puritan  was  gone ; 

207 


208  LIFE   OP   SIK   GEOEGE   GREY 

the  good-natured  patrician,  whose  political  position  was 
a  little  shaky,  would  be  more  avvenante.  Grey  had  a 
gala  voyage  and  enjoyed  a  little  of  the  consideration  that 
had  for  years  been  denied  him.    London  saw — 

"  Old  Salinguerra  back  again  ;  I  say, 
Old  Salinguerra  in  the  town  once  more." 

But  it  was  not  on  the  baleful  errand  of  the  Florentine 
chief.  It  was  on  a  mission  of  international  peace,  racial 
union,  and  world-wide  federation.  A  few  gleams  of 
wintry  sunshine  gladdened  the  old  man's  heart.  He  was 
granted  the  as  yet  untarnished  honour  of  a  Privy  Couneil- 
lorship,  and  he  really  seems  to  have  believed  that  the 
high  but  empty  distinction  would  give  him  free  access 
to  the  Sovereign,  who  could  consult  him  on  State  affairs 
apart  from  her  responsible  advisers.  He  was  feted, 
interviewed,  biographied,  and  made  the  lion  of  a  brief 
London  season.  Before  a  gathering  of  the  National 
Liberal  Club  he  delivered  a  great  address  on  federation, 
which  the  Marquis  of  Ripon,  who  presided,  described  as 
**the  most  eloquent  speech  he  had  ever  heard,"  and 
which  showed  how  much  public  life  had  lost  by  his  exile. 
He  had  thus  some  apparent  success.  He  was  none  the 
less  disappointed.  He  found  little  interest  in  Pan- 
Anglican  federation.  He  kindled  no  enthusiasm.  He 
gained  no  adhesions.  No  leading  public  man  identified 
himself  with  the  cause  or  accepted  his  policy.  Its  time 
was  not  yet  come. 

His  final  return  to  England  was  fruitful  in  reconcilia- 
tions. He  was  reconciled  to  the  Colonial  Office  and  to  his 
country.  Still  more  pathetically,  within  sight  of  the 
eternal  shores,  the  stern  heart  softened,  and  the  long- 
widowed  man  was  formally  reconciled  (through  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Queen,  it  was  said)  to  the  wife  from  whom 
he  had  been  parted  for  four  and  thirty  years.  And  so, 
amid  the  roar  of  Pall  Mall  or,  later,  in  the  stillness  of 
Bath,  the  world-wearied  statesman  found  the  "Sabbath" 
he  had  vainly  sought  in  Pacific  solitudes. 

It  is  not  publicly  known  whether  his  wife  was  with  the 
old    man  at   the  last,    or    whether    she    survived    him. 


HIS    LAST    YEARS  209 

Apparently,  she  did  not.  Otherwise  he  would  hardly 
have  bequeathed  his  entire  means  to  his  relatives  in  New 
Zealand.  Like  so  many  other  great  men,  he  left  no  son 
to  perpetuate  his  name.  A  son  had  been  born  to  him  in 
Adelaide,  but  he  lived  only  a  few  months.  Grey's  belief 
that  his  wife  neglected  her  child  was  said  by  well- 
informed  persons  to  have  been  the  root  of  the  later 
unhappy  differences.  Here  a  veil  must  be  drawn.  The 
matter  concerned  themselves  alone,  and  he  never  invited 
discussion  on  the  subject.  But  it  affected  his  public 
position,  took  the  halo  off  the  reverence  that  should  have 
accompanied  old  age,  and  possibly  contributed  to 
embitter  his  temper. 

None  of  the  loved  scenes  was  around  him  when  he 
passed  away,  no  old  familiar  faces.  New  Zealand 
acquaintances  had  urged  him  to  return  to  the  Colony, 
where  he  would  have  had  a  fitting  end  and  national 
exequies.  He  would  not  go  back.  Every  town  had  been 
the  arena  of  triumphs,  indeed,  but  also  of  slights  and 
humiliations,  of  painful  remembrances,  of  angry  contests 
and  disastrous  defeats.  He  died  at  Bath  on  the  night  of 
September  18,  1898.  But  for  the  generous  action  of  the 
Colonial  OflSce,  he  might  have  been  buried,  as  he  died, 
in  obscurity.  Much  to  its  honour,  the  Department,  forget- 
ting its  long-buried  animosity  against  its  insurgent 
servant,  appealed  through  Lord  Selbonie,  Under- 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  to  the  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  to 
bestow  on  the  old  Governor  the  honour  of  a  tomb  in  the 
cathedral  where  some  of  England's  greatest  men  of  action 
lie  buried.  There  he  was  solemnly  laid  by  the  side  of  one 
of  his  successors  in  South  Africa,  Sir  Henry  Bartle  Frere. 
All  England  felt  that  his  memory  had  been  deservedly 
honoured. 

Gi^oup-deaths. 

Genius  sets,  as  it  rises,  in  constellations.  In  1832  no 
fewer  than  four  of  the  dii  majores  passed  away — Scott, 
Goethe,  Bentham,  and  Cuvier,  while  three  at  least  of  the 
dii  minores — Crabbe,  Mackintosh,  and  Gentz— attended 


i 


210  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

the  august  shades.  In  1859  the  great  names  of  Macau- 
lay,  the  younger  Humboldt,  and  Mrs.  Browning,  of 
Hallam  and  De  Quincey,  were  eclipsed.  Again,  in  1880-2 
a  still  loftier  group — Carlyle  and  Emerson,  Lord 
Beaconsfield  and  George  Eliot — ascended  Olympus,  with 
Longfellow  and  Dante  Rossetti  to  hymn  their  threnodies. 
So  was  it  when  George  Grey  was  gathered  to  his  fathers. 
He  had  been  coeval  in  birth  with  a  band  of  distinguished 
men — poets,  novelists,  scholars,  and  men  of  action;  he 
was  coeval  in  death  with  two  of  the  most  illustrious 
statesmen  of  the  age.  Bismarck,  the  terror  of  Europe, 
fell  like  a  mighty  tower  that  had  before  been  rent  by  an 
earthquake  from  base  to  summit.  Gladstone,  the 
standard-bearer  of  Liberalism  throughout  the  world,  fell 
like  a  secular  oak  that  had  for  centuries  battled  with 
storms.  Even  by  the  side  of  such  giants  Grey's  depar- 
ture was  not  unobserved.  They  were  almost  peers  in 
greatness.  All  alike  belonged  to  the  race  of  nature's 
kings,  and  in  this  respect  one  was  not  unworthy  of  the 
others.  For  Gladstone  alone  can  sanctity — such  sanctity 
as  is  predicable  of  men  of  action — be  claimed,  but 
Bismarck,  though  merciless,  was  true  to  his  own  stern 
conscience  even  as  Cromwell  was,  and  if  Grey  was  savage 
and  vindictive,  he  was  possessed  by  aims  and  animated 
by  aspirations  that  burned  to  ennoble  his  kind.  Gladstone 
alone,  perhaps,  winged  his  flight  to  the  paradise  of  a 
pure  fame;  Bismarck  and  Grey  will  expiate  their 
undoubted  offences  through  a  generation  of  cleansing 
purgatorial  fire.  Already  have  death  and  a  single  decade 
partly  wiped  the  stains  from  the  brow  once  radiant  and 
a  character  intrinsically  noble. 


Chapter  XXIX. 

THE  MAN. 

Physical. 

The  appearance  of  Sir  George  Grey  and  his  bearing 
were  distinguished.  Originally  tall,  though  latterly 
shrunken,  he  had  never  carried  his  height  well ;  as  late  as 
his  seventy-fifth  year  his  step,  like  Gladstone's,  was  still 
light  and  elastic.  The  head,  well  covered  with  gray  hair, 
was  of  an  average  size,  but  the  convolutions  of  the  brain 
must  have  been  many  and  fine.  The  soft  blue  eyes 
reflected  the  well  of  poetry  that  lay  deep  in  him.  A 
fierce  moustache,  cropped  so  close  as  to  make  it  resemble 
bristles  rather  than  human  hair,  betrayed  the  ineradic-- 
able  savagery  that  was  also  deep.  The  firm  chin  and 
jaw  were  fit  organs  of  the  iron  will.  On  the  whole,  the 
face  had  in  it,  when  in  repose,  nothing  of  greatness.  In 
animation,  when  every  line  and  feature  obeyed  the  per- 
ceptions of  the  mind  and  the  passions  of  the  heart,  it 
was  legible  as  a  printed  page,  luminous  as  a  trans- 
parency. When  lighted  up  with  humorous  appreciation, 
it  broke  into  a  million  wrinkles,  best  described  in 
Aeschylean  phrase.  In  anger,  though  he  was  deemed 
a  dangerous  man,  he  did  not  pale,  as  dangerous  men  are 
said  to  do,  but  face,  neck,  and  scalp  flushed  red.  It  may 
be  proof  of  the  wholesomeness  of  his  blood  and  tlie  essen- 
tial sweetness  of  his  nature  that  when,  at  the  unexpected 
sight  of  a  political  opponent,  a  flash  of  hatred  trans- 
formed his  features,  and  the  irregular  nose  lengthened  to 
a  point,  his  face  never  blackened.  The  imperious  look, 
as  of  one  who  would  brook  no  disobedience,  though  he 
might  be  guilty  of  it,  was  perhaps  the  most  characteristic. 
The  visible  ardour  of  middle  life  gave  way  in  old  age  to 
a  pathetic  expression  of  moral  defeat,  as  if  it  were  love 
for  his  fellows  and  not  lust  of  power  that  had  met  so 

rude  a  repulse. 

211  pa 


212  LIFE  OF  SIB  GEORGE  GREY 

Evolution  of  his  Physiognomy. 

Five  portraits  of  Grey  are  speaking  and  significant. 
The  one  from  a  painting  by  Richmond,  taken  in  the 
fifties  and  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  the  English 
edition  of  Mr.  Rees's  biography,  is  assuredly  that  of  a 
good  and  kind,  yet  firm  and  strong,  man,  who  has  a 
striking  resemblance  to  the  great  preacher,  Robertson 
of  Brighton.    No  trace  is  there  of  the  later  savagery. 

A  photograph  taken  at  Capetown  in  1861  reveals  a 
notable  change.  The  beautiful  symmetry  of  the  features 
in  Richmond's  perhaps  flattered  portrait  has  disappeared, 
and  the  mouth,  possibly  by  the  fault  of  the  engraver,  is 
distorted  into  an  expression  of  obstinacy  and  perversity. 
"It  is  the  mouth  of  a  thoroughly  unscrupulous  man," 
said  a  good  judge  who  saw  it.  Self-assertion,  carried  to 
an  extreme  has  brought  him  to  this !  In  later  years  his 
mouth  was  concealed  by  his  bristly  moustache.  Had  he 
inherited  his  mother's  sensitive  and  quivering,  yet  firm, 
lips,  how  very  different  a  man  he  might  have  been,  and 
how  different  a  career  he  might  have  had ! 

A  third  portrait  prefixed  to  the  second  volume  of 
Mr.  Rees's  work  and  possibly  belonging  to  the  seventies, 
shows  a  complete  revolution.  The  ardour  visible  but 
latent  in  the  earlier  physiognomy  has  kindled  in  the  eyes 
and  whole  gaze  into  an  inward  flame.  The  early  Vic- 
torian whiskers  have  been  replaced  by  a  moustache, 
already  cropped  close,  but  not  yet  bristly  or  quite  savage. 
In  a  fourth,  belonging  to  the  eighties,  the  hirsute 
moustache,  as  of  the  Wild  Boar  of  the  Ardennes  in 
Quentin  Durward,  and  the  hardened  face,  reveal  patent 
savagery  and  a  deep  moral  descent.  A  savage  vindic- 
tiveness,  a  fanaticism  of  rebellion,  a  defiant  self-assertion 
are  its  notes. 

A  still  more  tragic  change  is  disclosed  by  a  fifth 
portrait  which  hangs  in  the  Public  Library  at  Auckland. 
The  self-assertion  and  the  savagery  have  almost  disap- 
peared,, quenched  in  a  strange  new  expression — that  of 
irremediable  moral  defeat.  It  must  have  been  taken  in 
the   late   eighties   or   early  nineties,   when  he   at   last 


THE  MAN 


213 


realised  that,  in  public  life  at  all  events,  he  was  a  beaten 
man.  This  fifth  portrait  pathetically  embodies  the  final 
summing  up  of  a  long  and  active  life.  We  are  reminded 
of  the  words  of  Hildebrand:  "I  have  loved  justice  and 
hated  iniquity,  and  therefore  I  die  in  exile."  Some  such 
sentiment  would  translate  the  physiognomy  of  the  old 
Governor  as,  in  his  last  years  in  New  Zealand,  he  walked, 
almost  deserted,  the  streets  of  the  city  where  he  had  once 
trodden  as  an  almost  absolute  ruler. 

His  Health. 

A  medical  practitioner  whom  he  transferred  from  New 
Zealand  to  the  Cape  to  superintend  his  scheme  of  South 
African  hospitals.   Dr.   Fitzgerald,   referred   to   Grey's 
delicate  health  during  his  first  term  in  New  Zealand. 
He  himself  mentioned,  a  little  theatrically,  that  he  had 
drafted  the  constitution  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  New 
Zealand  ''on  a  sickbed  in  Taranaki."    He  was  subject  to 
severe  spasms  of  the  heart.     Yet  he  must  have  had 
extraordinary  powers  of  endurance.     He  had  the  large 
feet  we  associate  with  the  explorer,  and  in  his  expeditions 
in  Western  Australia  he  performed  exploits  that  would 
have  been  beyond  the  capacity  of  most  men.    His  powers 
remained  nearly  intact  to  an  advanced  age.    When  he  was 
past  seventy,  he  would  leave  Auckland  after  breakfast, 
arrive  at  Kawau  in  the  evening  without  having  partaken 
of  lunch,  and  immediately  set  out  to  show  a  visitor  round 
the  island.    At  times,  in  1888,  he  was  so  exhausted  that 
he  could  hardly  stand,  but  he  could  not  be  induced  to 
take  a  seat.     Two  or  three  years  later  he  frequently 
walked  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  from  Pamell  (Auckland) 
to  visit  an  acquaintance  residing  in  Epsom— a  journey 
of    some    miles— and    people    who    saw    him    tottering 
wondered  how  he  was  ever  to  get  back,  but  he  rejected 
aid.     His  power  of  rallying  was  an  old  feature  that 
baffled  prognostics.    On   a   stumping  tour   through   the 
Colony  in  1879,  when  he  was  Premier,  he  would  arrive  in 
a  steamer  in  a  state  of  prostration,   but  as  the  hour 
approached   for   addressing   a   public   meeting,    the  old 


214  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

war-horse  woke  up  at  the  sonnd  of  the  trumpet,  and  he 
proceeded  to  the  hall  and  delivered  an  impassioned 
address.  After  a  similar  tour  in  1884  he  returned  to 
Auckland  more  vigorous  than  when  he  set  out.  It  was 
otherwise  in  1887,  when  he  came  back  from  such  a  tour 
in  a  state  of  complete  prostration,  from  which  it  took 
him  weeks  to  recover.  There  was  therefore  a  tough 
vitality  that  rose  afresh  from  weakness  and  (more  than 
half  spiritual)  preserved  him  through  apparent  failure 
to  win  for  him,  just  before  the  end,  a  semblance  of 
victory. 

Intellectual. 

His  mental  faculties  had  the  same  quality  of  dis- 
tinction as  his  appearance.  He  had  a  predilection  for 
great  things  and  high  themes.  His  mind  had  affinities 
with  grandeurs.  Through  all  the  declamation  of  the 
French  poet  he  felt  the  greatness  of  Victor  Hugo,  and  he 
keenly  resented  an  irreverent  biography  of  him  that 
contained  sentences  which,  he  probably  felt,  might  be 
applied  to  himself.  He  admired  the  theatrical  proclama- 
tions of  Napoleon.  He  had  natural  elevations,  rose 
without  an  effort,  and  sustained  himself,  like  the 
albatross  he  so  well  described,  with  hardly  a  stroke  of 
the  pinion.    He  was  born  to  soar. 

An  Inductive  Reasoned. 

In  boyhood,  and  again  in  youth,  when  he  was  an  ensign 
in  a  regiment  stationed  at  Dublin,  he  came  under  the 
influence  of  a  man  who  influenced  many  men,  including 
some  New  Zealand  colonists — the  remarkable  and  eccen- 
tric Dr.  Whately,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  he  claimed 
that  the  growth  of  his  mind  had  been  affected  by  that 
teacher  of  teachers.  Whatever  he  may  have  learnt  from 
him,  he  never  learnt  the  art  of  reasoning,  at  least  in 
syllogistic  form.  For  this,  at  all  times,  he  evinced  a 
notorious  incapacity,  and  often  the  ratiocination  of  his 
Parliamentary  speeches  in  later  years  evoked  the 
emphatic  contempt  of  his  fellow-legislators.  But,  if  his 
faculty  of  deductive  reasoning  was  in  defect,  a  far  higher 


THE  MAN  215 

power — the  commanding  faculty  of  inductive  reasoning 
— was  of  lordly  proportions.  It  was  first  sliown  in  his 
despatches  from  New  Zealand,  and  next  in  those  from 
South  Africa.  Through  the  long  and  very  interesting 
succession  of  these  you  always  perceive,  under  whatever 
obscurations  of  masked  passion  or  undisguised  per- 
versity, the  inductive  reasoner  who  is  travelling  slowly 
to  his  end  along  a  devious  route  with  many  a  winding 
and  turning,  and  with  not  a  little  bowing  and  scraping 
and  all  manner  of  deprecatory  formulas ;  when  at  last  he 
arrives,  you  i3erceive  that  he  has  gained  his  destination 
by  the  path  the  easiest  for  him  to  follow  and  the  best  to 
convince  his  reader  (the  powerful  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  or  his  still  more  potent  Under-Secretary)  that 
the  end  was  one  to  be  supremely  desired  or  else  most 
anxiously  shunned.  Such  despatches  exhibit,  as  many 
of  his  speeches  exhibited,  a  higher  species  of  logic  than 
the  scholastic.  It  would  be  easy  to  convert  any  of  the 
more  elaborate  into  a  sorites — a  chain  of  syllogisms. 

His  Constructiveness. 

Flowering  out  of  this  high  faculty  arose  another  of  a 
still  higher  type — the  grand  power  that  Kant  named  the 
architectonic  faculty,  and  which  Herbert  Spencer 
claimed  as  one  of  his  distinctive  attributes.  It  was 
strikingly  shown  so  early  as  1851,  in  an  address  to  the 
New  Zealand  Society  that  was  worthy  of  Guizot,  when  he 
sketched  a  lofty  programme  for  the  historians  of  New 
Zealand,  who  should  study  its  history  as  "tending  to 
illustrate  and  clear  up  the  history  of  the  entire  human 
race,  and  of  all  time,  considered  as  one  harmonious 
whole."  It  was  effectively  shown  in  the  drafting  of  a 
political  and  of  an  ecclesiastical  constitution,  and  in  the 
imaginative  construction  of  two  or  three  great  federa- 
tions. Such  efforts  demand  high,  almost  the  highest, 
powers  of  the  human  mind.  Not  all  who  essay  them 
succeed.  The  formation  of  political  constitutions  lias 
often  tempted  the  thinker.  Locke  drew  up  a  constitution 
for  Carolina  that  proved  unworkable  and  was  transitory. 


216  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

Eousseau  drafted  a  constitution  for  Corsica,  and 
Bentham  one  for  Eussia,  neither  of  which  was  ever 
brought  into  operation  or  treated  seriously.  It  was  far 
otherwise  with  Grey's  constructive  efforts.  The  con- 
stitution that  he  drew  up  for  New  Zealand  was,  with 
amendments,  which  he  regarded  as  mutilations,  sanc- 
tioned by  the  British  Parliament,  and  remained  for 
twenty  years  in  successful  operation.  The  constitution 
he  drew  up  for  the  Church  of  England  in  New  Zealand 
laid  the  basis  of  the  constitution  by  which  that  Church 
has  ever  since  been  governed.  He  schemed  a  confedera- 
tion of  the  South  Sea  Islands  which  might  well  have  been 
effected.  He  planned  a  confederation  of  the  South 
African  States  such  as  is  on  the  eve  of  realisation. 
"Dotham's  dreamer  dreamed  anew,"  and  he  dreamt  of 
a  federation  of  all  English-speaking  peoples,  which  the 
twentieth  century  may  see  realised.  Evidently,  he 
possessed  the  architectonic  faculty  in  a  high  degree.  A 
not  infelicitous  parallel  with  Herbert  Spencer  might  be 
traced.  The  philosopher  who  organized  the  sciences  of 
life  and  mind,  society  and  morals,  and  who  meditated  the 
reconciliation  of  antagonist  philosophies  in  a  synthetic 
system,  was  the  complementary  half  of  the  colonial 
Governor  who  first  gave  a  constitutional  framework  to 
a  colony  and  a  church,  and  who  sought  to  bring  many 
diverse  races  under  one  political  system. 

His  linaglnation. 

His  breadth  of  view  and  his  large  schemes  were 
directly  connected  with  an  imperial  imagination.  He  had 
the  vivid  visual  realisation  of  one  who  saw  things  in  the 
concrete.  A  defeated  Premier  had  appointed  himself 
Speaker  of  the  Legislative  Council  and  created  a  number 
of  his  friends  members  of  the  Council.  To  Grey  it  was 
"like  a  king  entering  the  Chamber  surrounded  by  his 
retainers."  A  condemned  House  of  Representatives, 
which  awaited  dissolution  and  yet  legislated  for  its 
successor,  reminded  him  of  "the  living  governed  by  the 
dead."    All  appeared  to  him  in  picture.     John  Bright 


THE  MAN  217 

had  a  vision  of  America,  from  the  frozen  North  to  the 
glowing  South,  as  ''the  home  of  freedom  and  a  refuge 
for  the  oppressed  of  every  nation  and  of  every  clime." 
Grey's  vision  may  not  have  been  nobler  than  that,  but 
it  was  wider,  deeper,  and  richer.  He  had  a  vision  of  a 
grand  Pan-Anglican  federation,  where  the  two  great 
races  of  the  world  would  blend  harmoniously  into  a 
living  unity  and  exhibit  a  new  social  type.  All  these 
things  he  saw  with  his  bodily  eyes,  and  he  spoke  and 
wrote  of  them  with  the  passion  of  belief  proper  to  a 
seer.  He  made  others  see  with  him,  when  his  perceptions 
were  true.    It  was  thus  he  convinced  them. 

Perhaps  it  was  a  corollary  of  the  predominance  of 
imagination  in  his  mind  that,  though  he  had  perceptions 
which  nothing  escaped,  and  an  extraordinary  memory 
which  let  slip  nothing  it  ever  held,  he  had  no  grasp  of 
details;  and  when  a  measure  was  under  discussion,  he 
was  frivolous  in  the  cabinet,  useless  on  a  committee,  and 
silent  in  the  legislature.  His  projects  of  taxation  would 
have  made  Turgot  or  Gladstone  smile,  so  childishly 
futile  were  they.  His  reasonings  for  or  against  a  tax 
were  also  puerile. 

The  same  high  faculty  of  imagination  gave  elevation 
to  his  oratory.  Did  a  great  cause  move  him?  Breathing 
thoughts  came  at  will,  and  burning  words  seemed  to  come 
of  themselves.  Passion  kindled  them.  Indignation 
heated  them  white.  Others  cite  poetry  when  they  should 
be  eloquent ;  his  eloquence  was  poetry. 

His  CultuB^e. 

Like  many  imaginative  men,  he  was  not  deep  in  reflection 
or  formidable  in  argument.  His  culture  was  tinged  with 
dilletantism.  He  had  the  taste  for  Italian  poetry  more 
characteristic  of  his  generation  than  of  ours.  He  had 
learnt  German  at  Sandhurst,  and  been  intoxicated  with 
Schiller,  like  German  students  of  a  bygone  time,  but  with 
neither  that  nor  any  other  literature  was  his  acquaint- 
ance extensive  or  exact.  In  earlier  j^ears  he  must  have 
read  or  rather  gleaned  abundantly,  but  in  later  years  he 


218  LIFE  OF  SIR  GEORGE  GREY 

read  practically  nothing.  Proud  of  his  long-sightedness, 
he  must  have  made  a  vow,  like  Swift,  that  he  would  never 
use  spectacles,  and  though  he  so  far  condescended  to 
infirmity  as  to  use  a  magnifying  glass,  on  most  occasions 
he  depended  on  his  unarmed  eyes,  and  they  increasingly 
ceased  to  serve  him.  More  and  more,  he  was  therefore, 
like  Swift  and  Herbert  Spencer,  thrown  back  on  his  own 
thoughts,  and  he  was  often  thus,  like  them,  plunged  into 
hypochondria. 

His  knowledge  of  men  was  wide  and  deep,  yet  in  one 
instance  a  conspiracy  that  for  ever  excluded  him  from 
political  office  was  matured  under  his  unperceiving  eyes. 
It  is  not  that,  like  Wallenstein,  in  a  similar  case,  he  was 
too  magnanimous  to  be  suspicious.  The  experience  of 
a  long  life  had  made  him  all  eyes  to  his  fellows' 
treachery;  but,  for  once,  he  was  misled  by  his  belief  in 
one  who  played  him  false.  Either  he  did  not  always 
accurately  measure  the  men  he  had  to  cope  with  and  the 
environment  he  was  placed  in,  or  else  he  was  blinded  by 
passion.  His  conversation  was  witty,  genial,  discursive, 
interminable :  he  talked  on  for  ever,  and  you  wished  him 
to  talk  on  for  ever.  It  was  literary,  political,  egotistical ; 
a  score  of  times  over  he  must  have  talked  his  auto- 
biography right  through.  On  rare  occasions  it  would 
blaze  out  into  wild  revolutionary  schemes  that  might 
have  emanated  from  Bedlam. 

Moral. 

His  moral  qualities  ran  parallel  with  his  intellectual. 
His  high  ambition,  hampered  throughout  life,  his  sub- 
jugating will,  often  thwarted,  and  his  passionate 
persistency  were  but  the  emotional  side  of  his  large 
views.  His  attributes,  with  all  their  defects,  were  those 
of  the  born  ruler.  His  pride  was  that  of  the  savage  chiefs 
he  once  ruled  over,  and  it  would  well  have  become  an 
absolute  monarch,  but  it  made  obedience  on  his  part 
difficult,  and  co-operation  with  him  all  but  impossible. 
The  path  of  his  life  was  strewn  with  broken  friendships, 
and  he  was  latterly  on  speaking  terms  with  not  one  of 


THE  MAN  219 

the  colonial  leaders.  The  point  of  honour  once  touched, 
he  was  implacable.  Henceforward,  with  no  moment  of 
weak  relenting  or  relaxed  vigilance,  he  pursued  his  foe 
as  the  bloodhound  his  quarry,  but  in  a  manner  fatal  to 
himself  as  well  as  to  his  victim.  His  self-possession  was 
perfect,  and  his  courage  rose  as  danger  thickened,  yet  it 
was  rather  military  than  civic  courage.  With  a  bishop 
on  his  right  hand  and  a  chief-justice  on  his  left,  he  was 
ready  to  defy  Imperial  Parliament.  With  his  Ministers 
behind  him,  he  could  flout  the  Colonial  Office.  With  the 
people  at  his  back  he  could  have  gone  from  opposition 
to  revolt  and  from  revolt  to  revolution.  Before  a  blast 
of  unpopularity  he  was  a  mere  reed.  It  was  as  if  his 
foundation  were  not  on  the  adamant  of  principle  but  the 
quicksands  of  pride. 

His  Sympathies. 

His  sensitiveness  to  the  changing  humours  of  the 
populace  may  have  sprung  out  of  the  keenness  of  his 
sympathies.  The  sight  of  injustice  or  oppression  roused 
him  almost  to  madness.  Distress  in  every  shape  excited 
his  compassion.  There  may  have  been  some  affectation 
in  carrying  medicines  to  a  sick  man  at  ten  o'clock  at 
night,  but  there  was  none  in  walking  a  long  distance  day 
after  day  to  visit  an  invalid,  at  a  time  when  his  bodily 
strength  was  failing  and  he  looked  frail  indeed,  though 
the  iron  will  of  old  remained  indomitable.  His  generosity 
did  not,  as  a  rule,  take  a  commonplace  form,  save  when, 
as  in  the  Queensland  floods  of  1890,  the  object  appealed 
to  his  imagination.  But,  like  Bessarion  and  other  celi- 
bates, he  had  a  costly  passion  for  founding  great 
libraries,  and  the  philological  library  that  he  presented 
to  the  Cape  places  him  of  right,  in  the  opinion  of  Max 
Miiller,  by  the  side  of  Sir  Thomas  Bodley. 

His  Tact. 

He  was  accused  of  wanting  tact  by  mediocrities  who 
had  none,  though  no  woman  ever  had  more.  By  a  fine 
instinct,  which  was  half  perception  and  half  sympatliy, 


220  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

he  seemed  to  know  far  in  advance  when  he  was 
approaching  dangerous  ground.  Like  the  Maori  female 
guide  who  conducts  the  tourist  over  the  quaking  and 
steaming  sides  of  the  hills  near  Kotorua,  he  infallibly 
picked  his  way  among  the  pitfalls  of  social  intercourse. 
He  followed  the  turns  and  windings  of  his  interlocutor's 
talk  with  sympathy,  with  approval,  at  times  with  con- 
demnatory silence,  but  always  with  full  appreciation. 

Unclubbable. 

Holding  somewhat  aloof  from  his  fellows,  though 
cordial  when  he  met  with  them,  he  went  little  into  what 
was  called  society.  He  did  not  follow  the  example  of 
King  Edward  and  many  colonial  Governors  by  dining 
with  his  subjects.  Pride  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  it,  but  higher  tastes  and  aversion  to  the  loss  of 
time  involved  had  more.  In  his  later  years  he  went 
almost  nowhere.  Now  and  then,  but  very  rarely,  he  dined 
at  Government  House,  Wellington,  and  he  often  visited 
invalids  to  whom  he  wished  to  show  a  kindness.  When 
he  finally  returned  to  England,  he  was  little  more 
associative.  In  earlier  days  he  had  rather  cultivated  the 
territorial  and  official  aristocracy.  He  was  fond  of 
relating — and  Mr.  Rees  has  enshrined  the  narrative — 
how,  at  the  Duke  of  Argj^ll's  house  in  London,  he  had 
foregathered  with  men  of  political  and  literary  dis- 
tinction, and  had  easily  held  his  own  with  them  on  topics 
of  importance.  He  particularly  delighted  in  the  break- 
fasts that  were  then  fashionable,  before  Londoners 
became  too  much  engrossed  to  breakfast  late.  His  table 
maimers  were  charming,  and  his  conversation  unaffected 
and  delightful. 

His  Hunnoups. 

His  humour  was  genuine,  free,  and  unforced,  answering 
like  a  flash  to  all  demands  on  it.  As  Liszt  said  of  Chopin, 
"his  caustic  spirit  caught  the  ridiculous  rapidly  and  far 
below  the  surface  at  which  it  usually  strikes  the  eye.'* 
He  was  no  great  laugher  and  seldom  laughed  heartily. 


THE  MAN  221 

Sometimes,  when  a  pointed  retort  made  him  realise  the 
tragedy  of  his  situation,  his  laugh  was  almost  gruesome. 
His  smile  was  various,  often  delightful,  always 
charming.  It  was  fashioned  less  by  the  mouth  than  by 
the  eyes,  which  would  stream  over  with  merriment,  and 
by  the  whole  mobile  face.  Few  faces  were  capable  of 
lighting  up  as  his  was  at  some  stroke  of  wit  or  some 
humorous  situation.  It  then  grew  beaming,  luminous, 
and  radiant.  But  whether  of  amusement  or  appreciation, 
of  scorn  or  anger,  his  expression  was  total  and  organic. 
He  was  all  smiles  or  all  frowns,  all  allurement  or  all 
menace.  His  anger,  especially,  was  formidable.  His 
voice,  ordinarily  feeble,  suddenly  grew  powerful  and 
harsh  or  threatening.  The  complete  transformation  of 
his  countenance  when  he  saw  a  hated  political  opponent 
showed  how  much  anger  is  a  devil's  passion.  In  him  it 
was  not  the  righteous  indignation  of  the  just  man.  The 
mood  grew  upon  him.  After  his  return  to  New  Zealand 
in  1869  he  would  often,  in  his  solitude,  sink  into  black 
rages  at  the  remembrance  of  some  bitter  injustice  or 
some  abominable  outrage.  He  could  at  times  be  seen  in 
the  Parliamentary  Library  sitting  absorbed  in  melan- 
choly thought  or  on  fire  with  some  internal  consuming 
passion.  At  such  times  he  seemed  to  respire  flame  and 
wrath,  as  Saul  breathed  forth  slaughter  and  threatenings 
He  was  then  almost  unapproachable.  Was  he  in  his 
house?  His  niece  would  send  one  or  more  of  her  children 
into  his  room,  and  their  caresses  or  innocent  guileless 
ways  would  lay  healing  balm  on  the  wounded  spirit.  But 
for  them,  and  but  for  the  few  honours  he  received  in 
England,  he  might  have  passed  his  last  years  as  Swift 
spent  his,  and  the  world  might  have  witnessed  such 
another  spectacle  as  Johnson  and  Taine  have  so  vividly 
painted. 

His  Religion. 

The  religion  of  the  man  of  action  is  usually  traditional 
or  orthodox.  All  the  social  forces  by  which  the  ruler 
is  himself  ruled  tend  to  breed  in  him  a  hereditary  awe  of 
the  Upper  Powers.     Herbert  Spencer  has  proved,  and 

Q 


222  LIFE   OF   SIR   GEORGE   GREY 

all  history  confirms  the  argument,  that  the  earthly  and 
heavenly  hierarchies  are  inseparably  connected.  Which- 
ever may  be  first — whether  the  spiritual  is  the  earlier,  as 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  Quinet,  and  Fustel  de 
Coulanges  maintain,  or  whether  the  celestial  is  modelled 
on  the  terrestrial,  as  Voltaire  would  have  said  and 
Spencer  asserts — the  two  closely  reflect  one  another. 
Hence  the  secular  arm  commonly  supports  the  ecclesias- 
tical, and  George  III.  made  it  a  rule  to  stand  up  while  the 
Hallelujah  Chorus  was  being  performed,  as  if  it  had  at 
least  an  equal  claim  to  such  an  honour  with  the  National 
Anthem.  The  religion  of  the  governing  classes  is  usually 
conventional  and  is  rarely  personal,  as  with  Cromwell, 
or  sceptical,  as  with  Frederick  the  Great,  or  philo- 
sophical, as  with  William  von  Humboldt,  or  universally 
tolerant,  as  with  Alexander  Severus  or  Akbar.  It  is  now 
and  then  innovating,  as  was  shown  by  Constantino  and 
the  early  European  kings  who  accepted  Christianity  and, 
at  a  later  date,  Protestantism.  Sometimes  it  is  reac- 
tionary, as  with  the  Emperor  Julian  and  the  many 
sovereigns  who  have  apostatized  from  Protestantism  to 
Catholicism,  but  then  the  reversion  is  towards  more 
religion,  not  less. 

Grey's  religion  was  that  of  the  ruler  or  the  ruling 
class.  He  was  an  orthodox  Anglican,  and,  although  he 
associated  familiarly  with  avowed  freethinkers,  two  of 
whom — the  President  and  the  Vice-President  of  the 
Freethought  Associations  of  New  Zealand — were 
members  of  his  cabinet  in  1877-8,  and  in  private  he  was 
tolerant  of  dissent,  he  never  abandoned  his  early 
position.  His  first  book  is  strongly  impregnated  with 
the  religious  sentiment,  and  he  avows  that  in  times  of 
trial  he  sought  for  consolation  and  support  in  religious 
beliefs  and  the  perusal  of  the  Bible.  It  is  difficult  for 
those  who  knew  him  in  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life 
to  take  those  simple  confessions  quite  seriously  and 
equally  difficult  to  doubt  his  sincerity.  Religious  faith 
of  some  kind  was  deeply  ingrained  in  him.  During  his 
West   Australian   explorations,   when    more    than    once 


THE  MAN  223 

death  seemed  imminent,  he  fell  back  on  religious  con- 
solations, and  almost  fifty  years  afterwards  he  did  the 
same  thing.  He  kept  the  Bible  by  him  in  1838-9,  and  in 
1884  he  got  up,  as  he  confessed,  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  read  the  New  Testament — in  the  original,  it 
was  understood.  Yet  there  were  few  outward  manifes- 
tations of  belief.  He  quarrelled  violently  with  the 
missionaries  in  New  Zealand,  but  on  just  grounds. 
Therein  resembling  jiersons  so  unlike  as  Milton, 
Bismarck,  and  Henry  Drummond, — all  of  them  pro- 
fessedly religious  men — he  did  not,  in  later  years  at 
least,  attend  Divine  worship.  In  1884,  at  a  time  of  great 
trial  and  possible  calamity,  he  began  to  conduct  religious 
worship  at  Kawau  on  Sunday  mornings.  He  read  the 
Church  of  England  service  with  simple  dignity  and  with 
some  impressiveness,  but  delivered  or  read  no  discourse. 
His  library  was  not  lacking  in  religious  books.  He  pos- 
sessed a  complete  set  of  the  once-famous  Tracts  for  the 
Times,  and  he  had  the  works  of  Theodore  Parker.  To 
these  in  his  trouble  he  had  recourse,  but  found  "some- 
thing wanting"  in  them,  as  well  he  might.  What  is 
warning — is  it  not? — is  what  Christians  call  the  Cross  of 
Christ — the  gaining  of  eternal  life  through  death  to  self 
and  the  world.  That  profound  perception  of  the  law  of 
sacrifice  and  the  darkening  of  **the  Father's"  face,  or 
of  the  world  and  the  cosmos,  to  the  innocent  wronged  one 
generates  a  deeper  theology  than  Parker  in  his  optimism 
ever  knew.  It  is  also  the  supreme  lesson  which  men  of 
Grey's  stamp  never  learn. 

The  problem  is  much  of  the  same  character  as  Bis- 
marck's professions  and  practice  present.  "Fancy 
Bismarck  believing  in  a  God!"  it  was  said  when  Busch's 
candid  reminiscences,  flavoured  with  pious  declarations, 
were  published.  Bismarck  was  probably  as  sincere  a 
believer  as  Cromwell,  whose  sincerity  is  not  now  so  often 
disputed  as  it  used  to  be.  We  shape  the  Deity  in  our 
own  image,  and  the  God  of  Cronuvell,  Bismarck,  and 
Grey  was  doubtless  a  very  different  being  to  the 
Heavenly  Father  of  the  Gospels  or  the  Christ-God  who 
supplanted  him. 


224  LIFE   OF   SIE   GEOKGE   GREY 

In  spite  of  his  surprising  perusal  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Grey  was  not  a  New  Testament  Christian.     The 
Beatitudes  by  no  means  expressed  his  ideal  of  life.    He 
was  not  humble.    "Blessed  are  the  merciful"  did  he  read 
— he  who  never  spared?    "Blessed  are  they  that  hunger 
and  thirst" — but  one's  sense  of  congruity  is  too  severely 
shocked.    He  let  the  sun  go  down  upon  his  wrath.    Often 
cruel,   hard-hearted,    oppressive,    tyrannical,    relentless, 
and  savagely  vindictive,  he  was  at  times  an  old  savage, 
whose    heart    had    never    been    softened    by    religious 
influences,  but  only  hardened  by  tragic  experiences  of 
life.     His   was   an   unawakened   mind,  and,    though   he 
speculated  on  many  topics,  he  never  allowed  his  clear 
intelligence   to   play   on   any   of   the   mysteries    of   the 
Christian  faith.     He  probably  would  have   said,  with 
Lord  Acton,  that  he  was  not  conscious  of  ever  in  his  life 
having  "held  the  slightest  shadow  of  a  doubt  about  any 
dogma  of  the"  Church  of  England.     His  (believers  in 
revealed  religion  would  say)  was  an  unconverted  nature, 
where  the  primitive  passions  had  never  been  purified  in 
Heavenly  furnaces  and  the  principles  of  the  natural  man 
had  never  been  illuminated  by  Divine  light.     We  need 
not  too  harshly  condemn  one  who  had  many  a  hard 
battle  to  fight,  and  who  generally  fought  for  the  good 
cause.    Only  a  few  fighting  statesmen — Cromwell,  Guizot, 
Montalembert,  Gladstone,  McKinley,— have  in  the  strife 
preserved  "the  whiteness  of  their  souls." 


A  "Tropical  Man. 


a 


Carlyle,  who  not  unjustly  appraised  him,  would  have 
said  that  Grey  belonged  to  another  class  than  those  to 
whom  the  precepts  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  apply, 
and  must  be  judged  by  a  different  code  of  ethics.  He 
looked,  indeed,  an  alien  figure  as  he  flitted  about  among 
the  colonial  legislators,  who  doubtless  also  felt  that  he 
did  not  belong  to  them  or  their  kind.  He  was  of  the 
great  race  of  the  uehermenschen — the  giants  whom 
Renan  and  Nietzsche  have  set  up  for  the  homage  of  "the 
dim  common  populations."    The  passion  of  subjugation 


THE   MAN  225 

and  domination  laj'  at  the  base  of  his  character.  He 
realised  Nietzsche's  idea  of  life  as  consisting  essentially 
in  aggression — in  the  appropriation  and  subjection  of 
all  that  is  alien  and  feebler;  accompanied  or  not — and 
it  mattered  little  to  him  whether  it  was  or  was  not 
accompanied — by  hardness  and  oppression;  and  issuing 
in  the  imposing  of  its  will,  its  forms  of  thought  and 
feeling,  on  others,  and  the  incorporation  of  those  others 
with  itself  or,  at  least,  their  exploitation  for  its  own  ends. 
He  was  of  the  same  lineage  as  Julius  Caesar,  Frederick, 
and  Napoleon,  if  not  of  the  same  stature.  And  yet,  who 
knows?  These  mighty  hunters  of  men  were  made  great 
by  their  surroundings.  Had  they  been  planted  down  in 
a  British  colony  sixty  years  ago,  they  would  have  shown 
no  greater  faculties  than  Grey  displayed;  and  had  Grey 
been  placed  in  the  wider  environment  of  Canada  or 
India,  or  been  set  to  govern  a  kingdom  or  an  empire,  he 
might  have  revealed  himself  one  of  the  colossi  of  man- 
kind. His  earlier  days  were  passed  in  circumstances 
where  one  of  Nietzsche's  "tropical  men"  was  possible 
and  was  required,  and  his  doings  in  those  days  must  be 
judged  by  a  standard  adapted  to  the  time  and  the  place. 
He  lived  on  into  an  age  when  powers  or  limitations  that 
he  lacked  were  needed,  and  his  special  attributes  were  an 
offence.  He  was  then  a  living  anachronism  and  his  life 
a  tragedy. 

A  IVIakei*  of  Australasia. 

Yet,  after  all,  the  limitations  of  his  ethics  and  the 
defects  of  his  personal  character  will,  at  the  great  assize, 
weigh  but  slightly  in  the  balance  against  the  real  and 
great  sei-vices  Sir  George  Grey  has  rendered  to  par- 
ticular colonies,  to  the  Empire,  and  (may  we  not  say?) 
to  humanity  at  large.  The  private  and  personal  element 
in  his  nature,  charming  or  repellent,  lofty  and  soaring, 
or  tortuous  and  grovelling,  as  it  may  be  held,  is  insig- 
nificant by  the  side  of  his  altruist  attributes  and  activities. 
He  was  what  Emerson  calls  "a  public  soul,"  with  all  his 
doors  and  windows  open  to  airs  and  breezes  that  came 


226  LIFE   OF  SIK   GEORGE   GREY 

from  another  world  than  that  of  the  egoist  life.  It  was 
interesting  to  observe,  in  conversing  with  him,  to  how 
small  an  extent  his  thoughts  ran  on  the  private  affairs  of 
himself  or  of  others.  Topics  of  colonial,  imperial,  or 
world-wide  interest  were  the  sole  themes  of  his  most 
intimate  converse.  Jnst  so,  as  one  remembers,  did  the 
eminent  Grecian  come  home  from  a  tour  in  old  Hellas 
and  have  nothing  to  say  about  the  country  of  his  predi- 
lection, save  in  relation  to  general  ideas.  Just  so,  as  one 
also  remembers,  did  the  celebrated  philosopher  refuse 
to  answer  gossiping  questioners ;  he,  too,  returning  from 
Egypt  with  stores  of  ideas,  but  with  nothing  to  tell  in 
the  way  of  personal  adventure.  Though  Grey  was 
exacting  of  due  respect  to  himself,  as  he  was  in  general 
careful  to  pay  it  to  others,  all  his  actions — and  his 
feelings  and  thoughts  almost  always  issued  in  action — 
had  public  ends. 

So  it  had  been  with  him  all  his  days.  In  his  youth  he 
dreamt  of  gaining  fame  only  through  the  rendering  of 
great  services,  and  his  earliest  achievements  were 
designed  to  open  up  undiscovered  countries  for  the  relief 
of  the  poverty-stricken  and  the  oppressed.  Fortune  led 
him  to  the  Antipodes,  where  his  career  began,  and  where 
it  ended.  He  was  a  maker  of  Australasia  by  discovering 
hills  and  mountain-chains,  small  or  noble  rivers,  and 
fertile  grassy  plains  in  Western  Australia  where  (as  he 
believed)  millions  of  agricultural  settlers  would  one  day 
dwell.  He  was  a  maker  of  Australasia  when  he  checked 
South  Australia  in  a  course  of  political  blundering  that 
was  fruitful  of  economic  disaster;  when  he  set  himself 
to  rescue  and  raise  its  aboriginals,  and  thus  redeemed 
the  colonists  who  had  robbed  them  of  their  domains; 
when  he  devised  there,  as  also  in  New  Zealand,  a  policy 
of  democratic  landed  settlement;  and  when  he  promoted 
a  system  of  emigration  that  dowered  the  Colony  with  a 
valuable  ethnical  variety.  In  New  Zealand  he  was  less  a 
maker  of  Australasia  than  he  would  have  been  its 
unmaker,  when  he  endeavoured  to  amalgamate  the 
Maoris  and  the  colonists  into  a  single  hybrid  race  of 


THE  MAN  227 

mingled  blood  and  culture;  but  he  was  really  a  maker  of 
Australasia  when  he  subjugated  and  then  conciliated  the 
Maoris  and  thus  fitted  the  islands  for  the  settlement  of  a 
new  British  community ;  when  he  clothed  this  community 
with  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  organization  of  a 
federal  free  people;  and  he  would  have  been  the  maker 
of  a  Greater  Australasia,  had  his  constructive  ideas  of  a 
South  Sea  Islands  federation  been  completely,  as  they 
have  been  partially,  realised.  He  was  a  maker  of  South 
Africa  by  his  sympathetic  treatment  of  the  Boers  and 
his  scheme  of  a  South  African  federation — unfulfilled 
indeed,  and  still  destined  to  bear  abundant  fruit  in  our 
own  time.  He  was  yet  once  more  a  maker  of  Australasia 
when  he  returned  to  the  Legislature  of  his  favourite 
colony  and  there  sat  as  a  legislator  where  once  he  had 
sat  as  a  deputy  of  the  Sovereign.  For  in  those  halls  and 
throughout  the  Colony  he  fashioned  the  democracy  that 
is  now  leading  the  policy  of  the  world,  and  he  laid  the 
foundation  stones  of  the  structure  that  is  being  imitated 
in  Australia  and  the  Motherland.  By  all  that  he  achieved, 
and  hardly  less  by  what  he  failed  to  accomplish,  he 
approved  himself  a  famous  maker  of  Australasia  and  a 
heroic  builder  of  the  British  Empire. 


INDEX. 


ADDERLEY,  Sir  C.  {Lord  Norton).  Drafts  N.Z.  Constitution,  80  ;  attacks 
Grey,  95  ;  on  condominium,  145. 

Amalgamation  of  Maori  and  white  races,  believed  in  by  Grey  and  others,  59. 

ANGAS,  G.  p.  a  founder  of  South  Australia,  24  ;  introduces  German  im- 
migrants, 25. 

Arnold,  T.     On  the  right  of  occupancy,  55  ;  cited  by  Earl  Grey,  55. 

BALLANCE,    J.       Appointed    Treasurer   in   Grey   Ministry,    187  ;     resigns    or 

expelled,  188. 
Bell,   Sir  P.  D.,  Colonial  Minister.     Pinds  incriminating  map,  142;   Maori 

policy,  142. 
BLACKS,  West  Australian.     Employed  by  Grey   as  labourers,  13-4  ;   grammar 

and  dictionary  of  language  compiled  by  Grey,  14-5. 
South  Australian.     Brought  under  colonial  jurisdiction  by  Grey,  25  ; 

employment  found  for  by  Grey,  26 ;  educated  by  Grey,  26  ;  conciliated,  26. 
BLEEK,  W.  H.     Compiles  bibliography  of  Grey  Library,  135. 
BOWEN,  Sir  G.     Succeeds  Grey  in  N.Z.,  161. 

Brown,  Prof.  J.  MacmiUan.     Adversely  criticizes  Polynesian  Mytlwlogy,  68-9. 
Buckingham,  Duhe  of.     Recalls  Grey  from  N.Z.,  159  ;  refuses  enquiry,  158. 

Cameron,  Gen.  Sir  D.  Refuses  to  attack  Weraroa,  148-9  ;  breach  with 
Grey,  150. 

Canterbury  Association.     Grey's  relations  with,  74. 

CARDWELL,  E.,  Secretary  of  Colonies  and  latterly  of  War.  Supports  Grey's 
resistance  to  project  of  N.Z.  constitution,  58  ;  supports  Grey's  resistance 
to  confiscation  of  Maori  territory,  154-5  ;  communicates  accusations,  157  ; 
resents  Grey's  betrayal,  157. 

CARLETON,  H.     Vindicates  H.  Williams,  48  ;  author  of  Page,  etc.,  65. 

CARLYLE,  T.  Attracted  by  Grey,  172  ;  supports  Grey  at  Newark,  172-3  ; 
intercom'se  with  Grey,  177  ;  conflicting  estimates  of,  178. 

Carnarvon,  Earl  of.  Recalls  Grey,  126  ;  attacks  Grey,  158  ;  refuses  inquiry, 
158. 

Church,  Anglican,  constitution  of.  Drafted  by  Grey,  87-8  ;  its  real  author- 
ship, 88-9. 

Clarke,  — ,  Catechist  and  Protector  of  Aborigines.     Condemned,  49. 

COGHLAN,  Commodore.     Defends  Grey's  account  of  W.  Australia,  12. 

Colonial  Office,  Grey's  relations  with.  Pavourable,  17,  18,  27 ;  coolly 
received,  94;  in  N.Z.^  friendly,  153;  hostile,  157-9;  spumed,  167-8. 

Constitution  of  N.Z.     Authorship  of,  79-31 ;  provisions,  81-3. 

Darwin,  C.     Grey's  intercourse  with,  176-7. 

DERBY,  Earl  of  [Lwd  Stanley).  Eulogizes  Grey's  administration  of  S. 
Australia,  27  :  appoints  him  Governor  of  New  Zealand,  31. 

228 


INDEX  229 

DISSAELI,  B.     Oa  N.Z.  constitution,  58. 

Domett,  A.     Premier  under  Grey,  142  ;  Maori  policy,  142. 

DrummoNC,  J.     Life  and  Work  of  R.  J.  Seddon,  x. 

ELGIN,  Earl  of,  and  China  contingent,  120-1. 

Eyre,  E.  J.  Stationed  on  borders  of  S.  Australia,  26  ;  Lieutenant-Governor  in 
N.Z.,  29. 

Federation  of  South  Sea  Islands  schemed  by  Grey,  122  :  federation  of  S. 
Africa  designed  by  him,  122-4  ;  his  ideal,  123  ;  his  action,  123-4  :  arrested 
by  Imperial  Government,  125. 

FAIRBURN,  — .     Landed  missionary,  48. 

FlTZGERAIiD,  J.  E.  Edits  pre-constitutional  N.Z.  Hansard,  65  ;  accuses  Grey 
of  authorship  of  Maori  War,  143. 

FiTZROY,  Admiral.     Precedes  Grey  in  N.Z.,  31. 

Fox,  Sir  W.  Attacks  Grey,  76 ;  indicts  Grey,  77  ;  aids  in  drafting  N.Z. 
constitution,  80 ;  as  Premier  gives  friendly  reception  to  Grey,  139  ; 
accompanies  Grey  in  interior,   141 ;    accuses  Grey  of  authorship  of  war, 

144-5. 

GAWLER,  Col.     Second  Governor  of  S.  Australia,  21. 

German  Legion  in  S.  Africa,  107-17  ;  Grey  introduces,  107 ;  squabbles  over 
with  War  Oface,  107-10  ;   re-enlisted  for  India,  116-7. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.  On  N.Z.  constitution,  58,  81  ;  introduces  Selwyn  to 
Grey,  86  ;  jockeys  Grey  out  of  Newark,  173  :  hostile  to  Grey's  Home  Rule, 
175  ;   receives  cablegram  from  Grey  supporting  Home  Rule,  175. 

GODLEY,  J.  R.     Attacks  Grey,  76  ;  Grey's  divine  revenge,  76. 

Gregory,  Asst.  Surveyor-General.  Vindicates  Grey's  explorations  in  W.  Aus- 
tralia, 11. 

Grey,  Col.     Father  of  Sir  George,  4. 

Grey,  Earl  (Lord  Howick).  Opposes  Grey's  appointment  as  Governor  of  N.Z., 
30-1  ;  transmits  political  constitution  for  N.Z.,  51  ;  on  Native  right  of 
occupancy.  53  ;   suspends  constitution,  51-3  ;  eulogizes  Grey,  58. 

Grey,  Sir  George.  Birth,  2  ;  coevals,  2  ;  ancestry,  2  ;  name,  its  orthography 
vindicated,  3-4  ;  education,  5  ;  flight  from  school,  5  ;  classical  and  mathe- 
matical attainments,  5-6  ;  German  culture,  0  ;  military  career,  6. 

Appointed  to  explore  South-Western  Australia,  7 ;  first  journey,  8 ; 
second  journey,  9-10 ;  discoveries,  10-1  ;  explorations  reviewed  and  con- 
demned by  Stokes,  11,  but  vindicated  by  Gregory  and  others,  11-2. 

Appointed  Resident  in  S.W.  Australia,  13  ;  government  and  employment 
of  blacks,  14. 

Compiles  vocabulary  and  constructs  grammar  of  language,  14-5. 

Describes  blacks,  16  ;  states  marriage  laws  and  originates  department  of 
Sociology,  16-7. 

Appointed  Governor  of  South  Australia,  IS  ;  a  military  Governor,  20-1  ; 
makes  retrenchments,  21-3  ;  recasts  system  of  taxation,  23  ;  redistributes 
population,  23-4  ;  his  success  eulogized  in  British  Parliament,  24  ;  meets 
with  Imperial  approval,  27 ;  solves  black  problem,  25-6 ;  brings  blacks 
under  jurisdiction  of  courts,  25  ;  finds  employment  for  blacks  and  educates 
thorn,  26  ;    his  unsucccss,  26. 

Sends  natural  history  collections  to  England,  27-9;  answers  inquiries,  29; 
aids  explorers,  29. 

Appointed  Governor  of  New  Zealand,  30;  had  aided  N.Z.  from  8.  Aus- 
tralia, 32  ;  arrives  in  N.Z.,   32;  restores  financial  equilibrium,  32 ;   reduces 


230  INDEX 

Grey,  Sir  George— cont. 

Buapekapeka,  33-5  ;   seizes  Eauparaha,  35-8  ;  suppresses  trouble  in  Welling- 
ton district,  37  ;   ends  war  in  Wanganui,  40-1  ;  criminal  blunder  there,  41. 

His  relations  with  missionaries,  42  ;  hints  treasonable  charges  against 
Henry  Williams,  43  ;  takes  action  against  landed  missionaries,  44  ;  his 
triumph,  49-60. 

Receives  from  Earl  Grey  political  constitution,  51 ;  resolves  to  suspend  it, 
52  ;  aided  by  Selwyn  and  Martin,  51-7  ;  constitution  withdrawn,  58  ;  Grey 
knighted,  58. 

His  high  ideal  of  the  IMaoris,  59  ;  designs  amalgamation  with  whites 
59-60  ;  organizes  the  race,  61-2  ;  sets  up  courts,  hospitals,  schools,  61-3 
fosters  agricultural  and  public  works,  62-3  ;  his  strong  Maori  sympathies,  64 

Collects  and  translates  Maori  mythology,  65-8 ;  publishes  Jmcrnal,  67 
publishes  Polynesian  Mytlwlogy,  67  ;  characterized,  68-9  ;  translated,  69 
influence,  69. 

Relations  with  New  Zealand  Land  Company,  70-4  ;  with  Canterbury 
Association,  74  ;  with  Otago  Association,  75. 

His  absolutism,  77  ;  resists  agitation  for  self-government,  77-8 ;  passes 
ordinance  establishing  Provincial  councils,  78-9  ;  drafts  political  constitution, 
81-2  ;  authorship  disputed,  79-82  ;  constitution  mutilated  in  London,  82-3  ; 
devises  system  of  rural  administration  and  land  settlement,  84  ;  plan 
thwarted,  85  ;  drafts  Anglican  church  constitution,  86  ;  authorship  disputed, 
88  ;  plan  developed,  89. 

Leaves  New  Zealand,  90  ;  regrets  of  colonists,  91 ;  Maori  laments,  92-3  ; 
ill-received  at  Colonial  Office,  94  ;  enthusiastically  received  at  Oxford,  95. 

Appointed  High  Commissioner  in  South  Africa,  96 ;  administration  of 
British  Kafraria,  97-100  ;  new  schemes,  97-8  ;  segregates  Kafirs,  98  ;  sets  up 
schools,  hospitals,  public  works,  99-100 ;  suppresses  a  Kafir  rising,  100-3  ; 
Kafir  subsidy  reduced,  103-4  ;  continues  schemes  at  own  cost,  104  ;  question- 
able results,  105. 

Receives  German  Legion,  106-7  ;  squabbles  over  it  with  War  Office  and 
Colonial  Office,  108-10. 

Defeats  Shepstone's  scheme  of  a  Zulu  province,  111-4. 

Sends  troops  to  India  to  suppress  Mutiny,  115  ;  with  this  view  conciliates 
Native  chiefs,  116  ;  levies  German  Legion  and  dispatches  it  to  Bombay, 
116-7  ;  advises  use  of  Maoris,  117 ;  imagines  he  diverts  to  Calcutta  China 
contingent,  117-8;  hallucination  discussed,  117-21. 

Schemes  South  African  confederation,  122-3  ;  takes  action,  123-4  ;  recall, 
125-7  ;  his  reinstatement,  127,  129  ;   at  Cambridge,  128,  169. 

Second  term  in  South  Africa,  129 ;  entertains  Prince  Alfred,  130-1 ; 
founds  great  library  at  Cape,  132 ;  unfortunately  allocated,  133 ;  its 
treasures,  134-5  ;  its  bibliography,  135  ;  its  fame,  135-6. 

Second  term  in  New  Zealand,  137  ;  fails  to  avert  war,  138  ;  directs 
seizure  of  Tataraimaka,  142  ;  new  scheme  of  organizing  Maoris,  139-41 ; 
scheme  fails;  141-2  ;  reputed  author  of  war,  143-5  ;  condominium  (separate 
administration  of  Maoris)  abandoned,  145-6 ;  takes  Weraroa,  147-50 ; 
breach  with  General  Cameron,  150  ;  hostile  relations  with  Ministers,  151-5  ; 
friendly  relations,  155 ;  intervenes  on  behalf  of  Te  Oriori,  152-3  ;  friendly 
relations  with  Colonial  Office,  153 ;  hostile  relations,  157-9 ;  opposes 
extensive  confiscation  of  Maori  territory,  155  ;  yields,  155-6  ;  defies  Colonial 
Office,  158-9  ;  virtual  recall,  159-60;  departure  from  N.Z.,  161-2. 

Consulted  by  Imperial  Government  on  N.Z.,  165  ;  its  critical  state,  164-5  ; 
dictatorship  proposed,  165  ;  condemned  by  Grey,  165. 

Refused  further  employment  by  Colonial  Office,  167  ;  later,  applies  to  be 
sent  to  S.  Africa,  167  ;  resorts  to  platform,  168  ;  as  an  orator,  169-70 ; 
advocates  scheme  of  emigration,  170-72  ;  attracts  Carlj'le,  172-3  ;  candidate 
for  Newark,  172-3;  supported  by  Carlyle  and  E.  Jenkins,  172-3;  retires, 
173  ;  devises  Home  Rule  scheme,  174  ;  disowned  by  Liberal  leaders,  175 ; 
literary  and  scientific  associates,  176-8  ;  leaves  England,  176. 


INDEX  231 

Gbey,  Sir  George — C(ynt. 

Returns  to  N.Z.  and  retires  to  Kawau,  179;  life  there,  179-81  ;  enters 
House  of  Representatives,  182  ;  opposes  abolition  of  Provinces,  183,  185-6  ; 
proposes  dichotomy,  184  ;  appointed  Premier,  186  ;  his  advanced  policy, 
187  ;  asks  for  dissolution,  refused,  his  resentment  against  Lord  Normanby, 
188 ;  break-up  of  Jlinistry,  188  ;  appointed  Treasurer,  188-9 ;  stumps 
Colony,  189  ;  defeated  in  House,  189 ;  resigns,  189  ;  deposed  from  leader- 
ship, 190 ;  his  policy  bills  passed,  190-1 ;  land  scheme,  191  ;  offered  High 
Commissionership  in  King  country,  192 ;  refuses,  193 ;  tries  to  form 
Ministry,  193  ;  incessant  attacks  on  Ministry,  193-4  ;  Premier  attacks 
Grey,  194 ;  effect  on  Grey,  194 ;  Grey's  revenge,  194,  195-6 ;  stumps 
Colony,  194  ;  urges  Seddon  to  accept  Premiership,  196  ;  re-elected  to  House, 
206. 

His  Radicalism,  196-9;  his  rebellion,  199-202  ;  his  mutiny,  202-3. 

Revisits  Australia,  204  ;  takes  part  in  Federal  Conference,  204-5  ;  tours 
Australia,  205-6;  returns  to  England,  207;  welcomed  and  feted,  207-8; 
death,  209  ;  buried  iu  St.  Paul's,  209  ;  his  peers  in  death,  210. 

His  physique,  211 ;  evolution  of  physiognomy,  212-3 ;  health,  213  ;  intellect, 
214  ;  an  "inductive  reasoner,  214-5  ;  architectonic,  215  ;  his  imagination, 
216-7  ;  his  culture,  217  ;  character,  1,  2,  218;  sympathetic,  219  ;  tactful, 
219-20;  inscrutable,  xi  ;  unclubbable,  220;  humour,  220-1;  passions,  221; 
religion,  221-4  ;  an  overman,  224-5  ;  a  maker  of  Australasia,  225-7. 

Grey,  Lady,  wife  of  Sir  Gewge,  13  ;  separated  from,  209  ;  reconciled  to,  208. 

Grey,  Major,  brother  of  Sir  George,  resident  of  Greymouth,  N.Z. 

Grey,  Mrs.,  mother  of  Sir  George,  4. 

Grey  of  Groby,  Lord,  reputed  ancestor  of  Sir  George,  4. 

Heke,  hone.     Arrives  at  Ruapekapeka,  33  ;  bequeaths  land  to  Grey,  35. 

HENDERSON,  Prof.  George.     Life  and  Times  of  Orey,  viii,  ix. 

Home,  Sir  Everard.    In  command  at  Ruapekapeka,  23-4  ;  bequeathed  books  to 

Grey,  35. 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  Grey's  relations  with,  117. 

Indian  !\Iutiny.  Grey  sends  aid  against,  115-21  ;  levies  troops,  116-7 ;  imagines 
he  diverts  China  Contingent,  117-20. 

KAPRARIA,  British,  Grey's  administration  of,  97-100  ;  administration  of 
justice,  97-8 ;  Native  reserves,  98 ;  schools,  industrial  and  high,  98-9  ; 
hospitals  built,  99-100 ;  doubtfully  successful,  100  ;  public  works,  100  ;  cost 
of  system,  104  ;  Imperial  subsidy  reduced,  104  ;  Grey's  behaviour,  104  ; 
resiilts,  105. 

KAWAU,  Grey's  island  home.  Retires  thither,  179;  an  earthly  paradise, 
179-80 ;  his  Sabbatic  period,  180-1 ;  sells,  in  1886-7  ;  and  thenceforth  resides 
in  Auckland. 

KAWITI.     Commands  natives  at  Ruapekapeka,  33-5. 

KOOTI,  TE.  Banished  to  Chatham  Islands,  103;  escapes,  164;  lands  at 
Gisborne  and  massacres,  164  ;  excites  panic,  164  ;  proposed  suspension  of 
constitution,  advocated  by  colonists,  164-5  ;  dictatorship  planned  by  Colonial 
Office,  165  ;   deprecated  by  Grey,  165. 

Land  policy  of  Grey,  83-5, 191. 

Lang,  Dr.  J.  D.     Indicts  Anglican  missionaries  in  N.Z.,  47. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.     Grey's  intercourse  with,  177. 


232  INDEX 

Lubbock,  Sir  J.     Applies  to  Grey  for  information,  29. 

Lyell,  Sir  C.     Has  scientific  communication  with  Grey,  29. 

Lyttblton,  Lord.     Attacks  Grey,  96. 

LYTTON,  Sir  E.  Bulwer.  Instructs  Grey  to  devise  S.  African  federation,  122  ; 
recalls  and  condemns  Grey,  126. 

Making,  F.  E.     Account  of  taking  of  Ruapekapeka,  33. 

Mill,  J.  S.     Grey's  intercourse  with,  177. 

Maori  mythology,  collected  and  translated  by  Grey,  66-9. 

war  in  Auckland,  32-5;    in  Wellington,   35-40;   in  Wanganui,  41-2 ;  in 

Waikato,  143-56  ;  its  origin,  137-9  ;  Grey  fails  to  avert  it,  138  ;  surrender 
of  Waitara,  142  ;  seizure  of  Tataraimaka,  142  ;  authorship  of  war,  143-5  ; 
defence  of  Orakau,  146-7  ;  taking  of  Weraroa,  147-50  ;  fizzles  out,  156  ; 
struggle  over  confiscation  of  territory,  153-6  ;  guerilla  war,  162. 

Maoris.  Amalgamation  with  colonists  advocated  by  Grey,  59-61 ;  organized 
by  Grey,  61-2  ;  chiefs  pensioned,  61 ;  land  policy,  61 ;  Native  police,  61  ; 
courts  created,  61-2  ;  hospitals  set  up,  62  ;  education,  literary  and  indus- 
trial, 62  ;  employed  on  public  works,  62-3  ;  agriculture,  63  ;  Grey's  sym- 
pathy with,  64 ;  new  scheme  of  government  devised  by  Grey,  138-41  ;  proves 
abortive,  141  ;   condominium  established  and  abolished,  145-6. 

Martin,  Sir  W.,  Chief  Justice.  Supports  Grey  in  resisting  proposed  political 
constitution,  56-7  ;  publishes  pamphlet  condemning  confiscation  proposals, 
154. 

Maunsell,  Archdeacon.     Supports  Grey  against  Colonial  Office. 

Missionaries  in  N.Z.  Their  ideal,  42  ;  a  theocracy,  45  ;  land  purchases, 
46-9  ;  several  dismissed,  49-50  ;   their  influence,  42  ;  eulogized  by  Grey,  43. 

Newcastle,  Duke  of.  Refuses  to  meet  Grey,  94  ;  defends  him,  95  ;  appoints 
him  to  S.  Africa,  96  :  on  confiscation,  154. 

New  Zealand  Company.  Its  aims,  70 ;  procedure,  71  ;  pinioned  by 
Governor  Hobson,  71  ;  land  purchases,  71-2  ;  embarrassments,  73  ;  demise, 
73  ;  Grey's  relations  with,  conflict,  39,  70,  73. 

NORMANBY,  Marquis  of.     Grey's  relations  with,  188. 

Occupancy,  Native  right  of,  53-5  ;   iu  England  and  India,  54-5  ;  disputed  by 

Earl  Grey,  55  ;  advocated  by  Chief  Justice  Martin,  56-7. 
Orakau,  defence  of,  146-7. 

ORIORI,  TE,  Grey  intervenes  on  behalf  of,  152-3. 
OTAGO  Association,  Grey's  relations  with,  75. 
OVERLANDERS.     First  described  by  Grey,  16-7,  25. 
Owen,  Sir  R.     Receives  natural-history  collections  from  Grey,  29. 

PAKINGTON,  Sir  J.     Attacks  Grey,  94-5. 
PEEL,  Sir  F.     Defends  Grey,  95. 

RANGIHAEATA.     His  hostility  to  N.Z.  colonists,  37;  maintains  guerilla  war, 

37,  40  ;  submits,  40. 
RAUPARAHA,   Te.      Physiognomy,   35  ;    character  and  history,   35  ;    hostility 

after  Wairau  massacre,  35-6 ;  capture  of  by  Grey,  37-8  ;    ethics  of  capture, 

38-9  ;  effect  of,  39-40  ;  his  forgiveness,  39-40. 
REES,  W.  L.     Life  of  Sir  Oeorge  Grey,  vii.-viii. 


INDEX 


233 


RUAPEKAPEKA.     Taking  of,  33-4. 

RUSDEN,  G.  W.     His  History  of  New  Zealand  characterized. 
RUSSELL,  Lord  J.     Proposes  Grey  as  Governor  of  S.   Australia,  20 ;    eulogizes 
him,  24. 

SELWYN,  Bisliop  G.  A.     Introduced  to  Grey  by  Gladstone,  86  ;  co-operates  with 

Grey  against  new  constitution,  51,  55-7  ;  encourages  Grey,  87. 
SHEPSTONE,  SirT.     Proposes  creation  of  Zidu  province,  111-2;    thwarted  by 

Grey,  114. 
Stafford  Sir  E.     Attacks  Grey,  76  ;  claims  Radical  constitution,  79. 
STEPHEN,  Sir  J.     Permanent  Under-Secretary  for  Colonies.      His  character  as 

an   official,    19  ;    influence  in  appointing  Grey  to  S.  Australia,  19-20  ;   to 

N.Z.  30. 
STOKES,  Commander.     Condemns  Grey's  representation  of  W.  Australia,  11. 
STOUT,  Sir  R.     Appointed  to  Grey  Ministry,  187  ;    resigns,  188  ;    attacks  Grey 

194  ;    Grey's  revenge,  194-6. 

TAWHIAO,  Maori  "  King."     Confidence  in  Grey,  39  ;    visits  Grey,  39. 
TAYLOR,  Sir  H.,  Clerk  in  Colonial  Office.     His  character  and  influence,  18-9. 
TAYLOR,  Rev.  R.  H.     His  land  purchases,  47. 
Thomas,  Sir  G.     step-brother  to  Sir  George,  5,  30. 

WAKA  Nene,  aids  British  41. 

WAKEFIELD,  E.   G.  and  N.Z.    Company,    70;     instructs   his   brother   about 

missionaries,  42  ;    enters  N.Z.  Legislature,  183. 
WANGANUI,  war  at,  40-1. 
Wareaitu,  judically  murdered,  42. 

WELD,  Sir  P.     Attacks  Grey,  76  ;    Premier,  155-6 ;   Grey  yields  to  him,  155-6. 
Wellington  district,  war  in,  37-40. 
WERAROA,  Grey  takes,  147-50. 
WherO  WHERO,  Te.     Aids  British,  40. 
Williams,  Archdeacon  H.     His  treasonable  letters,  43  ;   land  purchases  46-9 

dismissed  45-6. 

ZULU  province,  proposed  by  Shepstone,  11-2  ;   defeated  by  Grey,  112-4. 


printed  bt 
Whitcombk  and  Tombs  Limitbd 

OffRTSTCHTTROH. 


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