SIR GEORGE GREY'S BIOGRAPHY.* To write the life of a

man still living is always a work of drfficulty, and it becomes all the more difficult when the subject of the biography has throughout a long period filled a public station, and for good or ill has associated his name with acts upon which, as yet, time has not set its seal. Sir George Grey's career is one of so varied a character—it has aroused so much controversy and exhibited so strong an individuality—that it is no easy task to judge of it impartially.

The authors of these volumes have made no attempt to do so. Their narrative from the first page to the last is, with scarcely an exception, one unbroken eulogy of their hero, and an equally outspoken denunciation of those who have objected to his policy. That the home Government was always wrong when it differed from Sir George Grey is an article of faith maintained with unwavering persistence. The enthusiasm of the Messrs. Rees is, therefore, more conspicuous than their wisdom. They write, it nee not be doubted, with honesty of purpose, and have apparently mau, fwery effort to be correct In. the statement of facts; but they write %,:-th the prejudice • Ths Life and Times of Sir George Grey, K.C.B. By William Lee Rees and L. Rees. 42 vols. London: Hutchinson and Co.

of admirers rather than with the moderation of historians. Much diffuse and useless rhetoric is expended on the lauda- tion of Sir George, and the style in which it is uttered may be estimated from the following brief passage, a specimen of numberless similar efforts on a larger scale :—

" In Grey's estimation, power and authority were only means to an end. He coveted complete control because, with every widening of his influence, he could accomplish more. The end he

toiled for was the greatest good of all To him, power was to be desired because it enabled him to defend the weak, to succour the distressed, to teach the ignorant, to set free the slave, to raise the fallen, to humble the oppressor, and to establish liberty on a broad and substantial base. And he always per- tinaciously strove for the highest good possible in the line of his various efforts. In education, in philanthropy, in public and social reforms, in politics, in science, and in religion, he always tried to scale the farthest heights. In all, his goal was the very last step that human reason and human fortitude might reach, the loftiest pinnacle that the sons of men might scale."

As we have already said, the time has not yet come to judge with entire fairness of Sir George Grey's remarkable career, but we know enough to recognise in him a man endowed with moral and intellectual gifts of a high order, and a will strong enough to carry him through difficulties that seemed well-nigh insuperable. In action he was never weak, and was, indeed, so bold as to be regarded as a dangerous man by his superiors in office. When in New Zealand, he on one occasion suspended the operation of an Act of Parliament; when, as Governor of the Cape, he heard of the Indian Mutiny, he stopped some transports which were carrying troops to Lord Elgin to act in conjunction with the French in China, and required the officers "command- ing the various vessels to report themselves at Calcutta, leaving upon them the responsibility of refusing." The officers re- quested his command in writing; it was given, and this timely aid, in the judgment of Lord Malmesbury, probably saved India. On another occasion he despatched a German Legion to India without authority ; and "although this bold act of Sir George's drew from Ministers a sharp acknowledgment, containing a covert threat, not only of censure, but of punish- ment, so valuable had been the reinforcements, and so warm. was the gratitude expressed by the Bombay Government, that the matter was allowed peacefully to drop."

It is interesting to follow the career of a man who has the sound English virtue of deeming nothing impossible which he considered to be right. In very early life he showed the masterfulness of purpose that has distinguished him all along.. At twenty-four, Lieutenant Grey was placed in command of a party to explore the interior of North-Western Australia, and the finest qualities of his nature were displayed in that perilous expedition. On his return, he was appointed Resident at King George's Sound, where he showed conspicuous ability in the art of dealing with savage tribes. By this time he had made his mark, and the Government recognised that Grey, who had just received his commission as Captain of the 83rd Regiment, was a man of no common order. At the age of twenty-eight, he was appointed Governor of South Aus- tralia, a Colony which, owing to maladministration, was at that time in the utmost confusion. This was in 1841. The Colony had been made well-nigh bankrupt by the reckless extravagance of the Administration, and by an attempt to carry out the Wakefield theory, which in so many ways re- stricted the freedom of the Colonists. Comparing Wakefield's theories with the views held by Captain Grey, the authors say :—

" The two men regarded the question of emigration from oppo- site points of the compass. Grey looked upon the Colonies as the rightful heritage of succeeding generations, and the future home of millions of the British poor. Wakefield regarded them as mines of wealth, to be exploited by the powerful governing classes for their own benefit. Grey's chief aim in life was to extend the blessings of these new lands as widely as possible, and to lay the foundations of the young communities in justice, wisdom, and constitutional freedom. Wakefield's object was to reproduce in the nascent states the class-distinctions, the inequalities and the social barriers which fetter popular liberty in older countries."

On the large question opened up in these words, it would be out of place to enter here ; but it will suffice to show Captain Grey's attitude towards the Constitution of his own country to say that, in later years (and his opinions seem to have been the same in youth and age), he looked to the United States rather than to England "to vindicate the claims of universal justice and the blessings of universal liberty."

The four years spent in South Australia are pronounced a . triumphant success, and that they were so regarded by the-

Government is proved by Grey's transference to New Zea- land at a highly critical juncture, in which he had to show his courage as a soldier before exercising his power as a civil ruler. The story of our treatment of the Maoris is one that no Englishman can read with complacency; but in Grey's con- duct there is nothing to regret. As a soldier, he acted with rigour; as a statesman, with a just regard for the interests of the natives, many of whom became his most faithful friends. One of the most daring acts of his life, and perhaps his most valuable achievement, belongs to this period. He declined to accept, as we have already said, a Constitution passed by the Imperial Parliament in 1846, which, among other evils, would have practically abrogated a treaty upon which the natives relied ; and so convincing did his reasons prove, that the English Government not only suspended its own Act for five years, but allowed the Governor to form a Constitution himself. He did so, and his Act was sanctioned by the Imperial Parliament. "The form of government for New Zealand, as left perfect and complete by Earl Grey on his retirement from office in 1852, was the work of Sir George Grey, and to his correspondence and his suggestions some of the best features of the Canadian Constitution owe their existence." To his active mind, the New Zealand Colonists also owe the Church Constitution, which was praised and adopted by Bishop Selwyn.

When, after seventeen years of Colonial service, Grey ended his first Government of New Zealand, in 1853, he could look back upon the period spent in the Colony with entire satis- faction :—

" Sir George Grey found New Zealand in a position of imminent peril ; he left it in perfect safety. He came to it at the crisis of a savage war, he left it in profound peace. On his arrival from South Australia, it was bankrupt in finance ; on his departure for England, it was solvent and flourishing. The native tribes which, in 1845, had been in a state of rebellion, had not only been subdued by skill and arms, but had become willing and loyal servants ef the Crown. They had learned the value of education, industry, and peace."

And the writers consider that, if Sir George's policy had been pursued, in all human probability no native war would ever afterwards have been waged in New Zealand.

Grey had not been long in England before the troubled state of affairs in the Cape Colony needed a strong man at the helm, and he was accordingly requested to accept the Governorship. Although frequently thwarted by the Colonial Office in the methods he adopted, his govern- ment of Cape Town was wise and far-seeing. He con- ciliated the English settlers, and he conciliated the natives. Even Grey, however, could not always have his own way. At a great gathering of Kaffirs, Sir George noticed the women wearing a large number of brass ornaments on their legs. He pointed out the folly of wasting their wages in such an extravagant way ; but was answered by one of the chiefs, who rose and told the Governor that he must remember there were limits to human power. "Rest content, 0 great chief," said he, "with what you have accomplished. You have made us pay taxes. You have made our people work. These things we thought could never be. Bet think not you can stop women wearing ornaments. If you try to do this, 0 Governor, you will most surely fail."

Sir George had been always in favour of Colonial federa- tion, and, when in New Zealand, cherished the splendid dream that all the vast groups of islands in the South Pacific should be placed under the English flag. As Governor of the Cape, he advocated a federation of the South African provinces be- fore the Cape Parliament, without authority from Downing Street, and was therefore ordered by Sir E. B. Lytton to surrender his Government and return to England. Those were days of slow communication between South Africa and England, and Grey, on reaching home, found that there had been a change of Ministry, and a reversal of the order for his return ; the Queen, who had deprecated his removal, having herself, it is said, suggested the reappointment to the Premier. Upon returning to Cape Town, in 1860, he was received with the warmest enthusiasm, and during the brief period of his Government, some admirable and permanent work was accom- plished. In 1861, he was requested by the Government to resume his old position in New Zealand, and accepted the call, according to the biographers, in direct opposition to his own interest, since the Governor-Generalship of Canada had been promised him at the expiration of his Government in South Africa. It was Sir George Grey's fortune to have his ability recognised in times of difficulty, and to be ignored or reprimanded when success had crowned his efforts. The mode in which he was dismissed from his second Governor- ship of New Zealand, in 1867, was not creditable to the Ministry ; but it must be always remembered that Grey's daring independence made him a troublesome official. As an absolute ruler of New Zealand, he would have governed the island well. On returning to England, be showed his independence of party by urging in every way the value of the Colonies to England, at a time when the theory of the Manchester school on the subject was largely in the ascendant. He showed it less wisely by arguing in favour of Home-rule for Ireland, because, forsooth, it was found good for a Colony thousands of miles distant from our shores. He failed to see that the union of England and Ireland is geographically imperative. But a politician who has spent his life abroad in newly made Colonies is rarely able to understand the position of a country like England, which exists under such totally different conditions. It is note- worthy that, in his paper Constitution for Ireland, which receives the most extravagant eulogium from his bio- graphers, Sir George finds no difficulty in a question which Mr. Gladstone once said it passed the wit of man to solve. "Let them leave in the British Parliament," he writes, "the Irish Members as at present, but without power to speak or vote upon any such question as the State Legislature sitting in Dublin is competent to legislate upon." The authors, in their over-strained style, observe that "perhaps no mind in the world had thought out the question of local self-govern- ment so deeply as that of Sir George Grey."

It is Sir George's good fortune, after a stormy but nobly self-sacrificing life, to spend his latter days with all that should accompany old age. The time has not yet come properly to estimate his position as a statesman ; but as a man of large intellectual attainments, of high Christian prin- ciples, of inflexible uprightness, and of stern devotion to duty, there can be no doubt that the verdict passed in his favour by contemporaries will be also that of posterity. Sir George Grey has failed in many ways, but never because his motives were selfish, or his aims open to moral censure.