A CHARACTER SKETCH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16491, 5 March 1914, Page 11

A CHARACTER SKETCH.

FROM LIBERAL MEMBER TO •GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

The distinguished English:visitor who, arrived, in Christchurch last night may fairly .claim—if he were the kind i f man to make claims—that he has played, some important part in tho . world’s' affairs. As an ex-Governor-i General of Canada and the grandson ! of the-: British Prime Minister who passed.)the first Reform Bill, lie can- 1 not travel about the world without . attracting attention. He /has already been welcomed in Australia. Tho people of Christchurch, or some representative section of them will probably '2 find, though this is Earl Grev’s first visit to/ New Zealand, that he knows more about New Zealand affairs than many New Zealanders. He has studied great questions, and played large parts as a proconsul ii*-- Canada and Africa.He is the kind iof man who, judging by-his past career,' is of opinion that wealth and rank and a liistorio name do not entitle the possessor to rest on his oars. Rather these gifts carry with them the responsibility to achieve something. The Earldom of Grey has been prominent in British ' history' from Norman times. As the late Mr W. T. Stead recalled in a character sketch of the present visitor—one whom he know personally very well—most of the Greys began as De Greys. There were the Greys of Wilton, in Hereford, going back tib the time, of Edward I.'; the Greys r <of Groby, from whom sprang that romantic and pathetic figure, Lady jane Grey; and the Northumbrian Greys, who were Earls of Tankerville. It is from the Northumbrian branch of the. Grey family that the present'Earl is'descended. People interested in genealogies will find all thev want, tp know about collateral branches of the; Greys in the, pages of Burke and De Brett. y '

Thj} ' firpt Ear} ‘ Grey' of the line earned, his title at the beginning of last century. He won it by rna valour in the field. He was born in 1729., entered the Army, and rose ito the rank of general. He was wounded at Minden in 1760 —that fight in which the British infantry covered itself with glory. He won battles in the 'American War; of. Independence, when other British generals were" losing them. He was created Earl Grey in 1807, and died a year later, His son, thb second Earl, was the Prime Minister of, England who did most to break.; down -the '"system of “ rotten ' boroughs, and who was at the head of the Liberal Government that practically forced William IV. to accept the Reform Bill of•• 1832,; ' This second Earl Grey! died in 1846. He was .succeeded by his son Henry, the third Earl, who entered Parliament in 1826, was for-six years (1846-52) Secretary. of State for the Colonies, and died ih 1894 at the age of ninety-two years. The present line of Greys, it will be seen, is longlived." ; .

The 1 fourth Earl, who arrived in Christchurch yesterday, succeeded his •unde, the ,third- Earh who- had died childless, ih 1894. His father (the second son of the Prime Minister) had been first a general in the British Army, and subsequently, from 1849 to 1870, privsite secretary and confidential adylyerj first to the Prince Consort* and then,to Queen .Victoria. The incoming nobleman, who was born in 1851,-and grewf to manhood as Mr Albert Charle.s Oeorfih Grey, went to school , at Harrow, and graduated later at Cambridge. He married, in 1877, Alice; third daiighter of Mr Slay nor Holford-, M.P., whose house in Park Lane is one of the s Ao# placei of that aristocratic quarter. Lady Grey is with her husband

on his present visit. It was, of course, inevitable that Mr Albert Grey,. as he then, was,- should enter public life. He was returned as Liberal member for South Northumberland in 1880. He went into Parliament as a Gladstonian, and but for the Homo Rlile movement would have been an out and out supporter of Gladstone. It was in 1886 that Mr Gladstone threw his Home Rulo card on the table. Mr Albert Grey parted company from his chief at this stage'. He retired from the House of Commons, and did not seek to re-enter it. Eight years later the deatli of his uncle caused him to be raised to the peerage, with a seat ir. the House of Lords.

From then to the present time—from 1894 to 1914—Earl Grey has'played all active, eventful and distinguished part in British and Imperial affairs. He lias been equally active at Homo and in the dominions. While in England he did not regard his seat in the Lords as a sinecure. He grappled earnestly with social problems. No Chartist agitator could-havo been more anxious to check abuses—abuses resulting from lack of effectiveness in the Parliamentary machine, from intemperance in the life of the. individual, from irreligion and from social ana moral, degeneration. He would have liked to reform tile Church. The war of Sects calling themselves Christian seemed to him worse than futile. Why not a national church instead of a- merely established one ? Why not a basis of generous and Christlike thought and action instead of one of creeds and articles? Why not jettison the greater part of the creeds and dogmas that had come down from medirovalism, and have a church that would embrace Cardinal Newman, the Archbishop of York and Mr Bradlaugh—the sufficient bond ot unity being that men and women should show by their lives that they wanted to help humanity and tho world? A score of years ago this kind of unity in Christendom did not seem rtn altogether impossible dream. Earl Grey, for one, believed in it. He'talked in •favour of it:ho worked liarcj for it; lie saw it vanish on the horizon with real regret. : - Among other things,. E'arl Grey is a temperance reformer; and he is liberal enough to begin by trying to reform the public house. Ho could not seo why the thousands of public houses in Great Britain should not be made attractive places of social intercourse, instead of mere drinking dens. The public houses were there, and why should they not be tf.rned to T he'best' 'advantage? Anothei movement with which he is identified and which gains steadily because of the (advocacy of men like him, is that in favoui of reform of the Parliamentary machine. By this is not meant party details with regard to standing orders and procedure. He saw quite early in his public career that the party organisation in Great Britain was reducing the private member to the status of a voting puppet. Whim the party whip craoked the member came to lieel. He had no choice. He had to do what he was told, or the machine would-not work. “ Democracy,” Lord Grey said once,.“ requires the government of the people by the people, instead of as at present, government of a -party.” Holding the views he does, "he i 3 a strong advocate of proportional representation. Personal acquaintance with Australasian affairs is not likely -to make liim think : more of the party game here than he thinks of it in Great Britain.

In 1896, two vears after he had come into the title, Earl Grey went out to South Africa, at the invitation of Mr Cecil Rhodes, and accepted the post of Administrator of Rhodesia. He was in that unsettled country during some troublous times. The very fact that ho went there, instead of remaining •in luxury ill England, where every door was open to him, showed what manner of man ho was and is. He was anything but a jingo, but he supported Mr Chamberlain with unflinching loyalty in the conduct of the South African war. His next great appointment was that of GovernCr-General of Canada. He hold this position for seven years, from 1904 to 1911. His personal influence, his earnestness, his belief in the people that he represents have done much for the smooth working of , British and .dominion relations.' The racial differences of English and • French. linger still in the land of the snows, but tho honour paid impartially by the Gover-nor-General to the historic names of both races—to Montcalm and Duplex, as well as to "Wolfe and Clive—helped to keep all friction out of sight;