MR. EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1739, 11 July 1862, Page 2

MR. EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

[from the tress, 21st june.] There are some men whose lives can never be written, and whoso actions and character posterity will never rightly estimate. It will probably remain for ever a puzzle, how it happened that one who was so close a reasoner, so clear a thinker, and so happy a writer upon political and economical subjects, one who at the same time was ever labouring to carry into practical action the speculations of the study — how such a man should have lived and died comparatively unknown as a statesman of his age. Many of the qualities requisite for a practical statesman Mr. Wakefield possessed in a pre-eminent degree. He had an amazing fertility of design, an inexhaustable power of inventing expedients, and. a most resolute tenacity in pursuing his ends. Though not much accustomed to speaking in public, his language was powerful and impressive ; though never fluent, he he was never tedious : and when roused by passion he displayed latent powers which early cultivation and exercise might have raised to those of a commanding orator.

Apart from those passages in his life which cast a veil over his subsequent career. Mr. Wakefield, while he possessed the singular faculty of facinating so many of those with whom he came in contact, seemed to possess the apparently opposite quality of filling others with, a feeling of suspicion and mistrust which amounted to a dread. The result was that, during a great part of his life, he was working behind, the scenes, and allowing others to reap the fruits of his labours. Whether this habit of concealment arose from a consciousness that his name was the signal with so many for an irreconcilable dislike and suspicion, or whether it was the character of his mind to enjoy the consciousness of power without its display, we cannot say ; but it is probably the fact, that more matter has issued lrom his brain, to which, when printed other names have been appended, than from that of any other man.

To give anything like a connected story of his life is out of our power : the data are wanting to us. We can but touch one or two of the most prominent features in his career. His first work was a small book called 1< A Letter from Sydney by Robert Gouger," so happily written that it was generally received as the bond fide work of one who had. been long resident in the country it professed to describe. In this publication Mr. Wakefield first propounded those theories with which his name has ever since been connected. He was the first writer who attracted public attention to the peculiar phases displayad by certain political problems under the conditions of society existing in new and half settled countries. He deduced and expounded the laws by which labour is related to land, as no writer had hitherto explained them ; and, following out his conclusions, he proposed that the waste lands of Colonies, instead of being given away by free grants, should be disposed of in such a manner as to populate those lands themselves. In a work called " America and the Americans," and in the ' Art of Colonization," the same theory is further propounded, and illustrated with a wonderful profusion of fact and argument. But it vaa not only in these his known works that his peculiar views were expounded ; in letters, public and private, in pamphlets, in the daily press, and above all, in evidence before Parlia-. mentary Committees, he labored hardly and successfully to impress his doctrines on the public mind.

But perhaps the great failure of Mr. Wakefield's life — for with such powers his life cannot be called other than a failure — arose from the fact that he never had the opportunity — never was allowed — to carry into operation his own views and his own schemes. It may fairly be said that nowhere, except in Canterbury has the Wakefield theory had anything like a fair chance. In South Australia no scheme could have withstood the folly of the first Governors. In Nelson, Wellington and New Plymouth, the difficulty of getting the land, and the hostility of the local Government, would have frustrated the operation of any scheme whatever. In Canada to which he proposed to apply his high price system, in spite of the difficulties of half the lauds having gone into the hands of private individuals and having been waste and uncultivated, the Government shrank from the experiment. Iv New South Wales and Victoria, the Government introduced the Wakefield idea of the high price, but failed to realise the co-relative idea, namely that the money received for the land should be expended in colonizing it. In Otago and Canterbury alone, the system was tried under favorable conditions, and was worked by men who were friendly to the experiment. In Canterbury alone was the system retained and allowed to realize its results.

Mr. Wakefield's great practical work was the share he took in Lord Durham's mission to Canada. .The Canadas at that time were in a very disturbed and revolutionary state, and the Earl of Durham was sent with a special commission to inquire into and report on their grievances. He was accompanied by Mr. Wakefield and by the late Mr. Charles Buller. The great change recommended in Earl Durham's report was the union of Upper and Lower Canada under one Governor and in one colony. So unpopular and bo unexpected was this proposal that Lord Durham's secretaries were even accused of having taken advantage of his failing health to procure his signature to a report of the contents of which he was ignorant. Lord' Durham's death prevented his reply to such a charge, but Mr. Charles Buller gave it a triumphant refutation. There can be no doubt ihat Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Buller were the main authors of that celebrated document, and that some of the recommendations it contained differed so far from Lord Durham's supposed opinions , as to sanction the idea that his lordship's views had been greatly influenced by his assistants in the embassy. The union of the Canadas and the introduction of responsible government into that colony must be regarded as a work in which, Mr. v\ akefield had a great share ; and the experience of now a quarter of a century lias fully established the soundness of his views.

It is impossible to afford the, 6ame praise to his conduct under Lord MetcalPs government, Lord Metcalf was one of those great statesmen who have been raised from time to time in the school of India. Having risen to the highest ranks in the Indian Government, he was, on returning to England appointed to the governments successively of Jamaica and Canada. He succeeded to the latter government just at the moment when the ministerial system was on its trial, and he very soo^n quarrelled with his ministers on the matter of right of making certain appointments. The ministry comprised two men who are now themselves in the enjoyment of colonial government: Mr. Hincks the late Governor of the Windward Islands, and now we believe of British Guiana, and Sir Dominic Daly, the Governor of South Australia. There was at the same time a split in the ministry itself, which resulted iv the resignation of the latter. We need pursue the history of these times no further than to state that Mr Wakefield took the part of Sir Charles iVletcalf against his ministers, and against, aa was thought at the time, all the principles and opinions of which he had been the advocate and

representative. The Governor-General carried his point so far as to obtain a majority in the next Assembly, after a struggle which convulsed the colony from one en i. to the other. Mr. Wakefield returned to England in the midst of this turmoil, and it was thought that a pamphlet which he published immediately on his return, stating the Governor's case with singular skill' and power, I was the principal means of preventing Lord MetI calf's, recall which would otherwise have taken place. Taking the story as told in Lord Metcalf' s . life, we can have no hesitation in condemning his conduct. His education in the Indian 83 ? tem of ' Government had obviously incapacitated eveTn his great mind from grasping the position which a Governor. ought to fill in a country administered on the English system. But no such excuse can be urged for Mr. Wakefield, whose vigorous support of the Governor against the Ministry is unaccountable* and inconsistent ; and his own defence fails to produce a contrary impression. It is certain that his Canadian career, whilst it enlarged the public opinion of his varied powers and great capacity, did not increase the small sphere within which he was-regardpd with confidence or admiration. Mr. Wakefield's next step was to engage in the colonization of New Zealand; and he was for. some years the. moving spirit in the New Zealand Company ; a body which exhibited during its career the most opposite qualities — patriotism arid courage and undaunted enterprise, together with duplicity, disregard of engagements, and reckless as to the interests of others. : ~ We shall not enter upon the history of this company. The curious may find it written in the books of the chronicles of the corporation ; in other; words, in the voluminous reports which during seven or eight years issued annually from the directors. The war -between the Company ; v and the Government is a matter of history! and '""' * we believe that in that long and angiy correspondence, almost the whole of the letters bearing the signature of the Governor or Deputy-Gover-nor of the Company were the work" of Mr. Wakefield's pen. But no amount of ability could save the Company from ruin ; and in despair at . the failure of all their schemes they determined to appeal to Parliament for vengeance on the Government to whose opposition they attributed their downfall. A Select Committee of the House of Commons was moved for and obtained, and it became of importance to lay before the Committeeall the documents which would explain their case; The directors resolved to print the whole case, and those of our readers who are familiar with. New Zealand literature, remember a certain fat volume entitled •' additional papers " appended to the annual report. Mr. Wakefield undertook the task of preparing, arranging, and correcting these papers, and passing them through the press ; and the volume remains as a monument of the enormous amount of work of which his powerful mind was capable. The whole volume was commenced and published in a very few days; but Mr, Wakefield had overtaxed his powers, and before the Committee met he was smitten with apoplexy. Absolute rest, silence, and abstinence, for nearly two years, enabled him gradually to enter again upon the work of his life. The parliamentary arrangements with the New Zealand Company, which were the result of the Committee, were made during his seclusion from the world. He always disapproved of them ; but they were mainly the work of his intimate friend and colleague, Charles Buller, and were quite as favorable as the company could expect or inde"ed deserved. Mr. Wakefield's introduction to Mr. Godley was the firs£ event which succeeded his partial restoration to health. And by the time the scheme of the Canterbury Settlement was ripe for execution, he was able to afford the aid of his sagacious counsels and vast experience. In 1849 he sustained a severe loss in the death of Mr. Charles Buller, who had not long before attained to a seat in the Government. In 1850 the ' Art of Colonization ' appeared, in which his peculiar doctrines are fully explained and developed. In thq spring of the same year he gave his active co-operation to th 6 formation of the Colonial Reform Society, a confederation of members of Parliament of every shade of political opinion, whose object was to destroy the despotism of governors and the oligarchies of officials which were spreading' dissaffection throughout the colonial empire. Such;a league was too formidable to be resisted, and tlio result was the passing of the new constitutions for the Australian Colonies in the spring of that year. The New Zealand Constitution was delayed two years longer, and Mr. Wakefield's last work in England was the part he took, in concert with Mr. Fox and some other colonists who were in England at the time, in urging upon the Government the passing of that measure. In 1853, Mr. Wakefield arrived in New Zealand, to spend the remainder of his days amidst the settlements his genius had mainly contributed to form. He re** sided at Wellington, and was returned aa a member for the Hutt. in the House of Representatives, in 1854. We cannot now write the-history of the session ; one remark is sufficient. namely, that the scenes of Canada, under Lord Metcalf, were repeated in New Zealand under Colonel Wynyard. A second time in his life he threw the weight of his genius on the side opposite to that which he had previously advocated. It was solely owing tohis counsels that the establishment of the responsible government was delayed for another year. But there was not in this case any pamphlet to paint in a favorable light the conspicuous incompetence of the Governor, and Colonel Wynyard, less fortunate than Lord Metcalf, was superseded in the Government. But there was one other feature in the session of 1854 which ought to be mentioned, because it has exercised a wide influence on the fortunes of New Zealand. On the passing of the act for settling the management of the waste lands, Mr. ' Wakefield brough tforward the scheme which was called the "working settlers clauses," and which form the basis of the laud regulations at present' in force at Auckland. This is not the occasion on which to argue the wisdom of that proposal, but it is impossible to pass over the fact that they are a direct denial of the Wakefield theory. It is a remarkable fact, which no biographer can fail to notice, that the. last act of JVlr. Wakefield's life was, to overthrow the whole system which he had been laboring for thirty years to establish. Having advocated in theory the. necessity of selling land at a price/ sufficient to realise certain objects ; having argued the necessity of keeping the laboring classes from the possession of land, until they had realized - sufficient capital to employ it beneficially ; when called on to make a practical scheme., for the disposal of waste lands in New Zealand^ .he proposed to give it away in small allotments to the laboring classes. . "':/'"■. , o"- ; Shortly after returning from the stormy session - of 1854, Mr. Wakefield experienced a recurrence ■ of his former illness, and was compelled once more to retire into active life. He lived for seven ■ years in entire seclusion, and died without suffering at the' age of sixty-six. ; It is not unlikely that Mr. Wakefield may Have left behind him much interesting matter which * may some day see the light. His correspondence was very large, and he was accustomed to retain copies of all his letters of any importance. Considering the persons with whom he was in communication, and the subjects of his correspondence, we should imagine that his private letters would form a volume, of great interest, , for: he waa a most admirable letter writer. But his great forte was his power of conversation. In that he was indeed without a rival ; not that he possessed the ordinary power of a talker. His qualities were neither convivial nor social. It was mc i tfis% private interview, seated by hia own fire, wjthjiis. magnificent bloodhounds at his feet, when nVHail^ a point-, to carry, or a cause to serve, that ;his -.? singular powers of fascination' had full.play. Fewf , men ; could resist his influence except those, and •; they were, not a few, who resolutely refused tosubmit to a V seance."... Those who remember the cottage at Reigate where statesmen uted to come for counsel, and ministers have sought advice,

can never forget Lhe rare enjoyment of an evening spent in the company of this most remarkable man. Nor can they cease to mourn over that sad eccentricity in his moral sense, which seemed to hang like a heavy chain around the neck of his genius, and which alone prevented his rising to the highest positions op'in in a free countty to those who combine the speculations of a theoretical politician with the sagacity of a practical statesman.