an aristocratic Radical
of irregular temper, who played a great part in another colonial
theatre--Canada. Sir William Molesworth did much to aid the agitation
which put an end to the transportation of convicts to Australia. For
the rest, the Association thought the thoughts, spoke the words,
and made the moves of Gibbon Wakefield. Yet though he pervaded it
sleeplessly, its life was but an episode in his career. He fought
against the convict system with Molesworth and Rentoul of the
_Spectator_. He went to Canada as Lord Durham's secretary and adviser.
He was actively concerned in the foundation of South Australia, where
his system of high prices for land helped to bring about one of the
maddest little land "booms" in colonial history. And as these things
were not enough to occupy that daring, original, and indefatigable
spirit, he threw himself into the colonization of New Zealand. He and
his brother, Colonel Wakefield, became the brain and hand of the New
Zealand colonizers.

For years they battled against their persistent opponents the Church
Missionary Society and the officials of the Colonial Office. The
former, who hit very hard at them in controversy, managed Lord
Glenelg, then Colonial Secretary; the latter turned Minister after
Minister from friends of the colonizers into enemies. Thus Lord
Melbourne and Lord Howick had to change face in a fashion well-nigh
ludicrous. The Government offered the Association a charter provided
it would become a joint-stock company. Baring and his friends refused
this on the ground that they did not want any money-making element to
come into their body. Moreover, in those days joint-stock companies
were concerns with unlimited liability. The Association tried to get
a bill of constitution through Parliament and failed. Mr. Gladstone
spoke against it, and expressed the gloomiest apprehensions of the
fate which the Maoris must expect if their country were settled. New
Zealand, be it observed, was already a well-known name in Parliament.
The age of committees of inquiry into its affairs began in 1836. Very
interesting to us to-day is the evidence of the witnesses before the
committee of that year; nor are the proceedings of those of 1838,
1840, and 1844, less interesting. In the third of the four Gibbon
Wakefield, under examination, tells the story of the New Zealand
Association. In 1839 it became the New Zealand Land Company. Baffled
in Parliament, as already described, the colonize