II

VIEWS OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

When Mr. Gladstone became colonial secretary at the end of 1845, he was
described as a strong accession to the progressive or theorising section
of the cabinet--the men, that is to say, who applied to the routine of
government, as they found it, critical principles and improved ideals.
If the church had been the first of Mr. Gladstone's commanding interests
and free trade the second, the turn of the colonies came next. He had
not held the seals of the colonial department for more than a few
months, but to any business, whatever it might be, that happened to
kindle his imagination or work on his reflection, he never failed to
bend his whole strength. He had sat upon a committee in 1835-6 on native
affairs at the Cape, and there he had come into full view of the costly
and sanguinary nature of that important side of the colonial question.
Molesworth mentions the 'prominent and valuable' part taken by him in
the committee on Waste Lands (1836). He served on committees upon
military expenditure in the colonies, and upon colonial accounts. He was
a member of the important committee of 1840 on the colonisation of New
Zealand, and voted in the minority for the draft report of the chairman,
containing among other things the principle of the reservation of all
unoccupied lands to the crown.[212] Between 1837 and 1841 he spoke
frequently on colonial affairs. When he was secretary of state in 1846,
questions arose upon the legal status of colonial clergy, full of knotty
points as to which he wrote minutes; questions upon education in penal
settlements, and so forth, in which he interested himself, not seldom
differing from Stephen, the chief of the staff in the office. He
composed an argumentative despatch on the commercial relations between
Canada and the mother country, endeavouring to wean the Canadian
assembly from its economic delusions. It was in effect little better
than if written in water. He made the mistake of sending out despatches
in favour of resuming on a limited scale the transportation of convicts
to Australia, a practice effectually condemned by the terrible committee
eight years before. Opinion in Australia was divided, Robert Lowe
leading the opposition,[213] and the experiment was vetoed by Mr.
Gladstone's successor at the colonial office. He exposed himself to
criticism and abuse by recalling a colonial governor for inefficiency in