lves from loss, whilst engaged in diffusing the
arts and industry along with the laws and language of England; yet Lord
Stanley had adopted measures which had marred all their prospects of
future success. Mr. Buller proceeded to enter into a discussion of
the land question between Lord Stanley and the New Zealand Company. He
contended that the company had a right to expect to be put in possession
by government of the number of acres awarded to them; yet, after
spending L800,000 of its own, and L300,000 more on credit, obtained from
the public, it had not obtained the grant of a single acre. Its capital
was exhausted; its proceedings were suspended; and, what was worse, the
unhappy emigrants had been debarred from all access as owners to the
land which they had purchased with hard cash in England. The crops
which they had raised were destroyed by fire, and their lives had been
menaced; and when they applied for redress to the colonial office, that
aid had been coldly refused. They now apprehended a general massacre;
and yet Captain Fitzroy prohibited them from arming themselves in
self-defence. His policy had inspired the New Zealanders with an
overweening confidence, and our countrymen with fierce resentment; and
the consequence would be that the first would perish under the attacks
of the last, as they would be no more in the hands of Englishmen than
mere children in the hands of full-grown men. In conclusion, Mr.
Buller expressed his conviction that Lord Stanley had put down the most
promising experiment of colonization that had ever been attempted by
England; and moved that the house resolve itself into a committee of the
whole house to consider the resolutions. The motion was seconded by Mr.
Milnes, who contended that a case had been made out for the interference
of the house. Mr. Hope defended the character of Lord Stanley at great
length, denying that his lordship was influenced by any hostility either
to colonization or to the New Zealand Company. He was not prepared, he
said, to justify all the acts of Captain Fitzroy; but he was convinced
that he did himself frequent injustice by the scanty reports he sent
home. In reply to the allegation that the colonial office was chargeable
with all the disasters of the colony, he insisted that they were mainly
attributable to the hasty proceedings of the New Zealand Company, in
taking possession of that island without authority from the crown.
Mr. Hope next proceeded to give