Life of Sir George Grey: Governor, High commissioner, and Premier. An Historical Biography.
His Rebellion
His Rebellion.
The Governor was not yet done with the German Legion. Having humanely provided it with boots and clothes, he now, with equal benevolence, proposed to supply the legionaries with German wives. He first sought to attain his object by constitutional means, and he proposed to the Colonial Office that it should despatch to Capetown a number of German families, from which the legionaries might select help-meets. The Secretary of State made the obvious criticism that, if the young women of these families were old enough to marry, their parents would be almost past the age of suitable emigrants; and he suggested that some Irish girls of good family should be assisted (apparently by the High Commissioner) to emigrate. It is in connection with this affair that Grey's insubordination, now amounting to positive rebellion can, as at first appears, be most definitely sheeted home to him.
For the despatch of Mr. Labouchere was received by Grey on July 27, 1857, and acknowledged by him on August 22. Yet we are informed that on August 19 he took the extraordinary step of entering into negotiations with a German trading firm, Goddefroy and Co., of Hamburg, and on August 25 he signed the contract. Four thousand Germans were to be sent out; the cost was to be £50,000; and it was to be met by bonds on the revenues of British Kafraria. The arrangement, doubtless through the British Consul at Hamburg, got to the ears of Lord Stanley, the new Secretary of State, who took prompt measures to arrest the proceedings of the Hamburg firm. He informed them of the true nature of the security, and instructed them to abandon their plans. This, they explained, they could not at once do, seeing that emigrants had been already selected. Lord Stanley was constrained to assent to the despatch of 1,600 emigrants, and to pay down £5,000 to compensate them for the breach of further undertakings. He then called Grey sharply to account for acting in defiance of the instructions he had received. Grey replied that he was unaware that the Secretary for the Colonies disapproved of his action. Stanley reminded him of the despatch of June 5.
The facts are not quite conclusive nor the dates quite damning. We are told that he received the inhibitory despatch on July 27. If he then entered into negotiations with the Hamburg firm on August 19, he committed an act of insubordination of the most definite character. But we are also told that he signed the contract six days later. * How could he have conducted such negotiations to a conclusion in six days with persons in a country situated at a distance of 7,000 miles? Evidently, these negotiations had been going on for some months and cannot have been initiated on August 19. The carriage of a mail from England then consumed, as it appears, 52 days, and between Capetown and Hamburg the distance was greater. Allow fifteen weeks for the double journey and as many days for the drawing up of the contract, and it is plain that Grey must have instructed Goddefroy and Co. as early as the previous April. By that time, as he quite truly said, the Secretary of State had expressed no opinion on the subject, nor, we may add, could he possibly have done so. He was in total ignorance of the matter. Grey therefore stands partially acquitted of the major charge of flying in the face of a prohibition issued by the Colonial Office. But he is not wholly acquitted even of that. For he signed the contract 29 days after he had received a despatch that practically forbade him. to take such action. And he is not even partially acquitted of the charge of taking such action as no subordinate had a right to take. Nor was it other than a blunder to send for German emigrants when English emigrants were available. Did he not believe in the mixture of races—he who advocated a blend between the Maoris and the English?
The matter did not end there. The German firm pressing him for money on account of the emigrants sent, he had personally to meet the expenditure incurred. Some banking relatives of his own, according to his own account, temporarily met his liabilities. Of course, they had ultimately to be discharged by the Imperial Government.