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GREY, SIR GEORGE (1812–1898)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 590 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GREY, See also:SIR See also:GEORGE (1812–1898) , See also:British colonial See also:governor and statesman, only son of See also:Lieutenant-See also:Colonel Grey of the 3oth See also:Foot, was See also:born in See also:Lisbon on the 14th of See also:April 1812, eight days after the See also:death of his See also:father at the storming of See also:Badajoz. He passed through See also:Sandhurst with See also:credit, and received his See also:commission in 182g. His lieutenancy was dated 1833, and his captaincy 1839, in which See also:year he sold out and See also:left the See also:army. In the See also:early 'thirties he was quartered in See also:Ireland, where the wretchedness of the poorer classes left a deep impression on his mind. In 1836 the Royal See also:Geographical Society accepted his offer to explore the See also:north-See also:west region of West See also:Australia, and accordingly he landed at See also:Hanover See also:Bay at the end of 1837. The surrounding See also:country he found broken and difficult, and his hardships were aggravated by the tropical See also:heat and his See also:ignorance of the See also:continent. In a skirmish with the natives, in which he was speared near the See also:hip, he showed See also:great courage, and put the assailants to See also:flight, See also:shooting the See also:chief, who had wounded him. After a brave endeavour to continue his See also:journey his See also:wound forced him to See also:retreat to the See also:coast, whence he sailed to See also:Mauritius to recruit. Next year he again essayed exploration, this See also:time on the coast to the north and See also:south of See also:Shark's Bay. He had three See also:whale-boats and an ample See also:supply of provisions, but by a See also:series of disasters his stores were spoilt by storms, his boats wrecked in the surf, and the party had to See also:tramp on foot from Gantheaume Bay to See also:Perth, where Grey, in the end, walked in alone, so changed by suffering that See also:friends did not know him. In 1839 he was appointed governor-See also:resident at See also:Albany, and during his stay there married Harriett, daughter of See also:Admiral See also:Spencer, and also prepared for publication an See also:account, in two volumes, of his expeditions. In 1840 he returned to See also:England, to be immediately appointed by See also:Lord See also:John See also:Russell to succeed Colonel See also:Gawler as governor of South Australia.

Reaching the See also:

colony in May 1841, he found it in the depths of a depression caused by mismanagement and insane See also:land See also:speculation. By rigorously reducing public See also:expenditure, and forcing the settlers to quit the See also:town and betake themselves to tilling their lands, and with the opportune help of valuable See also:copper discoveries, Grey was able to aid the See also:infant colony to emerge from the See also:slough. So striking were his See also:energy and determination that when, in 1845, the little settlements in New See also:Zealand were found to be involved in a native See also:war, and on the See also:verge of ruin, he was sent to See also:save them. The See also:Maori chiefs in open See also:rebellion were defeated, and made their submission. Another powerful See also:leader suspected of fomenting discontent was arrested, and friendly chieftains were subsidized and honoured. Bands of the natives were employed in making See also:government roads, and were paid See also:good See also:wages. The governor gained the veneration of the Maori tribes, in whose welfare he took a See also:close See also:personal See also:interest, and of whose legends and myths he made a valuable and scholarly collection, published in New Zealand in 1855 and reprinted See also:thirty years afterwards. With See also:peace prosperity came to New Zealand, and the colonial See also:office desired to give the growing settlements full self-government. Grey, arguing that this would renew war with the Maori, returned the constitution to See also:Downing See also:Street. But though the colonial office sustained him, he became involved in harassing disputes with the colonists, who organized an active agitation for See also:autonomy. In the end a second constitution, partly framed by Grey himself, was granted them, and Grey, after eight years of despotic but successful See also:rule, was transferred to Cape Colony. He had been knighted for his services, and had undoubtedly shown strength, dexterity and humanity in dealing with the whites and natives.

In South See also:

Africa his success continued. He thwarted a formidable Kaffir rebellion in the Eastern Provinces, and pushed on the See also:work of See also:settlement by bringing out men from the See also:German See also:Legion and providing them with homes. He gained the respect of the British, the confidence of the Boers, the admiration and the See also:trust of the natives. -The Dutch of the See also:Free See also:State and the Basuto See also:chose him as arbitrator of their, quarrels. When the See also:news of the See also:Indian See also:Mutiny reached Cape Town he strained every See also:nerve to help Lord See also:Canning, despatching 'men, horses, stores and L6o,000 in specie to Bombay. He persuaded a detachment, then on its way See also:round the Cape as a reinforcement for Lord See also:Elgin in See also:China, to divert its voyage to See also:Calcutta. Finally, in 1859, Grey almost reached what would have been the culminating point of his career by federating South Africa. Persuaded by him, the See also:Orange Free State passed resolutions in favour of this great step, and their See also:action was welcomed by Cape Town. But the colonial office disapproved of the See also:change, and when Grey attempted to persevere with it Sir See also:Edward Bulwer See also:Lytton recalled him. A change of See also:ministry during his voyage to England displaced Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. But though the See also:duke of See also:Newcastle reinstated Grey, it was with instructions to let federation drop. In 1861 the colonial office sent him, for the See also:fourth time in See also:succession, to take up a See also:post of exceptional difficulty by again entrusting him with the governorship of New Zealand, where an inglorious native war in Taranaki had just been succeeded by an armed truce.

Grey did his best to make terms with the rebels and to re-establish friendship with the Maori See also:

king and the land See also:league of tribes formed to stop further sales of land to the whites. But the Maori had got guns and See also:powder, and were suspicious and truculent. In vain Grey, supported by See also:Bishop See also:Selwyn and by See also:Fox and the peace party among the settlers, strove to avert war. It came in 1863, and spread from See also:province to province. Ten thousand regulars and as many colonial riflemen were employed to put it down. The imperial troops were badly handled, and Grey, losing See also:patience, became involved in See also:bitter disputes with their commanders. As an example to the former he himself attacked and captured Weraroa, the strongest of the Maori stockades, with a handful of See also:militia, a feat which delighted the colonists, but made him as much disliked at the war office as he now was at Downing Street. Moreover,- Grey had no longer real See also:control over the islands. New Zealand had become a self-governing colony, and though he vindicated the colonists generally when libellous imputations of See also:cruelty and land-grabbing were freely made against them in See also:London, he crossed swords with his ministers when the latter confiscated three million acres of tribal land belonging to the insurgent Maori. Yet through all these troubles progress was made; many successes were gained in 1866, chiefly by the colonial militia, and a See also:condition of something like tranquillity had been reached in 1867, when he received a curt intimation from the duke of See also:Buckingham that he was about to be superseded. The colonists, who believed he was sacrificed for upholding their interests and good name, bade farewell to him in 1868 in an out-burst of gratitude and sympathy; but his career as a colonial governor was at an end. Returning to England, he tried to enter public See also:life, delivered many able speeches advocating what later came to be termed Imperialism, and stood for See also:Newark.

Discouraged, however, by the See also:

official Liberals, he withdrew and turned again to New Zealand. In 1872 he was given a See also:pension of f l000 a year, and settled down on the See also:island of Kawau, not far from See also:Auckland, which he bought, and where he passed his leisure in planting, gardening and See also:collecting books. In 1875, on the invitation of the Auckland settlers, he became See also:superintendent of their province, and entered the New Zealand See also:House of Representatives to resist the abolition of the provincial See also:councils of the colony, a change then being urged on by Sir See also:Julius See also:Vogel in See also:alliance with the Centralist Party. In this he failed, but his eloquence and courage See also:drew round him a strong See also:Radical following, and gave him the premiership in 1877. Manhood See also:suffrage, triennial parliaments, a land-tax, the See also:purchase of Iarge estates and the popular See also:election of the governor, were leading points of his policy. All these reforms, except the last, he lived to see carried; none of them were passed by him. A commercial depression in 1879 shook his popularity, and on the fall of his ministry in 1879 he was deposed, and for the next fifteen years remained a solitary and pathetic figure in the New Zealand See also:parliament, respectfully treated, courteously listened to, but never again invited to See also:lead. In 1881 he came before Australia as one of the New Zealand delegates to the federal See also:convention at See also:Sydney, and characteristically made his See also:mark by See also:standing out almost alone for " one See also:man one See also:vote " as the federal See also:franchise. This point he carried, and the Australians thronged to hear him, so that his visits to See also:Victoria and South Australia were personal triumphs. When, too, in 1894, he quitted New Zealand for London, some reparation was at last made him by the imperial government; he was called to the privy See also:council, and graciously received by See also:Queen Victoria on his visit to See also:Windsor. Thereafter he lived in London, and died on the 20th of See also:September 1898. He was given a public funeral at St See also:Paul's.

Grey was all his life a See also:

collector of books and See also:manuscripts. After leaving Cape Colony, he gave his library to Cape Town in 1862; his subsequent collection, which numbered 12,000 volumes, he presented to the citizens of Auckland in 1887. In gratitude the See also:people of Cape Town erected a statue of him opposite their library See also:building. Lives of Sir George Grey have been written by W. L. and L. See also:Rees (1892), See also:Professor G. C. See also:Henderson (1907) and J. See also:Collier (1909). (W. P.

End of Article: GREY, SIR GEORGE (1812–1898)

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