-1 <(-

Byfe^.^'Jnf

*jM®

"fgive theft Booki
I far the fokndiur of a. Collegi in this Colony'

NOTICES

THE LATE
SIE WILLIAM MOLESWOETH,
BAET., M.P.,
SECKETART OP STATE FOR
THE COLONIES.

[PKINTBD FOB PRIVATE OIRODLATION.]

LONDON: 1857.

" That which givea to human actions the relish of justice, is a certain
nobleness or gallantness of courage, rarely found, by which a man scorns to
he beholden for the contentment of life to fi-aud or breach of promise." —
Leviathan, 136.
" Because the ability of counselling proceedeth from experience and
long study, and no man is presumed to have experience in all those things
that to the administration of a great commonwealth are necessary to be
known, no man is presumed to be a good counsellor, but in such business as
he hath not only been much versed in, but hath also much meditated on and
considered."— Leviathan, 246.

INTEODUOTORY LBTTEE.

Mt dear Lady Moleswokth,
The general concurrence of opinion which
has been manifested both at home and abroad with
reference to the distinguished qualities of your late
lamented husband, has induced me, as one of his
earliest and most attached friends, to collect and pre
serve these testimonials to departed worth in the
following pages. I inscribe them to you as the person
who knew him best, and loved him most ; — whose
constant aim it was to encourage his efforts to attain
distinction; — whose sympathy cheered him in his on
ward path; — and whose affectionate regard was tbe
means of prolonging a life, brief indeed in point of
time, but, measured by the practical results of his
truthful and earnest career, far exceeding the limits
of ordinary existence.
The sentiments expressed in the letter addressed
to you by Lord Palmerston, not only accord with
those of the public, but are as honorable to the writer
as they are just to the memory of him who is gone.
The letter too adds another to the many existing
proofs of the kindly sympathy which Her Majesty
The Queen is ever prompt to display in the afflictions
of Her subjects. I have therefore sought and obtained

iv INTRODUCTOKY LETTER.
permission to include Lord Palmerston's letter as a
valuable addition to the present collection.
The introductory political sketch was received from
Australasia. The writer of that and the following
article little thought that the man whose merits they
recorded, and from whose statesmanship they hoped
so much, was no longer capable of receiving praise
or conferring benefits.
1 have omitted little from the various articles except
biographical repetitions. Amongst the writers are some
of the keenest intellects of the age ; they widely differ
in habits of thought and poUtical sentiment, but all
unite in one common tribute to the merits of him we
have lost. I venture to think that such opinions fully
justify the following lines, which have occurred to me
as an appropriate inscription for his tomb : —

" A riBM ADHERENCE TO CONVICTIONS THE RESULT OP DEEP THOtTGHT
WON FOE HIM THE TITLE OP AN HONEST STATESMAN,
, ASPIRING TO REGENERATE OUK COLONIAL SYSTEM,
HE LIVED TO SEE HIS PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED.
HIS EAELY DEATH PREVENTED THE COMPLETION OP HtS PURPOSE,
BUT HE LEFT A NAME HIS COUNTRY WILL REMEMBER."
Believe me to be,
Most truly and sincerely yours,
Tho. Woollcombe.
Devonport, \st January, 1857.

LETTER TO LADY MOLESWOETH.

Broadlands, 27th October, 1855.
Mt dear Ladt Moleswokth,
Though I was desired by the Queen to express
to you the deep sympathy of Herself and the Prince in
your affliction, and their sense of the great loss which
they and the country have sustained, I was unwilling to
break in upon you until the renewed trial of this morning
should be over.
I trust that you will have had strength of mind
and of frame to have borne the heavy blow which has
fallen upon you without any permanent impairment of
- your health.
To me, and to my Colleagues, and .the Country, the
loss has indeed been great. We have lost a friend whom
we loved and valued, as a sharer in our toils, and an" aid
in our difficulties : we have lost a thorough English
gentleman, and a thorough English siiatesman, and much
indeed is comprehended in these two terms.
For singleness of mind, honesty of purpose, clear
ness of judgment, faithfulness of conduct, courage in
difficulties, and equanimity in success, he never was
surpassed ; and deeply must any nation lament the pre
mature loss of such a man, for voids so created are not
easily replaced.

vi LETTER TO LADY MOLESWOETH.
I will not however intrude further upon you at a
moment like the present, except to say that I write to you
in compliance with the Queen's commands, and to give
vent in some degree to my own feelings ; and that I beg
as a favor that you will not send me any answer. I shall
hear from others about your health. Yours very sincerely,
Palmerston.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Colonial Press.

Political Sketch from the Launceaton i , ,^ ^ „
_, . 1 19 Nov., 1855 1
Jiixammer . . . ¦ ¦ )
The Adelaide Observer ... 3 Nov., 1855 21

NOTICES.
Metropolitan Daily Press. 1855.
The Sun . .... 22 October . 23
The Times . ... 23 October . 24
 24 October . 26
Morning Post  23 October . 32
„  25 October . 84
Morning Chronicle . . . .23 October . 34
...... 25 October . 39
Daily News  22 October . 41
Morning Advertiser . . . . 23 October . 44
Metropolitan Weekly Press.
Illustrated London News . . .27 October . 46
Spectator ...... „ .55

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGB

Examiner . . . • .

27 October .

65

Economist ......

j^

68

Atlas .....

J7

69

Leader 

?J

70

The Athenaeum

J>

71

Literary Gazette ....

??

74

Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper

28 October

75

Non-Conformist . . ^ .

. 24 October

76

Sunday Timee ....

• J7

. 79

Weekly Dispatch ....

. 28 October

. 88

Observer . . . • .

• ??

. 90

Provincial Press. 1855.

The Scotsman

. . 24 October .

92

Weekly Herald, Edinburgh

. 27 October .

93

Edinburgh News •

u

102

West Briton . . . .

. 26 October .

107

Correspondents of the Press.

Publicola to the Weekly Dispatch
An East Anglian .

. Ill
. 121

The French Press. 1855.
Journal des D6bats . • . . 9 November . 124

table of contents. ix
PAOB
Periodical Literature. 1855.
The New Monthly Magazine ..... 128
Frazer's Magazine ....... 142
Notices by Public Men.
Mr, Gladstone ....... 145
The High Bailiff of Southwark . . . . . 147
Mr. Robartes ........ 149
Mr. Kendall ... .... 151
The Ballot Society  153
Colonial Press. 1856.
The Adelaide Observer  157
The Melbourne Argus ...... 159
The Melbourne Herald  161
Melbourne Newspaper  163

4 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
the Right Honorable Baronet the old title of ' Westminster^
was resumed. The contributions of the Right Honorable
Baronet to this department of periodical literature were
numerous, and characterised by great vigour of thought,
breadth of liberality, and lucidity and terseness of expres
sion. The articles from his pen on the Orange Conspiracy*
and the Policy of the Radical Party in Parliament, f may
be cited specially as examples exhibiting these features in
a marked degree.
Of the Vote by Ballot, Sir William Molesworth has
ever been an ardent supporter, and we well remember the
earnestness with which at the eventful election for South
Devon in 1835, ending in the ignominious defeat of
Lord John Russell, he urged upon that noble lord the
necessity of adopting that method for taking the poll at
elections. " If," said he, "you lose this election, my lord, 3 nu will lose it
simply by the means of intimidation, for the majority of the
electors are undoubtedly in your favour ; but they dare not,
nor can they be expected, even for conscience sake, to incur
utter destruction and ruin. If you gain your election, you will
gain it with difficulty, by the self sacrifice of many ; and some
of your truest and most undaunted supporters will rue the day
of your return, for they will suffer, as has been the case in other
counties, through the anger, the ill-will, and the revenge of
their infuriated landlords. These considerations deserve your
most earnest attention, in order to apply the fitting remedy to
these enormous evils. The only remedy is secret suffrage.
Now, my lord, bear these considerations in your mind, remem-

* London and Westminster Review, April 1836.
f " Terms of alliance between Whigs and Eadicals." London and
Westminster Review, January 1837.

COLONIAL PEESS, 1855. 5
ber this contest — remember the electors of Devon, and the evil
which they will endure, when you will have hereafter to give
your vote on this subject, when you will have to say aye or no
to the ballot."
On the 2nd of June, 1835, a motion in favor of the
vote by ballot was formally introduced to the House of
Commons by Mr. Grote, one of the members for London,
and seconded in a speech of admirable ability by Sir W.
Molesworth, reminding the Whigs of the signal discomfi
tures which their friends had sustained in most of the
English counties at the previous elections. The Right
Honorable Baronet concluded his speech ia these terms : —
" They have themselves proclaimed to the people of the
United Eangdom the causes of their defeat in the address of
their own Eeform Association. They there tell the people
that their defeat was not caused by any change or reaction in
public opinion, but by various means either out of the reach,
or repugnant to the principles of Reformers ; by the unpre
cedented canvass by a large body of the Clergy, by bribery
and intimidation, by the corrupting influence of close corpo
rations, by the unscrupulous perversion by Tory authorities,
for party purposes, of powers confided to them for the main
tenance of order and the ends of justice. These are their own
words, and by them they are now called upon to abide. Do
they require stronger arguments in favour of the ballot than
these ? Is this list not a sufficient proof to them of the abso^
lute necessity of the ballot ? Do they prefer to be utterly
annihilated as a party in that House rather than have the
ballot ? If so their fate is nigh at hand, and they will
merit it.*"

* Sir William Molesworth's last speecli on the ballot, delivered in
June 1854, contains the following admirable reply to one of the argu
ments against that measure -..^
" It has been said that the elective franchise is a trust confided to an

6 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
The closing words of this speech were almost prophetic
of the fate of the then Whig Government. Their majori
ties gradually dwindled away from session to session as
vacancies in the House of Commons occurred. That they
were enabled to hold office six years longer, when they
were driven from power and succeeded by the ministry of

elector for the public benefit — the trust being to choose a representative.
It is said that the elector is responsible for the exercise of his trust, and
therefore that he ought to vote openly, in order that the public may
judge of and pronounce a judgment upon hia choice of a representative.
Why so ? To affirm that an elector ought to vote openly, in order that
the public may pronoTonce a judgment upon his choice of a representative
means, if it means anything, that the elector ought to be influenced in
his choice of a representative by the opinion of the public. But for what
reason ought an elector to be so influenced ? The only reason that can
be assigned, must be that the public are better judges of who ought to
be chosen than the elector is. But if the public are better judges of,
they are fitter to choose, a representative ; and if they are fit to choose,
they ought to choose, and therefore they ought to have votes. But
who are the public whom you consider fit to choose a representative ?
The whole commimity, or a portion of the community ? If the whole
community are fit to choose a representative, then they ought to have
votes, and the suffrage should be universal ; for to vote for a candidate
is so simple an act, that there is no reason why it should be done by a
delegate or representative. If, on the other hand, you consider that
only a portion of the community are fit to choose a representative, then
you affirm that the other portion are unfit to choose. It is evident that
only those who are fit to choose ought to have the franchise, and they
ought to be able to choose freely ; therefore, they ought to be protected
in their choice of a representative from the influence of those who are
iinfit to choose, and the only means by which they can be so protected
is the Ballot. Therefore the arguments upon which the doctrine of the
responsibility of the elector is based, may lead to an extension of the
suffrage or to universal sufirage, but they are not inconsistent with
secret suffrage ; on the contrary, they show the use of the Ballot in
protecting those who are fit to choose a representative from being influ
enced in their choice by those who are unfit to choose one."

COLONIAL PEESS, 1855. 7
Sir Robert Peel, from whose accession the policy of the
country dates a new era, was owing more to a combination
of fortuitous circumstances, over which they themselves
had no influence, than to the popularity of their adminis
tration, either in or out of Parliament.
In the debates on the Municipal Reform Bill Sir
William Molesworth took an active and a leading part.
A sharp controversy having arisen between the two houses
upon the amendments Introduced by the House of Lords
In that measure, and Lord Bbrlngton (now Earl Fortescue)
having observed in the course of one of the discussions In
the Commons upon the subject, that he was persuaded the
veneration which belonged to the House of Lords in the
eyes of the people, would not continue, unless the people
found that the principles of that House worked practically
better for good government. Sir William rose, and thus
delivered his sentiments :
" A few years ago an open expression of opinions such as
these, regarding the House of Lords, would have created great
astonishment ; but now the general question is, ' What is the
use of the House of Lords ? ' What has brought about this
state of things but the conduct of the Lords themselves ? It
is in consequence of their conduct in regard to the Eeform Bill,
to the Municipal Eeform Bill, and to the Irish Church Bill,
— ^by their opposition to which last they have shown themselves
indifferent to the welfare of Ireland— that the change has occur
red in regard to them in the opinions of the people, and I wiU say,
that if they show the same feeling towards a few more measures
brought forward for the good of the country, the people will
begin to see that they can not be reformed in any manner
except by being dissolved."
The utterance of these sentiments in the legislative
s B

8 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
chamber itself was followed by a pungent article from
the pen of the Right Honorable Baronet on the same
subject, in the pages of the London Review*.
In February 1886, Sir William seconded the motion of
Mr. Hume for the suppression of the Orange Lodges, an
object in the accomplishment of which he was active alike
in the use of tongue and pen. He boldly asserted the
doctrine that all who had attended Orange Lodges were
liable to be transported, and that the offence was such that
even Peers might, under statute law be tried not by
the House of Lords but by a Common Jury.
" Let therefore," he continued, " the law officers of the Crown
present to -the Grand Jury of Middlesex, bills of indictment
against the Imperial Grand Master, the Duke of Cumberland,
against the Grand Master of England, Lord Kenyon, against
the Grand Secretary, Lord Chandos, and to those worthies
let them not forget to add the Eight Eeverend Father in God,
Thomas, Lord Bishop of SaUsbury. Thus, these statutes, which
were the creations of the sworn enemies of the people, may
now, as it were by a retribution of Divine providence, be
come the means of crushing this institution,— of destroying
this imperium in imperio, and of laying prostrate its Chief.
At his fate none but his followers will mourn. A few years'
residence on the shores of the southern ocean will teach him
and other titled criminals that the laws of their country are
not to be violated with impunity, and that equal justice is now
to be administered to the high and the low."
Another question to which the attention of the Right
Honorable Baronet was incidentally directed, was that of

? This is a mistake. It is believed that this article was written by
Mr. Eoebuok, whose initials it bears.

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 9
Military Reform, and In the course of the same session
he proposed a motion In the House of Commons respecting
the privileges enjoyed by the regiments of foot guards
over the regiments of the line, In pay and other matters,
with the view of placing them on an equality. He was of
course opposed by the Government of the day, and by
gentlemen on both sides of the house connected with the
military profession. In the end this motion was rejected
by a very large majority. Subsequently, for the purpose
of bringing before the notice of the House the irresponsi
bility of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Hill, he moved
for a committee to enquire Into the appointment of Lord
Brudenell to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 11th Dra
goons, upon which however he was again unsuccessful.
Popular as was the parliamentary conduct of Sir
William Molesworth with the mass of his constituents, the
liberality of his principles, and his unswerving and per
severing advocacy of them, alarmed the Whig gentry of
Cornwall who were his original supporters ; and his spo
ken and written opinions upon the necessity of a reform
of the House of Lords — which branch of the Legislature
he would have deprived of the absolute veto — were put
forward as the alleged grounds upon which they at length
based their complete alienation from him. But he chose
the honorable course of retaining his principles and
adhering to his convictions, rather than purchase his seat
by their sacrifice to the dicta of timid partisans, who
instead of the independent representative of a great
English constituency, would have reduced him to the
humiliating position of their delegate and nominee. On

10 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
the occurrence of the general election In 1837, therefore,
he took a graceful leave of the constituency of Cornwall,
and from that period until the accession of Sir Robert
Peel's Ministry in 1841, sat In the House of Commons
as member for Leeds*.
During the debates which ensued upon the policy of the
Government In reference to the Canadas, In successive
years from 1837, the Right Honorable Baronet warmly
backed the efforts of Mr. Hume and Mr. Roebuck, to
obtain for the Colonists the advantage of self-government.
In 1838 he seconded Mr. Charles Villlers' annual motion
for the Repeal of the Corn Laws ; and on many subsequent
occasions occupied a foremost place in the ranks of the
friends of commercial freedom. But the epoch from 1837
to 1841 was a barren one In respect of legislation of a broad
and comprehensive nature. The Parliamentary majority of

* Sir William Molesworth's farewell address to the constituency of
Cornwall was issued in September 1836. Before the end of the year he
received invitations, in some instances followed up by requisitions, to
stand for Westminster, Southwark, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Leeds.
For the latter place he was returned after a severe contest, the whole
cost of which was paid by the electors, who only permitted Sir
William Molesworth to pay the ordinary legal expenses, amounting to
less than £400. Sir William's retirement from Cornwall was followed
by a correspondence (published at the time) between himself and Sir
Hussey Vivian, then Master-General of the Ordnance, on the subject of
the ballot. After Sir Hussey Vivian had been elected for East Cornwall
he pledged himself to vote for the ballot if a majority of those who
elected him required it. Sir William Molesworth caused a careful
enquiry to be made, and produced to Sir H. Vivian returns showing
conclusively not only that a majority of those who voted for him were
in favor of the ballot, but also a majority of those who voted for Lord
Eliot and against him. Sir H. Vivian honorably redeemed his pledge.

COLONIAL PEESS, 1855. 11
the Whig Government stood In constant danger of being
converted into a minority. They retained office, It is now
believed, from the honest conviction that, feeble as their
measures were, they exceeded what any other Government
could then hope to effect. A powerful and an unscrupulous
opposition perpetually obstructed their attempts to advance
in the path of reform ; whilst they delayed to throw them
selves on the sympathies of the country by pronouncing for
larger measures and wider principles, until those sympathies
were no longer with them, and a general election was follow
ed by the advent of a Conservative ministry, the best this
country ever possessed, and the removal of the Whigs to
the opposition benches, there to learn the wisdom which
accompanies the teachings of adversity. In the whole of
this period almost the only measure of Importance, If we
except the termination of Negro Apprenticeship in the
Colonies, which received the sanction of Parliament, was
the penny postage system, a measure which had the ardent
support of the Right Honorable Baronet, but was conce
ded reluctantly by the administration, and strenuously
condemned by the Tory opposition.
At the general election in 1841, Sir William Moles
worth retired from Parliament and from public life for a
short interval, a portion of which he occupied in conti
nental travels, and In ushering Into the world a new
edition of the works of Hobbes, the " philosopher of
Malmesbury." This performance, however ably executed
in a literary point of view. Is still of doubtful merit in
the opinion of many men, on account of the peculiar
sentiments upon religious questions which the work con-

12 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
tains ; and when In 1845 the Right Honorable Baronet
appeared as a candidate for the borough of Southwark,
his opponents made the most of the circumstance by
endeavouring to Identify him with the presumed Infidelity
of Hobbes, as well as with that great thinker's conclusions
in favor of despotic government. They succeeded, however,
but partially In damaging his popularity. His explanation
of the object he had before him in editing these undoubtedly
questionable writings was deemed to be satisfactory by
the leading dissenters and their ministers In Southwark.
His election was chiefly by their influence rendered safe,
and by the same influence he retains his seat for that
borough to the present day.
To the claims of the Jews for admission to seats in
Parliament the Right Honorable Baronet has at all
times been favorable ; and In the debate on this question
In February 1848, he supported the second reading of
the bill of Lord John Russell, in one of the best speeches
delivered on the occasion, resting his support on these
broad and well-defined grounds : —
" The question before the House," he remarked, " is in fact a
question between two great principles that have battled against
each other since the commencement of civihzation. On the
one side is the principle of religious equality ; on the other,
the antagonistic principle, that the state is competent to deter
mine, and ought to determine, what religion is the true religion.
Now this doctrine of the religious infallibility of the state has
been in all ages, and among all people, the plea for the crimes
of intolerance and persecution. Under that plea Socrates was
put to death and the Saviour was crucified. Under that plea
the Pagan Emperors immolated the early Christians, the Albi-
genses were slaughtered, and our own fires were lighted in

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 13
Smithfield. Under that plea, Cathohcs burned Protestants,
Protestants burned Catholics, and Calvin, with the approbation
of Melancthon, kindled the faggot of Servetus ; even the Pilgrim
Fathers of New England were persecutors, and hanged Quakers
on the gibbets at Massachusetts. Under the same plea, in modern
times,we excluded Dissenters from our corporations,andCatholios
from Parliament ; and for the same reason, Jews are now refused
a seat in the British House of Commons. But religious Uberty
has triumphed over the rude bigotry of antiquity and the cruel
persecutions of our forefathers. It will ultimately achieve a
victory over the milder intolerance of honorable gentlemen
opposite. The result will be peace and good will among men
of every faith who are subjects of the British Empire.
In legislating on this question, let us remember that we are
not merely the representatives of the people of the small island
which is inhabited by men of one race, one language, and one
rehgion, but we are the rulers over a mighty empire, over mil
lions on millions of human beings, of every race, every lan
guage, and every religion ; and we are likewise the parent
stock whence in future ages still mightier empires may spring.
In the eminent position to which we have attained, through the
energy of our forefathers and of ourselves, famed as we are
throughout the world for sagacity, prudence, and for forethought,
our practical decisions on the great questions that affect the
interest of the human race are watched with intense anxiety
by all intelligent and reflecting men. Every onward step that
England takes is a step in the civilization of the world ; and
the policy of England will gradually become the policy of all
enUghtened nations. Tvrice of late years we have rendered
noble service to our fellow-beings ; — ^twice well deserved the
thanks of mankind, for the example we have set to the other
rulers of the earth : first, when we freed om- negro slaves, and
proclaimed that to hold men in bondage was inexpedient, un
holy, and unjust ; secondly, when we removed restrictions on
commercial intercourse, broke down the barriers that had long
separated neighbouring states, and bound together hostile
communities by the strong ties of mutual interest, which are
by far the most potent securities against the hideous calamities
of war. Now, sir, to the principles of civil liberty and com
mercial freedom, let us join in the government of this empire

14 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
the third great principle of religious equality. Now let us
confirm the decision of our foremost citizens. Now is the time
to declare that as legislators we have no business with articles
of faith — ^that our laws shall be silent on all questions of
religion — and that, as adherents of every creed are to be found
among the subjects of the British empire, adding to its
wealth, augmenting its resources, and increasing its power, so
they should all possess the same civil rights and privileges as
citizens; and thus let us sweep away the last relics of the
ancient reign of imbecile bigotry, and intolerance in its dotage."
The views of the Right Honorable Baronet, upon the
subject of our foreign relations, are In direct hostility to
the policy which was for so many years pursued xmder
the administration of that department by Lord Palmerston.
Those views are to be found recorded In able papers con
tained in the pages of the London and the London and
Westminster Reviews, and also In a speech which he made
in the House of Commons in June 1850, when. In conse
quence of a resolution being adopted by the Upper House
condemnatory of that policy, Mr. Roebuck moved, " That
the principles on which the foreign policy of Her Majesty's
Government has been regulated have been such as were
calculated to maintain the honor and dignity of this
country, and In times of unexampled difficulty to preserve
peace between England and the various nations of the
world." Mr. Roebuck having, with a little pardonable
vanity perhaps, boasted In the course of the remarks with
which he introduced his resolution, that " from us had
emanated all that was worth respecting In the govern
ment of men," the Right Honorable Baronet said 
"I protest against the Honorable and Learned Gentleman's
doctrines, which would make us the political pedagogues of the

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 15
world, and would bind mankind to adopt our institutions as the
best form of government for the nations of the earth."* * *
"TheHonorable and Learned Gentleman said that he onlywished
to propagate his faith by moral influences. The same language
was used by the chiefs of the first French Eevolution ; now it ap
pears to me that the only moral influences which we are entitled
to use, in order to convince foreign nations of the goodness of
our institutions, would consist in making om- institutions work
well in this country, and in setting a good example, which
foreign nations might imitate if they thought proper to do so.
I object, therefore, to the so-called moral influences which con
sist in instructing ambassadors to become the chiefs of foreign
political parties, and to teach ministers of foreign potentates
the modes of governing their subjects. I object to sending
envoys as ' wandering lecturers,' on the principle of constitu
tional government. And I maintain that one nation has no more
right to interfere with the local affairs of another nation than
one man has to interfere in the private affairs of another man.
" Now, there are certain persons who delight to interfere
in the affairs of other persons, and are always offering unasked
for and uncalled for advice. These persons are called oflicious
meddlers. They are very disagreeable persons ; hated as
mischief-makers, and apt to sow discord in the bosoms of fami
Ues. Now this is precisely our character among the nations of
the earth, in consequence of our foreign policy. We are looked
upon as an officious meddling nation, which, not content with
managing its own affairs very well on the whole, must interfere
with the affairs of other nations ; and ours is the inevitable lot
of the officious givers of uncalled for advice. We are hated by
all parties in all nations. The Liberals say that we first encou
raged and then abandoned them ; their opponents say that we
have stirred up the embers of discontent. It is doubtful whether
we have always interfered on the truly liberal side ; but this is
certain, that the victory has always been to the party opposed
to us, and that the way to be popular throughout Europe is to
be at enmity with oui- foreign oface. Therefore, in consequence
of our foreign poUcy, we' are generally detested by the nations
of Europe ; and if we determine to persevere in that poUcy, it
is idle to talk of reducing our fleets or armies at our general
expenditm-e : on the contrary, we ought to augment them all."

16 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
Upon the division which followed, the Right Honorable
Baronet voted with the minority against the motion of
confidence. Whether the views he here expresses be correct
or not, undoubtedly they have received strong confirmation
by subsequent events ; for not only has the Foreign Office,
ex necessitate, abandoned the policy, but we find it " Idle
to talk of reducing our fleets, our armies, or our expen
diture ; on the contrary, we have augmented them all."
Impressed with the gigantic and unmitigated evils,
attendant upon the system of transportation to New
South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, and with a
view to its total abolition. In the session of 1837 Sir
William Molesworth moved for and obtained the ap
pointment of a select committee of inquiry Into the
subject. A great mass of evidence upon the effects of
transportation as a punishment In this country, and its
demoralizing Influences upon the Australian Colonies, was
collected by this and another committee which sat the
following year. It Is mainly owing to the valuable reports
of these committees that the attention of the Legislature
and the Government has since been directed to the
improvement of this vicious system, and that its termina
tion may be anticipated at no distant date. The reports
show conclusively that It cannot be amended ; that it has
completely failed as a punishment ; that It has been still
more ineffectual as a means of reformation ; that it has
produced the most degraded community in the universe 
the most demoralized society on record in the history of
nations ; and, at the same time, the one possessing in
proportion, to its population, the greatest amount of

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 17
wealth. It is necessary, however, that these reports
should be read with caution, on account of the evident
bias of the committee. But make what allowance you
please for coloring or exaggeration, the hideous deformity
of the system will still stand out in bold relief,- the bane
without an antidote— the curse without a blessing— of the
colonies which are compelled to endure it. The last occa
sion on which Sir William Molesworth brought this most
important of all social questions to the colonists, before the
House of Commons, was on the 20th of May, 1851, when
he moved an address to Her Majesty for the discontinuance
of transportation to Van Dieman's Land. The debate
was then brought to a premature close by the House being
counted out.
From the year 1845* the Right Honorable Baronet has
devoted his attention more especially to questions affecting
the administration and government of the colonies, the

* Sir WUliam Molesworth's first speech on colonial questions was
made on the 6th March, 1838, when, after a powerful exposure of the
abuses of colonial office management, he proposed — " That an humble
Address be presented to Her Majesty, respectfully expressing the opinion
of this House that in the present critical state of many of Her Majesty's
foreign possessions in various parts of the world, it is essential to the
well being of Her Majesty's colonial empire, and of the many and im
portant domestic interests which depend on the prosperity of the colo
nies, that the colonial minister should be a person in whose diligence,
forethought, judgment, activity, and firmness, this House and the public
may be able to place reliance ; and declaring with all deference to the
constitutional prerogatives of the Crown, that Her Majesty's present
Secretary of State for the Colonies does not enjoy the confidence of this
House, or of the country."
In the following year Sir William seconded Mr. Ward's resolutions
respecting the disposition of the colonial lands.

18 POLITICAL SKETCH, &c.
promotion of " colonial reform," and the establishment of
representative institutions at the Cape of Good Hope,
New Zealand, and the Australias. On the 25th of
July, 1848, he moved a resolution In the House of
Commons, for inquiry Into the colonial expenditure of
the British empire, with a view to Its reduction, and for
the purpose of securing greater contentment and prosperity
to the colonists, by Investing them with large powers for
the administration of their own local affairs; but the
motion led to no Immediate result, for, after a reply from
the Minister, the House was counted out. In June of
the following year Sir William Molesworth moved for an
address to Her Majesty for a commission to inquire iato
the administration of the colonists, with a view of remov
ing the causes of colonial complaint, diminishing the cost
of colonial government, and giving free scope to Individual
enterprise in the business of colonizing. In support of
this motion the Right Honorable Baronet said :
" Under the existing colonial system in most of our colonies
— I may indeed say all of them, with the exception of Canada —
representative institutions are rather shams than realities, for
they seldom lead to the legitimate consequences of repre
sentative government — namely, responsible government —
according to the will of the majority of the representatives of
the people. In almost all the representative colonies the
Colonial Office generally attempts to carry on the government
by means of a minority of the representative assembly, with
the assistance of a legislative assembly composed of the
nominees of the Colonial Ofiice. The consequence is, a per
petual struggle between the majority of the representative
assembly and the party of the Colonial Ofiice — a struggle
carried on with an intensity of party hatred and rancour
happily unknown to us. Each party rejects or disallows the

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 19
measures of the other party ; thus legislation stands still, and
enmity increases ; after a time the supplies are stopped, and a
dead lock ensues. Then the Imperial Parliament is called in
to take the part of the Colonial Office, and a constitution is
sometimes suspended. Next, to preserve order, or to put down
rebellion, the military force is augmented ; and finally, a
demand is made upon the purses of the British people, who
have invariably to pay the piper at every colonial brawl.
Thus, both in the colonies which have representative assem
blies, and in those which have them not, the one great cause
of complaint is, irresponsible government from a distance ;
that is, government by rulers who are necessarily ignorant of
the state of their subjects, who sometimes, with the very best
intentions propose, and insist upon the very worst measures.
It would be easy to take colony after colony, and show in each
a series of lamentable blunders which have been committed by
the Colonial Office. For instance, how the war of races was
stimulated in Canada ; how the ruin of the planters was made
inevitable in the West Indies ; how a valuable portion of our
fellow-subjects in South Africa were driven into the desert and
became rebels ; how the immorality of Van Dieman's Land was
fearfully augmented ; how the colonization of New Zealand
was spoilt ; how Vancouver's Island was thrown away ; all
through the ignorance, negligence, and vacillation of the
Colonial Office — ^the three inseparable incidents of our system
of Colonial government."
The Right Honorable Baronet proposed three heads of
inquiry by the Commission, namely, Colonial Government,
Colonial Expenditure, and Emigration or Colonization.
Upon a division,— both sides of the House agreeing to
consider the motion In the light of a censure upon the
whole colonial policy of Great Britain— It was rejected by
a majority of 163 to 89.
Gifted with inexhaustible patience, indomitable appllca^
tion, great keenness of perception, and a prodigious
memory, It Is not the wont of the Right Honorable

20 POLITICAL SKETCH, &o.
Baronet to quit any subject he once takes In hand until
he has completely mastered its principles and Its details.
His set speeches on colonial reform. In particular, are
consequently essays, crammed with all the information
necessary to be brought to bear upon the question, but
they are never tediously diffuse, and in print may be read
with more Interest than they are listened to, a thing which
cannot be predicated of the House of Commons' oratory in
general. His maxims with regard to the relations sub
sisting between the mother country and the colonies, and
the relative duties of each to the other, are just and
enlightened ; and the best proof that they are so. Is the
direction which legislation for our settlements abroad has
taken In recent times under the successive administrations
of Lord John Russell, the Earl of Derby, and the Govern
ment of which he Is now a member. In the debates upon
other questions than those enumerated, his name has
seldom appeared; but the div:' " of the House of
Commons have uniformly placed „.„ .a the lobby along
with his old coadjutors of 1853 In the work of reform.

COLONIAL PRESS, 1855. 21

THE ADELAIDE OBSERVER.— 8rd NOV., 1855.
The appointment of Sir William Molesworth to the
Secretaryship of the Colonies Is, at the present crisis, an
auspicious event. If the right hon. baronet has not had
the lengthened experience of Lord John Russell In the
art of governing, we have little doubt that his thoroughly
liberal principles and remarkable aptitude will more than
compensate for any defects in that direction. Sir
William Molesworth, however, is no tyro ; he has spent
many years in Parliament, and, what is Infinitely more to
the purpose, he has grown with the growth of the public
mind, and has always identified himself with popular
measures. The very fact of such a bold reformer being
appointed to conduct the affairs of Her Majesty's colonies
is the strongest possible evidence that the Home Govern
ment have no wish to force any peculiar policy on
them. Before he was elevated to the honours of
sharing In the Government of Great Britain, Sir William
Molesworth proved himself to be one of the most able
advocates and faithful friends of the colonies. Colonial
subjects pertain to him especially ; In every colonial de
bate he was the chief speaker, and his orations upon the
necessity of colonial reform were frequently reprinted as
pamphlets, and circulated far and wide. He has fairly
earned his present position, for which he Is eminently
adapted above most men of the day.
Sir William Molesworth does not bring to hia new

22 COLONIAL PRESS, 1855.
duties the infirmities of declining years. Born in 1810,
he is, consequently, now about 45 years of age. • His great
abilities were early developed, and he sat in Parliament
for Cornwall when only twenty-two years old. In 1837
he was returned for the Important provincial town of
Leeds ; and In 1845 was elected for Southwark. No
Liberal Government could dispense advantageously with
his services; but in his present position he Is pre
eminently at home, and will no doubt prove It to the
satisfaction of the various dependencies of the British
Crown.

NOTICES
OF THE LATE
SIE WILLIAM MOLESWORTH.

METKOPOLITAN DAILY PEESS.

THE SUN.— OCTOBER 22, 1855.
It is with deep regret that we have to announce the
melancholy intelligence of the death of the Right Hon.
Sir William Molesworth, Her Majesty's principal Sec
retary of State for the Colonial Department. There Is but
too much reason to fear that the devoted and Indefatigable
attention which he bestowed on the duties of his office
greatly accelerated, if It did not occasion, the melancholy
event. It would be a sad catastrophe at any time, but it
is peculiarly so at the present juncture, when the assistance
of every true-hearted Englishman was required. The
Colonies will have abundant reason to lament the prema
ture death of a statesman who had studied their condition
closely, and was thoroughly earnest In his desire to render
complete justice to our dependencies in every quarter of
the globe, and to do all in his power to develope their re
sources. Men of all classes and conditions will feel the
magnitude of the calamity, and sympathize with his be
reaved family, who have sustained a loss In every respect
irreparable.

24 METEOPOLITAN DAILY PEESS, 1855.
THE TIMES.-OCT. 23.
Placed at a very early period of life in the possession
of great wealth, it Is to the honour of Sir William Molgs-
worth that he devoted his time to severe study and ab
struse thought. He was the Intimate friend of Bentham
and James Mill, and gave to the world, at a heavy pecu
niary sacrifice, and at the cost of much care and labour,
the works of Hobbes ; an exploit which, though it has often
served to edge a parliamentary taunt, or point a news
paper paragraph, must be considered as a great and dis
interested service to English literature. Nature had
endowed him with a mind wanting in that flexibility and
dexterity which constitute the parliamentary gladiator,
and possessing neither quickness of apprehension, nor
brilliancy of imagination, but remarkably clear, sound,
logical, and comprehensive. No man was more luminous
in arrangement, more clear and conclusive in argument ;
no man combined and tempered more happily, abstract
theory with practical good sense ; no man looked less to
the victory of the moment, or more to the establishment of
the truth, and the progress of human enlightenment. The
elaborate care with which he was known to prepare his
speeches, and certain natural defects of manner and elo
cution, prevented his becoming a popular orator In the
House of Commons ; but the weapons that he wielded were
weighty, and probably no one ever produced so much effect
In so few speeches. The moral nature of the man was a
fitting counterpart to the Intellectual. Simple, sincere
and straightforward, without fear and without compro-

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 25
THE TIMES. OCT, 23.
mise, no man's assertions carried more weight, no man
received and deserved more entire credit for consistency of
principle and singleness of purpose. It would be unjust
to say, that thus cut off in the very noon of life. Sir Wil
liam Molesworth has accomplished all that might have
been expected from him ; but his friends may console
themselves by reflecting that, though many have done more
for party, very few. If any, of our living statesmen have
done as much for mankind. He found our colonial empire
disorganized and distracted by the maladministration of
the colonial office, wedded as it then was to a system of
ignorant and impertinent interference. He first aroused
the attention of Parliament to the importance of our
remote dependencies, and explained with incomparable
clearness and force the principles of colonial self-govern
ment. With untiring diligence and great constructive
power he prepared draught constitutions, and investigated
the relations between the Imperial Government and its
dependencies. Starting from a small minority, he brought
the public and parliament over to his side, till principles,
once considered as paradoxes, came to be regarded as
axioms. By such means he fairly won the position of
Secretary of State for the Colonies, but he did not live to
enjoy the prize which he had grasped. Before we have
had time to hear of the satisfaction with which his ap
pointment is sure to be hailed by our remote dependencies,
the sceptre has been snatched from his hand by death,
and the post Is again vacant. In the full vigour of life

26 METROPOLITAN DAILY PEESS, 1855.
THE times. OCT. 23.
and intellect. In the possession of what must have been to
him the highest and noblest prize of ambition, in the en
joyment of the confidence of his Sovereign, and the esteem
of his fellow-subjects, he has been taken away suddenly
and prematurely ; yet not so soon as to deprive his friends
of the consolation of thinking that he has left behind him
durable memorials, which, will link his name with the des
tinies of every British community planted on the face of
the earth. The best monument that could be raised to
him would be a complete collection of his parliamentary
speeches ; — the noblest epitaph that could be Inscribed on
his tomb would be the title of " the Liberator and Regene
rator of the Colonial Empire of Great Britain."

THE TIMES.— OCT. 24.
The death of Sir William Molesworth, the great
Colonial Reformer of our day, marks the conclusion of
an epoch In the changeful history of the British Colonies.
It is singular that in the very year which has taken him
from us, that system should have been completed which it
was the business of his life to support and advocate.
From the conclusion of the American War of Indepen
dence to the termination of the Canadian outbreak of
1837, a long and disastrous period elapsed, during which we
seemed to have forgotten all that past experience had
taught us, and to have recurred to views with reference to

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 27
THE TIMES. OCT. 21.
the government of dependencies, singularly narrow, mean,
and Inadequate. Having no longer any colonists of whom
we were afraid, having effectually disposed of all the noble
possessions which we once held on the continent of North
America, except the French settlement of Lower Canada
and the Infant English settlement of Upper Canada, we
seem to have lost the theory as well as the practice of colo
nial government, and to have forgotten for a while that
we had any foreign settlements at all. The nation that
had just lost America concentrated its whole attention on
the persecution of WareEn Hastings, who had employed
nearly the same period of time in saving India, and be
stowed on the imaginary and exaggerated woes of Begums
or Rajahs, the sympathy which it could not spare to the
real grievances of men of the same race and language.
The idea under which the English mind then regarded the
colonist was that of a rebel or a traitor ; and next was that
of a convict. The formation of the penal settlement of
New South Wales, and the crimes and miseries which
naturally followed such a step, had undoubtedly a depres
sing Influence on the estimation in which colonies gene
rally were held, and reacted most unfavourably on the con
dition of Canada and her sister colonies. Instead of
seeking to Indemnify ourselves by the development given to
our new possessions for the loss of the old, we employed
for a series of years every device which could deaden
native patriotism, discourage native talent, and teach the
colonists to regard their union with the mother country as

28 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
THE TIMES. OCT. 24.
a fetter and degradation. So completely had the public
mind become perverted on the subject, that the West
India colonies, raised on the foundation of slavery, a
foundation equally unsound In a moral and economical
point of view, were regarded with Infinitely more favour
and attention than the virgin lands of Canada, situated in
a climate adapted to the European constitution, watered
by noble rivers, and accessible by admirable harbours, or
the vast continent of Australia, of which we have not
yet taken the trouble to ascertain the whole nature or even
the extent. This dark period of colonial history may
be said to have terminated with the Canadian outbreak,
and amid the fire and blood of that unhappy rebellion
broke the first dawn that heralded a brighter day. It
was just at this period that Sir William Molesworth
undertook to agitate the question of transportation, and
as chairman of a committee of the House of Commons,
elicited evidence which startled those who supposed that,
all was well in communities of which we heard so little.
From that time we may trace a gradual but sure ameliora
tion. The union of the provinces of Canada In 1840 was
effected by an act which has been Interpreted and acted
on In a spirit far more liberal than that In which It was
conceived ; it has led by degrees to the establishment in
Canada of a system of local government, responsible to the
local legislature, and practically. If not theoretically, com
plete. The same right of self-government, the same power
of appointing their own ministers, was conceded during the

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 29
THE TIMES. OCT. 24.
administration of Lord Grey to the rest of the American
colonies. The concession of the clergy reserves and of
the power of reforming their constitutions, has fol
lowed, and the North American colonies probably enjoy
at this moment the highest amount of liberty that is
consistent with the continuance of their connexion with
Great Britain. But while Canada has been thus gene
rously treated, the Cape, New Zealand, and Australia
were reserved for the exercise of blind caprice or the appli
cation of exploded theories. For them were devised,
under the pretence of preparing them for self-government,
councils, either entirely nominated by the Crown, or
partly nominated and partly elected, which gave expres
sion to popular opinion only the more effectually to thwart
and control it ; which set up as their avowed guide and
standard the principle of government by minorities ; and
which, while they mismanaged the finances and com
promised the interests of the people, were nevertheless In
a state of perpetual hostility with the home government.
It was to sweep away these miserable counterfeits, and to
substitute for them really popular bodies, that Sir William
Molesworth laboured until success crowned his exertions,
though neither In the order nor In the manner he expect
ed. The Cape of Good Hope, the least advanced and
the least Important of these communities, received from
Lord Grey the gift of a free constitution, which he stead
fastly denied to Australia; and Sir John Paklngton
gave to New Zealand in 1852 a constitution which, though

30 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
THE TIMES. OCT. 24.
ridiculously too large and too complicated for the small
community to which It was applied, and imrolving elements
of strife and confusion between the provincial and central
legislatm^es, that have not failed to ripen into discord,
was yet a considerable advance upon anything conceded
to Australia. It was only in June of this very year that
New South Wales and Victoria obtained from the hands
of Parliament the gift of constitutions, which, though con
taining almost every defect to which a constitution can be
subject, had yet this redeeming point — that they gave to
a legislature locally constituted plenary powers of local
legislation, and the power besides of altering as they
might think fit the constitution so granted to them.
That these constitutions will be the cause of long and
bitter disputes before they settle down Into the form that
is suitable to the colonies, we have no doubt ; but at any
rate the battle-field is removed to the local legislature,
and the change will no longer form a matter of dispute
between the colony and the mother country. Thus then,
just as his work has been completed, and the principles he
advocated have triumphed, has been removed from the
scene of public life the man to whom, above all others,
the colonies owe their emancipation from a system of
sham liberality and real repression, endless interference
with heir local concerns, and mischievous tampering
with their dearest interests. A new era begins a state
of things utterly unexplored and unknown, in which an
experiment is to be tried that, as far as we know, has

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 31
THE TIMES. OCT. 24.
never been tried before, — ^whether It be possible to retain
many free, completely organized, and self-governing
communities In dependence on the parent state, not by
force or fear,but by the ties of goodwill and mutual affection.
The labour of the colonial minister, at least his routine
labour, is certainly diminished by this great change — we
might say the revolution which has thus been effected, —
but, If less burdensome, his duties have become infinitely
more difficult and delicate. Much as we have conceded
to the colonies, there are many matters of Imperial cogni
zance which it Is Impossible that we should concede to
them ; and in determining what those matters are, and
managing the negotiations which must arise out of at
tempted encroachments, will consist the delicate and
difficult duty of the colonial minister. To the other
causes of regret for the untimely loss of Sir William
Molesworth Is added this also, — that, as he was the man
most active In creating our new relations to our colonies,
so he was the person most likely to administer them with
prudence, with consistency, and with discretion. A few
months of such administration as we have seen at the
colonial-office, might entail upon this country an amount
of loss and discredit which it is hardly possible to estimate.
Whatever It has been, the colonial-office must no longer
be the refuge for men of impracticable temper or crotchety
disposition; and whoever be selected as the successor of
Sir William Molesworth should be a man not only capa
ble of carrying on an existing system but of inaugurating
and instituting a new one.

32 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.

MORNING POST.— OCT. 23.
The death of Sir William Molesworth adds another to
that melancholy list of distinguished men — foremost on
which stand the names of George Cannmg and Charles
BuUer — who, at the very moment of the fulfilment of the
utmost desires of their ambition, when the toils, and
anxieties, and hopes of many years of political life had
reached fruition, have fallen victims to that laborious zeal
In the service of their country, which had urged on and
sustained them through many arduous years.
The representative of an ancient and distinguished
family, surrounded with every circumstance of wealth, and
accomplishment of scholarship. Sir William Molesworth
' devoted himself at an early age to the study of politics,
rather as a higher branch of moral philosophy, than as a
means and weapon towards the active conflict of life. His
object was to influence the reason rather than address or
influence the passions of his fellow-men ; he sought to lead
to the happiness, and augment the welfare of his country
men by proofs and persuasion, and aimed to arrive by
analysis and deduction, rather than by eloquence and
force, at those reforms which more trenchant hands would
hare snatched at once from the reluctant grasp of what
was regarded by politicians of his school as a dominant
aristocracy. Calm, contemplative, and analytical to the highest de
gree. Sir William Molesworth, the enthusiastic student
and admirer of Hobbes, became gradually an acolyte of

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 33
MORNING POST. OCT, 23.
the more practical school of Bentham, whence advancing
into the arena of disputation In the Westminster Review
and other, political organs of the time, he was gradually
drawn into the open field of arrayed combatants, and found
himself early engaged with Mr. Roebuck and the small
party about him, — a warm partisan on the side of extreme
radicalism. But the pride of birth, the possession of wealth, the dig
nity of landed estate, the polish of scholarship, and the
calm contemplativeness superinduced by his primary
studies in a higher school of philosophy, and possibly, a
keen and subtle perception of what was ridiculous and ex
aggerated in tone, restrained the young baronet, even at
this early period, from the more Intemperate ardour of his
then compatriots. Though, to the last moment of his ex
istence, a consistent Liberal, he stopped at a fixed point
until the great men of the day had, by the force of cir
cumstances, come up with him; and when sobered by
mature years, and the experience that all political contests
had, though by different roads, but one great aim — the
good of the country — Sir William Molesworth became the
practical official, already ripening into the statesman, such
as the Cabinet of England has now to lament In his too
early death.

34 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
MORNING POST.— OCT. 25.
The death of Sir William Molesworth leaves the colo
nial-office again without a head, and the country will be
anxious to learn who Is to succeed the lamented Baronet
in that honourable and arduous post.
Sir William Molesworth, though differing in many Im
portant matters from the principles ever advocated In this
journal, yet deserved well the confidence and admiration
of the public, as a man fully alive to the responsibilities
of office, and singularly laborious in acquiring those great
qualifications which we have stated to be Indispensable to
its efficient and faithful discharge. As such, we lament his
loss. As an honourable opponent, we gladly record his many
admirable qualities ; and we shall cherish his memory as
one who presented a bright example, during his too brief
career, of a high-minded, hard-studying, and conscientious
statesman ; and we mourn his removal as a loss to the
Government, the country, and its uttermost dependencies.
MORNING CHRONICLE.— OCT. 23.
It is with much regret we have to record the death of
Sir William Molesworth, Bart., the Secretary of State for
the Colonies. The right honourable Baronet was seized
with a serious illness in the end of last week, from which
he never rallied ; and he died yesterday about midday, in
the forty-fifth year of his age.
The loss thus occasioned to the country, to the House

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 35
MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 23.
of Commons, and to the councils of Her Majesty, is one
of no common character. Though he has thus died In the
full vigour of manhood, yet for many years he has been
one of the notabilities of the country. Any list of re
markable men in Parliament made up during the last fif
teen or twenty years, by a member of any party, would have
been sure to Include Sir William Molesworth. Yet he was
not a frequent speaker, nor, when he did speak, was he a
pleasing one. He owed his position partly to accident,
but mainly to his own force of character. Descended
from an ancient and wealthy family in Cornwall, — the
baronetcy In the family is remarkable as being the first
which William III. conferred after his accession to the
English throne, — Sir William entered the House of
Commons in the first reformed Parliament as member for
West Cornwall, at the age of twenty-two. It was a period
when the Reform Bill and the events which led to it, had
unfixed many ancient ideas, and opened up new and daring
political peculations. Radicalism, we need not say, was
then rampant among the lower orders of society; the
masses having soon outstripped the cautious and timid
counsels of the Whig statesmen who conferred upon them
political power, much in the spirit in which the Vicar of
Wakefield entrusted a guinea to his daughters, with the
understanding that it was only to be used In their interests.
The time was thought to be favourable for the formation
of a new school of statesmen, who should represent the
views and carry the crude speculations of the masses Into

36 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 23.
practical shape. Hence they were generally known by
the rather ambitious title of philosophical radicals. The
school numbered many young men of ability, zeal. In
dustry, and disinterested patriotism, and they speedily
commanded the ear of the House of Commons. But it was
not In the arena of Parliament alone that they endea
voured to distinguish themselves. They aimed at influenc
ing the mind of the country through the press as well as
through legislation, and hence the establishment of the
Westminster Review. In all these- undertakings. Sir
William Molesworth rendered himself conspicuous. His
purse, his house, his pen, his services in every way where
they could be useful, were freely at the command of the
party. It is no secret that many of the articles In the
early numbers of the Review were written by him, all
bearing upon the great objects the party had at heart, and
suggesting the means of carrying them Into practical
effect. In the House of Commons, as we have said, he
spoke but seldom ; but his subjects were all well* selected;
and his speeches showed a complete mastery over the
question. If they had a fault, they were too full of
details. Not content with grappling with the great prin
ciples which regulated a question, he was fond of dilating
upon the minutest points, and of thoroughly exhausting
the subject, down to the refutation of every objection that
could be brought against them — a weakness which often
marred otherwise able addresses — wearied the House and
from which he was never able wholly to shake himself free.

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 37
MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 23.
In the great and wonderful reaction which followed so
closely upon the heels of the first sessions of the reformed
Parliament, It was hardly to be supposed that a Liberal of
Sir W. Molesworth's advanced views would long keep his
seat for an English county. He lost It in 1837. After
he left Cornwall he became member for Leeds, and in 1845,
when a vacancy occurred In Southwark, he was returned
by a large majority. From that time his seat has never
been seriously challenged.
It Is unnecessary to trace the details of Sir William's
career since that period. He took an active part in
carrying free trade, and by vote and speech he censured
Lord Palmerston's policy in 1850, though it was creditable
to both parties that this opposition, made at a critical
moment In Lord Palmerston's career, did not prevent their
cordial co-operation In after-life. In 1852 he joined Lord
Aberdeen's ca.blnet, and thereby separated himself from
the last remnant of the school he had helped to found, and
which was still represented by a few members, at the
head of whom stood Mr. Cobden. How Mr. Cobden
resented that apostacy, as he regarded it, and how with
more than a disappointed woman's spite he pursued his
former friend with relentless rancour, must be fresh in the
memory of every one. Apart from him, and the members
of his clique, there were not wanting many persons who
held that Sir William, In taking office, had sacrificed his
Independent position for a place In the administration that
was unworthy of his reputation. It was known that he

38 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 23.
had devoted the studies of his life to questions of colonial
policy ; and It was popularly believed that upon all these
subjects his authority was paramount. Hence, when in the
course of last session, Lord Palmerston gave him the seals
of the colonial office, the Administrative Reform Society
departed so far from their ordinary course as to hold him
up to the country as an example of the right man in the
right place. His tenure of office has unfortunately been
so short that he has had no opportunity to vindicate the
eulogium, — his fame must rest upon what he accomplished
In his Independent position.
We have said that Sir William Molesworth was not a
pleasing speaker. We may add that he was not remark
able either as an original or a profound thinker. But he
had untiring perseverance, and a resolute determination
to excel. What industry could do, he did. His case Is a
remarkable instance of the effect of careful cultivation on
a thin soil of intellect. E very tb Ing he did was by rule
and measure. His speeches were essays, — his suggestions
were systems, — his reforms were constitutions. He never
spoke but on special subjects, chiefly connected with the
colonies, or with international law ; and when he did, his
orations gave testimony to the extraordinary care and
pains which had been employed In their composition.
Every authority seemed to have been consulted, and was
referred to In turn ; everything that could be said on the
other side was examined, argued against, and refuted.
His aim was to instruct rather than to amuse his audi-

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 39

MORNING CHRONICLE. OUT. 23.
ence ; and every sentence bore the traces of the conscien
tious diligence with which the task of Instruction was set
about. If there was little of original thought In the
essay, — If no flash of genius Irradiated Its argument or
enlivened its statistics, still one could not but feel respect
for a man who so evidently made conscience of his work,
and who never presumed to address his audience till he
had made himself completely master of the subject. We
fear it was this extraordinary painstaking in his new
office,' — this determination to examine all the details
respecting all the colonies with his own eyes, — that, acting
upon a constitution never robust, has hastened his death,
and removed him from an assembly which contains among
Its members some abler men, but no more disinterested
patriot or conscientious statesman than the late Sir
William Molesworth.

MORNING CHRONICLE.— OCT. 25.
LoBD Palmebston finds himself In face of a new
difficulty, quite as formidable as any presented by the
present aspect of the war, or our general relations with
the European Powers. Two vacancies have been made in
his cabinet, one by the lamented death of Sir William
Molesworth,— the other, by the appointment of Lord
Canning .to the Governor-Generalship of India. Both
must be filled up without delay.

40 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 25.
To choose a successor to Sir William Molesworth In
volves no ordinary responsibility. The late Colonial
Secretary was not a mere " people's man," — he was pre
eminently fitted for the arduous duties of the office, be
cause he had devoted the best energies of his youth and
manhood to a study of the conditions of a just fulfilment
of his trust, and had inspired confidence alike In his
purposes and his powers. It was also known that the
mere announcement of his having been appointed had
exercised a calming effect on the unquiet spirits in our
colonial dependencies, — unquiet as much from a morbid
sense of the- neglect or the perverseness of the home
authorities, as from any other cause. Now, where will
Lord Palmerston look for a fit man to replace this states
man of the colonies ? If he turned- — as there can be but
little doubt he has — to the charmed circle of the Whig
families, is there one among their most prominent men
whom the people would tolerate in the responsible post of
Colonial Secretary ? Or if, following the precedent which
seems to have guided the Premier's choice in filling up
some other offices In the cabinet — the seals of the colonial-
office be given to some negativenonentity — will such a
course be any the more likely to propitiate public opinion ?
Our colonies have earned a right to some more than
ordinary consideration in this matter, by the alacrity
they have shown In coming to the aid of the mother
country In matters directly or collaterally connected with
the Russian war. Their hopes of permanent good

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 41

MORNING CHRONICLE. OCT. 25.
government were keenly excited by the appointment of
Sir William Molesworth. Shall they be repaid by being
told that his nomination was only a momentary surrender
to public feeling here at home, and that now the system
Is to resume its character of mere official routine ?

DAILY NEWS.— OCT. 22.
The premature death of Sir William Molesworth
leaves a void among our public men that will not easily
be filled up. In the cabinet Sir William's presence has
been little felt ; and in Parliament he attracted less
notice than many pretentious individuals of infinitely in
ferior qualifications. But all who have studied the deeper
workings of our political system since 1830, will be
ready to acknowledge the Important and enduring services
which he has rendered to his country. His was one of
those intellects — too rare among our public men — which
labour to grasp the science of politics as a whole, and
subject every particular principle, and its bearing upon
the rest, to the scrutiny of a stern and searching logic.
About the time that the Reform Bill became law, there was
among the aspirants to parliamentary honours a not very
numerous but accomplished and high-spirited band of
young men, who sympathized and co-operated with Sir
William. They had been more or less trained In the
school of Bentham and Mill, though they by no means
subscribed to all its tenets with a blind and Implicit faith.

42 METROPOLITAN DAILY PEESS, 1855.
.*
DAILY NEWS. OCT. 22.
They were for the most part elegant scholars and accu
rate reasoners. One by one they have dropped away.
Some, like Mr. Grote, have shrunk from the rude con
flicts of practical politics, and devoted themselves to the
promotion of enlightenment by their labours as recluse
students. Some have been reft from us by death.
Too large a proportion have had their generous aspira
tions dulled and deadened by the practices of official
life. Sir William and Mr. Roebuck, perhaps Mr. Charles
Villlers — for we have never been accustomed to regard
him as one of the class we allude to, although possessed
of many of their best qualities — alone remained uncom
promisingly true to the principles of their youth, and
now Mr. Roebuck is left alone. It is not our object to
write a biography of Sir William Molesworth; we can
only hurriedly Indicate some of his most prominent ser
vices. His talent for conducting fearless and Impartial
investigations was shown in the part he took In the in
quiry into the Orange Lodges ; his philosophical grasp
of mind, in his exposure of the system of penal transpor
tation, and In his labours to promote systematic colonisa
tion. As an advocate of free trade, of extended reforms
in our electoral and administrative Institutions, of a more
rational and coherent system of international law, he was
unsurpassed among his contemporaries for the comprehen
siveness, the perspicuity, and the logical sequence of his
views. His labours m the Liberal cause were not conflned
to the spasmodic efforts of the legislature or the hustings.

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 43
DAILY NEWS. OCT. 22.
The munificent editor of the only complete edition of the
works of Hobbes, and the zealous co-operator In the
attempt to establish a philosophical Quarterly Review, Inde
pendent of sect or party, conferred lasting benefits on
out national literature. As a man of action he was less
successful than as a pioneer of liberal opinion. This
may be attributed in part to the constitution of his mind,
in which the reflecting overbalanced the active faculties ;
partly to habits of literary indolence apt to beset an in
tellectual man born to the Inheritance of a large fortune.
But while he lived, we had one who moved among the
men of conventional rank on a footing of recognized
equality, and compelled them to tolerate the avowal of
opinions which they affect to scorn as those of mere
abstract thinkers among the unprivileged classes. By
Sir William's fearless and consistent avowal of their
principles, the " philosophical " or " educated radicals,"
as they have been called, were materially aided in keep
ing their ground against the supercilious dislike of the
privileged classes, and the Imperfect sympathies of the
numerous class of Liberals whose liberalism is more a
matter of sentiment, or accidental social position, than
of deliberate conviction based upon extensive inquiry.
Of Cornish lineage, Sir William, while he yet moved
among us, was a living proof that the districts of England
which gave birth to the Ralelghs and Carews of old have
not degenerated. And yet when we look back to his
parents we are strangely tempted to regard him as a jus-

44 METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855.
DAILY NEWS. OCT. 22.
tificatlon of the popular prejudice that men of genius most
frequently inherit their distinguishing qualities from theu-
mothers. It would be easy to say more of the lamented
deceased If we felt his loss less keenly. This very Inade
quate tribute is all we can pay at present to one who will
be most profoundly and endurlngly regretted by those who
had the high privilege to know him most intimately.

MORNING ADVERTISER.— OCT. 23.
The melancholy intelligence of the death of a rising
statesman. In the very prime of life, Is rendered all the
more distressing, because it was wholly unexpected. The
first announcement of Sir William's illness was accom
panied by an intimation, that his medical advisers and
friends entertained the worst fears as to the result.
The Right Honourable Baronet has been now upwards
of twenty years, with the exception of the few years' in
terval between his loss of the representation of Leeds and
his election for Southwark, a member of the legislature.
On the advent of the Aberdeen Administration, Sir Wil
liam, through the influence of the Marquis of Lansdowne,
who, it will be remembered, received her Majesty's com
mands, in conjunction with Lord Aberdeen, to form a new
government, — was appointed to the office of Woods and
Forests, with a seat in the cabinet. On the resignation

METROPOLITAN DAILY PRESS, 1855. 45
MORNING ADVERTISER. OCT. 23.
of Lord John Russell of the office of Secretary of State for
the Colonial Department in June last. Sir William was
appointed his successor. He thus realized the ambition of
his life. It is due to him to add, that there was no sub
ject to which, during the whole of his public career, he
paid so much attention, as that of the administration of
colonial affairs. We cannot help regretting that the
Right Honourable Baronet should only have enjoyed his
long and earnestly coveted distinction for so brief a period.
During the short time he held the colonial seals, he de
voted himself with great zeal and conscientiousness to the
discharge of the duties connected with his department.
His appointments, though necessarily few, owing to the
shortness of the time he was Colonial Secretary, were ex
cellent. That of Mr. Hmcks, the late Prime Minister of
Canada, to the Governorship of Bermuda, gave especial
satisfaction. Sir William was a man of highly-cultivated mind, and
displayed, in his speeches in Parliament, the reasoning
faculty In no ordinary degree. He carefully prepared
himself for all great occasions, by writing out his
speeches beforehand, and then committing them to me
mory, — which he did with surprising accuracy.

46 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS.— OCT. 27.
The death of Sir William Molesworth creates not
merely a vacancy In the Ministry, but Is a serious loss to the
political world. It Is very seldom that a people accus
tomed to the free exercise of constitutional rights will
voluntarily place so much confidence in any public man as
practically to Invest him with a kind of dictatorial, almost
of irresponsible, authority. Sir William Molesworth was .
in this enviable position. The management of our vast
colonial empire has often — too often — ^been intrusted to
statesmen who have virtually enjoyed absolute power.
But this has been the act of the aristocracy. It was the
peculiar pride of Sir William Molesworth that he had
been almost universally designated by the people as the
only man for the colonial-office long before Lord Palmer
ston placed him there. It Is equally true that his pre
mature death is regarded as a positive loss, which It will
be difficult, to say the least, to repair.
To understand why Sir William Molesworth was thus
trusted in reference to colonial affairs we must go back
some distance in his public career. Within about five
years of his first election to the House of Commons, and
three after he had delivered his maiden speech, he first
commenced publicly to agitate questions connected with
our colonial administration. His " agitation," however,
was of a very different kind from that of the mere ordinary
trafficker In grievances and popularity. He had devoted
years of patient study and application to acquire a
thorough knowledge of the actual condition of our va-

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 47
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
rious colonies, as well as of the general principles on
which they ought to be governed ; and, when at last he
did begin to moot that class of questions in Parliament, It
was felt that he spoke from a full mind, and a resolute and
legitimate purpose. His first speech of any importance on
a colonial question was made in the year 1837, when he
first made his profession of. principles In reference to the
manner In which the colonies ought to be governed ; and
from that time forth he continued the steady, persevering,
and respected advocate of the cause of the colonists, which
at last entered on the way to success, when he was ap
pointed to the management of the colonial department of
the government.
Returning, however, to the general parliamentary and
political career of the late Sir William Molesworth, It
should be observed that he was returned in 1832, he being
then twenty-two years of age, as representative of East
Cornwall In the House of Commons. Other members of
his family had sat for the county or boroughs thereof for
several generations. He entered Parliament with opinions
already formed. He was emphatically a Liberal, from a
thorough conviction of the uselessness of much of our re
strictive legislation. His very first vote was for the
unconditional emancipation of the Jews — a sufficient indi
cation, at that period, of his entire emancipation from
political prejudices. In 1834 he gave still further pledges
to the Liberal cause by his speech on Mr. Roebuck's
motion in favour of a system of national education of the

48 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
most comprehensive kind. In the following year he
seconded Mr. Grote' s motion In favour of the ballot — a
sufficient proof that he had already taken a high position
among the party — small in numbers, but strong In talent,
and jealous of their individual Integrity — ^known as that
of the " Philosophical Radicals."
There Is one peculiar feature In the political career of
Sir William Molesworth which does not seem to have at
tracted Its full meed of attention. He was one of the
first among those statesmen of our time who have under
stood the Importance of the press as an element in political
affairs. Throughout his career he has more or less been
connected with periodical publications — in this respect
showing his good sense and penetration, that the general
opinions of his party. In their more philosophical accep
tation, could only In the nature of things at first be fully
comprehended by comparatively a few, and that their
propagation could not, therefore, safely be left to the action
of the ordinary law of literary supply and demand. It
was in pursuance of this view of the mission of the press
that Sir William Molesworth, whose wealth permitted
him such hazardous indulgences, established the London
Review, a publication which, while it lived, was distin
guished for talent of a very high order, and which cer
tainly did Its appointed work. Sir William Molesworth,
of course, himself contributed to Its pages, assisted by
James Mill, Charles Buller, John Mill, George Grote, and
other less-known celebrities of the literary world.

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 49
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
His line of conduct In Parliament did not belie his
reputation for fearlessness as a Reformer. On every
question affecting the rights and liberties of the people, or
which involved the propagation or the arrestatlon of liberal
opinions, he was ever found staunch to his colours and
uncompromising In their defence. At last, by the com
mencement of 1837, he had openly and deliberately com
mitted himself to an advocacy of free-trade, triennial
Parliaments, the ballot, a very considerable extension of
the suffrage, a wholesale system of retrenchment, and the
abolition of the property qualification required from mem
bers of Parliament. Such fearlessness met with its natural
reward. Notwithstanding his strong claims on Cornwall,
the holders of the electoral right there were not able to
accept his " extreme" opinions; and at the next general
election, that of 1837, he lost his seat. This defeat,
however, was the kind of fall from which a man of
courage and energy derives new strength. As a Cornish
baronet, sitting In right of family influence. Sir William
Molesworth, In spite of his acknowledged talent, was not
of so much specific political weight as when, a short time
afterwards, he was elected for Leeds. He now became —
like Brougham just before the Reform Bill, and Cobden
at the epoch of the abolition of the corn laws — the
representative of a principle on which a large portion of
the nation had set Its heart.
At the commencement of the session of 1837, as we
have abeady said, he began his career as advocate of the

50 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
rights and interests of the colonists, the government of the
day having, through Lord John Russell, applied coercive
measures to the legislation of Lower Canada. Events
proved that, as regarded the principle Involved, Sir
William was right, and the ministry wrong.
Towards the close of the same year, it was, however — in
the month of November — that Sir William Molesworth first
stamped himself as a practical reformer. His celebrated
speech In denunciation of the evils of the then existing
system of transportation led to the appointment of a com
mittee, whose labours ultimately resulted in the entire
abolition of the system of transportation to New South
Wales, and Its alteration in other penal colonies.
About ten years later, we may observe, Sir William
Molesworth resumed the question in a speech still more
ripe with information and political philosophy, which has
laid the foundation for a gradual but total change in our
whole system of punishment for crime. In this respect, Sir
William appears more as the philanthropist than even
as the politician ; and long after the party questions of
the hour shall have lost their exciting Interest, his name
will be associated with a noble and a successful effort to
reclaim our criminals, and at the same time, to purge our
laws of their revengeful element. As early as 1838, he
had called the attention of Parliament to the state of our
colonial possessions, by moving a vote of censure on Lord
Glenelg, then colonial secretary. In the parliamentary
recess of the year 1840, when M. Thiers and Louis

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 51
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
Philippe threatened us with a war. Sir William Moles
worth In no slight degree contributed to save both countries
from that calamity by calling a pro-peace meeting at Leeds,
which gave the tone to public feeling throughout the
kingdom. At the next general election — when, in 1841, Sir
Robert Peel came in at the head of the Conservative reac
tion — Sir W. Molesworth was not returned, and during four
years he remained out of Parliament. During the inter
val of his public political labours he collected, edited, and
published the works of Hobbes, at an expense. It is said,
of 6000/. Nor should we forget to record his well-known,
but not publicly-avowed, connection with the London
and subsequently with the Westminster Review. From
the very commencement of his career, as has already
been observed, he appreciated the value of the press as a
source of political power, and availed himself of the as
sistance it afforded him In the propagation of the opinions
to which he was so -sincerely devoted.
The year 1845 saw Sir W. Molesworth once more in
Parliament ; and the progress his principles had made,
and the influence of his political uprightness, were attested
by his election for the metropolitan borough of Southwark,
in spite of a fierce opposition, not only from Mr. Jeremiah
Pilcher, on the Conservative Interest, but also on behalf of
an important section of the Liberal party, from Mr. Miall,
the editor of the Nonconformist, who attempted to array
against him religious and sectarian prejudices, on the score
of his support to Maynooth, and the leanings he was ac-

52 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 185.5.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
cused of towards certain heterodox religious and metaphy
sical opinions. Sir William was now a personage of mark
and influence — the acknowledged leader of the " Philo
sophical Radicals," and something more. He supported
the free-trade policy of Sir R. Peel, and, after his down
fall, though generally voting with the Liberal party, always
doing so In advance of the Whigs. We need not follow
him through all his votes and speeches, further than to
say that he never lost sight of colonial reform, and its cor
relative topics. Dm-Ing the years 1848 and 1849, he
omitted no occasion to press his views on the attention of
the House of Commons, and always in a way to command
respectful attention, and force the Government of the day
to approach nearer and nearer a practical solution of the
question. His opinions on foreign policy had for their
basis the desirableness, even the necessity, for the mainte
nance of peace ; but unlike some other advocates of the
same general principle, he never proposed to attain peace
at the expense of the national honour. One of the very
last, if not the last, of his public speeches was conceived In
this spirit.
At length this life of labour In the propagation of
sound philosophical and liberal opinions led to Its most
appropriate and grateful reward — the opportunity to serve
the public. To a man of Sir William Molesworth's
wealth, the mere possession of office could offer none of
the temptations which are often said to Influence place
men. His whole career goes to show that even ordinary

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 53
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
political ambition was In his case subservient to a sincere
desire to be useful to his country. The opportunity was
afforded when the Earl of Aberdeen, desiring to construct
a strong administration on the broadest basis, offered
Sir William Molesworth a seat in the cabinet. True, it
was absurd that he should have been put to the Woods
and Forests ; but, at any rate, this nomination was a
concession to public opinion and the recognition of a
principle. As a minister of public works he gave satis
faction ; but It was not till Lord Palmerston made him
colonial secretary that It was felt he was In his right
place. His very appointment was hailed as of happy
augury here and In the colonies ; and it is deeply to be
lamented that the cares imposed by his too conscientious
discharge of his duties should so have preyed upon his
health as to have thus caused his premature and untimely
death. Of the early career of public men little often Is known,
and. If known, generally, displays so many changes of
opinion that it becomes a record of so many years of
vacillation. Not so with Sir W. Molesworth, his early
education was conducted under the guidance of a very
sensible mother at Edinburgh : when there, he, whilst
pursuing the ordinary routine of study, became Imbued
with those principles of liberalism and political economy
which have rendered his latter years so distinguished. At
the University of Cambridge, although he did not gradu
ate, he was noted as a studious and profound mathema-

54 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. OCT. 27.
tician for his age, and a politician of the then ultra
radical school. From Cambridge he took a tour on the
continent, where his time was passed in profitable study,
until the passing of the Reform Bill, when he entered
Parliament. Among the few men who have pursued a line of con
duct consistent throughout. Sir W. Molesworth -stands
pre-eminent. That which he was at the commencement,
he was at the close of his career — a model of unflinching
rectitude, of firmness, and honesty of purpose. He lived
long enough to find those principles for which he so
unceasingly contended the principles of a majority of his
fellow-countrymen. To his high character for integrity
he owed his position nearly as much as to the influence
commanded by his logical mind. Admirable In his public
conduct, in the relations of private life he was as amiable;
and in both respects his loss is regarded with an equally
deep and sincere regret.

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855 65
SPECTATOR.— OCT. 27.
Death has been unusually busy among our public
characters. Of the number carried off, we have to reckon
Sir William Molesworth, Lord Wharncliffe, and Mr.
Lucas, — all, even the last, remarkable men.
The death of Molesworth, however, is beyond compari
son a greater event than the other two. It creates a
vacancy in the cabinet and in the administration of the
colonies, and it leaves a painful blank in our muster-roll
of statesmen. Molesworth had acceded to one of the
highest posts in the cabinet without forfeiting his Indepen
dence ; and in acquiring the trust of his sovereign as a
minister of state, he retained the trust of his constituency
and of tbe most liberal party in England. Like Stuart
Wortley, he represented the intelligent class of English
country gentlemen ; but while Stuart Wortley won the
esteem of all parties by softening political distinctions,
and labouring in questions that were not political, Moles
worth equally won the esteem, although he presented
opinions extreme In their most emphatic and undisguised
form. He was respected for his earnestness, for his
Information, and for the discretion that accompanied the
vigour of his convictions. As the representative of the
most energetic type of English country gentlemen, he is
not to be replaced ; and the cabinet must go without that
element of strength. As an official administrator, It will
not be so difficult to' replace him. The affairs of our colo
nies have been pretty well put in train, and they chiefly
require a minister whose name and repute shall satisfy

56 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
our outlying dependencies that he does not intend to
betray their assured Interests, to revoke any of the con
cessions that have been made to them, or to injure them
through ignorance. Should Lord Harrowby prove to be
the successor of Sir William Molesworth, all these assu
rances will be given to the colonies, at the same time that
the cabinet will be strengthened by the promotion of a
man whose public life has shown that he Is superior to a
party, while his latest address to the public has proved
how heartily he participates the national sentiment In the
question of the day.
It is remarkable that Sir William Molesworth stood in
less credit with the great body politic of this country some
years back, when he was most successful, than he did
during the latter part of his life, when his success was
chiefly retrospective. Molesworth essentially represented
the independent English gentleman of the highest class.
Yet he did not, as too many do, seek to raise his repute
upon sustaining principles that are either obsolete or are so
completely carried out as to need no further vindication.
He did not hold that particular principles are Identified
with the genealogy of a family : but If he bore an ancient
shield he adorned It with new achievements ; he served his
country as It can be served in these modern days. Instead
of boasting how he would have served It if he had been
living as men lived when his shield was first blazoned.
He emulated Pym and Hampden, not by being the cham
pion of the principles which they stood forward to vindi-

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. ,57
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
cate, but he took up the living questions of our own day;
and he brought the resources of a highly-cultivated mind,
long study. Independent position, and a vigorous natural
energy, to uphold the interests of his country against the
negligence or mal-adminlstration of the party in power.
In almost all the great public questions that have arisen
In our time, he sought to master the entire subject, extract
ing it for himself from Its root. He endeavoured to
frame a judgment Independently of party or personal
interests, according to the truth, the logic, and the
national interests of the case. Freedom of trade, exten
sion of political rights to numerous classes of the people,
defence of opinion against the restraints of bigotry, were
classes of public service In which he took a leading part ;
and most of our successes owe something to his advocacy
and exertion.
It is no abatement of Molesworth's merits to say that
he had assistance, without which he could not have done
what he did. He was prompt and constant In the avowal
of his obligations as a disciple of Mr. Gibbon Wakefield,
whose principles of planting and ruling colonies he had
adopted entire ; and it was most eminently in the field of
colonial politics that Sir William became distinguished.
If he had not the faculty of originating, a courageous
intellect made him ready to accept, doctrines that satisfied
his mind, before others had acquired the courage to handle
them ; and he made the views his own by the frankness
with which he avowed their adopted origin, the boldness

58 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
of his advocacy, and the zealous Industry of his study.
A surpassing memory assisted him in reproducing all the
statements, elucidations, and evidences of the subjects
which he got up. If some labours in which he earned
distinction could not have been commenced without the
aid of others, they might have been long deferred If they
had not had the benefit of his qualities in their service.
He espoused the cause of our colonies when the public was
well inclined to leave the colonies to the colonial-office, or
to separation. He pointed out at once the opportunities
and the claims of emigrants. He made his own the inquiry
Into the monstrous system of transportation ; and amongst
the few men who compelled the government to put down
revolution in Canada by conceding the just rights of the
colonists — who called Australia and New Zealand into
that activity and vigour which have helped to make
them the colonies that they now are — who freed the lands
of Australia from convictism just In time to prevent gold
from doubling the curse — Sir William Molesworth was
one of the foremost, the most active, the most persevering,
and the most successful.
If Sir William Molesworth was not called to the cabinet
by popular clamour, he was placed there because those
who assisted the crown in selecting cabinet ministers felt
the necessity of bringing to her Majesty's councils men
who possessed the public confidence. He had been a
" Philosophical Radical," and his appointment to be a
cabinet minister was hailed as a tangible proof that the

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 59
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
cabinet was to be really popular and unexclusive. When
in the course of various changes, the post of Colonial
Secretary was left vacant, and Sir William Molesworth
was appointed, even the administrative reformers admitted
that, now we had " the right man In the right place."
We think that popular opinion in this case somewhat mis
took or exaggerated Sir William's fitness. He was the
right man on colonial subjects, but hardly In the right
place. Had it been deemed expedient to shut up the
colonial-office, or reconstruct the colonial empire — for
this or any other high effort In the line of his studies,
demanding theoretical mastery and fearless courage,
Molesworth would have been the man. But, although
ever alive to the claims of duty in the public service, and
impelled by a conscientious ambition to acquit himself
more completely than other men might have been content
to do, he lacked business training and bodily strength for
the worrying details of an office. He had a thoroughly
practical office in the ministry of Public Works ; and he
pleased as well as rather surprised some of those who
acted with him, by the business ability which he displayed
— his appreciation of practical objects, and the methodical
habits which he had always preserved in his private
affairs. But It was with effort that he did what other men
took as routine ; and he did not signalize his administra
tion by any great measure. He might have earned tho
admiration of a living generation, by guiding them in a
reconstruction of London itself, even at their own expense.

60 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
He might have been a contemporary Napoleon the Thhd
of London, " surrounded by municipal institutions," and
might have made the metropolis of the empire his monu
ment. But his ministry In that department was scarcely
more than a continuation-bill ; its quiescent character
imparting a contrasted air of vigour to the reign of his
successor. There, undoubtedly, he was in the wrong place.
In fact. Sir William Molesworth was not born for official
business. Its trivialities must have been Irksome to a mind
familiarized principally with the fundamental principles
and largest considerations of statesmanship. Its Incessant
demands upon attention must have been fatiguing to a
constitution which unconcealedly showed the necessity for
repose ; and although Sir William could have faced any
authority and any power — although he would have stood
unflinchingly before inquisitors or before a mob in support
of a great principle or a needful measure — his good-nature,
his eagerness for applause, even his most anxious wish to
be in the right where he was not perfectly able to discri
minate the right by his own judgment, would lay him
open to be influenced by others. A punctilious solicitude
to be independent of all lower considerations, would make
him — one of the grand enemies of routine — liable to be
overruled by routine if his resistance to it could be made
to look like " impracticability " or " wrongheadedness."
If he was not the man to act with perfect confidence in all
the details of business to which he was not accustomed,
he was perhaps still less the man to have the handling of

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 61
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
common patronage, where he would naturally waver be
tween an over-anxious instinct of purism and a.n uneasiness
under the suspicion of pedantry. His bodily constitution
was of the weakest, and in the exertion necessary to
supply the defects of his natural inclination, he must
have undergone an amount of fatigue which could not be
repaired by repose. He was physically living upon his
capital. We have lost a valuable statesman in making
him an officer of the executive ; and the Premier has lost
a firm supporter, whom it will be difficult to replace, at a
time when public men are dying off, and so few of any
mark are rising to the first rank. He was a most fit man
for the cabinet, or for such a post as the chancellorship of
the Duchy of Lancaster, in which he could have assisted
in directing the statesmanship of the government either
m domestic affairs or In colonial, or could have grasped
the whole historical and political principles requisite to
guide the state through a period of war towards a safe and
honourable peace.
This Is not the place to intrude upon Sir William
Molesworth's private life, or we might have traced these
lineaments in stronger lines and coloured the portrait
with warmer tints. Even in public, however, his personal
qualities shone forth ; and to them perhaps he owed no
small degree of his influence, since they imparted a tone to
his public action which was felt, and was acknowledged
In his success. He was in all things thoroughly and In
truth a gentleman. He never sought to gain an advan-

62 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
tage by any act that was beneath his degree. Without
indiscriminate lavlshness, he was openhanded ; and where
be saw it right to give help, he gave it munificently.
Stern In duty, unflinching in vindication of the right, he
was ever generous and amiable. Such foibles as belonged
to him were of a kind to provoke a smile ; but the smile
passed away before the sense of the qualities that had
commanded the respect of a great nation and the affection
of fast friends. THE SPECTATOR
Also contains a long biographical article, and which, after
correcting some errors which had crept into the statements of
other journalists, concludes thus : —
When Sir William went to continue his studies In Ger
many, he was not under the care of a " foreign " servant,
but of a Scotch servant, who was transferred to him from
his mother's household. That faithful attendant, who
more than once saved him during severe Illness, remained
devotedly attached to the Baronet till the last, and was
with him at the hour of his death. Everybody that knew
Sir William Molesworth knew Maclain.
It is only by degrees that we arrive at a full sense of
the thorough consistency and independence of Sir William
Molesworth's political career. The firmness and clearness
of his Intellect came out strongly when the Maynooth
grant was called in question. This was about the period
that Sir William stood for Southwark, in September 1845.
He was not In Parliament at the time when the Maynooth

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 63
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
grant was voted, and there was no absolute necessity for
him to express an opinion on the question ; but he was
challenged for an expression of his opinions, and he did
not withhold it. Mr. Mlall stood against him in South
wark as the champion of the antl-Maynooth party ; but
instead of avoiding the question. Sir William met it
boldly ; and, as the Times says, the manly bearing with
which he vindicated the right of private judgment and
the judicious character of the measure, although they
risked his success for the moment, greatly contributed to
strengthen the esteem for his character.
It lends a strong testimony to the sound policy of con
sistency and frankness In the long run, when we contrast
Sir William's final position as a cabinet minister with his
want of support at Leeds. His death confessedly is a
serious loss to the moderate Liberal party represented by
the government. It Is, however, an imperfect statement
of the reason for his retirement from Leeds in 1841, to
say that he had reason to suspect the constituency could
not return two Liberal members. He declined to contest
the representation, because he lost the support of the
leading Whigs, chiefly through the great peace meeting
which he had held at Leeds when this country was in immi
nent danger of a rupture with France. On that occasion
he maintained that France and England ought to be
allies ; that they, more than the other nations of Europe,
were Interested in checking the Russian aggressions upon
Turkey ; and that to go to war with France would be

64 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SPECTATOR. OCT. 27.
playing the game of Russia. Russia should be told, he
insisted, that France and England would not interfere
with the internal affairs of Turkey, but that If the Czar
did so France and England would punish him. Not long
since Sir William was accused by Mr. Cobden, the mem
ber for the West Riding, of Inconsistency, because he
joined Lord Palmerston in the French alliance, and in
defence of Turkey against the aggressions of Russia. It
Is curious to see, that through all these changes of political
relations. Sir William stands conspicuous for the complete
and thoroughgoing consistency of his course.
Sir William was a most conscientious lover of truth.
No temptation w^as sufficient to make him swerve from its
utterance, or palter with his own apprehension of facts.
He took the greatest possible pains to test the accuracy
of his statements before he used them in his speeches. It
was from the strongest conviction that he became an advo
cate of free trade at an early period, when few of the
most advanced men of the Liberal party went further than
a demand for the repeal of the Corn-Laws, if so far.
His personal character was simple in the extreme, and
modest almost to diffidence. He was not only laborious,
but methodical to a degree. His notes on the subjects of
his investigations, the notes prepared for his speeches, his
diaries, and his accounts afford evidence of this ; and they
were written out with extreme neatness. Even in illness
his studies were carried on like a business ; and when con
fined to his bed, he has been found with the cover laden
with papers.

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 65
SPECTATOR. OCT. ,27.
His physical and moral courage was perfect ; but to
courage he added the magnanimity of a really generous
temper. At times he was susceptible of heat on the first
moment of Irritation ; but when that was past, he never
retained a particle of resentment or vindictive feeling.

EXAMINER.— OCT. 27.
The country has lost an upright and enlightened states
man In Sir William Molesworth. He did not live In vain.
He rendered a great service to the empire by his labours
in season and out of season for the reformation of colo
nial management, which he saw crowned with complete
success. His appointment to the office for which he had so prac
tically proved his fitness, was a matter of universal con
gratulation, and was one of the most popular acts of the
present first minister. It was regarded as a commence
ment, and a worthy commencement of Administrative Re
form, all agreeing that the right man was in the right
place. Few men have passed through the perplexed pas
sages of recent politics clearer of question and reproach
than Sir William Molesworth ; and Indeed, the only ex
ception to this rare Immunity was the attack of a man of
peace, whose word Is against every one whose voice Is not
for submission to Russia.

66 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
EXAMINER. OCT. 27.
Sir William Molesworth's mind was not of the highest
order, wanting, as it did, an essential of genius — imagi
nation. Understanding was his faculty; seconded by
powers of application, great when moved to exertion, but
which probably slept when motive for their employment
was wanting. Certain It is that whatever he took in hand
he mastered thoroughly; and a case got up by him
was always complete in facts and reasoning, even to
superabundance. His speech on the question of the Aus
trian proposals was the very best on that subject. Admi
rable too, in every way, was his last argument for the
ballot, which was as honourable to his independence and
consistency, as creditable to his talents.
Sir William Molesworth's political bent was soon taken
and fixed. It is a mistake to class him as one of Ben-
tham's friends, for Bentham died about the time when the
wealthy young Baronet was launched into the world. But
he evinced his preferences by cultivating the friendship
of James Mill, and becoming the companion of Grote,
at an age when other. young men of fortune are apt to
seek far different associates. His pursuits were, indeed,
always of a high aim. In politics, there was a time
when he might be chargeable with a little extravagance ;
but, as the late Lord Holland used to remark, no young
man is good for anything who has not something in excess
to rub off with contact with the world. And Sir William
Molesworth soon sobered down to the prudent and prac
tical statesman. Many more years of valuable public

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 67
EXAMINER. OCT. 27.
service might have been hoped of one In the very prime of
life, but his constitution seems to have been delicate, and
of peculiar inflammatory susceptibilities. His short and
severe illness he bore with manly fortitude ; his reason
was true to him, and served to his last breath.
We have briefly traced Sir W. Molesworth as a mem
ber of the House of Commons, and as a minister of the
Crown. He was doubtless selected as an administrator
by Lords Aberdeen and Palmerston because he was the
representative of advanced Liberalism — as a gentleman, a
man of talent, political position, and property. In that
character, as a member of the present cabinet, his loss is
great indeed. The brief period of his administration of
the colonies, gave no opportunity of testing his capacity
for that important office: It must remain an unsolved
problem. But none doubted his integrity or his ability
for the duties of his recent high preferment. As a
" Common's debater" Sir William Molesworth was not of
first-rate eminence. His speeches in Parliament were
few, but always valuable. Those on the colonies in
1838 ; In 1840 on the state of the nation, and the con
dition of the people; on transportation in 1837-8 ; and on
many important social and economic questions, were of
great merit and Immense practical utility. His speech on
the ballot in the last session, when he was alone in the
cabinet In favour of that " open" question, was honour
able to his independence,' and truth of character. Nor
in the discussion of that mode of voting did he palter with

68 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
EXAMINER. OCT. 27.
truth. He advocated the ballot in favour of the de
mocracy against the aristocracy ; but he also contended
for it as a protection of the people against demagogues,
and as a limitation of extreme democratic influence.
Sir William Molesworth will not be easily replaced in
his particular vocation in politics, in literature, or in the
office of minister for the colonies. As a public man, he
was respected by men of all shades of political opinion ;
In private, his friends were numerous and sincere ; by all,
his loss will be deeply lamented.

ECONOMIST.— OCT. 27.
Sib, William Moleswobth was only forty-five years of
age, but for twenty-five years he has been a distinguished
man. He was an author, a philosopher, and a politician.
He put science and history to a practical use, and, de
voting himself for many years principally to colonial sub
jects, he was supposed to be better acquainted with them
than any politician of the day. He has, however, been
at the head of the colonies for too short a period to enable
him, as a minister, to carry out his own principles. He
was snatched away almost as soon as he obtained the great
object of his ambition, the post In which he might hope
to be pre-eminently useful to his countrymen.

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 69

ATLAS. -OCT. 27,
SiE William Moleswobth commenced his public life
as a member of the party of Philosophical Radicals, of
whom Bentham was the apostle and chief, and Mill, Grote,
Roebuck, Southwood Smith, Francis Place, Dr. Bowring,
and a few more, were the most distinguished members.
Sir William brought to this party considerable if not
brilliant or profound talent, and what was at that time
extremely valuable, the support of a name influentially
connected with the landed interest and with the associa
tions of hereditary descent. From 1841 to 1845 he was
out of Parliament, but still laboured for the promotion of
Liberal opinions. By his intimate connexion with the
Westminster Revieiv and his efforts to establish the London
Review, he did excellent service to reform ; and by editing
the only complete edition of the works of Hobbes, he perma
nently associated his name with English literature. Colo
nial reform was Sir William's great subject; he got up all
the facts and arguments with extraordinary care, and by
his consistent advocacy of sound principles, did more than
can be ascribed to any one else to promote those beneficial
changes In colonial rule which he happily lived to see
carried out. When he joined the Aberdeen cabinet as
chief of the Board of Works, it was In deference to the
main principle of that body, which was to take care that
they put every one In the wrong place. Subsequent

70 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
ATLAS. OCT. 27-
changes transferred him to his right place, and by his
death the colonial department has received a very serious
loss. As an advocate of the ballot his presence In the
cabinet was extremely valuable. His consistency and
services secured him universal respect ; and with regard
to subjects upon which his opinions had been matured
and expressed, there was no man In the House of Commons
upon whom reliance could be more safely placed.

LEADER.— OCT. 27.
The country has sustained a loss, which has excited
deep and general regret, In the death of Sir William
Molesworth, the minister for the colonies.
In January, 1853, he was made First Commissioner of
Public Works under the Aberdeen administration ; and,
on the resignation of Lord John Russell in July last, he
became Secretary for the Colonies. His accession to that
post was hailed by a large party as an evidence of " the
right man" being "In the right place;" but he has not
had sufficient time granted him to exhibit practically
whether or not he possessed the requisite faculty for the
office. Sir William's parliamentary speeches — many of which
have taken a permanent position — were elaborately pre
pared, and exhibited the characteristics of the literary

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 71
LEADER. OCT. 27.
man. For a brief period he was the proprietor and
editor of the Westminster Review, to which he contributed
essays on politics and political economy; but his chief
literary performance was his edition of the works of
Hobbes of Malmesbury, for which he himself prepared a
most copious index.

THE ATHEN.,gEUM.— OCT. 27.
Among the sad and serious events of the year may be
well ranked the decease of Sir William Molesworth; — the
sadder because he had hardly reached the prime of man's
life ; — and the more serious because it followed hard upon
his appointment to those offices for which his political
pursuits and private studies had been long preparing him,
and In which his remarkable knowledge and inflexible
Integrity would have enabled him to render lasting
services to his country.
Sir William Molesworth belonged to an ancient family,
a branch of which has long been settled in Cornwall. He
succeeded to his title and estates at an early age, and
almost as early gave signs of that Independence of
thought and vigour of mind In embracing laborious and
recondite pursuits, which were then more unpopular and
rare among the gentlemen of England than they have

72 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
THE ATHENAEUM. OCT. 27.
since become. Educated partly in Edinburgh, partly,
we believe In Germany, he became a keen metaphysician
and a skilled mathematician, balancing his speculative
studies by an habitual patience In gathering facts, order
in arranging them, and capacity in retention of them. On'
his entry into public life. Sir William Molesworth joined
with that section of philosophical Radicals who were for a
period united by subscription to the doctrines of Bentham.
He contributed to the Westminster Review, of which he
was, during a short period, proprietor. He edited and
published at his own cost that elaborate edition of the
works of Hobbes, which gave occasion to so many a taunt
on the hustings from those who fancied that a strong man
and an upright thinker could be damaged by a slur cast
on his orthodoxy. But at an early period of his parlia
mentary career, the matter of Sir William Molesworth's
speeches — for a while more remarkable as essays, full of
condensed Information, than as orations — made It evident
to bystanders that he was neither to be " put down " nor
turned aside by any electioneering assumptions based on
his reputed predilections for this or the other school of
philosophy. Of late, (as the Athenxum noticed when re
viewing the lives and pursuits of the Aberdeen cabinet,)
" the growth " of Sir William Molesworth as a statesman
was remarkable, and rendered it impossible that his
powers should be overlooked In forming any Liberal
ministry. He took office, with a seat in the cabinet, some
two years ago ; and this spring he was raised to that

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 73
THE ATHENiEUM. OCT. 27.
particular office — the Colonial Secretaryship — for which
universal consent pronounced him eminently fitted. But
the labours and anxieties of the time were too heavy for
one indefatigable in fulfilling every obligation, but always
feeble in constitutional strength ; and on Monday last,
after a short and severe illness, succeeded by exhaustion,
the end came,^ — and his career closed for ever.
As a public man. Sir William Molesworth will be
missed and mourned, so long as noble purpose, high
ability, and pure conscience bear a value In England. His
private friends will regret him for these qualities ; but
they will remember him also for excellences and accom
plishments of which he gave small outward sign in his
Intercourse with the great world. His range of knowledge
was in no wise represented by his political and philosophi
cal utterances. He was widely read In English and
foreign belles-lettres ; he was distinguished as a botanist,
and almost as earnest " a lover of trees " as Sir Walter
Scott declared himself to be ; he had studied architecture
and engineering minutely ; and, in short, seemed always
open to a new pursuit or a new object, provided it ad
mitted of being taken up and wrought out thoroughly. In
private life his kindliness of heart, and the child-like sim
plicity with which he accepted and enjoyed every thing
meant to give him pleasure, were remarkable and endear
ing ; and great the number is of those who will join us in
feeling their bereavement in the withdrawal from the
world of one of those able and true men in whom public
worth was borne out and adorned by private amiability.

74 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.

LITERAEY GAZETTE.— OCT, 27,
The death of Sir William Molesworth will be deeply
regretted in literary as well as political circles. Of the
public men of the time he was one of the most intel
lectual and studious ; and having long devoted his atten
tion to colonial affairs, about which he had written much,
his appointment to that Secretaryship is universally ad
mitted to be a signal, if rare Instance, of " the right man
being in the right place." In his early life he was deeply
versed In metaphysical and political studies, and the pub
lication of a complete edition of the works of Hobbes, in
sixteen volumes, will be a lasting monument of his phi
losophical zeal and literary Industry.
In journalism and periodical literature, Sir William
Molesworth was also much engaged. For a time he
was proprietor and editor of the Westminster Review, to
which he contributed many able papers.

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 75

LLOYD'S WEEKLY LONDON NEWSPAPEE.— OCT. 28.
The death of Sir William Molesworth is a national
loss. We may, with no great difficulty, fill his place for
Southwark, but how supply his loss In the cabinet?
His death Is a grief that will tell upon the very heart of
England ; for England prized and admired the man, so
truly, so wholly her son. The very highest, the very
noblest elements that make the English worthy; that
give to England her surpassing national might, her un
failing and invincible moral strength — composed the
nature and made the active character of Sir William
Molesworth. Though born within the charmed circle of
rank and wealth, he " lived laborious days," animated
by the old patriotic spirit of the olden time. His clear
and Vigorous mind made his own appointed place. Long
before he was called to carry out the comprehensiveness
of his own colonial reforms, he had by his own clear
faculties, marked himself as the future colonial minister.
Session after session he returned to his subject, handling
It with the perfect sway of a master ; session after session
his motions passed away, but not Into the limbo of par
liamentary windiness of speech; for with every new
effort, came the stronger conviction upon the public
mind — a conviction that, finally, knocked too hard not to
be admitted into the mind ministerial — that the ipan to
rule the colonies, in so far as one man may do the
many-handed work, was Sir William Molesworth. It
has pleased providence to remove him ere he could reap

76 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.

LLOYD'S WEEKiiY LONDON NEWSPAPER. OCT. 28.

the full reward of his practical wisdom ; but all Imperfect
as he has left the work, h(
time admired and honoured.

as he has left the work, he has left a name to be for all

NON-CONFORMIST.— OCT. 24.
The right honorable baronet so suddenly smitten with
death at the prime of life, and within a few months of lis
elevation to a well-deserved eminence, was unquestionably
remarkable as a man, as a legislator ; — his capabilities as
an administrator he had scarcely time to approve. His
public character was one of which there are very few
types In English history ; the representative at once of
an ancient, titled, wealthy family, and of opinions almost
equally unfashionable with the aristocracy and caviare to
the people. Personally, we believe, his was a character
happily not rare. He displayed from early youth an
application to books and affairs scarcely to be exceeded
by any plebeian aspirant to fame. His appearance at
twenty-two years of age in the first reformed Parliament,
for the county of Cornwall, was not that of an hereditary
chief of squires. He was already conspicuous in a school
of political philosophy, and among the tribunes of a
triumphant democracy. The disciple of Bentham, the

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 77

NON-CONFOU.MIST.

associate of Stewart and Mill, he put himself before the
country, while yet a youth, a ripe scholar and a mature
statesman. His performances as a writer and speaker
bore out that pretension from the beginning. He pur
chased the Westminster Revieiv, and wrote largely In Its
pages on questions of political economy and of coloniza
tion. He spoke on important occasions in the house ; and
though his ora.tory was rather essay-recitation than
debate, and his temperament was extremely unfavourable
to delivery, he gained intellectual respect by every effort
of the kind. His articles and speeches were characterized
in common by strength and completeness. His mascu
line understanding mastered every detail, ranged them In
logical order, and grasped them with a firm hold.
It was this very minuteness of his intellectual opera
tions which detracted from their effect, and disparaged his
reputation. Men rarely applaud an advocate who leaves
nothing to minor men — no ray of light permitted to escape
— no blade of opposition not trampled down. Sir William's
hearers and readers laboured to attend long after they
had been convinced — and often laboured In vain. Nor
was that the worst effect. His excess of detail raised
suspicion of Inability to deal with principles. And the
suspicion once aroused, confirmations were furnished by
more than one event of his career. No one doubts the
integrity of his convictions. The tenacity of his adhe
rence to the question of colonial reform and of the ballot,
was exhibited even under the trying test of membership

78 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.
NON-CONFORMIST. OCT. 24.
in a coalition ministry. But on questions of religious
liberty and of International polity, he showed neither
decision nor firmness. An avowed antagonist of the
doctrines of the established church, he was Indifferent to
the anomaly of Its compulsory support, and even zealous In
defence of the endowment of Irish Catholicism. A warm
supporter, at two important crises, of the doctrine of
international non-intervention, he not only acceded to the
Russian war, but gave all the force of his position to the
prosecution of the war after peace had become a cabinet
question. He had. In short, the characteristic defects of
his political school. He was proud of the title of " Phi
losophical Radical," — but it is a title by which the people
knows no man whom It loves. The metaphysics of
Hobbes were Its foundation, — the maxims of Whiggery its
guide ; ultra-theories, but strictly moderate practices.
Had Sir WilUam lived long to enjoy his Colonial Secre
taryship, he might have built up a monument in the
affection of the colonies. As it is, we believe he will
make as small a name In the history of statesmanship as
of literature.

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 79

SUNDAY TIMES.-OCT. 24.
MOLESWORTH AND HIS DETRACTOR.
Rabblt does an event occur that occasions such a gene
ral feeling of unmixed regret as the unexpected death of
Sir William Molesworth. A man of unflinching perse
verance and Indubitable integrity is snatched from the
midst of us just as he ceases to be the mere opponent of old
abuses, and we begin to anticipate the benefits that we
shall derive from his exertions in office. The case seems
even more hard than that of a profound thinker, who is
beyond his age — just as a shipwreck in sight of port Is
deemed more lamentable than one that takes place on the
high seas. After a long series of years, the system of self-
government in the colonies, advocated by Sir W. Moles
worth, in the face of the greatest difficulties, is now
generally acknowledged to be the only sound method of
dealing with our foreign dependencies ; and the statesman
who, during the chief part of his career, held a merely ex
ceptional position, is held up as a philosopher to whom
future ages wUl point as a source of political wisdom. Just
as he has earned the reward of his toils, his earthly career
Is brought to a close, and the applause of his countrymen
for his good work Is flrst expressed In the form of universal
lamentation. There is one gentleman in whom the tribute of approba
tion so warmly paid to the departed statesman, as soon as

80 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT. 24.
the breath has quitted Its mortal frame, must awaken very
singular and not very enviable emotions. We of course,
allude to the Liberal member for Rochdale, Mr. Edward
Miall, who. In the year 1845, attempted to check Sir W.
Molesworth in his career of political usefulness by an
expedient so shabby, that it is even a disgrace to the general
history of electioneering shabbiness, and who, coming for
ward, nominally, as the champion of religious liberty, de
ported himself In a manner worthy of a master of the
ceremonies at an Auto da Fe. We will just take a retro
spective glance at the circumstances of the memorable
Southwark election.
In the literary and philosophical world, it Is received as
an axiom, that all the opinions and events that have exer
cised an Important influence on mankind are worthy a place
in the archives of human thought. ' It Is to preserve the
record of facts, sentiments, and theories that we form
public libraries, and publish new editions of old books.
If we once admit the theory, that the collector of a
library or the editor of an ancient author, necessarily
identifies himself with the opinions that he renders
accessible to the public, there Is an end of literature alto
gether. But this theory is repudiated by every nation that
boasts the slightest degree of enlightenment, and even in
the public libraries of despotic countries there Is no diffi
culty in finding standard works advocating the most ultra-
republican principles. Plato Is edited over and over
again by the learned of every land, as an ancient poten
tate In the world of thought, and he who would look upon

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 81
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT 24.
one of the editors of the Greek sage as an advocate for the
final separation of children from their parent, immediately
after birth, because this is one of the courses recommended
in Plato's " Republic," would rightly be regarded as a
mere ignoramus.
Now, of all the authors who have exercised an Influence
over the English mind, none has been more conspicuous In
his day than Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, who
flourished about the time of the civil wars. During the
reign of Charles II. he was the philosopher most in fashion,
and a gentleman was scarcely held to have completed his
education who had not the thoughts of Hobbes at his
fingers' ends. Cowley, a poet, not reckoned among the
versifying rabble of a licentious age, but never deemed one
of the most respectable, though, probably, one of the least
attractive, of British lyrists, thus ventured to accost the
Malmesbury sage. In plain black and white : —
" Vast bodies of philosophy
I oft have seen and read,
But all seem bodies dead.
Or bodies by art fashioned ;
I never yet the living soul could see
But in thy books and thee."
The lines are bad enough, but they serve to show the es
timation In which Hobbes was held.
But while he Influenced men In high station, the writings
of Hobbes were never popular, in the strict sense of the
word. He was an extremely high Tory, without being a
high churchman, and thus offended two opposite classes.

82 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT. 24.
On the one hand, the men who had fought hard for their
liberty, under the generalship of Cromwell, regarded
with distaste the assertion that the will of the sovereign
was to be deemed absolute ; while on the other hand, the
church, which regarded the state as an ally, not as a
master, was just as unwilling as the most ardent cham
pion for religious freedom to accept the doctrine, that
the civil magistrate is an interpreter of religion, to
whom all are bound to submit. Moreover the fame of
Hobbes, even among the higher classes, was obscured
not long after his death, by the appearance of subsequent
thinkers. It became the fashion to date the mental
philosophy of England from John Locke, and though the
name of Hobbes was universally remembered, he ceased to
be an author necessarily studied, and he was regarded as a
heterodox sort of personage, without any one particularly
inquiring in what his heterodoxy consisted. His great
work the " Leviathan," could always be purchased from
a dealer in second-hand books, but till within a few years
no collection was ever made of his entire Latin and English
productions. Now, if in any case the task of editing an ancient
author is beneficial to the literary world. It Is when the
author's name is universally known, while his works are
not easily accessible, and this was pre-eminently the case
with Thomas Hobbes. To supply a gap in our libraries
which must have been regretted by every student of the
progress of English mind. Sir W. Molesworth collected,

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 83
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT. 24.
with great labour, and published, in a handsome form, at
his own expense, the complete works of the Malmesbury
philosopher. As for the hope that he would receive any
pecuniary compensation for his toil, it was literally out of
the question, for the magnitude of the publication, and the
style in which it was produced, made It costly enough to
put it beyond the reach of all private purchasers, who do not
make their library one of the chief ends of their existence.
That a most important service was thus most disinterest
edly rendered tq the cause of literature by Sir W. Molesworth
was beyond the reach of a doubt. But nevertheless, one
man could be found shameless enough to come forward, In the
nineteenth century, and in the immediate neighbourhood
of the English metropolis, and to assert that, by editing
the works of Hobbes, Sir William Molesworth had
rendered himself unworthy of a seat in the House of Com
mons ! The ill-repute in which Hobbes had fallen was
revived anew, that his name might come as a war-cry
from the lips of a rabble, to whom literature and philoso
phy were absolutely unknown ; and the cries of " No
Hobbes !" when shouted by a few hirelings among the
electioneering mob of Southwark, denoted that Sir William
Molesworth ought not to be made the representative of
that respectable borough, but that a much more worthy
member was to be found in the person of Mr. Miall, the
great Liberal dissenter, who would fight the church for the
benefit of a methodist chapel, but was ready to imitate
a Spanish Inquisitor, If any one passed the line of de-
markation which he himself had made.

84 METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855.
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT. 24.
Mr. Miall had not the excuse of Ignorance : he Is, on
the contrary, an Intellectual and highly-cultivated man;
and, therefore, no one was more aware than himself of the
generally-admitted axiom, that an editor is not to be held
responsible for anything beyond the correctness of his
edition, and that to question this axiom is to render the
publication of early authors almost an Impossibility, for
rarely, indeed, can we find a thinker, two or three hundred
years old, to whose opinions a man of the present day would
subscribe without reluctance. Mr. Miall knew this, we
say, and yet, on purpose to defeat a political opponent, he
assumed a degree of intellect unworthy of any one above
the rank of a puritanical washerwoman. He had not even
the pretext of that consistent bigotry which professedly
abhors all freedom of thought, for he stood forward as the
representative of religious liberty. The Tory candidate
who opposed Sir William Molesworth, and perhaps took
advantage of the " No Hobbes" cry, raised by the Liberal
party, might have some shadow of an excuse for using the
Ignoble weapons employed by the Miallites. Consistency
has always a certain degree of respectability about it, and
the Duke of Alva ravaging the Netherlands with fire and
sword, is a much more worthy figure than an electioneering
dissenter, who In the name of religious liberty, raised a
shout of atheism against his opponent.
No doubt some public testimonial will be made to the
services of Sir William Molesworth, and the electors of
Southwark, who are not to be Influenced by the cries of

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 85
SUNDAY TIMES. OCT. 24.
" mad dog," but having decided the contest of 1845 in
favour of this really great man, retained him as their
member to the close of his life, will be foremost in perpetu
ating their acknowledgment of his services. But the
electors of Rochdale can likewise, in due time, pay a tribute
to the manes of Sir William Molesworth, that will
greatly exalt them In public opinion. At the next general
election they can refuse to be any longer connected with
a gentleman who under the mask of Liberalism, signalized
himself by coming forward as the advocate of a theory that
renders thought impossible.

Sir William Molesworth's own views In reference to the
attack made on him at the Southwark election, will be
best understood from the following extract taken from a
speech made by him on that occasion : —
"All persons well versed in the philosophical literature
of this country must know that Hobbes, of Malmesbury,
was one of the profoundest thinkers that this land had
ever produced. He was born two centuries and a half
ago. He was the friend of Lord Bacon, and the pupil of
the great Galileo. He was intimate with Gassendus and
Masennus, and was the not unworthy antagonist of Des
cartes. During his lifetime his fame pervaded Europe ;

men the most distinguished by their wisdom, their learn
ing, and their birth, had courted his acquaintance, and
were proud of his notice. Like a true philosopher, he
had lived for the greater proportion of a century in
modest retirement, under the protection of the Caven
dish family, (the Dukes of Devonshire,) who deserved
well of their country, for the kindness and protection
bestowed upon their illustrious tutor. The works of
Hobbes were not of a popular description ; they were
fitted only for the attentive and patient student In the
retirement of his closet. The most remarkable and best
known of his works treated of logic, of metaphysics, and
of the moral and political sciences. They were models of
the English language, remarkable on account of the
originality of the views, of the clearness of the thoughts,
the vigour of the logic, the terseness of the diction, and
the boldness of the conclusions. Hobbes was the first
great metaphysical and political writer that England had
produced. He commenced a revolution in social science,
similar to that which Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes,
had effected In the physical sciences. He shook off the
trammels of authority; he copied no man, but thought
for himself. He discovered much truth, and fell into
much error. His opinions had exercised great Influence
over the minds of the greatest thinkers of this country,
and many of those opinions had been adopted by Locke.
In short, as one of the most classical of the English
writers of the 17th century, his works ought to be found
in the library of every gentleman, of every literary insti-

87

tution, and of every college in England pretending
to possess a collection of the great English authors.
Hobbes, during his life, was feared, hated, and abused
by all churchmen and bigots. He was persecuted and
condemned, first because he maintained that the church
should be subordinate to the state ; secondly, because be
asserted that ministers of religion ought to abstain from
interfering in politics ; thirdly, because he disliked the
bishops, and defeated some of them in argument; and,
lastly, because he was suspected of partiality for Crom
well. For these reasons Clarendon wrote against him ;
churchmen, bigots, and, to use Hobbes's own words, all
the canting tribe persecuted him, proclaimed him an
infidel, and would have burnt him if they could. A true
disciple of that Intolerant school had repeated that cry,
and denounced the works of Hobbes as infidel productions.
Sir W. Molesworth called upon him to point out_ one
infidel passage in them. He denied that one single sen
tence derogatory to Christianity could be found through
out the whole of the writings of Thomas Hobbes of
Malmesbury. He would not be responsible for all the
opinions of Hobbes or of any other author who wrote
two centuries and more ago. He did not become the
editor of Hobbes because he thought all his opinions
were true — far from it. But he did consider that he had
rendered a service to the studious, by enabling them to
read the works of one of the most Illustrious writers of
the period of the Commonwealth."

88 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.
WEEKLY DISPATCH.— OCT. 28.
Sib William Moleswobth was early initiated in
classics, mathematics, and the mist of metaphysics by an
Italian refugee, and afterwards he passed to a German
university. In this latter soil his mind took root. He
acquired the German language, and, discipline relaxed, he
followed the bent of his own vigorous talents. In classical
knowledge he had arrived In Germany not deficient. As
a mathematician he bad long passed the asses' bridge.
He left England with a full average acquirement of
general knowledge. In Germany he concentrated his
Intellectual powers, and learned philology and history.
His Saxon mind soon moulted the mysticism of the
German school. He realized all the advantages to be
derived from Teutonic education. Sir William, released
from collegiate study, next made the usual tour of Europe.
He was still In his minority when he returned home in
1831. Young Germany had given him his political bias.
His first appearance in public was at a Cornish county
meeting, on the agitation of Parliamentary Reform in
1831, and his juvenile speech was recorded and noticed at
that period in our columns for its earnest advocacy of that
revolutionary measure.
Sir William Molesworth, scarcely out of his teens, In
December, 1832, was returned with Mr. W. L. Trelawny,
unopposed, as a member for the Eastern division of Corn
wall. In July, 1837, he was returned for Leeds.
After the dissolution of 1841, he remained out of Par
liament, biding his time for four years, during which

METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855. 89
WEEKLY DISPATCH. OCT. 28.
Interval he used to say that he gave himself a second and
a sounder political education. He read and thought, and
accumulated capital for his future senatorial life.
In September, 1845, Sir William Molesworth came
forward as the Liberal candidate for Southwark. He was
opposed by two other candidates of extreme and opposite
politics. An ultra-Tory and an ultra-Radical Dissenter
were his opponents. Placed between two fires, he was
politically besieged. His vulnerable point was his staunch
adhesion to Maynooth. He was denounced as a heretic,
and at the same time as an ally of his Holiness the Pope !
Sir William met the charge with unflinching moral
courage, and by a direct and manly bearing. He claimed
the right of private judgment, and he told his opponents
that he was responsible to his Creator, not to man. Few
candidates ever passed through such an ordeal on the
hustings. He gained the respect -of men of all political
opinions throughout the country, and he had a large
majority on the poll against both his competitors. He
defeated the "Orangeman" and the "Nonconformist."
He achieved his electoral victory by a frank declaration
that he would rather lose a seat In Parliament than
Immorally discount truth or surrender his conscience.

90 METEOPOLITAN WEEKLY PEESS, 1855.

OBSERVER.— OCT. 28.
Sir William Moleswobth lost his father at the age
of thirteen, and it is alike creditable to his natural dispo
sition and to the maternal care, that he was unspoiled by the
early attainment of wealth and social position. His debtd
in public life was as M.P. for Cornwall, which he repre
sented in Parliament from 1832 to 1837. From the first
he avowed himself a member of the not numerous but
energetic and accomplished party which went by the
designation of the " Philosophical Radicals." His most
intimate associate during this period of his career was
Mr. Temple Leader, with whom he for a time kept house
In common. The men were essentially most unlike;
Molesworth, a deep and earnest thinker, with literary
tastes ; Leader, a dashing, talented. Impulsive spirit.
Similarity of age, and Independent generous sentiments,
formed their bond of union. Less akin in opinions, but
more like to Molesworth in his tastes and Intellectual
habits, was tbe late Charles Buller, with whom he lived on
terms of confidential Intimacy. Common intellectual
pursuits kept him in close alliance with Mr. George Grote,
and Mr. John Stuart Mill. A Radical so prononce had
small chance of retaining his seat for Cornwall after the
effervescence of the Reform Bill was over. But Leeds
welcomed tbe rejected of the squires, and their " Chandos
clause" voters, and he sat In Parliament for that borough
from 1837 to 1841. He remained out of Parliament till

METROPOLITAN WEEKLY PRESS, 1855. 91
OBSERVER. OCT. 28.
1845, whenhe was returned for the borough of Southwark,
which he continued to represent till his death. While a
member of the House of Commons, Sir William Moles
worth's voice and vote were unreservedly given in favour
of every Liberal principle and measure ; but It was chiefly
as an enlightened and able advocate of colonization and
reform in our system of penal transportation that he dis
tinguished himself. To this it was owing that, when he
consented to accept administrative office, he was, after a
short time spent in the rather uncongenial Board of
Works, promoted to the colonial deijartment. In the
cabinet, however, Sir William's presence appear,s to have
been more important as a recognition of the eligibility of
men entertaining his opinions to office, than for any very
active or Influential part he took in the deliberations of
government. Sir William took an active part In tbe
attempt to establish the short-lived London Revieiv ; but
his principal literary effort was his collective edition of
the works of Hobbes. It is not a very encouraging symp
tom of the state of public opinion in England, that this
munificent enterprise was, on one occasion, made a subject
of grave accusations against Sir William at the hustings.
Be the opinions of Hobbes what they may, he is the
parent of English Intellectual analysis, — the originator of
those enquiries to which we owe Berkeley, Hume, Reid,
and Stuart. The loss of his works would leave an Irre
parable gap in the history of English Intellectual, moral,
and political science.

PROVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.

THE SCOTSMAN.— OCT. 24.

The public service has lost an able and honest mem
ber, the Liberal Interest a sincere and resolute advocate,
the cause of religious intolerance a dauntless and well-
equipped enemy, by the death of Sir William Molesworth.
Born Into a position of social and political aristocracy, Sir
William was led, literally by " study and reflection," to
espouse opinions adverse to those towards which he was
dragged by every influence but conscience ; and having
espoused them, he devoted every thing he possessed — his
intellect, his time, his purse — to their defence and pro
motion. Sir William was not of our school, nor was he a
man that was fitted, or that sought to gain, by merely
personal deportment or qualities, the good will of those
with whom he either agreed or disagreed; but the
strength and clearness of his intellect, and the honesty
with which he sought, and the courage with which he
advocated, what he deemed truth and right In pubhc
questions, were beyond doubt, and well deserving of admi
ration and remembrance. Although Sir William never
deserted a principle, nor even swerved from a policy, it
was his lot, like many other men who adopt opinions for
conscience sake and not for popularity, to lose much of
the confidence of that democratic party who were wont to
regard him as champion ; but what could be so lost, he
was a man lightly to esteem. He has closed his career
under circumstances peculiarly melancholy — carried away
in the prime of manhood, and just when he had attained
the head of that department of the public service, the

PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855. 93
THE SCOTSMAN. OCT. 24.
government of the colonies, to the study and exposition of
which he had devoted a large portion of the labours of
his life. We may retain many public men more adroit
and serviceable, but In Sir William Molesworth we have
assuredly lost one whose heart and whose head were alike
devoted to his country and to the right.

WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH.— OCT. 27.
SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH.— THE COLONIES, AND THE PEOPLE.
The sudden and unexpected death of this distinguished
statesman will produce a sensation of grief, neither so acute
nor so general as adequately to mark the calamity which,
unquestionably it is, not only to Great Britain, but also to
her many and vast colonies.
His reputation was not commensurate with his worth ;
and his worth was by no means exhausted, but was sure
to accumulate more rapidly than ever, since, latterly, he
had got new powers and opportunities for patriotic service,
and his thorough earnestness forbade tbe idea that he
would neglect them. A political adventurer who had
traded on various reforms, or on the extension of the
people's rights, may, on his becoming a minister, desert
the cause of progress, Identify himself with satisfied place
men, and be the very man against whom he had all his
days violently declaimed, and whom, henceforth, all popu
lar advocates will Impeach as adding treachery to Injustice ;

94 PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855.
EEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
and Judas Is far from being a rare character in the po
litical world. But at no period of his career was Sir
William a self-seeker. Inheriting rank, and even in his
early youth, a large fortune, he could not be suspected in
going over to the side of the people, — of being influenced
by the base motives of many a demagogue, and he stood
in need of no capital made out of Liberalism. Nor had he
the pitiful affectation of being a dandy democrat, an ele
gant fop, rouging himself with red republicanism, or bloody
revolutionism, — as a queer fashion to produce a startling
sensation among his compeers and associates. He was
indeed somewhat of an exquisite in his dress, but he did
not care whether his dress harmonized, or was incon
gruous with the merely external associations of his po
litical creed. He could advocate the extension of the
franchise, or vote by ballot without throwing off his gloves,
or without donning a fustian jacket ; he could urge a new
constitution for the colonies without stepping into a new
and much plainer and cheaper suit of clothes. He could
stand up for the rights of the people, — the " unwashed
herd" as the Tory slang ran ; and stand up honestly and
manfully, even after he had gone through his own ablu
tions most carefully, and tried a little perfumery. The
earnest and able character of his advocacy of the popular
cause, showed at the very first that It was no affectation
or caprice, and in his consistency and perseverance, the
demonstration was complete. The zeal of other reformers
might wax cold ; but his, being not only honest, but the

PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855. 95
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
genuine ardour of mind and heart, ever grew more Intense.
It survived his appointment as minister, and drew from
him, sitting in the ministerial benches, speeches and votes
In exact accordance with what he had been in the habit of
supporting at popular gatherings, when he had no prospect
of being In office.
Beyond all comparison he was the most hopeful poli
tician and minister of the present period, having that
comprehensive and practical ability which is desiderated
in the otherwise prodigal and transcendent qualifications
of Mr. Gladstone ; whilst he was free from those narrow
and one-eyed views and aims (superinduced by the supre
macy of a commercial standard) which, irrespective of per
sonal faults, mar the character and labours of Messrs.
Bright and Cobden. The last two men mainly, if not
exclusively consult state-thrift; and with them political
economy, instead of being a subordinate constituent, is
tbe sum and substance of the theory and practice of
politics, so that they are fitted to be housekeepers, rather
than the heads, rulers, or guides, in the State family.
Mr. Gladstone, on the other hand, with a more complete
and lofty Idea of the duties and designs of statesmanship,
and seeking to animate It with a parental care for all the
Interests of the nation. Is yet speculative as a Plato ; and
his state system, too complex here, and there far too
ethereal and subtle for any known machinery. Is incapable
of an embodiment. Sir William Molesworth's views, as
well as his abilities, furnished a happy medium between

96 PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855.
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
the two extremes. Political theories tallying both with
the constitution, and with the spirit and demands of the
age, and of the nation, were propounded by him with ad
mirable demonstrations of their urgency and their safeness.
Every embodiment which he made of democratic princi
ples and tendencies, was in exact correspondence, not only
with the rights and claims, but with the character and
qualifications of the population ; and his " finality," though
far in advance of the Reform Bill, was a measure of
democratic competency, far more genuine and sure than
could be found In the ten-pound franchise. We have
never had another politician whose comprehensive Ideas of
popular prerogative were put Into equally comprehensive
plans, the operation of which would have been perfectly
safe. We have lost the most resolute reformer of all
abuses, and the most vigorous abolitionist of all monopolies,
and the best conservative of whatever ought to be stable
in the state.
Recently, Sir William was appointed to the post for
which he was pre-eminently qualified, — that of Colonial
Minister. All the proper aims and ends of colonial ad
ministration, with the means and agencies in complete
detail to suit the circumstances of each dependency, he
had long studied, and elaborated into a full model ; and
how strikingly did it contrast with, the bungling system in
actual operation, — a system which, whilst it was provoking
discontent, ever ready to burst out into rebellion in the
colonies, was extracting no advantage of any kind, from

PROVINCIAL PRESS, 1855. 97
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
their magnificent natural resources, to the mother-country.
Until he could get his own grand model adopted. Sir
William had to content himself with attacking this and
that colonial injustice and mischief, and compelling re
dress ; and It is astonishing to what an extent he managed
to introduce his own plan, piece by piece, as the substitute
for the various old abuses which he destroyed. But every
speech of his upon colonial questions was a master -piece,
convincing both Parliament and the country of the sound
and Indispensable character of his proposals, and closing
up the, nation as one man to their adoption. All his
hearers, though many of them had dabbled for years in
colonial facts, figures, and theories, and had mixed up
these with virulent party-politics, felt themselves con
strained to sit at his feet as his disciples, and when the
lesson was over, to put it into legislation as fast as their
returning pride would allow them. He had that zeal for
securing from her colonial possessions a harvest of glory
and good for Britain, which fired the soul of Raleigh ;
but then, that zeal was associated with aims for the full
freedom, justice, and reciprocal glory and good of all the
colonists, who must be induced to feel by their treatment,
that they were neither our servants nor our slaves, but
our children — prepared and destined, when full grown, to
be our brethren, — standing on the same level.
Contemporary statesmen had occasionally, when at
tempting a finely rhetorical peroration, appeared to appre
ciate the grandeur of the future for such colonies as

98 PROVINCIAL PRESS, 1855.
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27,
Canada, India, and Australia, and the indescribably
solemn responsibilities Imposed on the governments and
statesmen of the mother-country, to take care that the
future shall not be marred, nor separated rudely, and in
bad blood from British fortunes. They have been, then,
for a moment, gravely and thrillingly eloquent on the old
little island's motherhood to the richest and vastest ter
ritories on the face of the earth, and on her paramount
duty to give fondness and immortality to the tie of kinship
between her and her countless progeny. But all this ap
preciation has been confined to occasional bits of oratory,
and has never marked either the system or the workings
of colonial administration. Whig and Tory statesmen
maintain old plans, or Introduce new ones ; reckless of
their bearings upon the feelings of the colonists, who, if
alienated, can effectually disturb the British Empire, or
reduce it to its originally petty limits. Look at the
doggedly, factious treatment of a colonial question by
Lord Derby, who labours to help his own political party,
and to injure his opponents, when every energy and aim
ought to be concentrated upon the promotion of that
colonial loyalty, good-will, and prosperity, on which the
glorious future, both of the mother-country, and of all her
colonies, largely depends. Lord John Russell is only a
whit better. But Sir William Molesworth has shown In
every effort and project of his, the result of protracted
thought and calculation, expended upon facts laboriously
gathered from far, and arranged for the good of the colo-

PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855. 99
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
nies ; — that all-engrossing appreciation of the colonial
future, which has only been realized by all other leading
statesmen for a moment, in the rare excitation and rapture
of oratory.
We do not specially mourn Sir William Molesworth as a
loss to tbe country during the war crisis ; perhaps more
reluctantly than any other member of the present cabinet,
had he been dragged Into the bloody struggle. That
opposition to all war, which Mr. Cobden, for the mere sake
of commerce, holds, was in Sir William's case, founded
upon the far broader grounds of international amity. The
former would have peace, in order to a clear market ; but
the latter, in order to such a close and friendly corres
pondence among nations as shall discourage animosities,
prejudices, and feuds, and promote social and political
'growth internally. Nothing but fearful necessity could
have led Sir William, not only to tolerate, but to justify,
the war ; and here, though generally a quiet, he was a
firm supporter of the energetic policy which tlie Premier
is displaying. Years ago, he had dissented from Lord
Palmerston's foreign policy, as "intermeddling;" and w-e
have little doubt that this was entirely, though uncon
sciously. In consequence of such consummate skill, and
such absorbing attention being paid by government to such
comparatively irrelevancles as the internal affairs of foreign
states ; whilst our own colonies, all important, and standing
In the closest relationship to this country, received so little
sagacity, anxiety, and labour. Sir William could not but

100 PROVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
feel strongly that the energy, tact, and labour, exhibited
by Lord Palmerston in his foreign secretaryship, would, if
devoted to the well-being of the colonies, be of immense
value to these, and to the mother-country. We are not
here called to pronounce on the case between Sir William
and the former energetic foreign secretary ; but this we
are entitled to say, that our best and most zealous' colonial
reformer might daily wonder and mourn that the affairs of
France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy, engrossed the greatest
thought, skill, and diligence on the part of our govern
ment, whilst that government was apathetic about those
magnificent colonies of ours, the ties of which to Britain
may be ruptured for ever. In a moment, by folly or neg
ligence. Who can be surprised if the indignant patriot
wished the foreign secretary to meddle less with neigh
bouring states, and the colonial secretary to borrow Pal
merston's activity, promptitude, and general resources,
and employ these in promoting the content, loyalty, and
prosperity of this country's matchless dependencies,
-hitherto so shamefully neglected. At all events, what
ever Mr. Cobden may spitefully allege, we can see no
inconsistency in such an opponent of Lord Palmerston's
proceedings, as foreign secretary, in the taking office under
his lordship, or supporting his lordship's present policy
towards Russia.
Still, it is not principally for the sake of the war that
the nation may lament Sir William's untimely end. The
just confidence In his aims and labours, after the close of

PROVINCIAL PEESS, 1855. 101
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27.
hostilities, and the certain expectation of what he would
attempt and achieve in legislation for the colonies, and also
for popular progress at home, perish with that life of his
which has so abruptly and prematurely terminated ; for to
no other member of the legislature, either in or out of
office, and to no other patriot less vague and shadowy than
that everlasting (paido-post-futiirum, " coming-man," can
we transfer that confidence and that expectation in full.
After the war was over. Sir William's grand adventures and
successes were to come ; his past life, chiefly spent in the
closet, had arranged and drawn out all the outlines, every
minute detail of the campaigns, and furnished all tbe need
ful resources : and the return of peace was to be the signal
for commencing a career of statesmanship, marked by the
finest and most comprehensive patriotism. He was in
the very prime of manhood, when, after a short warning
of disease, which only reached a few friends in time, but
which to the nation came too late ; it was like the voice of
the thunder after the fatal flash ; he was struck down by
death ; and his work, and the country's hopes of It, were
ended. Sir William was long styled a " Philosophical
Radical;" and, indeed, he and Colonel (now General)
Thompson, were the only advanced Liberals in the
country to whom the designation was at all suitable.
But the deceased was no visionary. He knew, esteemed,
and loved, the great body of the people, whose rights he
advocated, and for whose welfare he laboured ; nor were
his political aims and projects either fantastic or Imprac-

102 PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.
WEEKLY HERALD, EDINBURGH. OCT. 27._
ticable, but definite, palpable, and singularly suitable.
The title of " philosophical " was probably given in conse
quence both of the speculative ability shown In all his
speeches- and writings, and his connection with Hobbes,
and the Westminster Review.

EDINCUEGH NEWS.— OCT. 27.
The death of Sir William Molesworth has this week
been succeeded by the decease of Mr. Frederick Lucas,
M.P. for Meath. That two such men, in the very prime
of life, should be at once touched by death and disappear,
is sufficient to make the most careless think. How diffe
rent the fate of each. Equally remarkable for the same
logical qualities of mind, the one died broken in hopes,
and prostrated by disappointed ambition ; the other, just as
he had grasped the full cup of his political desires. Both
have died in harness. The one, the voluntary bondsman
of a sect who laughed at his zeal, and now mock his vexed
soul with masses,— the other, In that hour of fortune when
reputation is based upon expectancy, and before practical
failure could overcloud the brilliancy of dazzling specula
tions. Mr. Lucas has gone ; and although his name may
be enshrined In a monkish calendar, the world will re
member it no more for ever. Sir W. Molesworth has

PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855. 103
EDINBURGH NEWS. OCT. 27.
also been called hence ; but the circumstances of his life
and death will long linger around the colonial dependencies
of Britain. With nations as with men, —
When fancy is let loose.
Then dreams repeat the wishes of the day.
A great colonial minister was wanted, and there are
many chances that Sir William Molesworth's, memory will
be revered as he who could have done the nation's work.
' Seeming to promise something wondrous great,' his loss
will be as universally deplored as the colonial rule of as
promising a statesman. Lord Grey became universally
spoken against. The colonies are hard nuts for men of
abstract minds, and death has secured the reputation of
the deceased baronet beyond chance of wreck on the
practical application of theories about colonial adminis
tration. As the late Sir William Molesworth was one of the last
made burgesses of Edinburgh, and one to whom our
citizens are somewhat indebted, we may be pardoned for
glancing at his labours as a man, and his career as a
statesman ; for however we may have differed from his
principles, yet, as a statesman, he was above many of his
compeers. After making the tour of Europe In his teens, he re
turned to Cornwall, saturated with the mysticism and
'liberalism' of the 'fatherland' of savans and political
H
%

104 PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.
EDINBURGH NEWS. OCT. 27.
serfs. Britain was then rocking under the Reform Bill
agitation ; and while yet in his minority, the young and
enthusiastic baronet made a speech in favour of that
measure which left Its Impress on the national mind. The
number of his acres gave power to his democratic utte
rances. Local Liberals rejoiced over their wealthy de
fender, and the Radicals of Britain welcomed him as a
coming man. True, his apparent vanity and self-satis
faction were amazing; he had reached the pinnacle of
dandyism, and that, combined with an affected manner,
appeared to qualify him for an upper seat In the Paradise
of Fools. But beneath all externalities there was an under
current of energy and intellect which none could despise ;
and the Radicals of that day were In want of nothing so
much as men who would make their cause respectable.
Sir William, therefore, had only emerged, when he was
looked up to as a leader ; and that he did not fulfil the
expectations raised, was perhaps more the people's fault
than his.
The parliamentary occupation of Sir WilHam being
gone, he devoted that time and money to editing and
reprinting the works of Hobbes which he had formerly
lavished upon ungrateful constituencies.
The election for Southwark was the turning point of Sir
William Molesworth's political career. Then, without form
ally disowning his previous opinions, he virtually threw in
his lot with the interests of his order ; and even his advocacy
of the ballot, one of the latest speeches he delivered was as

PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855. 105
EDINBURGH NEWS. OCT. 27.
much to save aristocracy and the other Institutions of the
country from the undue pressure of democracy, as to
shield the dependent voter from the dictation of his social
superior. As a politician, the late minister belonged to the fast-
expiring sect of Philosophical Radicals, a sect whose deity
is centralisation, and that has served the people with such
prudence as to secure the confidence of the people's
bitterest foes. Like others of his sect, the late baronet
was a reformer In church and state ; but as his reform
for the state consisted in forcing a rule of Radical-
Liberalism upon the people, to the destruction of their
own self-government, so his reform In the church con
sisted in bringing all sects under state pay and state
control. He held three livings In the church, and stood
out manfully In favour of the Maynooth grant ; from a
church reformer of this stamp, neither Lords Aberdeen
nor Palmerston had much to dread. He was, therefore,
honoured with a seat In the cabinet; not to do that
colonial work which he had made his own, but as the
representative of an ' advanced Liberalism,' which had no
existence as a distinct power In the state, but which it
suited government to recognize, rather than the truer
Liberalism, which was making Itself felt.
The editing of Hobbes was taken as conclusive proof
that Sir William was a sceptic, and the ecclesiastical
world rang with horror at the thought. We would require
stronger evidence for the allegation. His mind was

106 PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.
EDINBURGH NEWS. OCT. 27.
turned to speculation ; he had tasted its delights, and he
seems to have enjoyed It as a pleasure, or found It a
sharpener or cultivator of his powers. That he was a
sceptic. In the vulgar sense, there is nothing to prove ;
while there Is much to render it improbable. Scepticism
and self-sacrificing zeal are seldom born twin sisters ; and
he might enjoy and believe In Hobbes as a neglected
philosopher, without either adopting or caring for his
religion, or the want of it. He might be deluded by a
seeming excellence In his adopted hero. He might feel
that a mind saturated with doubts and controversies
seldom escapes from the tosslngs of perplexity Into settled
repose, and not feel that faith gathers strength from
practical virtue, while It starves on speculation. But he
also felt that it was better for men to keep their minds
open to instruction from all quarters, than to shout infidel
against all who leave the beaten track of thought. Whe
ther the deceased baronet was orthodox or heterodox, we
seek not to determine ; but politicians who plume them
selves on repudiating his belief, might bear In mind with
advantage that even Infidelity is not socially so malignant
as immorality, and that for the state, a man had better
be a virtuous unbeliever than a vicious high-sounding
professor. We differed from his theories, and repudiated
some of his principles ; but in spite of all differences, we
were constrained to admire him as a great political
thinker, in this dearth of higher statesmanship ; and, as
such. Sir William Molesworth's sudden death has created

PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855. 107
EDINBURGH NEWS. OCT. 27.
a blank for which no mere powers of oratory or bustling
business habits will compensate the country. He might
be often wrong, but he was always master of himself; and
although unpopular, both from manner and matter, in the
House, he had become a striking Illustration to the
country that ' method gives light,' even without the
advantages of attendant genius.
WEST BEITON.— OCT. 26.
THE LATE SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, BART., OP PENCARROW.
We have many times had to record the deaths of
Cornishmen who have been eminent in their day, who
have done much good in their generation ; we have done
this with deep feeling in ourselves, and we believe with
due consideration for the feelings of surviving friends-
But now we have a more difficult task, we have to record
the death of one with whose whole career we have been
most familiar, from whom from his earliest manhood tb
the latest hour of his life we have seldom differed In
opinion, whose early dawn of talent we have seen ripen
into maturest wisdom, and we now feel that in losing
him, we have lost one for whom the country at large
will mourn.
Sir WUliam Molesworth Is dead. It is the death of no
common man that we record. Born to affluence, reared
in "the cold shade of aristocracy," he became essentially
a man of the people" and the more useful to them because

108 PROVINCIAL PEESS, 1855.
WEST BRITON. OCT. 26.
In his own person he was an aristocratic gentleman In the
highest and best sense of the term. Full of honour,
noble-mindedness, and truth, his fine Intellect In early
youth led him to see beyond the mere surface of events ;
and the opinions he then formed were confirmed by the
experience of after years, and the knowledge gained in a
statesman's life. Few men. Indeed, have gone through
life with so little to alter or to modify of their first
political Impressions. His were not vague crude Ideas,
hastily adopted and easily laid aside, but firm convictions,
based on sound philosophical reasoning, which were
strengthened by time, and increased by the progress of
events themselves. He reached the highest offices of the
state with the approbation of all men, not by giving up
his convictions to public prejudice, or by modifying them
to party feeling, but because those opinions which he had
held in his youth had grown upon the public mind, and
the statesman of to-day had been made to feel the neces
sity of these opinions having their due weight in the
government of the realm.
Where shall we find his successor ? Where shall we
find one combining his high intelligence and liberal con
victions ? One who held so strong a place in the public
confidence both at home and In the colonies ? He was
felt and known to be the link binding the government of
the day to the popular element of the constitution. His
very presence at the council table was in itself an evidence
of progress. The people of this country knew that no

PEOVINCIAL PEESS, 185.^. 109

WEST BRITON.

measure against public liberty would there be broached
without finding in him a sturdy opponent ; that no ad
vance of the public interests would even be hinted at, but
It would find in him a firm and able advocate. We know
— none better than the inhabitants of this county — that
he would not say the thing he did not firmly believe to be
true, for the sake of place or preferment, however high.
We know that he withdrew from the representation of his
native county because his opinions in favour of free trade
were then In advance of public opinion ; but the time has
come on that question, as on many others, when public
opinion has overtaken him. We know not one single
sentence of his first address, that at the last moment of
his life he would have wished to have altered, and few
ideas were there expressed but that many steps have been
made towards their accomplishment. Had he been
spared a little longer by " the shadow feared of man," we
might have hoped that his freeborn English heart and
honest truthful spirit, would have done much towards the
perfect accompHshment of his earliest aspirations. So
mourn we his public loss.
His private loss can alone be felt by those who knew
him best. We dare not venture Into those scenes of
domestic life where as son, brother, husband, his gentle
and endearing nature was best known and appreciated ;
but we can point to the large body of firm and attached
friends whom he had gathered around him, who found in
his full mind ever new sources of instruction and delight.

110 PEOVINCIAL PRESS, 1855.

WEST BRITON. OCT. 26.
— who found In his true heart all honourable and high
and noble feelings, — and whom he attached to him by
bonds which not even death can sever.

We do not think we are committing any breach of
confidence in giving the following postscript of a letter
from a Canadian statesman to a friend in England. The
letter Is dated Quebec, the 17th of September last, scarcely
more than a month ago, and dn the body of it he speaks
of the appointment of Mr. HIncks to the Governorship of
the Windward Islands. In the postscript he says, " I do
not like to let this note go, and say so little of this
appointment of Sir William Molesworth's, his looking
out of all England for the right man for the right place,
and taking a Canadian. Do tell Sir William he has done
what an act of Parliament could not do, — he has made us
a part of the empire de facto ; (the italics are the writer's)
God bless him for it say I."

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE PRESS. Ill
PUBLICOLA TO THE WEEKLY DISPATCH. —
OCT. 28, 1855.
Mr. Editob, — The death of Sir William Molesworth Is
a far heavier loss to the country than would have been
that of many a more conspicuous and more brilliant per
sonage. We lose In him the entire Radical element of the
cabinet. In that arcanum, he was the anchor and strong
hold of democratic principles. Liberals and Whigs are
left ; but no out-and-out Radical. It is not easy to
see how his loss can be replaced. Clear and decided in
principle, he was practically firm and unyielding. En
titled to his position, even by that aristocratic standard
according to whose measurement cabinets are constructed,
he ever held that position for the support and furtherance
of his own views of the public good. With him in the
cabinet, we felt that the people had Indeed a share in the
government of tbe country. Confidence may be felt in
Lord Palmerston so far as the war Is concerned. We may
rely on his Whig coadjutors for a little of that misty thing
called Liberalism; but with Sir William Molesworth we
felt an identity. By birth he belonged to the aristocracy,
but the popular elements in his nature were developed and
confirmed by the sunshine and the storms of democracy.
In the shiftings and shufflings of political change, we
could look to him, and say, " Molesworth is there ; 'tis all
right, or will soon come right."

112 CORRESPONDENTS
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 23.
As a colonial minister, his death will be deeply de
plored, in whatever region of the world the British flag is
flying as the symbol of Imperial authority. Of the subject
of colonial government he was completely master. At
this he had arrived by years of intense study, of indus
trious research, and of Independent thought. The readers
of the Westminster Review will remember his earher
labours on this topic ; while even an Impatient House of
Commons has listened with profound attention to those
matured views, embodied in the treatises which he de
livered In the form of speeches. Elaborate treatises they
were, and most comprehensive and conclusive. No man
like him could mark the limits where military occupation
in a colony should emerge Into self-government, or draw
the distinction between those imperial rights, without
which, all real connexion with the mother-country ceases,
and those local and internal affairs which should be placed
entirely under the direction of a representative govern
ment. He was prepared also to apply his principles of
representation to the population of our colonies. He was
the champion of colonial rights, without being the dema
gogue of colonial passions. From his continued adminis
tration we might have hoped for the consolidation of our
colonial empire, and the combination of a mighty union,
with the utmost practical freedom of the various and
remote localities by which it Is constituted.
Molesworth was left his own master at a very early age ;
but the duty and importance of self-culture seem to have

OF THE PRESS, 1855. 113
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 2^.
been impressed upon his mind from the very commence
ment of his intellectual being. He sought, or found with
out seeking, and welcomed with congeniality, the best
training for the future philosophical statesman. Rusti
cated for juvenile turbulence at Cambridge, like Milton
and Other eminent men whom university discipline makes
rebels of, he completed his studies at Edinburgh, and in
Germany. The finishing corrective and amalgamation of
his course was given on his return to England by his
association with the Benthamite school, the venerable
patriarch of which was still living, though approaching
the termination of those labours, the results of which are
gradually becoming more conspicuous, while his own name
Is gradually sinking into oblivion. Of this school. Doctor
Bowring did the poetry, and Henry Southern the criticism ;
while the more substantial elements were afforded by such
minds as those of George Grote, not yet absorbed in
Grecian literature and history ; of James Mill, the stur
diest of mental philosophers and political economists ; and
of John Stuart Mill, who had already commenced that
blending of the harsher materials of utilitarianism with
the amenities of a platonic philosophy, which has made
him at once the most profoundly logical, and yet the most
genial and attractive writer of the present age, on the
subjects, about which, from time to time, he enlightens
the world. It was at this time that I first met Sir Wil
liam Molesworth. He was one of those who came to a
preliminary meeting at the then Crown and Anchor Tavern

114 COEEESPONDENTS
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
(famous In the annals of Reform), to consult on the
organization of the National Political Union. This was
in October 1831. We were glad of his accession, but
he did not at first win our confidence. We feared
being made tools of, as so often happens with the Liberal
members of the aristocracy. There was a dandyism In his
dress and manner too which did not propitiate ; but, as I
believe, with all those who marked and suspected his
outset in political life, confidence grew with time; it
strengthened with every development of his Industry,
talent, and Integrity, until it became as entire and com
plete as any public man could possibly desire.
Of those whom the excitement of the French Revolu
tion of 1830, and the Introduction of the English Reform
Bill, then brought together for the organization of those
unions by which, in fact, and not by the Whig Ministry,
the Reform was eventually carried, how few now remain !
Burdett was the chairman In the adjourned meeting in
Lincoln's Inn-fields which completed the work, and he has
long since followed his own reputation to the grave.
Charles Buller, too, the amiable and sparkling, only lived
till he had redeemed the Poor Law from national hatred.
Francis Place, the man who redeemed Westminster from
electoral corruption, while all England lay buried In It,
has ceased to organize the people, and to cram Liberal
members with political knowledge, himself unseen.
Wakley has retired from politics. Joseph Hume, who
occasionally presided, has sunk under the weight of years

OF THE PRESS, 1855. 115
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
and honourable labours. Of the originators of that great
political machine, the present parliament can reckon only
four survivors. The veteran Evans, who was startled at
the proposition to have a council consisting one-half of
working-men, but whose doubts must have been removed
by the prudence of their subsequent conduct. Sir Erskine
Perry, W. J. Fox, and J. A. Roebuck. HI could they
afford the loss of such a coadjutor In what may be called
the representation of the memory of the National Union
as Sir William Molesworth.
In political and parliamentary nomenclature there are
classes and sections, and Sir William Molesworth must be
assigned to the class Radical, and the section philosophical.
This section differs from other Radicals in renouncing all
notion of natural right. For right it substitutes expe
diency. Its disciples interpret the expediency in a
very large or a very narrow view, according to their no
tions or their peculiarities of individual character. In
the largest and broadest sense, the expediency extends
practically to all that would be resolved Into natural right
by reasoners of a different description. To this large
view Sir William Molesworth uniformly adhered. He
required to be shown, not that people had a right to a
change, but that such a change would be beneficial to the
people. The difference is of little practical moment. If
we can get all that Is good for us, we shall probably get
everything to which we have a right. It is a difference
rather In theory, language, and argument than in any thing

11 G COEEESPONDENTS
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
else. Those who believe that their political and moral sys
tem holds together better by the adoption of such a tech
nology are quite right In using It. Sir WIHIam Molesworth
derived it from Bentham among living teachers, and Hobbes
among the dead. During the years In which he was pro
prietor and editor of the Westminster Review, it was con
sistently distinguished by Its Benthamism and Hobbism,
modified by the gentler spirit of the communications of
John Stuart Mill. Both on this work and on his edition
of Hobbes, large sums of money were generously and
patriotically expended by Sir William Molesworth. It
was a noble example of the public-spirited employment of
wealth. His edition of the complete works of the philo
sopher of Malmesbury was a princely donation to English
literature. It exposed him to the taunts of a shallow and
captious bigotry, both in the House of Commons, and on
the hustings. Mr. Miall, has, I believe, long since re
pented of being betrayed into the use of so unworthy a
weapon at the Southwark election, and therefore let him
be exonerated. The petty spirits whom It could please
then, or who could have recourse to It afterwards and
deliberately, deserve no such condonation. In the West
minster Review, sundry able articles have been generally
attributed to Sir William Molesworth's own pen, especially
those which completed the exposure of the old Orange
system In Ireland, and which gave a mortal blow to the
power of that ultra-Tory organization. The Westminster
Review has since passed through various hands, and

OF THE PEESS, 1855. 117
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
undergone sundry changes. Its present proprietor
is exposed to an opposition In the establishment of the
National, which seems chiefly to differ from it on some
very fine points of theology. This is the way with Radicals
and their unaccommodating individuality. Unable to sup
port one organ, they forthwith start two. Instead of
splitting upon theological niceties, it would have been
wiser to have thrown the old cargo of theology overboard
entirely. Radical Reformers have sufficient sources of
diversity amongst themselves to make us demur to the
addition of that overflowing fountain of disagreement and
animosities. They want a respectable and accredited
organ. It Is essential to them as a political body ; and if
the present spirited but struggling proprietor will take our
counsel, he may have a chance of placing It in that position
which the liberality and talent of Sir William Molesworth
endeavoured, in vain, to bestow.
An abortive effort, but a wise one, was made by Sir
William Molesworth in 1837 to establish a more system
atic co-operation amongst Reformers ; In fact to organize
a Radical party in Parliament. For this object he in
vited to his house some who were, and others who were
not, members of the Legislature. The counsels of the
latter were requested as to the state of feeling out of
doors. They were urgent for the adoption of some such
plan. But they were only feebly seconded by some of the
members, one of whom, however, exclaimed, " We shall
do nothing if we separate without choosing a leader and

118 CORRESPONDENTS
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 23.
determining to follow him." But they did so separate, and
accordingly did the nothing which he predicted. From
that time Radicalism sunk In the House of Commons.
What might have been a powerful party became simply an
appendage to dominant Whiggery. Instead of substantive
existence. Radicalism was only the tail of Liberalism.
Mr. Hume repeated this effort eleven years afterwards,
and the failure was repeated. Radicals remain as they
were, only Individuals. They have no cohesion — they
follow no guidance but each man's vagary — they act upon
no plan for a parliamentary campaign — their ablest men
are continually drafted off Into a Whig or Coalition Ad
ministration, there to do what they can by unaided and
solitary effort. The people's power in the House Is thus
frittered away. It crumbles Into its constituent atoms.
Sir William Molesworth saw the opportunity which others
could not join him in taking advantage of; he suggested
the remedy which they would not adopt, and thus thrown
back upon his own individuality he made his way by
knowledge, talent, and principle, without ever acting for
the sake of personal advantage. Into the very cabinet
itself, where he lately stood the bulwark of our hopes and
expectations of a wise colonial government. This was
much for one man to do amidst such a disorganized and
rabble rout.
During the present Parliament there have been two Im
pressive Instances of Sir William Molesworth's dignified
consistency. The head of the Administration and the

OF THE PEESS, 1855. 119
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
leader of the House, Lord Palmerston, opposed himself
vehemently to Mr. H. Berkeley's motion on the ballot.
The house was curious and censoriously inquisitive as to
Sir W. Molesworth's conduct. There were hints and
whispers that he would not dare to speak, however he
might vote. Premature taunts were thrown out and cries
got up to enforce him to address the house. He rose
calmly, and forthwith delivered one of those evidently and
elaborately prepared orations which fairly exhausted the
whole rationale of the subject, and was altogether impreg
nable to reply. Anticipatory censures were quelled and
absorbed in admiration.
The other occasion to which I alluded was when Mr.
Cobden, speaking from memory, perhaps, twitted Sir
William with inconsistency in his support of the present
war, and alluded to a speech delivered some twenty
years ago at Leeds or Sheffield. He remarked In
a tone of bitter Irony that he should like to hear
Sir William read that speech at the table of the
house. The challenge was accepted. Sir WUHam came
down the next evening with the speech in his pocket, read
abundantly sufficient to satisfy the house, and declared his
readiness to read the whole, which was to the very letter
in accordance with the hostlUty to Russia which he then
professed. This unfriendly attack was most thoroughly
rebutted, and the Member for the West Riding was laid
prostrate by the recoil of his own weapon.
The country can ill afford to lose such men at the

120 COEEESPONDENTS
PUBLICOLA. OCT. 28.
present crisis, and to lose them too, in the very prime
and vigour of life, and while such wide opportunities were
opening for their useful and honourable efforts. We look
about us In vain for a satisfactory successor in colonial
administration. We mourn the reach of thought and the
integrity of principle that we have lost. We miss the
man. I leave to others the biographical incidents of his
Hfe, or the formal analysis of his character. But in these
few remarks I tell what I have seen and known of one of
the most wise and upright of modern statesmen, unable at
the same time to express the deep regret with which I de
plore his premature loss. Publicola.

OF THE PRESS, 1855. 121
AN EAST ANGLIAN.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE WEST BEITON.
OCTOBER 30, 1855.
SiB, — Permit a stranger to offer his tribute of respect to
the memory of this distinguished Cornlshman. Your
county, sir, has produced many worthies, but of two of her
sons she may be especially proud. They were remarkable
alike for their liberal principles, the ablHty with which they
maintained them, and the early age at which they com
manded the respect and attention of parliament and the
country. Alas, we must add that they were alike in their
early deaths. " How much eloquence and wit," (to quote
the eloquent eulogium of Mr. Macaulay) " how much
acuteness and knowledge, how many engaging qualities,
how many fair hopes are buried In the grave of poor
Charles Buller." While of Molesworth it must be said,
that the friends of human happiness and improvement will
ever remember with gratitude the landowner whose heart
was in the struggle against the Corn-laws — the aristocrat
whose desire and endeavour it was to give to the poor depen
dent elector complete freedom at the polling booth, and
above all, the liberator and regenerator of our colonial
empire. It Is said by some writers of the newspaper press who are
unwilling to allow that the departed statesman belonged to
the Radical party ,that he had modified many of the opinions
of his earlier years. These gentlemen are about as correct

122 COEEESPONDENTS
AN BAST ANGLIAN. OCT. 30.
in their judgment as the Stag " who feared that his hind
feet would overtake his fore." The Liberals of one age
are the Tories of the next, and so (again to quote Macaulay)
the great progress goes on, till school boys laugh at the
jargon which Imposed on Bacon, and country rectors talk
of the Intolerance of Sir Thomas More.
Molesworth In 1855 was less conspicuously in advance of
his contemporaries than Molesworth in 1853, not that he
had gone back, but that they had come forward. He had
not, I believe, changed one opinion which he advocated at
his first entrance Into public Hfe. Many who then differed
from him now hold his opinions. This is well Illustrated
by the case of East Cornwall. If I am well informed. Sir
WilHam Molesworth retired from the representation of the
eastern division because he was considered by the Whig
gentry to "go too far." At the last election for that
division there was returned by a majority of hundreds, a
gentleman, who (I judge only from his votes in the House
of Commons,) goes equally "far" as did Sir WilHam
Molesworth. Space fails, or I would gladly dwell on Molesworth's
noble and consistent advocacy of universal toleration and
complete religious liberty, on that logical power, that
copious and exact memory, that unwearied Industry and In
domitable energy which distinguished the departed philoso
pher and statesman. He Is gone.
" Plere et menunisse reUctum est."
On one great question on which his views were never

OF THE PEESS, 1855, 123
AN EAST ANGLIAN. OCT. 30.
" modified," let the Liberals of Cornwall hear his advice,
and listen to it with the solemnity with which they would
hear a voice from the tomb. " The people ought to make
every exertion to obtain the ballot : they ought to con
sider supporting it as a test of liberal principles, to reject
every candidate who hesitates upon this subject; they
ought to consider that he mocks and derides them who
talks of the rights of electors, and at the same time refuses
to defend them by secret suffrage."
Yours truly,
AN EAST ANGLIAN.
6, Lower Belgrave Street.

124 THE FRENCH PRESS, 1855.

JOtlENAL DES DEBATS.— NOVEMBRE 9, 1855.

Il y a en ce moment une place vacante dans le cabinet
anglais, celle de minlstre des colonies. Qu'elle soit don-
nee k Lord Stanley ou a Lord Elgin, qui tons deux sent
egalement capables de le rempllr, la politique exterleure
n'en sera point modlfi^e. Aussi n'est-ce point de I'homme
qui prendra cette place, mais de celul qui vient de la lals-
ser, que nous voudrlons dire ici quelques mots. Sir
William Molesworth, mort presque subltement il y a une
quinzaine de jours, etait plus connu dans le monde lettre
et phllosophlque que dans le monde de la politique active,
et, bien qu'il n'eilt jamais cesse d'etre m^le aux affaires
de son pays et de son temps, I'influence qu'il exer^a 6talt
d'une nature trop generale et pour ainsi dire trop specu
lative pour le rendre populalre. H n'en a pas moins
merits que son nom soit range parmi ceux qui honorent
la politique, la philosophie et les lettres contemporaines ;
et dans son pays II restera partlcullerement assocle aux
progres, aux reformes et aux ameHoratlons qui out donn6
un si grand d^veloppement a I'empire colonial de la
Grande-Bretagne. Sir William Molesworth etait, dans la vie publique
comme dans la vie privee, un des plus vrals et des plus
dignes representans de la classe des gentlemen anglais. II
n' etait point de I'arlstocratle titree, mais II etait de la no-

THE FRENCH PEESS, 1855. 125
JOUENAL DES DEBATS. NOV, 9.
blesse du sol ; il etait I'herltler et le dernier descendant
d'une ancienne famlUe de la province de Cornouallles, ou
le titre de baronnet etait entre avec la revolution de 1688.
Orphelin h I'age de treize ans, et avec la jouissance ou la
perspective d'une tres grande fortune, II acheva son edu
cation h Edimbourg, puis dans les Unlversltes d'AUe-
magne, c'est-^-dire dans les ecoles ou predomlnait surtout
I'enselgnement de la philosophie. Cette education, jolnte
aux tendances naturelles de son esprit, dut donner k sa vie
politique ce caract^re un pen abstralt que nous avons dej^
signale. II dut pulser aussi dans ses etudes phllo-
sophlques 1' esprit radical qui distingua ses premieres
opinions. II entra dans la vie publique au plus chaud
moment de la Reforme, en 1831 et 1832, et d^s qu'il cut
atteint sa majorite II fut envoye ^ la Chambre des Com
munes. Sir William Molesworth entra dans la carriere llt-
teralre en memo temps que dans la carriere politique, et
de la m^me manlere et dans la meme direction. II con-
sacra plusieurs annees de travail, et, ce qui par bonheur
lui etait facile, des sommes considerables, a une edition
des oeuvres d'un homme dont le nom est plus connu que
les livres, nous voulons dire Hobbes. Avec une ardeur
digne d'un melUeur sort et d'un melUeur objet, le jeune
Molesworth publla en cinq volumes les ouvrages latins et
en onze volumes les ouvrages anglais de cet heureux phi-
losophe; le tout, avec les gravures et les planches lui
coiita quelques centalnes de mille francs. Fort heur-

126 THE FRENCH PRESS, 1855.
JOURNAL DES DEBATS. NOV. 9.
eusement sa grande fortune lui donnait I'Independance
et le choix du travail ; II en usa aussi honorablement et
avec autant de deslnteressement en se rendant acquereur,
et en se falsant I'editeur de la Revue de Westminster,
organe trimestrlel des opinions radicales en politique et
en philosophie.
On pent voir par 1^ quel genre de position Sir William
Molesworth prit dans la vie publique et quel genre d'ln-
fluence U y exer§a. D'une sant^ qui avalt toujours ete
faible, d'habitudes studieuses et serleuses, d'une nature
plutot contemplative que pratique, il manqualt et de la
force et des elemens necessaires pour faire un orateur
populalre ou un homme de parti. Mais sa grande in
struction, ses connalssances profondes et varices, I'hon-
n^tete reconnue de son caract^re et en meme temps sa
position sociale lui donnalent beaucoup d'autorite, et ce fut
k tons ces titres qu'il arriva au poste politique le plus
fleve. Ce sera une des choses curleuses de I'histoire de 1' Angle-
terre de ce temps-ci, et un signe des grands changemens
qui se sent accomplls dans les partis et dans les opinions de
ce pays, que d' avoir vu Sir William Molesworth devenk
membre d'un gouvernement conservateur. Car nous de-
vons rappeler que le cabinet dont II fit pour la premiere
fois partie etait celui de Lord Aberdeen ; ce cabinet de
coalition forme des dcsbrls les plus brlUans recuellHs dans
la mine generale des anciens partis. Sir William Moles
worth y reprSsentait la nuance liberale la plus avanc6e,

THE FRENCH PRESS, 1855. 127
JOURNAL DES DEBATS. NOV. 9.
OU, si I'on veut, le radlcallsme ; mais c'fetait un radical
si bien ne, si bien eleve, si bien mis, et ayant tant de bonnes
choses a conserver, qu'il ne pouvait raisonnablement pas
^tre pris pour un revolutlonnalre.
Sir William Molesworth etait entre dans le minist^re
aveC le departement des travaux publics, oii 11 6tait assez
mal classe. II trouva beaucoup mieux sa place au minis-
tire des colonies, qu'il occupalt depuis quelques mois.
C'est en effet comme reformateur colonial qu'il s'6tait fait
et qu'U gardera un nom dans I'histoire de son pays. La
politique des colonies avait etc, avec la philosophie, 1' objet
principal de ses etudes, II etait sur ces matleres une auto-
rite. C'est k lui, avant tons les autres, que les Immenses
dependances de la Grande-Bretagne dolvent les reformes
qui les ont faites libres et prosplres. Aussi, quand le
poste de ministre des colonies devint vacant, II y fut porte
par la voix publique, et la Soclete de Reforme administra
tive reconnut hautement la justice de ce choix. On
pouvait s'attendre que Sir WilHam Molesworth, enfin
arrlv6 aux fonctions pour lesquelles II etait le mieux pre
pare, s'y montreralt digne de sa reputation. La mort ne
lui en a pas donnfe le temps, et I'a arrete brusquement
dans la plenitude de sa carriere. II n' avait que quarante-
cinq ans. H a laisse dans son pays, comme homme pub
lic et comme homme prive, la plus honorable memoire et
d'unanimes regrets, et les lettres et la philosophie doivent,
autant que la politique, s'associer a cet hommage.
John Lbmoinnb.

128 PERIODICAL LITERATURE, 1855.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, DECEMBER.
SIR WILLIAM MOLESWOETH.
BT CTRD3 BEDDING.
It Is a singular circumstance, characteristic of the
present time, that when a distinguished individual dies,
no two statements regarding him alive should tally with
each other. Some account of him must be given in the
papers when public expectation is to be gratified. Re
search Is troublesome ; fancy Is called in to fill the sheet,
and a public which assumes to be more enlightened and
discriminating than any which preceded It, is quite
satisfied with discrepancies which would not have passed
unnoticed a little time ago.
This has been particularly the case In relation to
Sir WIHIam Molesworth, who had been a public character
above twenty years. His habits were not obtrusive. He
was not found cozening popularity at opportune public
meetings at the outset of his career, as the custom Is with
the mass of Incipient politicians. He was possessed of
distinguished abilities, of considerable learning, of ample
fortune, and of political integrity. He was content to let
the harlot Fame follow him as she might, scorning to play
at the tables round which political gamblers In general
meet to try the same luck In the same coarse and vulgar

PEEIODICAL LITERATURE, 1855. 129
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
track to fortune or disappointment. He did not avert
his eyes from the objects which he really had In view In
order to beguile observers, nor, turning aside after specu
lative good, suffer himself to wander In the maze, the exit
of which Is where It began. Sir WIHIam Molesworth was
the antagonist of chicane, the Intrepid asserter of what he
conscientiously believed to be truth, and consequently he
could always be relied upon and comprehended.
******
He was only a little over age when he took his seat in
parliament for the eastern part of the county of Cornwall.
At that time he was full of the generous feelings of youth.
He had been carefully educated, and besides the classical
languages, in which he was an eminent proficient, he had
acquired a knowledge of the German. He read much,
and reflected deeply on a limited space in regard to
subject, rather than over a wide field. It is not, therefore,
wonderful he should take the real and just view of
things in place of that which custom alone makes current.
Hence he became a decided Liberal — In those days
'^ Radical" was the term — a term with which the present
Lord Broughton, then Mr. Hobhouse, we well remember,
shocked the over-sensitive ears of the House of Commons
by applying to himself. To be a solitary step In advance
of the hackneyed opinions sanctioned by our grandmothers,
and consecrated and hallowed by all sorts of anomalies
and abuses, was then deemed horridly "low." In
Cornwall the Whigs, in the strictest sense, were what

130 PERIODICAL LITERATURE, 1855.
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
would now be called the Liberal party; but an enlightened
mind that then judged of things as they actually were,
and called them by their real, not customary, names, was
looked upon with much shyness by the old unprogressives
of that party. It is doubtful whether the late Mr.
Stackhouse Pendarves, or Sir Coleman, then Mr., Rash-
leigh, or the Rev. Mr. Walker, noted Whigs In Cornwall,
went much beyond the limits thus defined. Sir WilHam
Molesworth, entering parliament with his advantages of
family and connexion, was not opposed for East Cornwall.
The Whigs, though the Liberal party in the country,
became astounded at the boldness of his parliamentary
conduct. They only dreamed, as if still under the
pressure of the days of Lord Castlereagh. Sir WiUiam,
on the other hand, was wide awake to those principles
which since the triumph of Reform have emancipated the
minds of men of all parties, more or less, from their
ancient bondage. Tories became Conservatives, the Whigs
Liberals — all felt the soft Impeachment. Sir William, In
the advance of that time, could see what were the political
necessities of the country, and dare their advocacy. In
the House, to which he was first returned In 1832, he
was fearless and uncompromising. He defended liberal
measures and opinions. He was an advocate for following
out all those changes which were to a certain degree
dependent upon the great measure of national progress —
such as free-trade and the abolition of the corn-laws. He
became in consequence, the rejected of East Cornwall.

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1856. 131
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
Leeds was better Informed as to the spirit of the time; he
was returned for that town, and then began his career as
a colonial reformer. He was not alone or unprompted
here ; and It Is a curious fact, showing how little political
integrity Is valued In this country, that his early intimacy
with Mr. Roebuck, and the part they bore in common on
the Canada question, have not been noticed in the sketches
of his career. The meed of political consistency and
Integrity belonged to the one as much as the other ; but
unless political honesty is gilded, like everything else
where venality is the current coin, it passes as waste. It
was about the end of 1834, that Sir William and Mr.
Roebuck conferred together. In AprU 1835, the London
Review was established, and in this they both laboured.
When Lord John Russell, with his wonted precipitancy,
was for coercing the Canadian Legislature without a due
consideration of the popular interests. Sir WUliam resisted
the measure, and the event bore him out. Mr. Roebuck
was also an advocate for justice being done to the colony,
but not after the mode which had been followed on former
occasions. We weU remember how they were vituperated
for the stand they took. Time has shown that the views
of Sir WUliam and his friend were sound ; and It Is not
too much to say that we owe to the wisdom of the measures
effected In placing the Canadians under self-government,
the secure affection of the entire population to the mother
country. The latest maUs have shown how they sympa
thized with aU true Englishmen on the faU of Sebastopol.

132 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855.
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
The notion that men In these times, well-informed and
numerous, dweUing in distant colonies, can be governed
by one individual, four, five, or ten thousand miles away,
continually changed, and grossly Ignorant of the necessities
and feelings of the colonists, would seem ridiculous were it
not a truth too serious In its consequences for ridicule..
The country owes the dissipation of this idea to , Sh"
William. Sir William announced as mischievous the transportation
system. He believed that criminals may be reclaimed in
a large proportion, and that human nature is not so bad
as the past practices of barbarous laws and precedent-
ridden lawyers remorselessly exhibited It. The difficulty,
we know, that Sir William felt, was not so much about
the certainty of the result as the means of attaining it,
for on this all would depend. On this point he was
anxious, and not unjustifiably so, seeing that his best
expectations might be thwarted by the choice of bad
instruments. Time will alone test the measure, the plan
of which is so generous and phUanthropical, and on which
the government, to its honour, has experimented.
Whether in parHament or out he was constantly em
ployed in writing or editing. He wrote clearly and
logically, and thus he had a great advantage over most
of his opponents. There was nothing remarkable in his
style ; It was clear and plain, weH adapted to those topics
on which he was more earnestly employed. He edited
the works of Hobbes duriug his absence from parliament,

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1865. 138
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
between 1841 and 1845. For this he was censured dur
ing the Southwark election by one of the candidates, as
well as because he supported the Maynooth Grant. Such
attacks, where Individuals in their self-conceit set up their
own opinions as a standard of right or wrong In others,
belong to the spirits of a departed day. They make the
animus for mischief, and no more — the desire to be des
potic over mind, without the power — the wish to serve self
by arousing the passions of bigotry and Intolerance — but
without meeting success. Sir William was returned tri
umphantly, the unworthy attempt, as to motive, being
well understood. He resumed his efforts to promote
colonial reform, and he was now making great way. He
was doing good on a large scale, and could well afford to
sustain a little vituperation. Lord Aberdeen, in a spirit
of party concIHatlon, offered him the Woods and Forests.
His desire to promote the objects he had most at heart
induced him to accept a post In which his efforts were, to
a certain extent, neutralised. He was a lover of peace,
too, and appreciated his lordship's efforts to preserve it,
which, if an error, was one on the right side. It is
evident that Lord Aberdeen did not comprehend Sir
WiUiam's particular studies in pubHc affairs; or, perhaps,
was actuated by the wish to form a strong administration
rather than to make use of the particular branches of po
Utical knowledge by which he might have been more
serviceable. StUl it was a tribute to one who had voted
on aU occasions in the most liberal spirit ; both the offer

134 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1856.
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
and acceptance were honourable to the parties con
cerned. On the accession of Lord Palmerston to the premiership,
Sir William was offered the situation of colonial minister.
The offer was not only creditable to the premier as a con
cession to talent, but it marks his lordship as being one
who. If left unrestricted by the Interests of powerful fami
lies, could not fail to put the right men In the right places.
No one is more aware than Lord Palmerston that It is his
interest to do this as the real foundation of ministerial
power. Lord Palmerston has won golden opinions by his
conduct on this occasion. , * * *
It must not be imagined that Sir William Molesworth
met with no obstacles in his career on the path of colonial
reform. They were of less moment to him than to many
others, because his convictions were strongly fixed in a
confidence of their justice, and there can be no stronger
stimulus to a well-constituted mind. He had none of those
miserable political prejudices which mark the half -fledged,
half-reasoning politician. His early testimony In behalf
of an extensive system of national education was a proof
of his attention to the subject when youth In general
scarcely thinks at all. There Is something exceedingly
well-promising when young men of ,talent and fortune are
perceived to study early the great questions upon which so
much of the public welfare depends. Such are the men to
partake legitimately In the active government of the na
tion, because they are directed by correct views, whUe

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855, 135
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
their motives cannot be sordid and selfish, but are rather
honourably ambitious of distinction as a reward. Heaven
keep us from a country ruled upon commercial principles ;
commerce, as the vulgar say of fire, being " a good
servant but a bad master," It may help the exchequer,
but Its venality destroys that loftiness of spirit and prin
ciple which alone should guide the policy of great and
powerful nations, never to be worthily ruled by mean mo
tives of pecuniary profit.
Beginning his education early, Sir William, as it was,
ran a longer career than many public characters have
done. He had the advantage of being naturally practical
In his tendencies, and at college was looked upon as a
Radical, a reproach which he could well brave without
concern. We can scarcely think such a mind as his was
at all adapted for celebrity in what is styled " learning"
at such places. He wanted a wider scope of action, a
regulating of things, not words, even at an age when longs
and shorts alone occupy collegiate attention. He was
evidently of and for the political world. He observed
much, and in his early continental tour, where he made
profitable observations, he directed his attention par
ticularly to the public institutions.
There was no vacillation exhibited in his conduct;
he took his ground and kept it. He had the pleasure,
and it is not a small one, of finding all he had supported
in early life, the very measures he had found in youth
calumniated and denounced, become the admissions of the

136 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1865,
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
parties that had once opposed them, and finally the laws
of the land. Is this no triumph — no reward ? The most
gifted can do but little Individually, under even prolonged
existence. In lessening the political as well as other evUs
which afflict humanity. It Is only a succession of such
men that can subdue the waywardness of obliquitous
customs, and soften mortal destinies. Yet is the little
effected by the power of one individual a just source of
satisfaction. Singleness of purpose, too, distinguished
Sir William while seeking to lessen such evils. He pos
sessed firmness In pursuing his object against obstacles
that would daunt common minds, and yet he did all In the
quietest manner.
He succeeded at last In his measures for emancipating
the colonies from those mischievous cliques, called colonial
councils, which were the tools at one time of officials In
the mother country, and at another of their own pleasure,
without regard to the welfare of the governed. This
mockery he denounced as Incompatible with the Interests
of the colonists, and pregnant with the elements of that
discontent which would else sooner or later have led to
disseverance. Sir William would have no sham infusion
of the popular element with which It had been too long
the custom to mask the conduct of colonial affairs. He
would have the reality, not the semblance. He had,
therefore, to contend against the murmurs of ruined pa
tronage, and officials heartbroken that they had no longer
the power of doing the mischief to which they had become
naturalised — sometimes quarrelling with the colonial office

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855. 137
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
at home, as well as with those whose more immediate
servants they should have been if they had kept the object
in view for which they exercised their functions. In fact,
they fully exemplified (we believe his own quotation about
the social state) the creation of the colonists Into a duality
of classes : " Ceux qui plUent — et ceux qui sent pIU^s."
His contributions to his Review were not wholly on
colonial subjects. Among others, the " State of ;the
Nation" and " Church Reform," we believe, were his.
Of those of Mr. Roebuck we remember but two, namely,
on Municipal Reform and on the Canadian Grievances.
Reviews of works on colonial subjects; and, singular
enough, a paper on our Military Abuses, strlkiogly ex
emplified in recent events In the East, were of those
articles of which we do. not recollect hearing of the au
thorship. Sir William early advocated the rule of reason
In government In opposition to those who supported usage,
tradition, and the " wisdom of our ancestors," as superla
tively preferable. He was in the matter of utility a
Benthamite. The notions once current can hardly be
conceived In 1855, so great have been the concessions to
common sense within the last twenty or thirty years.
Some may think the same now, but will not openly avow
then- obsolete opinions. Sir WUliam well observed upon
this, referring to parties opposed to advance In that time,
" Whenever a body of men are found to be steadily and
tenaciously against reason, we may safely conclude they
have interests to the exercise of which reason would be
fatal."

138 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1865.
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
It Is unfortunate that death cut short the career of the
individual who might have unostentatiously worked out by
lengthened years yet greater benefits for his country.
He had, it is true, before his departure from life, worked
out his destined mission — he was to do no more. He
might have consolidated the work he had terminated as
far as the superstructure went; he might have closed minor
points In the relations of the mother country and the
colonists, which yet remain open, and closed them as no
one merely an official without a heart in the matter ever
wUl do. He might have lived to see the magnificent
machinery run smoothly towards its important destiny of
covering remote islands and continents with free-born men
of British race, institution, and language, to hand down
to the unnumbered generations of the future the memory
of those by whose wisdom they received the legacy of
well-regulated government, and to the fruits of whose
energy and activity they are heirs. It Is unfortunate
that our craving after gain, and our Indomitable pursuit
of It, obscure from the vision of the many the sumless
value of our magnificent foreign establishments in relation
to the future, or even how necessary to that craving Itself
the preservation of their attachment Is to the mother
country. Were it othervrise, the value of such a colonial
minister as Sir William would be better understood. As
it is, the colonies themselves cannot but affix the true
value to his services as the advocate of their self-govern
ment, as well as being one destined so far to aid the

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855. 139
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
fulfilment of the prophetic words of a contemporary of his
youth, in the prospective decay of the shackles that
hamper the human intellect. " The cloud of mind is
dischargmg its collected lightnings, and the equUibrium
of Institutions and opinions Is restoring or about to be
restored." One of Sir WUlIam's early observations, from Its plain
good sense, we remember : " It has been frequently said,
but the evidence of It has not been sufficiently displayed
and enforced, that no colony is other than hurtful to the
mother country which does not repay its own expenses.
The proposition, indeed. Is self-evident, for what does a
country get by a colony for which It Is obliged to pay,
and from which It receives nothing ?  How
many times more valuable the free trade of the United
States, than the forced trade was of the North American
colonies. They say, also, that we have sunk capital in
the colonies. Sunk it is, Indeed ! Then let us follow the
approved maxim of common life, not to throw good money
after bad!" How strange that Sir William's reasoning
did not operate long ago. Lord Waldegrave hinted that
George IIL, his pupil, was the creature of prejudice, and
the last reason of kings, set to work by that prejudice,
lost England what the common-sense reason of Sir William
would have preserved for his country's crown unto this
day. Sir WiUiam was not an accomplished public speaker.
He laboured not for show but utUity, not to startle " the

140 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855.
NEW MONTHLY, DECEMBER.
ears of the groundlings" by the coruscations of his
eloquence or the poignancy of his wit ; and therefore this
deficiency was of the less moment, especially as his
speeches were always to the point. His mission had a
more exalted aim. He pushed on towards truth, but in
his advance was content to proceed after the rule of the
practicable, step by step. The good to be produced was
uppermost in his view — over all ideas of fame or selfish
reward ; all was bravely done, all was honestly laboured,
all was achieved with the most perfect moral rectitude,
duty and the public good being In his mind ever present.
It need not be added that his religious principles were
tolerant in the fullest sense of the word. He deemed the
belief of every individual to be a question between man
and his Creator alone. His love of truth and contempt of
shuffling we remember he exemplified in written remarks
upon Coplestone (afterwards bishop), who presumed to
deal with Locke In the old-fashioned mode of argument.
" ' His (Locke's) opinions,' said Coplestone, ' would have
been entitled to greater respect' {observe for what) 'if he
had himself treated with respect the opinions of those who
had gone before him' — (opinions, you see, are entitled to
respect, not on account of the truth of them, but something
else) — ' and the practice of the sensible men of his own
time, whose judgment was worth more as It was confirmed
by experience.' — Locke then misbehaved by seeking for
evidence and yielding to it when found .'"
But though Inclined, we must proceed no further. Sir

PERIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855. 141
NEW MONTHLY. DECEMBER.
WUHam was favoured after all. Who knows but advanced
years might have shaken his love of truth, his ardour for
the public weal ? Many thinking men who would pursue
abstract truth for social advantage, never realize the
slightest advance from their first position, and leave it till
time fortuitously carries it out in a day of better fortune.
Little Is the share of good any single individual can
perform for his fellow creatures before he rests from his
labours for ever. It was Sir William's lot to see his aims
realized, and to quit the scene under an unclouded sky,
before reverses could sicken the heart, or any new efforts
undertaken for the benefit of his kind result in disappoint
ment. Considering the uncertainty of life, and Its rapid
progress to its termination when most protracted. It is n/>
small advantage, after all, to go off the scene unblemished,
and regretted In the fruition of an honest ambition. Such
was Sir WUliam Molesworth's leave-taking of Hfe,

142 PERIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855.

FRAZEE'S MAGAZINE, NOVEMBEE.
While an unpardonable heresy has for a time, at least,
removed some of the most eminent public statesmen from
the public service, death has deprived the government of
one of the few remarkable men which It retained. Sir
William Molesworth was a singular exception to the law
by which men of rank and fortune usually rise to the
highest offices In the state. The Cornish baronet, of
ample fortune, worked as hard at his vocation as if he had
been a politician by profession, and vindicated his claim
to preferment by prolonged and arduous study, and by
reiterated proofs of his capacity and attainments. Brown,
Jones, or Robinson would have been a minister if he had
worked as hard, as long, and as well as Sir William
Molesworth. Had he been content with mere Whiggery,
he might have been a minister long before 1852. But
his notions of what constituted a Liberal were far more
enlarged, and embraced many tenets which were to the
last degree heterodox when measured by the Whig creed.
It is, however, upon his successful assertion of one great
doctrine that the fame of Molesworth must ultimately
rest. The late Secretary of State for the colonies lived
to see the final recognition of the principle which was
first enunciated nearly a century ago, and our blind and
selfish resistance to which cost us a hundred mUlIons of
money, an inglorious war, and the loss of nearly half our
empire. Everybody now admits that the colonies must

PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855, 143
FRASER. NOVEMBEE.
and ought to legislate for themselves, and that the inter
ference of the mother country shall henceforth be confined
to some few acts of executive administration. It may be
said that this wise and generous policy would have been
dictated by an enlightened public opinion If Sir William
Molesworth had never existed. We are not quite so sure
of this; but even If It were true to demonstration, it
should not detract from the well-earned merit of a states
man who illustrated public opinion, and pointed to a
practical result. How many political truths are fioating
on the wide expanse of public opinion, until the concen
trated efforts of some powerful mind give them shape and
pressure. Sometimes, Indeed, an Important truth is
seized and borne along by the current of events ; but it Is
far better — more becoming, at least — that the policy of a
great nation should be dictated by statesmen on principles
which have undergone the conflict of argument and dis
cussion. The high position to which Sir William Molesworth
attained was honourable to his country as well as to
himself. It is, or perhaps we should say was, a vulgar
notion that a Radical could not be a gentleman, and that
a gentleman could not be a representative of Radicals.
But Sir W. Molesworth gave a practical refutation to a
prejudice which, we must own, was not wholly without
foundation. The Whig distaste for the phUosophical
baronet was a significant proof, If any such were wanted,
that he was beyond the pale of conventional Liberalism ;

144 PEEIODICAL LITEEATUEE, 1855.
FRASER. NOVEMBER.
but for all that, he was a scholar, a man of letters, and a
gentleman. On the one hand, he never compromised his
opinions for the sake of social caste ; nor on the other did
he ever make any unworthy concession to popular clamour.
*****
The difficulty of filling up the void made in the Govern
ment was felt by Lord Palmerston, and it is to his
credit, we think, without regard to party connection, he
attempted. In the first Instance, to obtain a young states
man, whose rising reputation rendered him no inadequate
successor to Sir W. Molesworth. There were, indeed,
many points of resemblance between the deceased Minister
and Lord Stanley. Both men of birth and fortune, of
original minds and considerable talents ; they disdained
to give up to party what was meant for mankind. Moles
worth can hardly be said to have ever held any relation
with party : Stanley, though born and bred in party
trammels, has so loosened his bonds that he is now held
to the Conservative opposition by a tie so frail that any
day may sever it.

NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN. 145
Me. GLADSTONE,
AT CHESTER, 12th NOVEMBER, 1855.
The principle Is recognised, and fully recognised, that
the local affairs of free colonies — for I do not enter into
the question of colonies disabled by any pecuHar or tem
porary cause for full freedom — shaU be fully managed by
the colonies themselves. And now I wish to discharge a
debt of justice. There were some men in this country who
had undoubtedly proceeded far In advance of their fellow-
legislators with regard to colonial affairs. I mention them,
because, for the most part, they were men with whose
political opinions it was my fate commonly or very fre
quently to differ. Moreover, I think that as the time of
the greatest colonial freedom I have mentioned — namely,
the reign of Charles the Second— was eminently a Tory
time, it is but fair, and In the spirit of equal justice, that
we should now render their due to men of quite a differ
ent political connexion — namely, some of the Radical
members of the British Parliament. Mr. Hume, Mr.
Roebuck, who Is still amongst us, and a gentleman whose
name has only within the last few weeks been added to
the list of the departed — Sir William Molesworth ; these
were all of them, in my opinion, great benefactors to their
country, by telling the truth upon the right method of
colonial government, and that at a time when the truth
was exceedingly unpopular. They showed great resolu
tion in saying things for which they were looked upon at

146 NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN.
MR. GLADSTONE. NOV. 1855.
the time as little better than either traitors or madmen ;
but either they were not traitors and madmen then, or
we are all traitors or madmen now, because what they
then scarcely ventured to utter amid universal disappro
bation, no man in his senses would, in the British Parlia
ment, now dare — I speak not without exceptions, but
generally — or if he dared would desire to contradict.
Of Sir WiUiam Molesworth let me say, on account of the
circumstances which wUl justify a special reference to him,
that I have the greatest satisfaction in owning the benefit
and instruction which, during many years, I derived from
communication with him on colonial questions, and in ac
knowledging how much I have learned from the speeches
which he delivered on the subject of colonial policy, from
time to time, in the House of Commons. He was a man
of clear and comprehensive mind, of singular diligence and
industry, well grounded in the principles of colonial poHcy
and in the history of our colonies, and full of resolution
and determination in making his opinions known, while at
the same time he promulgated those opinions in a manner
entirely free from the taint of party spirit, and not arous
ing against him a hostUe sentiment, greatly increased the
benefits which his large research enabled him to confer
upon the country. And I feel perfectly satisfied that the
speeches which he delivered will — though he is dead and
gone — long continue to be consulted, and his name to be
had in honour on account of the valuable matter they
contain — not only with reference to facts on almost all

NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN. 147
MR. GLADSTONE. ^^^ ^^^_
colonial questions, of which he was a perfect master, but
likewise with reference to the principles upon which the
colonial empire of this great country ought to be governed.
To him I wish to pay that debt of justice, and also to
others, some departed and some stUl aHve, who have also
led us on In this work.

THE HIGH BAILIFF OF SOUTHWAEK,

AT THE ELECTION OF A SUCCBSSOE TO SIE WILLIAM
MOLESWOETH.

This was the second time within the present year on
which the electors had been called upon to exercise their
constitutional privilege of electing a member of parliament,
and the event which gave rise to such a proceeding now was
one of deep and melancholy Interest. Their late respected
representative had received their confidence for ten
years, and he had honourably maintained it during that
period. Sir William Molesworth was a member of no ordi
nary stamp. Born to hereditary rank and fortune, he had
early felt that those were possessions which he enjoyed,
not for his Immediate advantage only, but as a trustee
for the benefit of the people. He early devoted himself to

148 NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN.
the service of his country, and bestowed the energies of his
mind — naturally powerful and cultivated by good education
— upon those questions which more materially Interested
the people at large. He need not speak of the talents
of Sir W. Molesworth, or of the energy with which he
devoted himself to the great political questions of the
day which were then rife ; nor need he say a word of
the perseverance and industry of their late member, for
he had devoted himself In his Intervals of leisure to those
literary pursuits In which he took delight, and had been
the editor of a great philosophical work which shed a halo
of fame upon that illustrious person almost equal to that
which he had won by his political services. To political
matters he had paid great attention, and before his
decease he had so far gained the confidence of Her Majes
ty as to be appointed Secretary of State for colonial
affairs. In this new office the career of fame was open
to him, and he had embarked with energyupon the course
before him, when the fell destroyer. Death, by an un
timely end, deprived them of his services and Intercepted
all his plans. They deeply regretted the loss of so able,
so worthy, and so distinguished a representative. It
might be said of him as Sir W. Scott had written of
Charles James Fox, —
" For talents mourn untunely lost,
When best employed and wanted most."

NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN. 149
THE MEMBEES FOR EAST CORNWALL,
, AT THE WADEBRIDGE FARMERS' CLUB, JANUARY 1855.
Mr. ROBABTES said — " There Is one question on which I
should like to say a few words, and that Is the loss which
you have all sustained In this neighbourhood, by the
death of Sir William Molesworth. It is not only a loss
to this neighbourhood, but to England; for he was a
statesman and a politician of no ordinary character. He
was, as was well said by Lord Palmerston In a very ex
cellent letter which he sent to Lady Molesworth after
Sir William's death, — he was a thoroughly English states
man. Perhaps few men have passed two or three and twenty
years In political life, in so consistent a manner as Sir
William Molesworth. I do not mean to say that he may not
have modified his opinions in detail on some points. Few
men could pass their three and twenty years, and think
deeply and read much, as he did, without having reason
to correct some of the opinions which they held in early
youth ; but as to the great main principles on which his poli
tics were founded, I believe that no change took place up
to the hour of his death. In private life I always found
him a thoroughly honoiu'able and consistent English
gentleman. Whatever he meant he said distinctly and
clearly, and acted up to what he said, which is a great
thing. There is one point to which I have some diffidence

150 NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN.
ME. EOBAETES. JAN, 1856.
in alluding, because it refers to myself personally, and
pairtakes somewhat of a private nature ; but yet I think
It Is due to the memory of the late Sir William Molesworth
to mention It on this occasion. All of you are aware, that
many years ago he occupied the position which myself and
my honourable colleague do now, — that he was member
for the eastern division of this county. You may remem
ber also that he retired from that representation, and
before he did so I had a conversation with him on the
subject. For reasons which I need not go Into now,
I felt at that time that I should not be in a position
to give him that support which he might have expected
from me, and I told him so clearly. Those who re
member the address with which he bade farewell to
the constituency of East Cornwall, wUl also remember
that In that address he mentioned this conversation.
I think he attached too much importance to me and my
influence, but he did state, that that conversation was
one of the chief reasons of his retirement. Years
passed away ; I refused all invitations from the eastern and
western parts of the county, to become a member of
Parliament, for a long time. But In 1847, from reasons
which I need not go Into, I announced my intention
to become a candidate for the representation of East
Cornwall. Many men in the position of Sir William
Molesworth would have remembered what had passed
twelve or thirteen years before, and though they might
not have opposed me, would perhaps have thrown cold

NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN. 151
MR. ROBARTES. , JAN. 1856.
water on my coming forward. But such littleness of
mind was no part of the character of Sir WUliam
Molesworth. Not only did he at once express his
willingness that I should become a representative as
far as he was concerned, — and there was no necessity
for anything else at that time, for in 1847 there was
no contest, — but some years afterwards, when there
was a contest, I need not tell you how cordially he
supported me. I felt it very deeply at the time, though
I said very little about it. But I felt then, and I have
always felt since, that if Sir William Molesworth's life
had been spared, and on any future occasion circum
stances should have occurred, and I should have had
the opportunity — I should have had peculiar gratl-
flcation, peculiar pleasure, in showing in a public
way, not by my words only, but by my deeds, how
highly I appreciated the kind and honourable con
duct of Sir William Molesworth to myself, under cir
cumstances when many men would have acted in a very
different way."

Mr. Kendall said — " I desire to bear my humble, but
very honest and most sincere testimony, to all that has
been said In favour of the great statesman whom we have
lost. I haye always been opposed In politics to Sir WilHam

152 NOTICES BY PUBLIC MEN.
MR. KENDALL. ' JAN. 1856.
Molesworth; but no man who has heard me utter one
word with respect to his politics, has ever heard me do
any other than bear testimony to the high honour of
that departed gentleman. I have always held him, as
my honourable colleague has said, to have been a man
most consistent In politics. I have always esteemed him
as a perfect English gentleman, of the highest honour,
and of the highest principle; and, what Is more, though
opposed to him from early life, I never received other than
the greatest kindness and the greatest courtesy from him,
and therefore I do join most sincerely in that regret
which has gone out through the length and breadth of
the land, for the loss of a great man — a great statesman
— who was an honour to this county of Cornwall and
to his country."

BALLOT SOCIETY. 163

Tlie following Memorandum is contributed by the Mcecutive
Committee of the Ballot Society, with a Resolution
which appeared in the " Morning Chronicle" of the
2Qth October, 1855.
By no section of politicians was the death of Sir W.
Molesworth more lamented than by the friends of the
Ballot. He was one of its earliest and most able advo
cates, and from his flrst entrance into Parliament he
voted In Its favour. At the memorable election for
South Devon In 1835, he warned Lord J. Russell that
If defeated it would be for want of the BaUot, and bid
him reflect before again opposing its introduction. In the
same year Sir William seconded Mr. Grote' s motion in a
speech of great power. In which he foretold that the re
fusal of the Whig Ministers to concede the Ballot, would be
the cause of their losing power, as well as the confidence
of Reformers ; a prediction fulfilled to the letter six years
afterwards. In his speech at Birmingham in the same
year, he urged the people to make the Ballot a test ques
tion, and reject every candidate who refused to vote for its
adoption. One great object of his establishing " The
London Review," had been to urge the necessity of the
Ballot to prevent the failure of the Reform Bill, and
facilitate the passing of other reform measures. Eleva
tion to office, that test by which the reality of so many
men's principles Is tried and faUs, only shewed, beyond
dispute, the reality of Molesworth's attachment to the
cause of free and protected voting. When invited, in

154 BALLOT SOCIETY.
1853, to join the Aberdeen Cabinet, he expressly reserved
the right to continue his support to the cause of the Ballot,
and he reiterated his profession of attachment to it in his
address to the Electors of Southwark, when re-elected, in
consequence of taking office. In the next session he rose
from his place on the Treasury Bench, and following his
colleague. Lord Palmerston, (who on behalf of the Minis
try, had replied to Mr. Berkeley,) avowed that his con
viction in favour of the Ballot remained as firm as when,
twenty years before, he seconded Mr. Grote' s motion.
On this occasion, he delivered a speech which will ever
remain an unanswered and unanswerable exposition of
the argument In favour of secret suffrage. Molesworth's
continuing In office under Lord Palmerston, was regarded
by the friends of Freedom of Election as the only gua
rantee that the Palmerston Ministry was in reality liberal.
The sudden announcement of Molesworth's illness, im
mediately followed by that of his death, filled with grief
and dismay all those, who sharing his opinions of the
paramount Importance of the Ballot, saw with pride and
pleasure one of its most constant and able advocates seated
in the cabinet. The day after his decease was the first
meeting for the season of the Committee of the Society
for promoting the adoption of the Ballot — a body, formed
on the principle of the Anti-Corn Law League, and
numbering in its ranks many of Molesworth's political
friends. The Committee met, dispirited and cast down ;
they felt that they had sustained no common loss. The
member for Bristol felt that there was no longer a Cabinet
Minister whose presence helped to moderate the bitter
opposition of Lord Palmerston to the Ballot, and who,

BALLOT SOCIETY. 155
moreover, would not be kept back by official etiquette from
answering the Premier's sophistries on the question.
General Thompson, who had been a fellow-labourer with
Molesworth, In the early struggle for Free Trade, before
Cobden was known, or Manchester had organised her
great confederation, was there to lament that his old ally
was not permitted to rejoice over the establishment of
Protection to the Suffrage, as well as the downfall of
Protection to Agriculture. Others were present who had
brought forward Molesworth as a Metropolitan member,
and felt that that section of representatives had lost, in
him. Its most brilliant ornament. The views previously
expressed were brought before the Committee by a leading
member (Mr. Whitehurst) , who suggested the propriety of
their being adopted and publicly expressed by the Com
mittee. The suggestion entirely agreed with the tone of
feeling prevalent at the meeting. By general request the
member In question reduced into writing an expression of
that feeling. Its adoption was proposed by the treasurer,
Mr. Prout, a fellow Cornlshman of the departed States
man, and being seconded by General Thompson, was unani
mously and sorrowfuUy adopted by the meeting. As
agreed to, the resolution was In these terms : —
" That this Committee, deeply lamenting the death
of Sir WiUiam Molesworth, Bart., M.P., remember
with gratitude the many and invaluable services
rendered to the cause of complete freedom of Elec
tion by his speeches and writings in favour of the
Vote by Ballot— that throughout a long Par
liamentary career, he invariably supported the

156 BALLOT SOCIETY.
motions of Mr. Grote and the Hon. F. Henry F.
Berkeley ; and that, when raised to the Cabinet,
he not only continued to support the Ballot by his
vote, but delivered one of the ablest speeches ever
made in its favour. The death of this lamented
Statesman Is a loss to the whole country and Its
dependencies, but the friends of the Ballot have
especial cause to lament his untimely end."

THE COLONIAL PEESS, 1856. 157

THE ADELAIDE OBSEEVEE.
OuB gratification at one portion of the last news from
the seat of war. Is greatly diminished by the unexpected
and mournful character of another portion. Sir WiUiam
Molesworth Is dead. On the appointment of this sincere
and able advocate of colonial interests to the Secretary
ship of the Colonies, we could not refrain from joining in
the all but universal expression of joy which the event
occasioned. The administration of colonial affairs was
never entrusted to more patriotic and disinterested hands.
It was acknowledged even by political opponents of Sir
William, that, when he was appointed to preside over the
Colonial Office, for once, at least, the right man was put
In the right place. The close and diligent attention
given by the right hon. gentleman for many years to
colonial affairs, pointed him out conspicuously before all
other men, as especially fitted to administer in colonial
matters. His name had become an authority on all such
questions, and of late years very few attempts were made
to answer his masterly orations in reference to colonial
reform. His appointment as Colonial Minister was
therefore hailed as the most appropriate ever made;
and we doubt not, when the English papers arrive, we
shall find his unexpected death lamented even more ex
tensively than his appointment to his last official post
was commended.
Sir WiUiam Molesworth was pre-eminently a popular
statesman : living amongst the people, having his sym-

158 THE COLONIAL PEESS.
THE ADELAIDE OBSEEVER. 1856.
pathles with the people, fighting his way to rank and
station on popular principles, and being as much the
people's friend and advocate when his ambition was
attained, as when by popular support he sought to
win reputation and renown. As a politician, a philo
sopher, and a patriot, he will alike live In the memory of
the British nation, and retain the grateful affection of the
people he served. His death will be felt as an irre
parable loss ; the friends of political progress will often
miss the aid of an undaunted and uncompromising
champion ; whilst both the parent country and the
numerous dependencies of the British Crown will be
sensible that one of their most enlightened and honest
statesmen has fallen.
Referring to the rumoured appointment of Lord John
Russell, the Observer adds : —
We do not regard the appointment of the noble lord
as the deathblow of colonial progress, although we cer
tainly would rather have had a Minister like Sir William
Molesworth, who would not only concede to us our privi
lege of self-government, but whose political principles
approximated so very closely to those of the people of
this colony. We are keenly sensible of our loss ; but
Lord John Russell will advise the Queen to sanction
our new Constitution, and In proportion as we develop
responsible government amongst ourselves, the character
of the British Minister for the Colonies will be of com
paratively minor importance.

THE COLONIAL PEESS. 169

THE MELBOUENE AEGUS.

The news of the death of Sir William Molesworth has
caused very great and general regret among all classes
of politicians in Victoria. We had been congratulating
ourselves upon the fact that at length, and for the first
time, a Colonial Minister presided In Downing-Street who
really knew and cared something about colonial affairs.
The appointment of Sir William Molesworth to the
Colonial Office was regarded as an Important step In
administrative reform — a somewhat reluctant substitution
of government by fitness for government by clique, and
we mourned his death as that of a man who, after long
years of probation, had been cut off in the hour of
success, and when opportunities of public usefulness —
the great purpose of his life — had just opened around
him in the direction most congenial to his habits of
thought, and the course his political studies had taken.
The opinion entertained of his fitness for his post was
we beHeve, almost universal throughout the home and
colonial empire. Every one at once declared that an
official example of the " right man In the right place,"
had at length been furnished ; and while the testimony
thus borne to Sir WUlIam's merits was highly credit
able to himself, the rarity of appointments made upon the
principle which dictated his nomination to the Colonial
Office, was sufficiently evidenced by the lively expressions
of surprise and pleasure It elicited. That he was pecu
liarly fitted for the post had long been received as a

160 THE COLONIAL PEESS.
THE MELBOURNE ARGUS. 1856.
political postulate, and, therefore. It almost appears his.
appointment to it was unexpected. Unhappily, however,
England delayed too long in availing herself of her best
colonial statesman, and tbe knowledge, and ability, and
singleness of purpose which he possessed, were left un
employed for years, while men of various kinds of
incapacity succeeded one another in the mismanagement
of the Colonial Office, and were only admitted Into the
service of the State in time to be removed by the great
destroyer. Sorrow trod closely upon the heels of con
gratulation, and while we have to acknowledge that in
the warlike services, England rarely appoints men to high
posts who have not long outlived capacity. In the civil
service, in the one remarkable example of merit recognised,
the recognition was so tardy that death Intervened before
any practical good could result.
When Sir Charles Hotham died we looked with great
hope towards Sir William Molesworth, as to a man likely,
in the appointment of a new Governor, to be guided by
the principle which had led to his own selection for
the high office he held, and we little thought that the
hand had itself long been cold in death, which we hoped
would have allotted to some worthy holder the vacant
honors of him whose remains we were following to the
grave. At the mercy of what minister we are now placed
we know not, but we can scarcely hope for two good
ministers In succession, where the appointment of one was
hailed as a quite unlocked for and unprecedented blessing.
Among the names which have hitherto reached us of

THE COLONIAL PRESS. 161
THE MELBOURNE AEGUS. 1856.
possible successors to Sir WiUiam Molesworth, that of
Lord Elgin has here been received most favourably.
From him we might hope for the appointment of a
Governor on some better principle, than that of making
the colonial governorship the reward of party services ;
but as it Is, we must only exercise the virtue of patience
— "an excellent thing in" colonists — and see what
Downing Street will send us.

THE MELBOUENE HEEALD.
The state of the Colonial Office is a topic which we
cannot pass over. It is true that — while we hold fast
by our allegiance to the Crown, and yet resolve to
repudiate the right of Parliament to control us or
our legislatures- — we shall not long trouble ourselves
about the whole regime carried on at Westminster.
There are, nevertheless, points on which we must always
communicate with the Throne; and, therefore, we are
still interested in the agency through which the business
of tbe monarchy Is conducted. We have no Information,
at present, as to who Is Colonial Minister ; and perhaps
it would be as profitable an attempt to arrest any one
of Banquo's line of ghosts, in their progress across the
stage, as to fix upon any statesman as more likely than
another, in the phantasmagoria of politics, to become
the official murderer of our future peace. They are

162 THE COLONIAL PEESS.
THE MELBOUENE HEEALD. 1856.
all too much like the spirit of imperial despotism that
gives them birth ; and we allude to them only for the
purpose of paying a passing tribute to the memory of the
late Sir WUliam Molesworth — as an exception to the rule.
To more than one Individual connected with this paper,
the death of that distinguished man was a personal
affliction. We enjoyed his friendship for years. We
co-operated with him In his early struggles for colonial
reform. We can bear testimony to the noble simplicity
and disinterestedness of his character, and we can esti
mate the loss that has been experienced, in his untimely
death, by all the colonies of the British Empire.

The death of Sir William Molesworth has caused very
great regret — I am even Induced to say sorrow — In all
these colonies. He was a statesman at whose hands
we have received many benefits. He contributed
greatly to the overthrow of transportation, and he
did all he could to improve the hybrid constitution
given to us In 1850 by Earl Grey. His most fitting
successor would be Robert Lowe, and some day or other
he will force his way Into that department, unless. Indeed,
its obvious inutUIty under a system of local self-govern
ment should cause its abolition before his time comes.
At present It Is to be feared that Mr. Lowe's obvious and
acknowledged knowledge of the colonies is a ground for
exclusion, under the peculiar system under which our

THE COLONIAL PRESS. 163
THE MELBOUENE HEEALD. 1856.
colonies have been ruled. If Ministers had not been
afraid of too much knowledge. Sir W. Molesworth would
have been at the Colonial Office Instead of at the Woods
and Forests, and Mr. Lowe's first appointment would
have been in the place of Mr. Frederick Peel. But the
question of who is and who Is not to be Colonial Minister
will become of less importance every day.

MELBOURNE NEWSPAPER.
It Is very seldom, Indeed, that any man has presided
over the Colonial Office whom the majority of colonists
have not wished elsewhere ; unless, it may be, their wishes
have been checked by a consideration of the preferabillty
of the "ills we have" " to others that we know not of."
Sir William Molesworth presented a rare exception to this
general rule. Throughout almost all those wide-spread
colonial dominions which make the British empire one on
which the sun never sets, we believe the appointment of
Sir William Molesworth to the Colonial Office was regard
ed as an Important step In administrative reform — a
somewhat reluctant substitution of government by fitness
for government clique. Very rarely does any man die
whose death is regarded as a public misfortune over so
large a part of the earth's surface as has been the case
with respect to that of Sir William Molesworth. In all
climates, and In both hemispheres, the news of his untimely

164 THE COLONIAL PRESS.
MELBOURNE NEWSPAPER. 1856.
end must have been mourned as that of a man who, after
long years of probation, has been cut off In the hour of
success, and when opportunities of public usefulness — the
great purpose of his life — had just opened around him,
in the direction most congenial to his habits of thought,
and In the course his political studies had taken.
Perhaps, of the forty and odd colonies of Great Britain,
there may be three or four in which Sir William Moles
worth's appointment was not hailed with satisfaction —
places which, like Jamaica, have never become, even out
wardly, reconciled to the alteration of the sugar duties,
and which still cherish considerable secret hankering
after " the good old times" of slavery. Sir William
Molesworth was a Free-trader, when Free-traders were
regarded somewhat as Socialists are regarded now, and
when Protectionist fallacies were accepted with as much
faith as gospel truths. He was an Abolitionist at a time
when " Uncle Tom's Cabin " would have met but a cold
reception. Truths and principles which would now re
quire some moral courage in any man who should dispute
them, were propounded by Sir William Molesworth, at a
time when to advance them subjected their advocates to
much abuse — when they would be considered by many
weU-meanIng persons atheists as to religion, and anar- >
chists as to politics. In some few parts of the British
colonial empire, where strong personal Interest has pre
vented the leading caste from keeping pace with the
rapid " march of inteUect " — a march which has brought
up the mass of mankind to those places on the field of

THE COLONIAL PRESS. 165
MELBOURNE NEWSPAPEE. 1856.
politics which a few years ago Sir WUliam Molesworth,
and men like him, occupied as soHtary outposts — his
appointment may have been regarded rather as a monu
ment to the success of the enemy — Progress — than as a
cause for rejoicing. But regret at his acquisition of
power can only have been felt in places few and far
between, while to at least nine-tenths of the colonies it
must have been the occasion for more general joy than
what was ever before produced by the appointment of any
Colonial Minister.
It would not be just to say that we took Sir William
Molesworth's good qualities too much upon trust in con
gratulating ourselves upon his appointment, and in mourn
ing his death. It would not be just to say that we gave
him credit for untested qualities, and that If he had Hved
he might have reaped, in subsequent obloquy, the re
actionary harvest of premature and exaggerated praise.
Although his death followed speedily on his first assump
tion of office, he was no stranger, and his past public Hfe
during more than a score of years — even his yet earlier
associations— afforded an ample pledge of what his official
conduct would have been. Office changes those who have
made office their end and aim — who, having reached their
goal, ralax from the exertions that have gained the race.
Men of another stamp, who merely take office as a means
of carrying out principles long cherished and long declar
ed, are little likely to recant them when an opportunity
for putting them more effectually In action has at length
arisen. Sir WUliam Molesworth's public career was both

166 THE COLONIAL PRESS.
MELBOURNE NEWSPAPEE. 1856.
too persistent and too consistent to leave any doubt
as to the fact of his belonging to the latter class. Had
office been his aim, he would not have enlisted the forces
of his talents, his wealth, and his position with those with
whom he has worked from the first — a political section,
then so small, weak, and despised, that his alliance with
it cost him even the "family seat" in the House of
Commons. Men with whom politics are regarded merely
as the means to power or place do not join a small band
scarcely admitted to the honors of regular warfare at all,
though attacked from every side — they do not join such a
band In their youth, and continue faithful to it through
every change of its fortune until middle age. The politi
cal adventurer (we do not mean the poor man, but, possi
bly, also the wealthy duke who treats politics as a personal
game) joins one or other of the great factions that divide
the political world between them. It would not suit him
to join a powerless, though far advanced body, in the
expectation that the world would overtake him. The
process Is too slow and uncertain to make that good policy,
in a worldly sense. He then, who, with abundant means
and opportunities to join the ranks among whom prizes
are being given away, and who keep all the plunder to
themselves, carries his standard into such an army as that
in which Sir William Molesworth has fought during his
whole life, ought not to have his disinterestedness, his
firmness, or his strength of principle questioned. And If,
after a score of years, the world does come round to his
side, and adopts the principles which he has so long been

THE COLONIAL PRESS. 167
MELBOURNE NEWSPAPER. 1856.
fighting for, his foresight and superior wisdom are proven
too. When firmness, disinterestedness, and wisdom have
been tested during a twenty years' career out of office, we
need not apprehend that even the influence of Downing
Street would have power to render torpid or to corrupt.
In mourning the death of Sir William Molesworth as a
public calamity we need not fear that our sympathies are
leading us astray.
Would it not be well for this colony, and for other
colonies too, to signalise their appreciation of Sir William
Molesworth's appointment, and their regret at his loss,
In some public way ? Would It not be well for the coun
cil to embody these sentiments In a carefully-expressed
address to the Throne ? We believe that English states
men have got possession of the idea that colonists are
always grumbling — that it is a portion of their character
to be perpetually abusing the Colonial Minister, and that
no amount of excellence on his part , could redeem him
from that liability. Would it not be well to show that
the contlnuousness of colonial attacks upon the Colonial
Office has simply been a consequence of reckless disregard
to personal fitness with which that office has constantly
been filled, and that when a fit man does chance to be at
length appointed, the colonists are able to estimate him at
his true worth, and are glad enough to relax their hostility
to Downing Street Immediately on the provocation being
withdrawn ?

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 04067 5952