evil of free grants. Fourthly, that the answer to Earl Grey's argument, 'that value will be eventually given to the land by the application of the proceeds of sales to emigration,' is, that purchasers cannot be found at the price. Fifthly, that the idea of concentrating- population by affixing a high upset price is signally defeated in the practical working of the system; for as all persons settling can only afford to settle as graziers, they migrate to distant parts of the interior colony. Thus the system increases dispersion."
But these arguments produced no effect on the impassive and perfectly self-contented mind of Earl Grey; nor did a more elaborate report made in the same year, to which we shall presently advert; for we find in 1853, that, in exact imitation of Gibbon Wakefield in 1850, Earl Grey published his "Colonial Policy," and there, in the very words of his despatch of 1846, urged the same arguments on the land question, with the same example of Swan Elver, without appearing conscious of the contradicting facts above quoted, which had been so repeatedly pressed upon his attention.
In the same letter it is announced that in 1846 the Legislative Council had agreed to make a contribution of £6,000 a year for three years toward promoting steam navigation, or about one-third of the estimated cost. The gold discoveries of 1851 found the colony no further advanced toward steam communication than 1846.
In a second letter, dated the 1st October, 1847, we find the following passage:—"Intelligence has reached the colony indirectly through various channels, that Earl Grey has under consideration the establishment of constitutions for the Australian colonies upon a new scheme, allied to that framed for New Zealand. The mere suggestion of any such constitution, in which district councils appear to be the predominant element, being fastened upon us has excited general dismay. Should our apprehensions prove well founded in this matter, it will afford another and striking instance of the injustice of which we have not unfrequently to complain, of being made the subject of great and important changes through the medium of Parliament without any reference to ourselves, or any consultation with those best qualified to form an accurate judgment of our social and political wants."
From these extracts it will be seen that the first intimation of the accession of Earl Grey to office was accompanied with ample cause for distrust, which he lost no time in improving and justifying.
When the colonists learned the terms on which the contest between the pastoral interest and the Colonial Office had been settled, they saw at once that the interest of all those who were not squatters with four
