—The reflection in your Journal upon Amateur Associations is amply confirmed by our experience; and I am now more and more convinced, the more I see of the Canterbury Association, of the wisdom of Lord Lyttelton's doctrine that it is expedient to transfer the powers of the Charter as soon as possible to the place where alone there will always be people self-interested in using them effectually. As I told you before we got on somehow when the Chairman was here, by dint of his sagacity and assiduity in business; but why? not because he had these qualities, but because, having them, he is who he is. He, being Lord Lyttelton, could have his own way whenever he pleased. When he left, the capacity for business was amply provided for by Mr. Sewell's appointment as Deputy-Chairman; but it has turned out to be a capacity which could not be made available, because the utter incapacity and worse which had got possession before Lord Lyttelton took the chair, and which he then sat down upon and smothered, recovered itself as soon as the weight was removed, and now refuses subjection to the authority of Mr. Sewell. The only Committee men besides Sewell who now attend, are Cocks, when sent for to make a page 328 quorum or sign a check, Hutt and Halswell. Thus Messrs. Hutt, Halswell and Alston,—one cracked, one a mere jobber in the smallest line, and the third an imbecile in desperate circumstances with one foot in the grave,—form a sort of Board which though useless for good, is, being in constant attendance, powerful for impediment and mischief. The sight of it vexes me so that I get seriously ill at Cockspur Street, and make a daily resolution not to go there again, but am led to break it by the fear that something horrid may be done if I do not keep an eye on these noodles and worse, who, at any rate, are very much afraid of me. I am telling you the plain truth. The grand Canterbury Association—the highminded, enlightened, and now important, because successful colonizer—is in a great measure, I will not say administered, but taken and held possession of by these creatures, not one of whom is capable of governing an infant school. Alston is there for his pay: the other two deserted and gave no trouble during the time of adversity and danger; but now when there is money at the banker's, and the shop has got a name and fame, they are always there, crawling about, muddling the business, and driving away customers. I declare to you seriously that this is a true picture.

A remedy is to be attempted this week, by means of investing the Deputy-Chairman with so much formal authority as will give him real power in all things subject to the Chairman's approval. For this purpose only, as I understand, Lord Lyttelton, Simeon, and W. James are coming to town on Thursday next. If the object be accomplished, the real effect will be to make Sewell an efficient administrator for Lord Lyttelton; an excellent arrangement—the very one I can most fully desire—so long as it shall last. But what security is there for its permanence? None; for the goodness of the arrangement, which is composed of the conjoint qualities and willingness of the two men, is itself an accident. Thus, in order to save the Canterbury Association, it must be made to consist of the individuals Lord Lyttelton and Mr. page 329Sewell (for the arrangement is worth nothing unless all real responsibility and power belong to these two); and there is no hope of inducing both or either of them to represent or rather to be the Association for more than a year or two at most. The inference is plain, at least to my apprehension. Realize Lord Lyttelton's theory (which is only a piece of the great doctrine of self-government for the colonies) and transfer the Charter to the Settlement. But when? As soon as possible. When will that be? As soon as there shall be in the colony a set of men fit to be the Association. All the people there will be qualified by self-interest. But, for certain reasons, other and very rare qualities are no less necessary. By the constitution of society, its members are irresponsible to the extent of being chosen without any qualification. Absolute is the irresponsibility of a corporation so self-elected. Now, here in England, this irresponsibility is bad enough, as leaving you nothing to rely on but the public-spirited enthusiasm of a few gentlemen, friends of yours, and of one in particular whose social position makes him very responsible to public opinion; but in the Settlement, where the powers of the Charter might be immensely jobbed for private ends, this total want of responsibility would be fatal, unless a majority of the members—say four in five—were highminded gentlemen of a public spirit and a religious conscientiousness like your own, and also unless some of them were men of a really statesmanlike ability. Such compensation for irresponsibility would, (I think, because in things new, far more depends on people than on institutions) b e better than the best responsibility. But what is the inference?—that you cannot transfer the Charter till there shall be in the colony a dozen or two of men widely different from nearly all who have hitherto emigrated. I know not of one colonist except yourself who possesses the requisite combination of goodness and talent. There are several probably with the goodness, and several with the talent, but not one with both. Therefore, I say, Lord Lyttelton must wait, and be himself, with Sewell, the Association, for a page 330time; and they (Sewell is bent on emigrating) must direct all their efforts to promoting the emigration of men fit to be the Association in the colony.

Most assuredly, as things stand at present, the person who ought to be the most fit to work the Charter in the colony, is the most likely to counterwork it if he had the power. I mean the intended Bishop. Whether any other will tell the truth about him, I cannot know; but I will, to the best of my judgment; and fully, at all events, tor great evil might ensue if you were left in the dark on this all-important point. Considoring the nature of the whole plan, what can be so important as the personal character of the first Bishop? Why I have not entered fully into this subject before, needs some explanation by way of apology. It was but lately that I made up my mind to such a necessity for speaking out as could not be resisted. I would gladly have kept silence about minor disagreeables, and left you to find them out for yourself. And so I would now as to great ones., were they not so great as to persuade me, that great mischief might be done before you had time to find them out, if I left them untold. They are two in particular.

1st. Mr. Jackson does not care, and never has cared, about the plan of the Canteroury Settlement. He undervalues it, or even regards it as only pretty nonsense. It is, and always has been, the Bishopric of the Middle Island that he regards with complacency. And, therefore, naturally, he regards the particnlar Settlement with a kind of dislike. E. Hawkins, who is the Propagation Society, has always so regarded it, though for a different reason—because this new Association, so far as it has religious aims, sets up for doing something better than his Society has ever done, and is either a sort of reproach to it, or a sort of poacher on its manor, or both. So Hawkins, being human, treats the Association as a well-meaning, well-sounding fancy, in which such men as the chiefs must needs be indulged, but whieh will and ought to come to nothing. Down to the meeting in St. Martin's Hall, when page 331the scheme was made a reality, he did what he could to thwart it. Then, when he saw that we should go on somehow, and that there must be a Bishop, he selected Jackson, and filled him with his own views, among which was his disparaging view of your motives and position, which you told me about, and which Jackson let out at a meeting of the Committee not long ago when there was nobody present to rap his knuckles. This is a good sample of the state of their mind. I regard them both as enemies in reality. This is not the less true for being so shocking to tell. The conclusion as to Jackson has come slowly by the process of fact-accumulation. I feel quite sure now, that he will merely use Canterbury Settlement as a ladder for climbing to the Middle Island Bishopric, and when the latter is attained will kick down the former as far as he can. It is impossible that you should be convinced of this by my writing; but Jackson himself will soon convince you of it, and the sooner because I tell you of my opinion. By this plain-speaking I do not hope to do more than expedite your own discovery of wbat I believe to be the truth.

2nd. If Jackson had admired and loved the plan ever so much, he would not have been the man for Bishop of this particular colony. Not merely has he not enough of elevation and refinement of thought and manners, but he has none at all of either refinement or elevation in either manners or mind. This you will find out for yourself the first day, as I and some others did who had good means of judging, which Lord Lyttelton never had. In one word, he is not, and never can be, a gentleman. Still one can suppose a person of far less refinement, of infinite coarseness if you please, capable of doing the part of Bishop with good effect; and here I mean the Bishop as founder of the Church in this only Church Settlement and even as chief colonizer in the lay sense: for the Bishop might be and ought to be both. But Jackson would not do this part if he loved the plan as much as he dislikes it. His main reason, I think, for disliking it is that it (the plan) assumes to be of more importance than any indivi-page 332dual or office, lay or clerical; and consequently that if it were really carried out, its success would cost even the Bishop himself, individually, into the shade. Now, Jackson's idea of being a Bishop is the idea of being always in the broadest and brightest light. I think I have hardly ever known a man more beset with the weakness, let us call it vice, of disliking all positions but that of cock of his own dunghill. Accordingly, instead of courting, as he ought to do, the order of men, both lay and clerical, whose emigration would soon make this the most prosperous and pleasantest of English colonies, he actually repels them, He has surrounded himself by people of a very inferior stamp: and he will never, I feel persuaded, be either able or willing to invite and lead a higher sort of colonization. Gentlemen, whether lay or clerical, cannot get on with him for one day: and those who keep about him seem to be either very dull or very crawling people, whose mere presence makes one feel uncomfortable. The private secretary, who will be my Lord's chief organ of communication with others, and who is to lecture in the College on constitutional law, is intolerably mean and vulgar. Apropos of the College, you will find Jackson's ideas about it not rising above the poorest conception of what the institution ought to be: a sort of school for teaching "a little Latin and no Greek," absolutely subject to the Bishop's incessant rule in details as well as generals. With this sort of "College," so-called, no scholar of eminence, no man of self-respect, will choose to embark his fortunes. The scheme of such a College as would soon grow up into an University, the nursing-mother of intelligence and manners for the Southern World, has been utterly frustrated; and that which was intended to be, and might have been, the most efficient means of attracting the highest emigration, turns out to have been a dream of our fancy.

The whole evil is beyond cure by any remedy at the disposal of the Association. For they are pledged to Mr. Jackson, and even bound in honour to obtain for him the page 333Bishopric of the Middle Island. I am so strongly impressed with this obligation on their part, and with my own full share in it as an efficient meddler ever since your departure, that in talking with Jackson on the subject I have counselled him to take the course which in my opinion is the most likely to accomplish his object, and to defeat in a great measure those objects on which our hearts have been set. I have always thought that the Bishop of New Zealand would probably object to the particular re-arrangement of his diocese on which Lord Grey insisted, and that if he consented to anything it would be only to that Which the Association desires; viz., a new diocese commensurate with the settlement of Canterbury: but I have felt bound to tell Jackson that, in my opinion, the step most likely to influence Selwyn as he wishes, is his own voyage round the world on purpose to obtain the assent which he desires. Seeing him there, come out for the purpose, Selwyn can hardly, I think, refuse the required assent, and send Jackson back without the means of getting his consecration. But I feel convinced that if Jackson had remained here, Selwyn would have refused. Jackson's presence in New Zealand may not have the effect which I deem probable. If so, there may, not improbably, be an Act of Parliament to set the Crown free from the disability contained in Selwyn's Letters Patent. Anyhow there will be delay and trouble. The best thing that could happen, in my opinion, is that Selwyn should only consent to the Canterbury diocese; and that Jackson disliking that, should be provided for somewhere else, so that there might be got for Bishop of Lyttelton a true-hearted Canterbury man, and one capable of making Canterbury what it ought to be. But whatever may happen, this I must repeat—that the Association is bound to Jackson, bound to help him in getting his own way, and so bound as to be incapable of setting itself free. It can only be set free by Jackson himself acting on his own free inclination. If you, strictly observing this obligation to Jackson, can nevertheless make anything good out page 334of the mess, by inducing Jackson and Selwyn to agree upon something good (such as for example an exchange between those two, which if Selwyn had sincerely taken to colonization would Lave given Canterbury a perfect Bishop, and would give the Natives a Bishop better suited to them than Selwyn is,) I shall set you down as the cleverest and most handy of managers.

It seems well I should tell you that in the estimate I have formed of Jackson, I have been influenced by nobody. Some people agree with me; but each of us formed his opinion separately. I do not mention their names, having no right to commit them. But of this I am sure—that all of us came very reluctantly to the conclusion. On myself in particular it has been forced sorely against my will. For I am very "good friends" with Jackson, who has shown a great willingness to oblige me; and I was much taken with his remarkable power of addressing assembled numbers. Be sure that as a preacher and platform orator he has no living superior—perhaps hardly an equal. Altogether, at one time, though my first impression was not agreeable, I managed to hope for the best by dint of trying to do so; and even now I cannot doubt that in some positions (for example, among the rude population of Upper Canada) Jackson would be a powerful instrument of the Church. It is only for what the Bishop of Norwich called "the Belgravia of Colonies" that he is so remarkably unsuited. E. Hawkins, knowing him, ought to be whipped for having proposed him.

The two sprigs of Nobility who go in the Castle Eden will merit your particular attention. If the intending settler should do well, a great effect will be produced for Canterbury; if ill, a great effect too, but of the opposite kind. I think the chances are that he will not do very well. He is too young and too wild; not bad, but heedless, and apt to be misled by hangers-on, with a turn for that kind of extravagance which belongs to ignoring the value of money. Having had the young man here for a day in order to turn page 335him inside out, and see what he was made of, I told Lord Mandeville that the case was dangerous unless the Tele-machus had a Mentor, and one not too old for leading, since driving was out of the question. This led the elder brother to resolve on a voyage round the world. The brothers seem much attached to each other and to their Grandmother. The best thing that could happen for Lord Frederick is, that Lord Mandeville should be induced to remain for some time in the settlement; and I rely much on your obtaining a very beneficial influence over both. My immediate fear is that the Bishop Designate may, during the voyage, set Lord Mandeville against Canterbury.

Besides the Isabella Hercus, two more ships are chartered to sail early in November. There might have been four if the Association were not in chains to the Colonial Office. Here, nearly a month has passed after the last sale was completed without the issue of any new Terms of Purchase. The delay is solely occasioned by Downing Street, which hates us, and whose chief, apparently friendly to us, is holiday-making in Northumberland. The new Terms ought to have been issued the very day on which the old went out of use. We wanted above all things to keep the sale of land, which means emigration of all classes, on the move. The month's stagnation leads to a notion among the public, that no more colonization was expected till reports should come from the first batch. A Bank is established, does business for a short time very successfully, and has every prospect of a great increase of customers, when it is shut up for a month. Clever, is it not? And by and by, when the ill effect comes, the blame will be cast on the plan; and the very people who stop us will say that our price of land is too high, and our Church extremes are nonsensical. You may think me a sad croaker: but the truth is that I deliberately let the pleasant things tell themselves, as they are sure to do not without exaggeration, and confine myself to those matters of which I fancy that you will not hear much from anybody but me.

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Bowler departs presently. His eldest daughter has an attack of very serious illness, for which the Doctors recommend a sea voyage; and at any rate his engagements at Wellington would compel him to go soon. Not attempting to hold him, my only difficulty with him is to induce him to give up working some time before he goes, so that somebody may learn from him, and practically, how to do his work. It will never be as well done as by him; and, at present, we have no promising substitute in view. If he should leave before some plan has been arranged for filling the vacancy, the Association will be in a terrible mess. Here again, I am brought to the conclusion that the Charter would be best worked at Lyttelton, where the old Bounty System of New South Wales, carefully improved, might be a good substitute for the best possible management at home.

You will perceive that this letter has been written at different dates. The closing date is the 27th of September.

P.S.—I find it necessary, on reading over my letter, to supply an omission. Among the schemes for settling the Bishopric question nicely for Canterbury, it has occurred to some of us that if Jackson cannot get the whole Island, he would much prefer the whole Island except Canterbury to Canterbury alone. The difficulty would be the endowment; but for getting the funds here he has immense powers: and I fancy that his peculiar talents might enable him to induce the Nelson people to petition for an Act of Parliament, with, the view of turning the dead College fund into a living fund for a Bishopric and College. I have some idea of writing to the Nelson people on this subject: but the letter would be enclosed to you, for use or the fire as you should see fit.