calabash from the lake and Hine-Moa again said to him, 'Whom is that:
water for?' So the slave answered as before, 'For Tutanekai.' And the
maiden again said, 'Give it to me, for I am thirsty.' And the slave gave
it to her and she drank and purposely threw down the calabash and broke
it. And these occurrences took place repeatedly between those two
persons.
At last the slave went again to Tutanekai, who said to him, 'Where is the
water for me?' And his servant answered, 'It is all gone; your calabashes
have been broken.'
'By whom?' said his master.
'Didn't I tell you that there is a man in the bath?' answered the
servant.
'Who is the fellow?' said Tutanekai.
'How can I tell?' replied the slave. 'Why, he's a stranger.'
'Didn't he know the water was for me?' said Tutanekai. 'How did the
rascal dare to break my calabashes! Why, I shall die from rage!'
Then Tutanekai threw on some clothes and caught hold of his club, and
away he went and came to the bath and called out 'Where's that fellow who
broke my calabashes?'
And Hine-Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was that of the beloved
of her heart; and she hid herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot
spring. But her hiding was hardly a real hiding; rather a bashful
concealing of herself from Tutanekai that he might not find her at once,
only after trouble and careful search for her.
So he went feeling about, along the banks of the hot spring, searching
everywhere, whilst she lay coyly hid under the ledges of the rocks,
peeping out, wondering when she should be found.
At last he caught hold of a hand and cried out, 'Hullo, who's this?'
And Hine-Moa answered: 'It's I, Tutanekai.'
And he said: 'But who are you? Who's I?' Then she spoke louder, and
said: 'It's I, 'tis Hine-Moa.'
And he said: 'Ho! ho! ho! Can such in very truth be the case? Let us two,
then, go to my house.'
And she answered 'Yes.'
And she rose up in the water as beautiful as the wild white hawk, and
stepped upon the edge of the bath as graceful as the shy white crane. And
he threw garments over her, and took her, and they proceeded to his house
and reposed there, and thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the
Maoris, they were man and wife.
XVIII A FATHER OF FEDERATION
Mr Gladstone and Sir George Grey ploughed different seas, under charter
from the English-speaking race. One flew his pennant in the nearer
waters, the other in the farther. Now and then they met, but briefly, as
ships do which pass in the night.
'What I saw of Mr. Gladstone,' said Sir George, 'was mostly at official
gatherings, or gatherings arising out of official life. One session,
however, during which I was in England, we dined almost every Wednesday
evening at the same London house.
'Mr. Gladstone was always a most charming personality, and I recall his
friendliness in walking up with me to the hall of ceremonies, when I
received the honorary degree at Cambridge. He also was to have the honour
conferred upon him that day, and it was considerate on his part to convoy
me along, as I knew few people at Cambridge, the result of absence from
England.
'As to public affairs, I suspect that he and I held widely different
views, at all events on some subjects. Like everybody else, I recognised
in him a commanding figure, but I am bound to say that his greatness
seemed to me to lie in carrying out ideas, after they had been suggested
by others, rather than in working them out himself.'
Sir George meant that Mr. Gladstone's genius as a statesman, was
constructive more than creative, the fashioner of progress. For himself,
a solitary idea sufficed to keep his heart warm, even in the colds of
age--the federation of the English-speaking people. In one of the last
letters he received from David Livingstone, there was the request, 'Write
me often, because you cheer me up.' It was always possible to cheer Sir
George up on federation; that set him aglow.
There were few to listen when he first preached the federal idea; he
cried in the wilderness, but he did not cease to cry. He waited long for
the echoes to come back, and they did come, with interest, too, when
negotiations for an Anglo-American treaty of arbitration went afoot.
Then, the negotiations tumbled through, whereat he said: 'Oh, the road
may be a gradual one, with hills and stops, but there it lies, traced by
destiny, and in the fulness of time it will be trodden.'
Peering into the twentieth century, one who would never see it, he
foretold that its great problem would be this of Anglo-Saxon federation.
It was not for us to dip into the future, farther than we could
reasonably behold, but so far we were not only entitled, but bound, to
go. He doubted whether any question, equal in importance to federation,
had ever before engaged the attention of so large a portion of mankind.
On that account he put forward with diffidence, the views which, after
much reflection, he had formed upon it.
By Anglo-Saxon federation, he understood joint action, in the interests
of mankind, on the part of those owning allegiance to the English tongue.
Forms and methods might take care of themselves, so the thing itself was
begotten. Yet that could only be, if the ties sought to be woven were
elastic, free and freedom-giving. He wanted a golden chain, binding men
to men the Anglo-Saxon world over, but a curb-chain nowhere.
'I am,' he spoke, 'merely expressing what is generally agreed, when I say
that the end of the nineteenth century has brought us to a critical
period in the history of the world. Systems of government do not last for
ever; they decay and have to be replaced. The most perfect of machines
wears itself out, and another has to be substituted.
'Not merely that, but the new one has to be of a different design,
adapted to a fresh, most likely a severer, set of circumstances. A man
who refused to utilise the wisdom and resources of his age in machinery,
would be regarded as a madman. It is the same in the economy of the human
family; to dread wise and ordered change is to court trouble.'
Thus, Sir George reasoned that we had arrived at an epoch of federation,
the application of which would be something new, only the conditions
needing it had not arisen before. The ancients had not discovered the art
of securing political representation, or, what the moderns called the
principle of federation. It was not necessary for the ancients, as it had
become for the moderns. Simply, the conditions of the world had changed,
and that on two planes.
In the past, there had been the continual discovery and peopling of new
countries. No more remained to be discovered; no corner of the globe
remained unknown to us. We knew what each nation was engaged in doing,
and we were able to estimate, with some measure of assurance, what it
would continue doing. Next, the mass of the people had gained a potent
voice in the management of affairs. Democracy was coming to the throne,
if it had not quite grasped all the trappings.
The key of what was to be, rested in those two facts, which made the
world so different a working-machine from what it had been. And the using
of the key was primarily confided to the Anglo-Saxon race, since it
occupied the greatest extent of the globe, and included what was ripest
and best in democracy.
'Everywhere,' Sir George showed, 'our people are working, with might and
main, to develop the resources of the earth. They are characterised by a
common language, a common literature, and common laws. Shakespeare,
Milton, the riches of our classic literature, belong as much to these new
nations over-sea, as they do to the Mother Country. The men and women of
Anglo-Saxon stock carry with them, wherever they go, the one faith of
Christianity.
'Really, there could not be anything but a unity, a oneness, in the whole
structure upon which the race rests. If the progress, in natural
federation, has been so great, through years when South Africa, or New
Zealand, was far distant from England, when there were no swift steamers
and no cables under the sea, what must it now become? Such wonderful
changes has modern science brought about, that the peoples of Greater
Britain and America are next-door neighbours to the folks in the Old
Country.
'Nay, daily and hourly counsel goes on between all parts of the world,
bringing the wisdom of the whole to each point. Communities, separated by
seas and continents, are able to discuss with each other, on the minute,
what action is for the highest interests of all. It is impossible that
the federation we see existing in the incessant congress of the civilised
world, can ever be gone back upon.'
A pretty incident of Sir George Grey's tour through Australia as a
tribune might have been reported in London next morning. This was
following the first conference, held in Sydney, on the great subject of
Australasian federation: Sir George, after a season of heather burning,
was taking ship at Sydney, to return to New Zealand. A multitude of
people streamed forth to bid him good-bye, and he walked down their ranks
to the steamer.
'As I was stepping on board,' he told the episode, 'I noticed a lad
smoking a cigarette. Being near him, I remarked quietly, "What a pity it
is to see a bright boy like you smoking! You are very young to smoke. I
am sure if you consider the expense it will lead you into, and perhaps
the injury to your health, you will not smoke."
'He looked up at me for a minute as if thinking, and then, with the
declaration, "I'll never smoke again," threw the cigarette from him. By
this time the crowd had noted what was transpiring, and they cheered the
lad again and again, much, I'm afraid, to his confusion. Now, wasn't that
a nice thing for a boy to do? It pleased me wonderfully.'
The proofs of federation by cable, which Sir George selected, were not,
however, related to himself. One was the auspicious and happy event of
the birth of a child, in direct succession to the English throne, Prince
Edward of York. 'Why,' he paused, 'that was known within an hour on the
farthest shores of Greater Britain, and the news, I can assure you,
received with as keen a joy as in England.' The second ease was the
historic London dock strike, of which he said, 'Not merely was that
struggle followed from hour to hour in Australasia, but encouragements
and assistance from Australasian workers to their comrades at home, swept
continually across the seas.'
There was already union between the different branches of the Anglo-Saxon
family, and all we had to do was to afford it assistance in growing and
forming. Ever, we must provide more adequate means for utilising the
onward tide of humanity, striving after higher ideals. We needed to have
life permeated with all the helps and lights that were possible; not to
shut these out as they became available.
There had been disturbances to the growth of Anglo-Saxon union, and
opportunities for its furtherance had been thrown away. Perhaps the
greatest disturbance was the war between the Northern and Southern States
of America. 'It arose,' Sir George noted, 'out of the one great flaw in
that wonderful creation, the American Constitution. Strangely enough, the
Constitution omitted to make any provision for dealing with slavery, and
inevitably, in course of time, came dispute and war.' Yet, the strands of
race held unbroken through that trial, and the future was secure.
Sir George Grey found himself reinforced, in so believing, by the opinion
of General Grant. This he heard from Sir T. Fowell Buxton; who had
travelled in America with Mr. W. E. Forster, while Grant was President.
The General took his English visitors for a drive, and his talk was of
military matters and his horses, until they were nearly back at
Washington. Suddenly, he went off on the subject of an alliance between
Great Britain and the United States, his hopes and expectations of it. He
added that he should not live to witness the drawing together, but he was
certain it must become a great power in the world, especially on sea.
'Well,' Sir George commented, 'if General Grant, a man of singularly
practical character, was among the prophets, I am quite content to be in
his company.'
When he talked of the federation of the British Empire, or of the larger
welding in which he had belief, Sir George would declare, 'No good
service is rendered by creating difficulties ahead. We may be certain of
this that each generation, as it comes rolling on, will hold its own
views upon every subject, differing widely, perhaps, from the views of
its predecessors. The essential thing, in all government, is to secure to
the people at large, the power of enacting the laws they deem to be the
wisest and best suited to the circumstances of their age.'
Thus, while he had worked out definite lines of federation, he was
content if principles were accepted. 'No man,' he argued, 'should presume
to lay down the law in such a matter; just let the vision be realised by
natural process. Be there the hewing of materials, and the building would
follow by and by. If it were possible to solidify the English-speaking
people for common purposes, the gain to them, and to mankind, would be
splendid. The blessings of federation were a hundredfold.
'Why,' said Sir George, 'war would practically die off the face of the
earth. The armed camp which burdens the Old World, enslaves the nations,
and impedes progress, would disappear. The Anglo-Saxon race, going
together, could determine the balance of power for a fully peopled earth.
Such a moral force would be irresistible, and debate would take the place
of war, in the settlement of international disputes. If the arbitrament
of reason, ousts the arbitrament of war, a new and beautiful world is
unveiled.'
It was because Sir George saw, in federation, a vista of brighter life
for the masses, that he was so persuaded an advocate of it, so keen a
believer in its realisation. As a result of the cohesion of the race, we
should have all life quickened and developed; unemployed energies called
into action in many places where they lay stagnant. Below federation, the
very essence of it, was decentralisation, the getting of the people
fairly spread over the earth, not huddled into a few places where decay
would follow overcrowding.
'Every section of the British Empire,' Sir George detailed this point,
'having complete self-government would contain its own life within
itself, would offer the highest opportunities to the labours of its
citizens. Whenever you constitute a new centre of authority you create a
basis of general activity, which, in its turn, has off-shoots. There
would be more employment; the waste lands of the Old World, and the still
untilled ones of the New World, would be taken up. Federation is not the
mere grouping of us together, but the settlement of problems that have
long been forcing themselves to the front. Difficulties which we can ill
solve now, which appear to block our path, we should be able to settle
with ease.'
Sir George discerned an element, not fully dreamt of, which would
immensely strengthen the federal idea. It was the influence of women,
growing to be a powerful factor in the affairs of the world. This sweet
authority would tend to keep nations from plunging into scenes of
bloodshed. It would be a blessed assistance towards the peace of the
world in times of excitement, and so a bulwark for federation, which was
the creator of peace.
Finally, the rise of the Anglo-Saxon, by means of federation, would
benefit the world in respect to religion and language kernels of all
advancement. It would mean the triumph of what, if carried out, was the
highest moral system that man in all his history had known--Christianity.
And it would imply the dominance of probably the richest language that
ever existed, our own English.
So speaking, Sir George Grey summed up: 'Given a universal code of morals
and a universal tongue, how far would be the step to that last great
federation, the brotherhood of mankind, which Tennyson and Burns have
sung to us?'
NOTE. Those who desire to study Sir George Grey's full and final scheme
for Anglo-Saxon federation, may refer to the 'Contemporary Review' of
August 1894, where it appeared as an article by the present writer.
XIX WAITING TO GO
'I am just waiting my time to go, meanwhile doing what little I can that
may be useful to my fellow-men.'
These were the words of Sir George Grey, and none could better express
the closing years of his life. If he might sow, in some wayside garden,
an idea for the common happiness, he counted that a day on the active
list. It made him feel young again, blowing the old fires red and rosy.
Ever, he held to his tryst with Dean Stanley.
'One evening,' it had been made, 'the Dean and myself were walking round
Westminster Abbey, as the doors were being closed. It was during my visit
to England, after my last Governorship, and the Dean was full of the
restorations then being carried out on the Chapter House. Naturally, I
had the keenest interest in whatever affected the ancient seat of the
House of Commons, regarding it as a shrine of constitutional government.
'Dean Stanley wanted to show me everything, to explain the whole place.
He told me of a theory of his that the Commons, while sitting there in
the circular room, probably had no parties, so called. They were grouped
in a ring, not confronting each other sharply, antagonistically, and
everything went on with quietness. But when they moved across to St.
Stephen's, they found themselves set opposite-wise, which fact may have
tended to create the party system. That was the idea put to me by the
Dean, though how far he applied it, I do not recollect.
'Anyhow, he was anxious that I should study the Chapter House under him,
but it was too late to do it that evening. "Never mind," he said, "let us
wait until things are more complete and we shall go in together." "Oh," I
answered, "I really need not trouble you. I can look in myself one
afternoon." "No, no," he insisted, with much good nature, "I want to be
your guide. You must promise that you will not go there without me."
"Very well, then," I assured him, "I shall wait until you take me."
'The Dean and myself did not, as it happened, meet again at that period,
nor were we, by the decree of Providence, ever to meet. Thus, I shall not
see the earliest home of the House of Commons, as it has been restored,
for I promised.'
There swam in Sir George's recollection, a little story touching the
evolution of the body politic, during his own time. It was like Maui of
Maori legend, and Arthur 'by wild Dundagil on the Cornish sea,' in that
he scarce knew whence it came. He inclined to link it, a whiff of airy
gossip, with two of the most strenous middle Victorians, but would hold
no names certain.
'At all events,' he said, 'the Cabinet was formerly a smaller body than
it now is, and less formal in its proceedings. The members would drop in,
with the newspapers in their hands, and take a chair, here or there, as
the case might be. A quite large Cabinet being created, the Prime
Minister suggested, "Gentlemen, had we not better sit round the table?"
The suggestion met with approval, and the Premier made to take his place
at the head of the table. Thereupon, a colleague caught up a chair, put
it beside that of the Premier, and sat down with the remark, "There is no
such thing as a President of the Cabinet."'
For a good while, Sir George Grey spoke of himself as being in England,
only to bid England farewell. Some fine morning he would pack his trunks,
and sail south to those who knew him best. Every step in New Zealand was
a greeting; in London a mile was bare. Once he did pack his trunks, but
the fine morning never arrived.
When rallied about that, Sir George defended himself, 'I suppose I want
to see what I can do, as one of your most eminent statesmen did, in his
youth. He went to a small island, then connected with the family
property, and studied laboriously for a whole winter. He desired to
establish what was in him, what exertion he was likely to be equal to, in
the world's affairs. Then, lest trouble should ever befall him, he,
another time, went into lodgings to test how little it was really
possible to live upon. I don't recall at what figure the experiment
worked out, but it was a ridiculously small one.'
A spirit, kindred in its attitude to the seriousness of life, animated
Sir George Grey, even as he spoke. Affairs in England seemed critical,
and he would stay on to watch them, since any hint might be of import. In
London there beat the heart of the Empire, and he would keep his ear to
it. He heard most clearly through that trumpet, the endless roll of
London's traffic. Moreover, the great city, while she hardly nodded to
Sir George, smote him afresh with the spell which is hers alone. Oh to be
in London!
So dates moved past, and Sir George Grey, as he waned under the growing
load, realised that he and Greater Britain would be no more together.
That thought he parried, not liking to admit it, but the painter was cut
when he resigned his place in the Parliament of New Zealand. It had to be
done, therefore let it be done; but it was a shock, like losing a limb to
the surgeon.
A hail from Greater Britain became thrice welcome, and that of Mahomed
Naser Eben took Sir George by siege, especially its quaintness and
literary touch. When Governor of the Cape Colony, he sent word up-country,
by David Livingstone, that he would be glad of any manuscripts
throwing light upon the Greeks and Romans in Africa. To a British
man-of-war, making patrol of the Mombasa coast, there rowed out a boat,
having a respectable old Arab gentleman in the stern-sheets. He handed
up a parcel, desiring it to be delivered to Sir George Grey at Cape
Town. Sir George had left South Africa for New Zealand, and the
manuscripts, as the contents of the bundle proved, were sent after him.
'But nobody could read them,' he stated, 'until here, as I learn, an
Assyrian gentleman has been visiting Auckland. What is my surprise, on
opening this envelope, to find everything made clear in English,
including Mahomed Naser Eben's letter to me. He addresses me as a cavern
of hospitality, which is very handsome, and a phrase with a true Oriental
flavour. Unluckily, he appears to have got lost for two years in that
part of Africa marked Oman on the map. Hence a delay with him, in sending
the manuscripts, but he need not have apologised, my single feeling being
gladness that he discovered himself again.'
It was nigh forty years since Mahomed Naser Eben wrote, and in the
interval many skies had changed. Two had been apart, a sundered heaven,
the doing of that tragedy which ever lies in wait upon romance. But they
came together, as the clouds were gathering, and upon them the sun ray of
Mahomed Naser Eben could sparkle. Sir George had scarce mastered the
mystery of his epistle when he was drawing out a reply to it. His only
doubt was whether the erudite Arab might not have changed his address!
'We are about the same age,' Rewi imparted to Sir George Grey in New
Zealand, 'and when I go, your time will be approaching.' Sir George
recalled this, on hearing that Rewi had been gathered to his Maori
fathers. He was buried in a grave which 'The Governor' had selected, near
the spot where the last fight took place between the Maoris and the
English. 'We should lie together,' Rewi also held, 'as being the two
people who brought peace to New Zealand. Sir George's voice shook when
telling this proof of Maori affection, as his eyes turned dim at reading
an address sent him, to fabled London, by the men of that race in the
Cook Islands.
'Our word to you, O Grey,' they saluted him, 'is this. We wish you
happiness and health, and to know that our love goes forth with this
letter. We wish to tell you that your name will never be forgotten by the
Maori people in these islands Many of us knew you in New Zealand, but all
have heard of the great things done by you, for European and for Maori,
in that country. May God's blessing rest upon you, and give peace and
happiness to you, who have done so much for the peace and happiness of
others, in your long and honoured life.'
An illness brought that life very near the ebb, and friends wondered, of
an evening, if next morning they would hear his simple, tender, 'Good-bye
to you.' Sir George waited ready, abiding in the faith, witnessing of it,
'Man should have religion as his guide in all things. I feel that God
communicates with His creatures when they please. He lets them know what
is right and wrong, even argues with them.