infliction, Wentworth made himself the exponent of popular indignation, and in a pamphlet which he published in 1826, under the title of "The Impeachment," asserted his intention of pursuing Governor Darling to the gallows. A native of the colony, endowed with great gifts of speech and statesmanship, and fearless in his championship of what be believed to be just, Mr. Wentworth became the idol of the reaction against the spirit of military despotism which then pervaded the Government. The boasted palladium of the British constitution was withdrawn after a brief and partial trial in New South Wales, an Act which came into force in March 1829, placing the liberty and property of the Colonists in the hands, not of their fellow-citizens, but of a biassed and narrow class of military jurors. At a public meeting held in Sydney in 1830, to congratulate William IV. on his accession, Mr. Wentworth carried an amendment to the stereotyped form of address drawn up by the loyal promoters, calling for the extension "to the only colony of Britain bereft of the rights of Britons of a full participation of the benefits and privileges of the British Constitution." Though generally magnanimous and much beloved in his private capacity, Mr. Wentworth was not superior to the greed for territorial acquisition, which is the besetting vice of colonising pioneers, and which where it has succeeded not only victimises the natives, but inflicts a grievous wrong on future generations of industrial European immigrants. Public sentiment must therefore approve of Sir George Gipps' action in disallowing the bargain by which Mr. Wentworth had secured the whole of the Middle Island of New Zealand (including what are now the Otago, Southland, Canterbury, Nelson and Marlborough districts), together with some 200,000 acres in the North Island, for a paltry payment of £400 in cash and some small prospective annuities to the infatuated chiefs who were thus willing to fritter away their birthright for a mess of pottage. In the year 1843 the colony obtained a measure of the political rights for which Mr. Wentworth and his coadjutors had so long contended—a new Legislative Council with a partially representative element being constituted. Mr. Wentworth was at once elected for the city of Sydney, along with his friend Dr. Bland, the secretary of the Patriotic Association. As one by one the objects for which he had fought were conceded, Mr. Wentworth's liberalism began to pale, and ultimately to assume a decidedly conservative hue. Even on the great question of the renewal of transportation he did not take the popular view, which was championed with great ability by Mr. Lowe (now Lord Sherbrooke), who at the general election in 1848 was returned for the city of Sydney in the place of Dr. Bland, on whose behalf Mr. Wentworth made an eloquent appeal. Such was the esteem and gratitude with which the latter was still justly regarded, that no attempt was made to assail his seat, and he was returned at the head of the poll; but the defeat of his old and tried friend, Dr. Bland, in which Mr. (now Sir) Henry Parkes assisted, was nevertheless a severe blow to him. Besides being the father of the present political constitution of New South Wales, Mr. Wentworth was the founder of the Sydney University. Taking up the subject in 1849, he succeeded in passing the measure which constituted the University in 1850, and it was opened two years later. One other great service he was still to do his native land. In 1854 he carried the new Constitution Bill through the Council, and was deputed to go to England in conjunction with the Colonial Secretary, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Deas Thomson, to advocate the measure before the Imperial Parliament. Their mission was completely successful, and the new Constitution came into force in 1856. Mr. Wentworth's waning liberalism was well illustrated by the proposal which he put forth in 1853, but subsequently abandoned owing to the popular distaste and ridicule with which it was received, for the establishment of a Colonial House of Lords on the hereditary basis. He was also strongly opposed to the legislation by which the Constitution Act was subsequently liberalised in its electoral arrangements. Despite this, when Mr. Wentworth returned to Sydney in 1861, his splendid public services were recognised by a demonstration in which nothing was wanting that cordiality and enthusiasm could supply. On the invitation of the Cowper Government, he agreed to become
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