’Yes, I quite see the difficulty.  You want somebody to assist Cardwell.  However well your suggestion might obviate the difficulty, I have an alternative which I think would equally suit.  I had a military training, I did very creditably as a student at Sandhurst, I served with the colours, and I attained the rank of captain.  I shall be glad to show you my papers, proving my knowledge of military affairs; and altogether, if your War Minister requires somebody to prompt him, I don’t see why I should not fill the place as satisfactory as another.  ‘Oh,’ exclaimed Mr. Mundella, ’there’s no use in coming to you with anything, for you always make a joke of it.’  So they parted, and laughing, over the years, at the incident, Sir George said:  ’You know Mundella was a capital fellow, of sterling ability and many qualities, but I’m afraid he was never a humorist.’

Sir George was not to be member for Newark, since, in the long run, to save the loss of a Liberal seat, he retired.  His committee put it to him that this was the rule of the road, and he felt it no sacrifice to quit the field.  The tribes had to be, pacified, but how different the methods in primitive and civilised society!  Two tribes fell out during his first Governorship of New Zealand, and they must settle their difference by combat.  Sir George deprecated such things, as not being conducive to the welfare of the Colony.  No sooner did he hear of the duel, than he ordered a warship to up-steam and carry him to the spot.  He was put ashore, when the day was breaking, at a point still sixteen miles from the combatants.  He obtained a, horse for himself, another for an orderly, and the pair were given rein.

‘I believe,’ he told, ’that our first mounts proved not very good, only, at a farm on the way, we were able to replace them with better.  Our ride was across rough country, innocent of roads, but we reached our destination just as the campaign opened for the day.  I waited a minute to master the state of parties, then galloped straight between them, and called out “Stop!  Stop!” Amazed at my appearance, they just shouted along their ranks “Te Kuwana”—­the Maori effort to say “The Governor.”

’As I had ridden into the fusilade, a chief was shot in the neck, with the penalty that he could never afterwards turn his head.  Happily he was not looking over his shoulder at the moment, for that would have been an awkward position in which to be left.  My plunge into the battle was a little risky, but I calculated that the Maoris would, most likely, be glad of an excuse to stop fighting.  Combatants who fall out easily, generally are.  They regard as a benefactor, anybody who can rescue them from their scrape, with due form of ceremony and guarantee of dignity.  My order to the Maoris, desiring peace, was obeyed.’

This is the Sir George Grey whose doings you follow with the keenest tingle of interest—­Grey, Pro-Consul.  But his other activities all grouped round this signature, and they are to be read with it.  From England he went back to New Zealand, thinking he could best influence the Old World from the shores of the New World.  He sat himself down in the remote solitude of Kawau, among his books, and every morning his heart beat round the Empire, a morning drum.