138 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



the same security against the result of a sale ? Both 

 claims appeared nothing more than reasonable to the 

 mass of the people in Australia, as to the few in Great 

 Britain who felt any curiosity on the subject. In 1845 

 associations were formed in both England and Scotland, 

 where the runholders had many influential connections, 

 to protect the special " interests of the squatters and 

 the general interests of New South Wales," as if, for 

 once at least, the interests of the individual and the 

 community were identical. The head of an ancient 

 Scottish noble family. Lord Polwarth, supported the 

 claims of the pastoralists and the granting of long 

 leases. His son, Henry Scott, pleaded their cause in 

 the House of Commons. A meeting was held in London, 

 where a motion was carried proposing the granting of 

 leases for twenty-one years. (All the proposals were 

 for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years, and it is curious 

 to observe that State terms are so often multiples of 

 seven.) Lord Stanley, Secretary of State, was evi- 

 dently moved — as deeply, perhaps, by his now confirmed 

 Toryism as by the plaints of the big squatters or the 

 remarkable and rare consensus of public opinion. He 

 was now inclined to favour the granting of leases. He 

 referred the matter to " his man, Friday," as Dr. Lang 

 coarsely named the masterful Governor, and plainly 

 with the desire that the Governor should supply him 

 with the necessary encouragement. Gipps Mas no 

 weakling, and he was reluctant to yield to the demands 

 of the pastoralists. He still held that " to allow the 

 large squatters to seize on all the waste lands of the 

 Crown would be to ruin the Colony." To the last he 

 clung to quit-rents. He still objected to leases for more 

 than a year. He opposed the right of pre-emption. 

 Yet he felt that the drift of opinion, official as well as 

 public, was all in the direction of making the concessions 

 demanded. Struggling vainly against the same current. 

 Lord Stanley brought in a bill granting leases for seven 

 years in place of the annual licenses, which had insen- 

 sibly merged in virtual leases. The subject was still 



