THE ANTI-SQUATTING GOVERNOR 150 



as an attempt to raise taxation unconstitutionally. The 

 squatters were beside themselves, and the politicians 

 got up a constitutional agitation. All parties — Lowe 

 and Lang, as well as Wentworth and Windeyer — united 

 against them, and the unfortunate Governor had but 

 one supporter. The result did not overset his com- 

 posure and never made him quail. He had placed Robert 

 Lowe in the Legislative Council as his nominee, and he 

 had favoured the brilliant lawyer. Lowe turned his 

 heel against his patron, and lent his splendid talents to 

 the cause of the squatters. Gipps treated him as Dis- 

 raeli treated him twenty years later, with contempt, 

 and in his despatches he never mentioned the name of 

 the apostate. He bore hardly upon Lang, whom he 

 describes as — J. D. Lang, Esquire, and of whom he re- 

 lates that he had been solemnly deposed by the Synod 

 of Australia. Wentworth he treated as Disraeli treated 

 Lord Cranborne, with more respect, but was none the 

 less resolute against him. At Wentworth's instance 

 the Legislative Council sent a threatening reply to 

 Gipps's farewell speech in May, 1846, and refused him, 

 through the mouths of its leading members, all credit 

 for the improved state of the Colony. It was Wentworth, 

 too, who moved, at a critical moment, the adjournment 

 of the Council ; Gipps replied by proroguing it, and thus 

 outgeneralled Wentworth. Gipps procured the revo- 

 cation of the Royal Listructions, granting special sur- 

 veys of 5,120 acres at a uniform price. And, as already 

 stated, he dealt a final blow at the squatters by reissuing 

 his obnoxious regulations of 1845. His merits will be 

 differently judged according to one's point of view. As 

 a Governor of New South Wales, his capacity wdll not 

 be denied. He was undoubtedly the strongest opponent 

 in high place that the squatters of New South Wales 

 ever had. He M^as the last of the Governors of that 

 Colony who wielded a personal authority. 



Though he was strenuously supported by one Secre- 

 tary of State, Lord Stanley, he was practically thrown 

 over by another, Earl Grey, who granted to the squatters 



