14 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. I. 
sociation. Lord Glenelg was present at the interview, 
and spoke on behalf of the Government. He warmly 
censured every principle of the Association which 
Lord Melbourne had formerly approved ; and above all, 
disclaimed any right on the part of the British Crown 
to exercise any sort or degree of authority in New Zea- 
land. The strange scene that ensued was described 
by my father as witness before a Select Committee of 
the House of Commons on New Zealand, appointed 
in 1840, on the motion of the present Lord St. Ger- 
mains, then Lord Eliot. 
It seems more than probable, however, that the 
Prime Minister's sense of justice was affected by the 
remarks made to Lord Glenelg in his presence ; for it 
was presently intimated to the Association, that if 
some of their body would wait upon Lord Glenelg in 
the ensuing week, their application would be more 
favourably received. 
A number of them accordingly attended at the 
Colonial Office, and were received by Lord Glenelg ; 
who informed them, that very recent dispatches from 
the Resident in New Zealand, and the commander of 
a man-of-war which had visited the coasts, had in- 
duced Her Majesty's Government to abandon their 
objections to the systematic and regulated colonization 
of the islands ; that they still objected to the instru- 
ment of colonization proposed by the Association, 
namely, a Board of Commissioners acting under the 
immediate control of the Colonial Minister as public 
officers having no private interest in the matter ; but 
that they were prepared to grant to the Association a 
Royal Charter of incorporation for colonizing purposes, 
similar to those under which the English colonies in 
America were established in the sixteenth and seven- 
♦teenth centuries. Lord Glenelg further explained. 
