Chap. XVII. OPPOSITION TO NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION. 453 
following concise and memorable reply : " That he 
" had no doubt of the respectability of the gentlemen 
" composing the Association, or the purity of their in- 
" tentions ; but that he was opposed to the coloniza- 
" tion of New Zealand upon any plan, and would 
" thwart them by all the means in his power." 
And most truly did Mr. Coates fulfil his threat. He 
immediately wrote a pamphlet, charging the members 
of the Association, notwithstanding the above words, 
with motives the furthest removed from respectability 
and purity ; and, though defeated in his literary endea- 
vours by the published replies of the Rev. Samuel Hinds, 
D.D., and of my father, Mr. E. G. Wakefield, both mem- 
bers of the Association, and by that of Mr. F. Baring 
in Parliament, he set actively to work in other ways. 
Mr. Beecham, the Secretary of the Wesleyan JMis- 
sionary Society, concurred most cordially in JMr. 
Coates's views. He adduced similar reasons, before 
the Select Committee of the House of Lords in 1838, 
for opposing the Colonization of New Zealand. He 
followed the example of JMr. Dandeson Coates in 
writing pamphlets against the Association and its 
objects, and proved himself to be similarly determined 
" to thwart them by every means in his power." 
The Committees of the two Societies passed strong 
resolutions, declaratory of their enmity to the pro- 
moters and supporters of the proposal to send many 
thousand missionaries of civilization and Christianity 
among the heathen. 
1 will view this violent opposition in none but the 
most charitable light, though many more selfish 
motives might have conduced to its origin. 
It partook much of the paltry vanity with which a 
comparatively weak horseman, manifestly unable to 
persuade a young and half-broken steed, poorly fed 
