A Sphinx with a Riddle: The Political Thought and Constitutionalism of Sir George Grey

Abstract

In October 1865, Napoleon III and Bismarck took a holiday together at Biarritz. When they weren’t playing in the sand, or walking the beach with the imperial dog ‘Nero’, or lying in deck-chairs, drinking champagne and smoking cigars, these bloody-minded men were discussing Prussia’s coming war with Austria, for which Bismarck was seeking French neutrality. The emperor gave the go-ahead, strangely demanding nothing in return, in response to which Bismarck remarked that Napoleon III was a ‘Sphinx without a Riddle’.

Sir George Grey was also a Second Empire-era ‘sphinx’. Governor of South Australia 1841-45, of New Zealand 1845-53, of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner for southern Africa 1854-61, Governor of New Zealand again 1861-68, premier of this country 1877-79, Superintendent of the Auckland Province 1875-76 and a Member of the House of Representatives between 1875-95, Grey has also had a Sphinx effect on the historiography relating to him. He has not only tantalized and fascinated and repelled, but as Governor of British Gondwanaland, he has as many historiographies as he had nations to rule.

I would hope that my work on Grey is a contribution towards the history of New Zealand (and colonial) political ideas. Abominable man that he was in many respects, he was nonetheless an intellectual in politics, perhaps resembling more Geoffrey Palmer in mental habits than Bernard Freyberg. I regret to say that there has been a trend in some quarters to deny the existence of significant persistent trends of political thought in New Zealand. Yet we may only sustain the Treaty of Waitangi project for New Zealand if we do not denigrate the electorate’s capacity or down-grade our own capabilities at handling political thought. Grey’s career has left rich and radioactive trace elements for better and worse in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In this respect he provides us with creative if sobering and saddening opportunities to recover surprisingly potent traditions and intellectual ecosystems.