[[198]] Mr. W. A. Newman (Memoir of J. Montagu) quotes a reply made by Sir Harry to the Anti-Convict Association on 18th June: “This is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. For four and forty years have I served my sovereign—I say it with pride—and I would rather that God Almighty should strike me dead than disobey the orders of Her Majesty’s Government and thereby commit an act of open rebellion.”
[[199]] Chase writes (Wilmot and Chase, p. 458), “Sir Harry, perfect soldier as he was, had an instinctive horror of shedding blood, which was never more strongly developed than when he curbed the military from retaliating the insults offered to Her Majesty and to themselves by the mobs of the western metropolis during the anti-convict émeute.” We may remember that he had shown the same spirit during the Radical disturbances at Glasgow (see pp. [326]-[328], [335]).
[[200]] In connexion, however, with the delays encountered in receiving the new constitution, Lord Grey was much reviled both in the Colony and in England. Sir W. Napier (Life of C. Napier, iv. p. 327) quotes the following epigram:—
“This point was long disputed at the Cape,
What was the devil’s colour and his shape.
The Hottentots, of course, declared him white,
The Englishmen pronounced him black as night;
But now they split the difference and say
Beyond all question that Old Nick is Grey.”
[[201]] On the 20th December, Sutu, Sandilli’s mother, was made chief.