Molesworth, SIR WILLIAM

Molesworth, SIR WILLIAM, the 'liberator and regenerator of Britain's colonial empire,' was born in London, 23d May 1810, of an old Cornish family, the Molesworths of Pencarrow, near Bodmin. He succeeded as eighth baronet in 1823; studied at Cambridge, at Edinburgh, and in Germany; made the tour of Europe; and sat in parliament for East Cornwall 1832-37, for Leeds 1837-41, and for Southwark from 1845 till his death on 22d October 1855, having accepted office in 1853 as First Commissioner of Public Works under the Earl of Aberdeen, and in 1855 as Colonial Secretary under Palmerston. He was the intimate friend of Bentham and James Mill, and was regarded as the parliamentary representative of the 'philosophical Radicals,' whose organ, the Westminster Review, he purchased in 1836, and merged with it the London Review, started a year before by him and Roebuck. A great admirer of Hobbes, he edited his complete works (16 vols. 1839-45) at a cost of £6000; but he will chiefly be remembered as having drawn attention to the abuses connected with the transportation of criminals, and as having pointed out the maladministration of the colonial office, investigated the natural relations between the imperial government and the colonial dependencies, and expounded the true principles of colonial self-government.