[9] Colonel Torrens, after whom a river and a lake in South Australia were named, had a distinguished career. For his spirited defence in 1811 of the island of Anholt he was awarded a sword of honour. But he was much more than a soldier, however valorous and able. He was a writer on economics and other important problems of the day; was one of the founders of the Political Economy Club, and of the _Globe_ newspaper, then an advocate of somewhat advanced views; and interested himself in several philanthropic movements. His son, Sir Robert Torrens, sometime M.P. for Cambridge, lived for many years in South Australia, and was its first Premier. While there he drew up the plan of “The Transfer of Land by Registration,” which became an Act bearing his name, and is one of the measures sometimes cited as proof that the Daughter States are in sundry ways well ahead of their Mother. In consequence of the good work the plan has accomplished in the land of its origin, it has been adopted by other colonies, and is a standard work on the list of Cobden Club publications. Colonel Torrens's eldest granddaughter married Rowland Hill's only son. [10] The candidates ultimately chosen were the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, who represented the constituency for sixty-three years—from January 1835 till his death in January 1898—and Mr Thomas Thornley of Liverpool. Both men, as we shall see, served on that select Committee on Postage which sat to enquire as to the merits of my father's plan of postal reform, and helped to cause its adoption. The two men were long known locally as “Mr Pearson's members.” Mr Villiers will be remembered as the man who, for several years in succession, brought in an Annual Motion on behalf of Free Trade, and as being for a longer while, perhaps, than any other Parliamentarian, “the Father of the House”; but the fact is not so well known that he came near to not representing Wolverhampton at all. The election agent who “discovered” him in London described him in a letter to my grandfather (who was chairman of the local Liberal Association) as “a young gentleman named Villiers, a thorough free-trader, of good connexions, and good address.” Thus his advent was eagerly looked for. Always given to procrastination, the candidate, however, was so long in making his appearance or communicating with the constituents, that his place was about to be taken by a more energetic person who went so far as to issue his address and begin his canvass. Only just in time for nomination did Mr Villiers drive into Wolverhampton. Whereupon Mr Throckmorton gracefully retired. [11] He died in July 1838, in the midst of the agitation for the postal reform, in which he took an enthusiastic interest. [12] Grandfather to Miss Octavia Hill. [13] His son was one of the Commissioners who aided Prince Albert to inaugurate the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was created a baronet in recognition of his services.