WENTWORTH, WILLIAM CHARLES (1793 1872). An Australian statesman, born on Nor folk Island, at that time a penal station of New South Wales, where his father was a Govern ment surgeon. From 1SHi to 1824 he was in England studying at Peterhonse. Canihridge, and at the Aliddle Temple in London. lie was ad mitted to the English bar in 1822 and to the Australian in 1824. On his return to his na tive country he gave himself up to the cause of Australian self-government, advocating his views through a newspaper, the Australian. which he established at. Sydney. Tn 1842, after a struggle of nearly twenty years. Lord Stanley conferred partial self-government on New South Wales. Wentworth was a member of the first Legislative Council and 'became the head of the so-called `Squatter Party.' He was the founder of the University of Sydney (1852). was the leading spirit in the movement which carried the new Constitution through the Council in 1854, and was president of the upper chamber of the new House in 1801-02. At the end of the latter year
he returned to England and settled there defi nitely. Wentworth was a man of singular force and aggressiveness, of restless mind, and great eloquence. He was accused in his later years of being influenced by personal considerations in his political views, yet there is little doubt that to him more than to any other one man New South Wales owed her prosperity and Australia her autonomy. His publications include A tical Account of the British Settlements in Aus tralasia (1819). Consult: Barton, The Poets and Prose Writers of South Wales (Sydney, 1866) ; and Rusden, History of Australia (Lon don, 1883).