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diff --git a/14299-0.txt b/14299-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d46383 --- /dev/null +++ b/14299-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4834 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14299 *** + +NATIVE RACES AND THE WAR, + +BY + +JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. + +LONDON: GAY & BIRD. + +NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE: MAWSON, SWAN, & MORGAN. + +1900. + + + + +DEDICATED TO MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN. + + + + +I. + + APOLOGY FOR "YET ANOTHER BOOK" ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTION. + FUTURE PEACE MUST BE BASED ON JUSTICE,--TO COLOURED AS WELL AS + WHITE MEN. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEGALIZED SLAVERY AND THE SUBJECTION + OF NATIVES BY INDIVIDUALS. THE TRANSVAAL IN 1877: ITS BANKRUPTCY: + ITS ANNEXATION BY GREAT BRITAIN: ITS LIBERATION FROM GREAT BRITAIN + IN 1881. CONVENTION OF 1881 SIGNED AT PRETORIA. BRITISH + COMMISSIONERS' AUDIENCE WITH 300 NATIVE CHIEFS. SPEECHES AND + SORROWFUL PROTESTS OF THE CHIEFS. ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO + TAKE EVIDENCE. EVIDENCE OF NATIVES AND OTHERS CONCERNING SLAVERY IN + THE TRANSVAAL. APPEAL OF THE CHRISTIAN KING KHAMA. LETTER OF + M'PLAANK, NEPHEW OF CETEWAYO. PREVALENCE OF CONTEMPT FOR THE NATIVE + RACES. SYMPATHY OF A NATIVE CHIEF WITH THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. + + +In the midst of the manifold utterances and discussions on the burning +question of to-day,--the War in South Africa,--there is one side of the +subject which, it seems to me, has not as yet been considered with the +seriousness which it deserves,--and that is the question of Slavery, and +of the treatment of the native races of South Africa. Though this +question has not yet in England or on the Continent been cited as one of +the direct causes of the war, I am convinced,--as are many others,--that +it lies very near to the heart of the present trouble. + +The object of this paper is simply to bring witnesses together who will +testify to the past and present condition of the native races under +British, Dutch, and Transvaal rule. These witnesses shall not be all of +one nation; they shall come from different countries, and among them +there shall be representatives of the native peoples themselves. I shall +add little of my own to the testimony of these witnesses. But I will +say, in advance, that what I desire to make plain for some sincere +persons who are perplexed, is this,--that where a Government has +established by Law the principle of the complete and final abolition of +Slavery, and made its practice illegal for all time,--as our British +Government has done,--there is hope for the native races;--there is +always hope that, by an appeal to the law and to British authority, any +and every wrong done to the natives, which approaches to or threatens +the reintroduction of slavery, shall be redressed. The Abolition of +Slavery, enacted by our Government in 1834, was the proclamation of a +great principle, strong and clear, a straight line by which every +enactment dealing with the question, and every act of individuals, or +groups of individuals, bearing on the liberty of the natives can be +measured, and any deviation from that straight line of principle can be +exactly estimated and judged. + +When we speak of injustice done to the natives by the South African +Republics, we are apt to be met with the reproach that the English have +also been guilty of cruelty to native races. This is unhappily true, and +shall not be disguised in the following pages;--but mark this,--that it +is true of certain individuals bearing the English name, true of groups +of individuals, of certain adventurers and speculators. But this fact +does not touch the far more important and enduring fact that _wherever +British rule is established, slavery is abolished, and illegal_. + +This fact is the ground of the hope for the future of the Missionaries +of our own country, and of other European countries, as well as of the +poor natives themselves, so far as they have come to understand the +matter; and in several instances they have shown that they do understand +it, and appreciate it keenly. + +Those English persons, or groups of persons, who have denied to the +native labourers their hire (which is the essence of slavery), have +acted on their own responsibility, and _illegally_. This should be made +to be clearly understood in future conditions of peace, and rendered +impossible henceforward. + +That future peace which we all desire, on the cessation of the present +grievous war, must be a peace founded on justice, for there is no other +peace worthy of the name; and it must be not only justice as between +white men, but as between white men and men of every shade of +complexion. + +A speaker at a public meeting lately expressed a sentiment which is more +or less carelessly repeated by many. I quote it, as helping me to define +the principle to which I have referred, which marks the difference +between an offence or crime committed by an individual _against_ the +law, and an offence or crime sanctioned, permitted, or enacted by a +State or Government itself, or by public authority in any way. + +This speaker, after confessing, apparently with reluctance, that "the +South African Republic had not been stainless in its relations towards +the blacks," added, "but for these deeds--every one of them--we could +find a parallel among our own people." I think a careful study of the +history of the South African races would convince this speaker that he +has exaggerated the case as against "our own people" in the matter of +deliberate cruelty and violence towards the natives. However that may +be, it does not alter the fact of the wide difference between the evil +deeds of men acting on their own responsibility and the evil deeds of +Governments, and of Communities in which the Governmental Authorities +do not forbid, but sanction, such actions. + +As an old Abolitionist, who has been engaged for thirty years in a war +against slavery in another form, may I be allowed to cite a parallel? +That Anti-slavery War was undertaken against a Law introduced into +England, which endorsed, permitted, and in fact, legalized, a moral and +social slavery already existing--a slavery to the vice of prostitution. +The pioneers of the opposition to this law saw the tremendous import, +and the necessary consequences of such a law. They had previously +laboured to lessen the social evil by moral and spiritual means, but now +they turned their whole attention to obtaining the abolition of the +disastrous enactment which took that evil under its protection. They +felt that the action of Government in passing that law brought the whole +nation (which is responsible for its Government) under a sentence of +guilt--a sentence of moral death. It lifted off from the shoulders of +individuals, in a measure, the moral responsibility which God had laid +upon them, and took that responsibility on its own shoulders, as +representing the whole nation; it foreshadowed a national blight. My +readers know that we destroyed that legislation after a struggle of +eighteen years. In the course of that long struggle, we were constantly +met by an assertion similar in spirit to that made by the speaker to +whom I have referred; and to this day we are met by it in certain +European countries. They say to us, "But for every scandal proceeding +from this social vice, which you cite as committed under the system of +Governmental Regulation and sanction, we can find a parallel in the +streets of London, where no Governmental sanction exists." We are +constantly taunted with this, and possibly we may have to admit its +truth in a measure. But our accusers do not see the immense difference +between Governmental and individual responsibility in this vital +matter, neither do they see how additionally hard, how hopeless, becomes +the position of the slave who, under the Government sanction, has no +appeal to the law of the land; an appeal to the Government which is +itself an upholder of slavery, is impossible. The speaker above cited +concluded by saying: "The best precaution against the abuse of power on +the part of whites living amidst a coloured population is to make the +punishment of misdeeds come home to the persons who are guilty of those +misdeeds; and if he could but get his countrymen to act up to that view +he believed we should really have a better prospect for the future of +South Africa than we had had in the past." + +With this sentiment I am entirely in accord. It is our hope that the +present national awakening on the whole subject of our position and +responsibilities in South Africa will--in case of the re-establishment +of peace under the principles of British rule--result in a change in the +condition of the native races, both in the Transvaal, and at the hands +of our countrymen and others who may be acting in their own interests, +or in the interests of Commercial Societies. + +I do not intend to sketch anything approaching to a history of South +African affairs during the last seventy or eighty years; that has been +ably done by others, writing from both the British and the Boer side. I +shall only attempt to trace the condition of certain native tribes in +connection with some of the most salient events in South Africa of the +century which is past. + +In 1877, as my readers know, the Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus +Shepstone. There are very various opinions as to the justice of that +annexation. I will only here remark that it was at the earnest +solicitation of the Transvaal leaders of that date that an interference +on the part of the British Commissioner was undertaken. The Republic +was in a state of apparently hopeless anarchy, owing to constant +conflicts with warlike native tribes around and in the heart of the +country. The exchequer was exhausted. By the confession of the President +(Burgers) the country was on the verge of bankruptcy.[1] The acceptance +of the annexation was not unanimous, but it was accepted formally in a +somewhat sullen and desponding spirit, as a means of averting further +impending calamity and restoring a measure of order and peace. Whether +this justified or not the act of annexation I do not pretend to judge. +The results, however, for the Republic were for the time, financial +relief and prosperity, and better treatment of the natives. The +financial condition of the country, as I have said, at the time of the +annexation, was one of utter bankruptcy. "After three years of British +rule, however, the total revenue receipts for the first quarter of 1879 +and 1880 amounted to £22,773 and £47,982 respectively. That is to say, +that, during the last year of British rule, the revenue of the country +more than doubled itself, and amounted to about £160,000 a year, taking +the quarterly returns at the low average of £40,000."[2] Trade, also, +which in April, 1877, was completely paralysed, had increased +enormously. In the middle of 1879, the committee of the Transvaal +Chamber of Commerce pointed out that the trade of the country had in two +years risen to the sum of two millions sterling per annum. They also +pointed out that more than half the land-tax was paid by Englishmen and +other Europeans. + +In 1881, the Transvaal (under Mr. Gladstone's administration) was +liberated from British control. It was given back to its own leaders, +under certain conditions, agreed to and solemnly signed by the +President. These are the much-discussed conditions of the Convention of +1881, one of these conditions being that Slavery should be abolished. +This condition was indeed, insisted on in every agreement or convention +made between the British Government and the Boers; the first being that +of 1852, called the Sand River Convention; the second, a convention +entered into two years later called the Bloemfontein Convention (which +created the Orange Free State); a third agreement as to the cessation of +Slavery was entered into at the period of the Annexation, 1877; a fourth +was the Convention of 1881; a fifth the Convention of 1884. I do not +here speak of the other terms of these Conventions, I only remark that +in each a just treatment of the native races was demanded and agreed to. + +The retrocession of the Transvaal in 1881 has been much lauded as an act +of magnanimity and justice. There is no doubt that the motive which +prompted it was a noble and generous one; yet neither is there any +doubt, that in certain respects, the results of that act were unhappy, +and were no doubt unanticipated. It was on the natives, whose interests +appeared to have had no place in the generous impulses of Mr. Gladstone, +that the action of the British Government fell most heavily, most +mournfully. In this matter, it must be confessed that the English +Government broke faith with the unhappy natives, to whom it had promised +protection, and who so much needed it. In this, as in many other +matters, our country, under successive Governments, has greatly erred; +at times neglecting responsibilities to her loyal Colonial subjects, and +at other times interfering unwisely. + +In one matter, England has, however, been consistent, namely, in the +repeated proclamations that Slavery should never be permitted under her +rule and authority. + +The formal document of agreement between Her Majesty's Government and +the Boer leaders, known as the Convention of 1881, was signed by both +parties at Pretoria on the afternoon of the 3rd August, in the same room +in which, nearly four years before, the Annexation Proclamation was +signed by Sir T. Shepstone. + +This formality was followed by a more unpleasant duty for the +Commissioners appointed to settle this business, namely, the necessity +of conveying their message to the natives, and informing them that they +had been handed back by Great Britain, "poor Canaanites," to the tender +mercies of their masters, the "Chosen people," in spite of the +despairing appeals which many of them had made to her. + +Some three hundred of the principal native chiefs were called together +in the Square at Pretoria, and there the English Commissioner read to +them the proclamation of Queen Victoria. Sir Hercules Robinson, the +Chief Commissioner, having "introduced the native chiefs to Messrs. +Kruger, Pretorius, and Joubert," having given them good advice as to +indulging in manual labour when asked to do so by the Boers, and having +reminded them that it would be necessary to retain the law relating to +Passes, which is, in the hands of a people like the Boers, almost as +unjust a regulation as a dominant race can invent for the oppression of +a subject people, concluded by assuring them that their "interests would +never be forgotten or neglected by Her Majesty's Government." Having +read this document, the Commission hastily withdrew, and after their +withdrawal the Chiefs were "allowed" to state their opinions to the +Secretary for Native Affairs. + +In availing themselves of this permission, it is noticeable that no +allusion was made by the Chiefs to the advantages they were to reap +under the Convention. All their attention was given to the great fact +that the country had been ceded to the Boers, and that they were no +longer the Queen's subjects. I beg attention to the following appeals +from the hearts of these oppressed people. They got very excited, and +asked whether it was thought that they had no feelings or hearts, that +they were thus treated as a stick or piece of tobacco, which could be +passed from hand to hand without question. + +Umgombarie, a Zoutpansberg Chief, said: "I am Umgombarie. I have fought +with the Boers, and have many wounds, and they know that what I say is +true. I will never consent to place myself under their rule. I belong to +the English Government. I am not a man who eats with both sides of his +jaw at once; I only use one side. I am English. I have said." + +Silamba said: "I belong to the English. I will never return under the +Boers. You see me, a man of my rank and position; is it right that such +as I should be seized and laid on the ground and flogged, as has been +done to me and other Chiefs?" + +Sinkanhla said: "We hear and yet do not hear, we cannot understand. We +are troubling you, Chief, by talking in this way; we hear the Chiefs say +that the Queen took the country because the people of the country wished +it, and again, that the majority of the owners of the country did not +wish her rule, and that therefore the country was given back. We should +like to have the man pointed out from among us black people who objects +to the rule of the Queen. We are the real owners of the country; we were +here when the Boers came, and without asking leave, settled down and +treated us in every way badly. The English Government then came and took +the country; we have now had four years of rest, and peaceful and just +rule. We have been called here to-day, and are told that the country, +our country, has been given to the Boers by the Queen. This is a thing +which surprises, us. Did the country, then, belong to the Boers? Did it +not belong to our fathers and forefathers before us, long before the +Boers came here? We have heard that the Boers' country is at the Cape. +If the Queen wishes to give them their land, why does she not give them +back the Cape?" + +Umyethile said: "We have no heart for talking. I have returned to the +country from Sechelis, where I had to fly from Boer oppression. Our +hearts are black and heavy with grief to-day at the news told us. We are +in agony; our intestines are twisting and writhing inside of us, just as +you see a snake do when it is struck on the head. We do not know what +has become of us, but we feel dead. It may be that the Lord may change +the nature of the Boers, and that we will not be treated like dogs and +beasts of burden as formerly; but we have no hope of such a change, and +we leave you with heavy hearts and great apprehension as to the +future."[3] In his Report, Mr. Shepstone (Secretary for Native Affairs) +says, "One chief, Jan Sibilo, who had been personally threatened with +death by the Boers after the English should leave, could not restrain +his feelings, but cried like a child." + +In 1881, the year of the retrocession of the Transvaal, a Royal +Commission was appointed from England to enquire into the internal state +of affairs in the South African Republic. On the 9th May of that year, +an affidavit was sworn to before that Commission by the Rev. John +Thorne, of St. John the Evangelist, Lydenburg, Transvaal. He stated: "I +was appointed to the charge of a congregation in Potchefstroom when the +Republic was under the Presidency of Mr. Pretorius. I noticed one +morning, as I walked through the streets, a number of young natives whom +I knew to be strangers. I enquired where they came from. I was told that +they had just been brought from Zoutpansberg. This was the locality from +which slaves were chiefly brought at that time, and were traded for +under the name of 'Black Ivory.' One of these slaves belonged to Mr. +Munich, the State Attorney." In the fourth paragraph of the same +affidavit, Mr. Thorne says that "the Rev. Dr. Nachtigal, of the Berlin +Missionary Society, was the interpreter for Shatane's people, in the +private office of Mr. Roth, and, at the close of the interview, told me +what had occurred. On my expressing surprise, he went on to relate that +he had information on native matters which would surprise me more. He +then produced the copy of a register, kept in the Landdrost's office, of +men, women, and children, to the number of four hundred and eighty +(480), who had been disposed of by one Boer to another for a +consideration. In one case an ox was given in exchange, in another +goats, in a third a blanket, and so forth. Many of these natives he (Mr. +Nachtigal) knew personally. The copy was certified as true and correct +by an official of the Republic."[4] + +On the 16th May, 1881, a native, named Frederick Molepo, was examined by +the Royal Commission. The following are extracts from his examination:-- + +"(_Sir Evelyn Wood_.) Are you a Christian?--Yes. + +"(_Sir H. de Villiers_.) How long were you a slave?--Half-a-year. + +"How do you know that you were a slave? Might you not have been an +apprentice?--No, I was not apprenticed. + +"How do you know?--They got me from my parents, and ill-treated me. + +"(_Sir Evelyn Wood_.) How many times did you get the stick?--Every day. + +"(_Sir H. de Villiers_.) What did the Boers do with you when they caught +you?--They sold me. + +"How much did they sell you for?--One cow and a big pot." + +On the 28th May, 1881, amongst the other documents-handed in for the +consideration of the Royal Commission, is the statement of a Headman, +whose name also it was considered advisable to omit in the Blue book, +lest the Boers should take vengeance on him. He says, "I say, that if +the English Government dies I shall die too; I would rather die than be +under the Boer Government. I am the man who helped to make bricks for +the church you see now standing in the square here (Pretoria), as a +slave without payment. As a representative of my people, I am still +obedient to the English Government, and willing to obey all commands +from them, even to die for their cause in this country, rather than +submit to the Boers. + +"I was under Shambok, my chief, who fought the Boers-formerly, but he +left us, and we were _put up to auction_ and sold among the Boers. I +want to state this myself to the Royal Commission. I was bought by Fritz +Botha and sold by Frederick Botha, who was then veldt cornet (justice of +the peace) of the Boers." + +Many more of such extracts might be quoted, but it is not my motive to +multiply horrors. These are given exactly as they stand in the original, +which may all be found in Blue Books-presented to Parliament. + +It has frequently been denied on behalf of the Transvaal, and is denied +at this day, in the face of innumerable witnesses to the contrary, that +slavery exists in the Transvaal. Now, this may be considered to be +verbally true. Slavery, they say, did not exist; but apprenticeship did, +and does exist. It is only another name. It is not denied that some +Boers have been kind to their slaves, as humane slave-owners frequently +were in the Southern States of America. But kindness, even the most +indulgent, to slaves, has never been held by abolitionists to excuse the +existence of slavery. + +Mr. Rider Haggard, who spent a great part of his life in the Transvaal +and other parts of South Africa, wrote in 1899: "The assertion that +Slavery did not exist in the Transvaal is made to hoodwink the British +public. I have known men who have owned slaves, and who have seen whole +waggon-loads of Black Ivory, as they were called, sold for about £15 a +piece. I have at this moment a tenant, Carolus by name, on some land I +own in Natal, now a well-to-do man, who was for twenty years a Boer +slave. He told me that during those years he worked from morning till +night, and the only reward he received was two calves. He finally +escaped to Natal." + +Going back some years, evidence may be found, equally well attested with +that already quoted. On the 22nd August, 1876, Khama, the Christian King +of the Bamangwato (Bechuanaland), one of the most worthy Chiefs which +any country has had the good fortune to be ruled by, wrote to Sir Henry +de Villiers the following message, to be sent to Queen Victoria:--"I +write to you, Sir Henry, in order that your Queen may preserve for me my +country, it being in her hands. The Boers are coming into it, and I do +not like them. Their actions are cruel among us black people. We are +like money; they sell us and our children. I ask Her Majesty to pity +me, and to hear that which I write quickly. I wish to hear upon what +conditions Her Majesty will receive me, and my country and my people, +under her protection. I am weary with fighting. I do not like war, and I +ask Her Majesty to give me peace. I am very much distressed that my +people are being destroyed by war, and I wish them to obtain peace. I +ask Her Majesty to defend me, as she defends all her people. There are +three things which distress me very much--war, selling people, and +drink. All these things I find in the Boers, and it is these things +which destroy people, to make an end of them in the country. The custom +of the Boers has always been to cause people to be sold, and to-day they +are still selling people. Last year I saw them pass with two waggons +full of people whom they had bought at the river at Tanane (Lake +Ngate).--Khama." + +The visit of King Khama to England, a few years ago, his interview with +the Queen, and his pathetic appeals on behalf of his people against the +intrusion of any aggressors (drink being one of them), are fresh in our +memory. + +Coming down to a recent date, I reproduce here a letter from a Zulu +Chief, which appeared in the London Press in November, 1899. This letter +is written to a gentleman, who accompanied it by the following +remarks:--"After I had read this very remarkable letter, I found myself +half unconsciously wondering what place in the scheme of South African +life will be found for Zulus such as this nephew of the last of the Zulu +Kings. One thing I am fully certain of, that there are few natives in +the Cape Colony (where they are full-fledged voters) capable of inditing +so sensible an epistle. This communication throws a most welcome light +upon the attitude of his people with respect to the momentous events +that are in progress, and also it reveals to what a high standard of +intellectual culture a pure Zulu may attain." + +"Duff's Road, Durban, + November 3rd, 1899. + +Sir,--I keenly appreciate your generous tribute to the loyalty of the +Zulu nation during the fierce crisis of English rule in South Africa. It +is the first real test of the loyalty of the Zulus, and as a Zulu who +was once a Chief, I rejoice to see that the loyalty and gratitude of my +people is appreciated by the white people of Natal. + +It is, as you say, respected Sir, a tribute, and a magnificent one, to +England's just policy to the Zulus. I dare to assert it is even a finer +tribute to the natives' appreciation, not only of benefits already +conferred, but of the spirit that actuated England in her dealings with +him. I may disagree as to the lessons taught by Maxim guns, hollow +squares, and the 'thin red line.' I think no one can have read Colonial +history, chronicling as it does, the rise again and again of the native +against Imperial forces, without feeling that he is influenced far less +by England's prowess in war than by her justice in peace. My Zulu +fellow-countrymen understand as clearly as anyone the weakness and the +strength of the present time. If the Zulu wished to remember Kambula and +Ulundi, this would be his supreme opportunity to rise and hurl himself +across the Natal frontier. But I, having just returned from my native +country, have been able to report to the Government at Pietermaritzburg +that there is not the slightest symptom of disloyalty, not the idea of +lifting a finger against the white subjects of the great and good Queen. + +There is among the Chiefs and Indunas of my people an almost universal +hope that the Imperial arms will be victorious, and that a Government +which, by its inhumanity and relentless injustice, and apparent +inability to see that the native has any rights a white man should +respect, has forfeited its place among the civilised Governments of the +earth, and should therefore be deprived of powers so scandalously +abused--formerly by slavery, and in later years by disallowing the +native to buy land, and utterly neglecting his intellectual and +spiritual needs. There are wrongs to be redressed, and we Zulus believe +that England will be more willing to redress them than any other Power. +There is still much to be done in the way of educating and civilizing +the mass of the Zulu nation. We Chiefs of that nation have observed that +wherever England has gone there the Missionary and teacher follow, and +that there exists sympathy between the authority of Her Majesty and the +forces that labour for civilization and Christianity. We Zulus have not +yet forgotten what we owe to the late Bishop Colenso's lifelong +advocacy, or to Lady Florence Dixie's kindly interest. These are things +that are more than fear of England's might, that keep our people quiet +outside and loyal inside. This is not a passive loyalty with us. +Speaking for almost all my fellow-countrymen in Zululand, I believe if a +great emergency arises in the course of this history-making war, in +which England might find it necessary to put their loyalty to the test, +they would respond with readiness and enthusiasm equal to that when they +fought under King Cetewayo against Lord Chelmsford's army. Again +assuring you that the Zulu people are turning deaf ears to Boer +promises, as well as threats, I remain, with the most earnest hope for +the ultimate triumph of General Buller--who fought my King for half a +year. Your humble and most obedient servant, + + M'PLAANK, + +Son of Maguendé, brother of Cetewayo." + +There is unhappily a tendency among persons living for any length of +time among heathen people, to think and speak with a certain contempt +for those people, at whose moral elevation they may even be sincerely +aiming. They see all that is bad in these "inferior races," and little +that is good. This was not so in the case of the greatest and most +successful Missionaries. They never lost faith in human nature, even at +its lowest estate, and hence they were able to raise the standard of the +least promising of the outcast races of the world. This faith in the +possibility of the elevation of these races has been firmly held, +however, by some who know them best, and have lived among them the +longest. + +Mr Rider Haggard writes thus on this subject:--"So far as my own +experience of natives has gone, I have found that in all the essential +qualities of mind and body they very much resemble white men. Of them +might be aptly quoted the speech Shakespeare puts into Shylock's mouth: +'Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, +affections, passions?' In the same way, I ask, has a native no feelings +or affections? does he not suffer when his parents are shot, or his +children stolen, or when he is driven a wanderer from his home? Does he +not know fear, feel pain, affection, hate, and gratitude? Most certainly +he does; and this being so, I cannot believe that the Almighty, who made +both white and black, gave to the one race the right or mission of +exterminating or of robbing or maltreating the other, and calling the +process the advance of civilization. It seems to me, that on only one +condition, if at all, have we the right to take the black men's land; +and that is, that we provide them with an equal and a just Government, +and allow no maltreatment of them, either as individuals or tribes, but, +on the contrary, do our best to elevate them, and wean them from savage +customs. Otherwise, the practice is surely undefensible. + +"I am aware, however, that with the exception of a small class, these +are sentiments which are not shared by the great majority of the public, +either at home or abroad." + +A French gentleman, who has been for many years connected with the +_Missions Evangéliques_ of France, related recently in my presence some +incidents of the early experience of French Missionaries in South +Africa. One of these had laboured for years without encouragement. The +hearts of the native people around him remained unmoved. One day, +however, he spoke among them especially of Calvary, of the sufferings of +Christ on the Cross. A Chief who was present left the building in which +the teacher was speaking. At the close, this Chief was found sitting on +the ground outside, his back to the door, his head bent forward and +buried in his arms. He was weeping. When spoken to, he raised his arm +with a movement of deprecation, and, in a voice full of pity and +indignation, said--"to think that there was no one even to give Him a +drink of water!" That poor savage had known what thirst is. This one +awakened chord of human sympathy with the human Christ was +communicative. Other hearts were touched, and from that time the +Missionary began to reap a rich harvest from his labours. In the midst +of the elaborate services of our fashionable London churches is there +often to be found so genuine a feeling as that which shook the soul of +this Chief, and broke down the barrier of coldness and hardness in his +fellow-countrymen which had before prevented the acceptance of the +message of Salvation and of the practical obligations of Christianity +among them? Men who are capable of rising to the knowledge and love of +divine truth cannot be supposed to be impervious to the influence of +_civilization_ properly understood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: The financial resources of the country at that time +amounted to 12s. 6d.] + +[Footnote 2: Quoted from Parliamentary Blue Book.] + +[Footnote 3: Report made on the spot by Mr. Shepstone (not Sir +Theophilus Shepstone), Secretary for Native Affairs.] + +[Footnote 4: The name of that official was held back from publication at +the time, as if his act were known by the Boers, it was believed it +might have cost the man his life.] + + + + +II. + + THE CAUSES OF THE WAR DATE FAR BACK. THE FAULTS OF ENGLAND TO BE + SOUGHT IN THE PAST. A REVISED VERDICT NEEDED. DOWNING STREET + GOVERNMENT AND SUCCESSIVE COLONIAL GOVERNORS. M. MABILLE AND M. + DIETERLEN, FRENCH MISSIONARIES. EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE COLONY. + ABOLITION OF SLAVERY BY GREAT BRITAIN. COMPENSATION TO SLAVE + OWNERS. FIRST TREK OF THE BURGHERS. + + +There is nothing so fallacious or misleading in history as the popular +tendency to trace the causes of a great war to one source alone, or to +fix upon the most recent events leading up to it, as the principal or +even the sole cause of the outbreak of war. The occasion of an event may +not be, and often is not, the cause of it. The occasion of this war was +not its cause. In the present case it is extraordinary to note how +almost the whole of Europe appears to be carried away with the idea that +the causes of this terrible South African war are, as it were, only of +yesterday's date. The seeds of which we are reaping so woeful a harvest +were not sown yesterday, nor a few years ago only. We are reaping a +harvest which has been ripening for a century past. + +At the time of the Indian Mutiny, it was given out and believed by the +world in general that the cause of that hideous revolt was a supposed +attempt on the part of England to impose upon the native army of India +certain rules which, from their point of view, outraged their religion +in some of its most sacred aspects; (I refer to the legend of the +greased cartridges). After the mutiny was over, Sir Herbert Edwardes, a +true Seer, whose insight enabled him to look far below the surface, and +to go back many years into the history of our dealings with India in +order to take in review all the causes of the rebellion, addressed an +exhaustive report to the British Government at home, dealing with those +causes which had been accumulating for half-a-century or more. This was +a weighty document,--one which it would be worth while to re-peruse at +the present day; it had its influence in leading the Home Government to +acknowledge some grave errors which had led up to this catastrophe, and +to make an honest and persevering attempt to remedy past evils. That +this attempt has not been in vain, in spite of all that India has had to +suffer, has been acknowledged gratefully by the Native delegates to the +great Annual Congress in India of the past year. + +In the case of the Indian Mutiny, the incident of the supposed insult to +their religious feelings was only the match which set light to a train +which had been long laid. In the same way the honest historian will +find, in the present case, that the events,--the "tragedy of errors," as +they have been called,--of recent date, are but the torch that has set +fire to a long prepared mass of combustible material which had been +gradually accumulating in the course of a century. + +In order to arrive at a true estimate of the errors and mismanagement +which lie at the root of the causes of the present war, it is necessary +to look back. Those errors and wrongs must be patiently searched out and +studied, without partisanship, with an open mind and serious purpose. +Many of our busy politicians and others have not the time, some perhaps +have not the inclination for any such study. Hence, hasty, shallow, and +violent judgments. + +Never has there occurred in history a great struggle such as the present +which has not had a deep moral teaching. + +England is now suffering for her past errors, extending over many years. +The blood of her sons is being poured out like water on the soil of +South Africa. Wounded hearts and desolated families at home are counted +by tens of thousands. + +But it needs to be courageously stated by those who have looked a little +below the surface that her faults have not been those which are +attributed to her by a large proportion of European countries, and by a +portion of her own people. These appear to attribute this war to a +sudden impulse on her part of Imperial ambition and greed, and to see in +the attitude which they attribute to her alone, the provocative element +which was chiefly supplied from the other side. There will have to be a +Revision of this Verdict, and there will certainly be one; it is on the +way, though its approach may be slow. It will be rejected by some to the +last. + +The great error of England appears to have been a strange neglect, from +time to time, of the true interests of her South African subjects, +English, Dutch, and Natives. There have been in her management of this +great Colony alternations of apathy and inaction, with interference +which was sometimes unwise and hasty. Some of her acts have been the +result of ignorance, indifference, or superciliousness on the part of +our rulers. + +The special difficulties, however, in her position towards that Colony +should be taken into account. + +It has always been a question as to how far interference from Downing +Street with the freedom of action of a Self-Governing Colony was wise +or practicable. In other instances, the exercise of great freedom of +colonial self-government has had happy results, as in Canada and +Australia. + +Far from our South African policy having represented, as is believed by +some, the self-assertion of a proud Imperialism, it has been the very +opposite. + +It seems evident that some of the greatest evils in the British +government of South Africa have arisen from the frequent changes of +Governors and Administrators there, _concurrently with changes in the +Government at home_. There have been Governors under whose influence and +control all sections of the people, including the natives, have had a +measure of peace and good government. Such a Governor was Sir George +Grey, of whose far-seeing provisions for the welfare of all classes many +effects last to this day. + +The nature of the work undertaken, and to a great extent done, by Sir +George Grey and those of his successors who followed his example, was +concisely described by an able local historian in 1877:--"The aim of the +Colonial Government since 1855," he said, "has been to establish and +maintain peace, to diffuse civilization and Christianity, and to +establish society on the basis of individual property and personal +industry. The agencies employed are the magistrate, the missionary, the +school-master, and the trader." Of the years dating from the +commencement of Sir George Grey's administration, it was thus +reported:--"During this time peace has been uninterruptedly enjoyed +within British frontiers. The natives have been treated in all respects +with justice and consideration. Large tracts of the richest land are +expressly set apart for them under the name of 'reserves' and +'locations.' The greater part of them live in these locations, under the +superintendence of European magistrates or missionaries. As a whole, +they are now enjoying far greater comfort and prosperity than they ever +did in their normal state of barbaric independence and perpetually +recurring tribal wars, before coming into contact with Europeans. The +advantages and value of British rule have of late years struck root in +the native mind over an immense portion of South Africa. They believe +that it is a protection from external encroachment, and that only under +the _ægis_ of the Government can they be secure and enjoy peace and +prosperity. Influenced by this feeling, several tribes beyond the +colonial boundaries are now eager to be brought within the pale of +civilized authority, and ere long, it is hoped, Her Majesty's +sovereignty will be extended over fresh territories, with the full and +free consent of the chiefs and tribes inhabiting them."[5] + +It maybe of interest to note here that one of these territories was +Basutoland, which lies close to the South Eastern border of the Orange +Free State. + +Between the Basutos and the Orange Free State Boers war broke out in +1856, to be followed in 1858 by a temporary and incomplete pacification. +The struggle continued, and in 1861, and again in 1865, when war was +resumed, and all Basutoland was in danger of being conquered by the +Boers, Moshesh, their Chief, appealed to the British Government for +protection. It was not till 1868, after a large part of the country had +passed into Boer hands, that Sir Philip Wodehouse, Sir George Grey's +successor, was allowed to issue a proclamation declaring so much as +remained of Basutoland to be British territory. + +It was Sir George Grey who first saw the importance of endeavouring to +bring all portions of South Africa, including the Boer Republics and the +Native States, into "federal union with the parent colony" at the Cape. +He was commissioned by the British Government to make enquiries with +this object (1858.) He had obtained the support of the Orange Free +State, whose Volksraad resolved that "a union with the Cape Colony, +either on the plan of federation or otherwise, is desirable," and was +expecting to win over the Transvaal Boers, when the British Government, +alarmed as to the responsibilities it might incur, vetoed the project. +(Such sudden alarms, under the influence of party conflicts at home, +have not been infrequent.) + +For seven years, however, this good Governor was permitted to promote a +work of pacification and union. + +I shall refer again later to the misfortunes, even the calamities, which +have been the result of our projecting our home system of _Government by +Party_ into the distant regions of South Africa. There are long proved +advantages in that system of party government as existing for our own +country, but it seems to have been at the root of much of the +inconsistency and vacillation of our policy in South Africa. As soon as +a good Governor (appointed by either political party) has begun to +develop his methods, and to lead the Dutch, and English, and Natives +alike to begin to believe that there is something homogeneous in the +principles of British government, a General Election takes place in +England. A new Parliament and a new Government come into power, and, +frequently in obedience to some popular representations at home, the +actual Colonial Governor is recalled, and another is sent out. + +Lord Glenelg, for example, had held office as Governor of the Cape +Colony for five years,--up to 1846. His policy had been, it is said, +conciliatory and wise. But immediately on a change of party in the +Government at home, he was recalled, and Sir Harry Smith superseded him, +a recklessly aggressive person. + +It was only by great pains and trouble that the succeeding Governor, +Sir George Cathcart, a wiser man, brought about a settlement of the +confusion and disputes arising from Sir Harry Smith's aggressive and +violent methods. + +And so it has gone on, through all the years. + +Allusion having been made above to the assumption of the Protectorate of +Basutoland by Great Britain, it will not be without interest to notice +here the circumstances and the motives which led to that act. It will be +seen that there was no aggressiveness nor desire of conquest in this +case; but that the protection asked was but too tardily granted on the +pathetic and reiterated prayer of the natives suffering from the +aggressions of the Transvaal. + +The following is from the Biography of Adolphe Mabille, a devoted +missionary of the _Société des Missions Evangéliques_ of Paris, who +worked with great success in Basutoland. His life is written by Mr. +Dieterlen (a name well known and highly esteemed in France), and the +book has a preface by the famous missionary, Mr. F. Coillard.[6] + +"The Boers had long been keeping up an aggressive war against the +Basutos (1864 to 1869), so much so that Mr. Mabille's missionary work +was for a time almost destroyed. The Boers thought they saw in the +missionaries' work the secret of the steady resistance of the Basutos, +and of the moral force which prevented them laying down their arms. They +exacted that Mr. Mabille should leave the country at once, which +theoretically, they said, belonged to them. + +"This good missionary and his friends were subjected to long trials +during this hostility of the Boers. Moshesh, the chief of the Basutos, +had for a long time past been asking the Governor of Cape Colony to +have him and his people placed under the direction of Great Britain. The +reply from the Cape was very long delayed. Moshesh, worn out, was about +to capitulate at last to the Boers. Lessuto (the territory of +Basutoland) was on the point of being absorbed by the Transvaal. At the +last moment, however, and not a day too soon, there came a letter from +the Governor of the Cape announcing to Moshesh that Queen Victoria had +consented to take the Basutos under her protection. It was the +long-expected deliverance,--it was salvation! At this news the +missionaries, with Moshesh, burst into tears, and falling on their +knees, gave thanks to God for this providential and almost unexpected +intervention." + +The Boers retained a large and fertile tract of Lessuto, but the rest of +the country, continues M. Dieterlen, "remained under the Protectorate of +a people who, provided peace is maintained, and their commerce is not +interfered with, know how to work for the right development of the +native people whose lands they annex." + +Mr. Dieterlen introduces into his narrative the following +remarks,--which are interesting as coming, not from an Englishman, but +from a Frenchman,--and one who has had close personal experience of the +matters of which he speaks:-- + +"Stayers at home, as we Frenchmen are, forming our opinions from +newspapers whose editors know no more than ourselves what goes on in +foreign countries, we too willingly see in the British nation an +egotistical and rapacious people, thinking of nothing but the extension +of their commerce and the prosperity of their industry. We are apt to +pretend that their philanthropic enterprises and religious works are a +mere hypocrisy. Courage is absolutely needed in order to affirm, at the +risk of exciting the indignation of our _soi-disant_ patriots, that +although England knows perfectly well how to take care of her +commercial interests in her colonies, she knows equally well how to +pre-occupy and occupy herself with the moral interests of the people +whom she places by agreement or by force under the sceptre of her Queen. +Those who have seen and who know, have the duty of saying to those who +have not seen, and who cannot, or who do not desire to see, and who do +not know, that these two currents flowing from the British nation,--the +one commercial and the other philanthropic,--are equally active amongst +the uncivilized nations of Africa, and that if one wishes to find +colonies in which exist real and complete liberty of conscience, where +the education and moralisation of the natives are the object of serious +concern, drawing largely upon the budget of the metropolis, it is always +and above all in English possessions that you must look for them. + +"Under the domination of the Boers, Lessuto would have been devoted to +destruction, to ignorance, and to semi-slavery. Under the English régime +reign security and progress. Lessuto became a territory reserved solely +for its native proprietors, the sale of strong liquors was prohibited, +and the schools received generous subvention. Catholics, Protestants, +Anglicans, French and English Missionaries, could then enjoy the most +absolute liberty in order to spread, each one in his own manner, and in +the measure in which he possessed it, evangelic truth. + +"It is for this reason that the French missionaries feared to see the +Basutos fall under the Boers' yoke, and that they hailed with joy the +intervention of the English Government in their field of work, hoping +and expecting for the missionary work the happiest fruits. Their hope +has not been deceived by the results." + +The clash of opposing principles, and even the violence of party feeling +continued to send its echoes to the far regions of South Africa, +confusing the minds of the various populations there, and preventing any +real coherence and continuity in our Government of that great Colony. A +good and successful Administrator has sometimes been withdrawn to be +superseded by another, equally well-intentioned, perhaps, but whose +policy was on wholly different lines, thus undoing the work of his +predecessor. This has introduced not only confusion, but sometimes an +appearance of real injustice into our management of the colony. In all +this chequered history, the interests of the native races have been too +often postponed to those of the ruling races. This was certainly the +case in connexion with Mr. Gladstone's well-intentioned act in giving +back to the Transvaal its independent government. + +It has been an anxious question for many among us whether this source of +vacillation, with its attendant misfortunes, is to continue in the +future. + + * * * * * + +The early history of the South African Colony has become, by this time, +pretty well known by means of the numberless books lately written on the +subject. I will only briefly recapitulate here a few of the principal +facts, these being, in part, derived from the annals and reports of the +Aborigines Protection Society, which may be considered impartial, seeing +that that Society has had a keen eye at all times for the faults of +British colonists and the British Government, while constrained, as a +truthful recorder, to publish the offences of other peoples and +Governments. I have also constantly referred to Parliamentary papers, +and the words of accredited historians and travellers. + +The first attempt at a regular settlement by the Dutch at the Cape was +made by Jan Van Riebeck, in 1652, for the convenience of the trading +vessels of the Netherlands East India Company, passing from Europe to +Asia. Almost from the first these colonists were involved in quarrels +with the natives, which furnished excuse for appropriating their lands +and making slaves of them. The intruders stole the natives' cattle, and +the natives' efforts to recover their property were denounced by Van +Riebeck as "a matter most displeasing to the Almighty, when committed by +such as they." Apologising to his employers in Holland for his show of +kindness to one group of natives, Van Riebeck wrote: "This we only did +to make them less shy, so as to find hereafter a better opportunity to +seize them--1,100 or 1,200 in number, and about 600 cattle, the best in +the whole country. We have every day the finest opportunities for +effecting this without bloodshed, and could derive good service from the +people, _in chains_, in killing seals or in labouring in the silver +mines which we trust will be found here." + +The Netherlands Company frequently deprecated such acts of treachery and +cruelty, and counselled moderation. Their protests however were of no +avail. The mischief had been done. The unhappy natives, with whom +lasting friendship might have been established by fair treatment, had +been converted into enemies; and the ruthless punishment inflicted on +them for each futile effort to recover some of the property stolen from +them, had rendered inevitable the continuance and constant extension of +the strife all through the five generations of Dutch rule, and furnished +cogent precedent for like action afterwards,[7] After 1652, Colonists of +the baser sort kept arriving in cargoes, and gradually the Netherlands +Company allowed persons not of their own nation to land and settle under +severe fiscal and other restrictions. Among these were a number of +French Huguenots, good men, driven from their homes by the revocation of +the Edict of Nantes in 1690. Then Flemings, Germans, Poles, and others +constantly swelled the ranks. All these Europeans were forced to submit +to the arbitrary rules of the Netherlands Company's agents, scarcely at +all restrained from Amsterdam. Unofficial residents, known as Burghers, +came to be admitted to share in the management of affairs. It was for +their benefit chiefly, that as soon as the Hottentots were found to be +unworkable as slaves, Negroes from West Africa and Malays from the East +Indies began to be imported for the purpose. In 1772, when the +settlement was a hundred and twenty years old, and had been in what was +considered working order for a century, Cape Town and its suburbs had a +population of 1,963 officials and servants of the Company, 4,628 male +and 3,750 female colonists, and 8,335 slaves. In these figures no +account is taken of the Hottentots and others employed in menial +capacities, nor of the black prisoners, among whom, in 1772, a Swedish +traveller saw 950 men, women, and children of the Bushman race, who had +been captured about a hundred and fifty miles from Cape Town in a war +brought about by encroachment on their lands.[8] + +The Aborigines Protection Society endorses the following statement of +Sparrman (visit to the Cape of Good Hope, 1786, Vol. II, p. 165,) who +says, "The Slave business, that violent outrage against the natural +rights of man, which is always a crime and leads to all manner of +wickedness, is exercised by the Colonists with a cruelty that merits the +abhorrence of everyone, though I have been told that they pique +themselves upon it; and not only is the capture of the Hottentots +considered by them merely as a party of pleasure, but in cold blood +they destroy the bands which nature has knit between husband and wife, +and between parents and their children. Does a Colonist at any time get +sight of a Bushman, he takes fire immediately, and spirits up his horse +and dogs, in order to hunt him with more ardour and fury than he would a +wolf or any other wild beast.". + +"I am far from accusing all the colonists," he continues, "of these +cruelties, which are too frequently committed. While some of them plumed +themselves upon them, there were many who, on the contrary, held them in +abomination, and feared lest the vengeance of Heaven should, for all +their crimes, fall upon their posterity." + +The inability of the Amsterdam authorities to control the filibustering +zeal of the colonists rendered it easy for the people at the Cape to +establish among themselves, in 1793, what purported to be an independent +Republic. One of their proclamations contained the following resolution, +aimed especially at the efforts of the missionaries--most of whom were +then Moravians--to save the natives from utter ruin: "We will not permit +any Moravians to live here and instruct the Hottentots; for, as there +are many Christians who receive no instruction, it is not proper that +the Hottentots should be taught; they must remain in the same state as +before. Hottentots born on the estate of a farmer must live there, and +serve him until they are twenty-five years old, before they receive any +wages. All Bushmen or wild Hottentots caught by us must remain slaves +for life."[9] + +I have given these facts of more than a hundred years ago to show for +how long a time the traditions of the usefulness and lawfulness of +Slavery had been engrained in the minds of the Dutch settlers. We ought +not, perhaps, to censure too severely the Boer proclivities in favour of +that ancient institution, nor to be surprised if it should be a work of +time, accompanied with severe Providential chastisement, to uproot that +fixed idea from the minds of the present generation, of Boer descent. +The sin of enslaving their fellow-men may perhaps be reckoned, for them, +among the "sins of ignorance." Nevertheless, the Recording Angel has not +failed through all these generations to mark the woes of the slaves; and +the historic vengeance, which sooner or later infallibly follows a +century or centuries of the violation of the Divine Law and of human +rights, will not be postponed or averted even by a late repentance on +the part of the transgressors. It is striking to note how often in +history the sore judgment of oppressors has fallen (in this world), not +on those who were first in the guilt, but on their successors, just as +they were entering on an amended course of "ceasing to do evil and +learning to do well." + +In 1795, Cape Town was formally ceded by the Prince of Orange to Great +Britain, as an incident of the great war with France, for which, six +million pounds sterling was paid by Great Britain to Holland. British +supremacy was formally recognized in this part of South Africa by a +Convention signed in 1814, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in +1815. + +British rule for some thirty years after 1806 was perforce despotic, but +for the most part, with some exceptions, it was a benevolent despotism. +"They had the difficult task of controlling a straggling white +community, at first almost exclusively composed of Boers, who had been +too sturdy and stubborn to tolerate any effective interference by the +Netherlands Company and other authorities in Holland, and who resented +both English domination and the advent of English colonists which more +than doubled the white population in less than two decades." "The +Governors sent out from Downing Street had tasks imposed upon them which +were beyond the powers of even the wisest and worthiest. Most of the +English colonists found it easier to fall in with the thoughts and +habits of the Boers than to uphold the purer traditions of life and +conduct in the mother country, and it is not strange that many of the +officials should have been in like case."[10] + +Great Britain abolished the Slave Trade in 1807, which prevented the +further importation of Slaves, and the traffic in them. + +The great Emancipation Act, by which Great Britain abolished Slavery in +all lands over which she had control, was passed in 1834. + +The great grievance for the Burghers was this abolition of slavery by +Great Britain. According to a Parliamentary Return of March, 1838, the +slaves of all sorts liberated in Cape Colony numbered 35,750. The +British Parliament awarded as compensation to the slave owners +throughout the British dominions a sum of £20,000,000, of which, nearly +£1,500,000 fell to the share of the Burghers. Concerning this Act of +Compensation there have been very divided opinions; there is not a doubt +that the British Government intended to deal fairly by the former slave +owners, but it is stated that there was great and culpable carelessness +on the part of the British agents in distributing this compensation +money. It seems that many of the Burghers to whom it was due never +obtained it, and these considered themselves aggrieved and defrauded by +the British Government. On the other hand, there are persons who have +continually disapproved of the principle of compensation for a wrong +given up, or the loss of an advantage unrighteously purchased. It is +however to be regretted, that an excuse should have been given for the +Boers' complaints by irregularities attributed to the British in the +partition of the compensation money. + +It has often been asserted that the first great Dutch emigration from +the Cape was instigated simply by love of freedom on their part, and +their dislike of British Government. But why did they dislike British +Government? There may have been minor reasons, but the one great +grievance complained of by themselves, from the first, was the abolition +of slavery. They desired to be free to deal with the natives in their +own manner. + +Taking with them their household belongings and as much cattle as they +could collect, they went forth in search of homes in which they hoped +they would be no longer controlled, and as they thought, sorely wronged +by the nation which had invaded their Colony. But they did not all trek; +only about half, it was estimated, did so. The rest remained, finding it +possible to live and prosper without slavery. + +They crossed the Orange River, and finally trekked beyond the Vaal. + +From 1833, Cape Colony, under British rule, began to be endowed with +representative institutions. In 1854, the Magna Charta of the +Hottentots, as it was called, was created. It was a measure of +remarkable liberality. "It conferred on all Hottentots and other free +persons of colour lawfully residing in the Colony, the right to become +burghers, and to exercise and enjoy all the privileges of burghership. +It enabled them to acquire land and other property. It exempted them +from any compulsory service to which other subjects of the Crown were +not liable, and from 'any hindrance, molestation, fine, imprisonment or +other punishment' not awarded to them after trial in due course of law, +'any custom or usage to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.' Among +other provisions it was stipulated that wages should no longer be paid +to them in liquor or tobacco, and that, in the event of a servant having +reasonable ground of complaint against his master for ill-usage, and not +being able to bear the expense of a summons, one should be issued to him +free of charge. By this ordinance a stop was put, as far as the law +could be enforced, to the bondage, other than admitted and legalized +slavery, by which through nearly two centuries the Dutch farmers and +others had oppressed the natives whom they had deprived of their +lands."[11] + +The Boers who had trekked resented every attempt at interference with +them on the part of the Cape Government with a view to their acceptance +of such principles of British Government as are expressed above. Wearied +by its hopeless efforts to restore order among the emigrant farmers, the +British Government abandoned the task, and contented itself with the +arrangement made with Andries Pretorius, in 1852, called the Sand River +Convention. This Convention conceded to "the emigrant farmers beyond the +Vaal River" "the right to manage their own affairs and to govern +themselves, without any interference on the part of Her Majesty the +Queen's Government." It was stipulated, however, that "no slavery is or +shall be permitted or practised in the country to the north of the Vaal +River by the emigrant farmers." This stipulation has been made in every +succeeding Convention down to that of 1884. These Conventions have been +regularly agreed to and signed by successive Boer Leaders, and have been +as regularly and successively violated. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: South Africa, Past and Present (1899), by Noble.] + +[Footnote 6: Adolphe Mabille, Published in Paris, 1898.] + +[Footnote 7: These and other details which follow are taken from Dutch +official papers, giving a succinct account of the treatment of the +natives between 1649 and 1809. These papers were translated from the +Dutch by Lieut. Moodie (1838). See Moodie's "_Record_."] + +[Footnote 8: Thunberg. "Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, between +1770 and 1779."] + +[Footnote 9: Sir John Barrow (Travels in South Africa, 1806.) Vol ii. p. +165.] + +[Footnote 10: Mr. Fox Bourne, Secretary of the Aborigines Protection +Society.] + +[Footnote 11: Parliamentary paper quoted by Mr. Fox Bourne. "Black and +White," page 18.] + + + + +III. + + DR. LIVINGSTONE'S EXPERIENCES IN THE TRANSVAAL AND IN SURROUNDING + NATIVE DISTRICTS. LETTER OF DR. MOFFAT IN 1877. LETTER OF HIS SON, + REV. J. MOFFAT, 1899. REPORT OF M. DIETERLEN TO THE COMMITTEE OF + THE MISSIONS' EVANGÉLIQUES OF PARIS. + + +The following is an extract from the "Missionary Travels and Researches +in South Africa," of the venerable pioneer, David Livingstone.[12] + +"An adverse influence with which the mission had to contend was the +vicinity of the Boers of the Cashan Mountains,[13] otherwise named +'Magaliesberg.' These are not to be confounded with the Cape Colonists, +who sometimes pass by the name. The word 'Boer,' simply means 'farmer,' +and is not synonymous with our word boor. Indeed, to the Boers generally +the latter term would be quite inappropriate, for they are a sober, +industrious, and most hospitable body of peasantry. Those, however, who +have fled from English Law on various pretexts, and have been joined by +English deserters, and every other variety of bad character in their +distant localities, are unfortunately of a very different stamp. The +great objection many of the Boers had, and still have, to English law, +is that it makes no distinction between black men and white. They felt +aggrieved by their supposed losses in the emancipation of their +Hottentot slaves, and determined to erect themselves into a republic, in +which they might pursue, without molestation, the 'proper treatment' of +the blacks. It is almost needless to add, that the 'proper treatment' +has always contained in it the essential element of slavery, namely, +compulsory unpaid labour. + +"One section of this body, under the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, +penetrated the interior as far as the Cashan Mountains, whence a Zulu +chief, named Mosilikátze, had been expelled by the well known Kaffir +Dingaan, and a glad welcome was given these Boers by the Bechuana +tribes, who had just escaped the hard sway of that cruel chieftain. They +came with the prestige of white men and deliverers; but the Bechuanas +soon found, as they expressed it, 'that Mosilikátze was cruel to his +enemies, and kind to those he conquered; but that the Boers destroyed +their enemies, and made slaves of their friends." The tribes who still +retain the semblance of independence are forced to perform all the +labour of the fields, such as manuring the land, weeding, reaping, +building, making dams and canals, and at the same time to support +themselves. I have myself been an eye-witness of Boers coming to a +village, and according to their usual custom, demanding twenty or thirty +women to weed their gardens, and have seen these women proceed to the +scene of unrequited toil, carrying their own food on their heads, their +children on their backs, and instruments of labour on their shoulders. +Nor have the Boers any wish to conceal the meanness of thus employing +unpaid labour; on the contrary, every one of them, from Mr. Potgeiter +and Mr. Gert Kruger, the commandants, downwards, lauded his own humanity +and justice in making such an equitable regulation. 'We make the people +work for us, in consideration of allowing them to live in our country.' + +"I can appeal to the Commandant Kruger if the foregoing is not a fair +and impartial statement of the views of himself and his people. I am +sensible of no mental bias towards or against these Boers; and during +the several journeys I made to the poor enslaved tribes, I never avoided +the whites, but tried to cure and did administer remedies to their sick, +without money and without price. It is due to them to state that I was +invariably treated with respect; but it is most unfortunate that they +should have been left by their own Church for so many years to +deteriorate and become as degraded as the blacks, whom the stupid +prejudice against colour leads them to detest. + +"This new species of slavery which they have adopted serves to supply +the lack of field labour only. The demand for domestic servants must be +met by forays on tribes which have good supplies of cattle. The +Portuguese can quote instances in which blacks become so degraded by the +love of strong drink as actually to sell themselves; but never in any +one case, within the memory of man, has a Bechuana Chief sold any of his +people, or a Bechuana man his child. Hence the necessity for a foray to +seize children. And those individual Boers who would not engage in it +for the sake of slaves, can seldom resist the twofold plea of a +well-told story of an intended uprising of the devoted tribe, and the +prospect of handsome pay in the division of captured cattle besides. It +is difficult for a person in a civilized country to conceive that any +body of men possessing the common attributes of humanity, (and these +Boers are by no means destitute of the better feelings of our nature,) +should with one accord set out, after loading their own wives and +children with caresses, and proceed to shoot down in cold blood, men and +women of a different colour, it is true, but possessed of domestic +feelings and affections equal to their own. I saw and conversed with +children in the houses of Boers who had by their own and their master's +account been captured, and in several instances I traced the parents of +these unfortunates, though the plan approved by the long-headed among +the burghers is to take children so young that they soon forget their +parents and their native language also. It was long before I could give +credit to the tales of bloodshed told by native witnesses, and had I +received no other testimony but theirs, I should probably have continued +sceptical to this day as to the truth of the accounts; but when I found +the Boers themselves, some bewailing and denouncing, others glorying in +the bloody scenes in which they had been themselves the actors, I was +compelled to admit the validity of the testimony, and try to account for +the cruel anomaly. They are all traditionally religious, tracing their +descent from some of the best men (Huguenots and Dutch) the world ever +saw. Hence they claim to themselves the title of 'Christians,' and all +the coloured race are 'black property' or 'creatures.' They being the +chosen people of God, the heathen are given to them for an inheritance, +and they are the rod of divine vengeance on the heathen, as were the +Jews of old. + +"Living in the midst of a native population much larger than themselves, +and at fountains removed many miles from each other, they feel somewhat +in the same insecure position as do the Americans in the Southern +States. The first question put by them to strangers is respecting peace; +and when they receive reports from disaffected or envious natives +against any tribe, the case assumes all the appearance and proportions +of a regular insurrection. Severe measures then appear to the most +mildly disposed among them as imperatively called for, and, however +bloody the massacre that follows, no qualms of conscience ensue: it is a +dire necessity for the sake of peace. Indeed, the late Mr. Hendrick +Potgeiter most devoutly believed himself to be the great peace-maker of +the country. + +"But how is it that the natives, being so vastly superior in numbers to +the Boers, do not rise and annihilate them? The people among whom they +live are Bechuanas, not Kaffirs, though no one would ever learn that +distinction from a Boer; and history does not contain one single +instance in which the Bechuanas, even those of them who possess +firearms, have attacked either the Boers or the English. If there is +such an instance, I am certain it is not generally known, either beyond +or in the Cape Colony. They have defended themselves when attacked, as +in the case of Sechele, but have never engaged in offensive war with +Europeans. We have a very different tale to tell of the Kaffirs, and the +difference has always been so evident to these border Boers that, ever +since 'those magnificent savages,' (the Kaffirs,) obtained possession of +firearms, not one Boer has ever attempted to settle in Kaffirland, or +even face them as an enemy in the field. The Boers have generally +manifested a marked antipathy to anything but 'long-shot' warfare, and, +sidling away in their emigrations towards the more effeminate Bechuanas, +they have left their quarrels with the Kaffirs to be settled by the +English, and their wars to be paid for by English gold. + +"The Bechuanas at Kolobeng had the spectacle of various tribes enslaved +before their eyes;--the Bakatla, the Batlo'kua, the Bahúkeng, the +Bamosétla, and two other tribes of Bechuanas, were all groaning under +the oppression of unrequited labour. This would not have been felt as so +great an evil, but that the young men of those tribes, anxious to obtain +cattle, the only means of rising to respectability and importance among +their own people, were in the habit of sallying forth, like our Irish +and Highland reapers, to procure work in the Cape Colony. After +labouring there three or four years, in building stone dykes and dams +for the Dutch farmers, they were well content if at the end of that time +they could return with as many cows. On presenting one to the chief, +they ranked as respectable men in the tribe ever afterwards. These +volunteers were highly esteemed among the Dutch, under the name of +Mantátees. They were paid at the rate of one shilling a day, and a large +loaf of bread among six of them. Numbers of them, who had formerly seen +me about twelve hundred miles inland from the Cape, recognised me with +the loud laughter of joy when I was passing them at their work in the +Roggefelt and Bokkefelt, within a few days of Cape Town. I conversed +with them, and with Elders of the Dutch Church, for whom they were +working, and found that the system was thoroughly satisfactory to both +parties. I do not believe that there is a Boer, in the Cashan or +Magaliesberg country, who would deny that a law was made, in consequence +of this labour passing to the Colony, to deprive these labourers of +their hardly-earned cattle, for the very urgent reason that, "if they +want to work, let them work for us, their masters," though boasting that +in their case their work would not be paid. + +"I can never cease to be most unfeignedly thankful that I was not born +in a land of slaves. No one can understand the effect of the unutterable +meanness of the slave system on the minds of those who, but for the +strange obliquity which prevents them from feeling the degradation of +not being gentlemen enough to pay for services rendered, would be equal +in virtue to ourselves." + +After giving his experience of eight years in Sechele's country, in +Bechuanaland, Livingstone continues:--"During that time, no winter +passed without one or two of the tribes in the east country being +plundered of both cattle and children by the Boers. The plan pursued is +the following: one or two friendly tribes are forced to accompany a +party of mounted Boers. When they reach the tribe to be attacked, the +friendly natives are ranged in front, to form, as they say, 'a shield;' +the Boers then coolly fire over their heads till the devoted people flee +and leave cattle, wives and children to their captors. This was done in +nine cases during my residence in the interior, and on no occasion was a +drop of Boer's blood shed. News of these deeds spread quickly among the +Bechuanas, and letters were repeatedly sent by the Boers to Sechele, +ordering him to come and surrender himself as their vassal, and stop +English traders from proceeding into the country. But the discovery of +lake Ngami, hereafter to be described, made the traders come in +five-fold greater numbers, and Sechele replied, 'I was made an +independent chief and placed here by God, and not by you. I was never +conquered by Mosilikátze, as those tribes whom you rule over; and the +English are my friends; I get everything I wish from them; I cannot +hinder them from going where they like.' Those who are old enough to +remember the threatened invasion of our own island, may understand the +effect which the constant danger of a Boer invasion had on the minds of +the Bechuanas; but no others can conceive how worrying were the messages +and threats from the endless self-constituted authorities of the +Magaliesberg Boers, and when to all this harassing annoyance was added +the scarcity produced by the drought, we could not wonder at, though we +felt sorry for, their indisposition to receive instruction. + +"I attempted to benefit the native tribes among the Boers of +Magaliesberg by placing native teachers at different points. 'You must +teach the blacks,' said Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, the commandant in chief, +'that they are not equal to us.' Other Boers told me 'I might as well +teach the baboons on the rocks as the Africans,' but declined the test +which I proposed, namely, to examine whether they or my native +attendants could read best. Two of their clergymen came to baptize the +children of the Boers, so, supposing these good men would assist me in +overcoming the repugnance of their flock to the education of the blacks, +I called on them, but my visit ended in a _ruse_ practised by the +Boerish commandant, whereby I was led, by professions of the greatest +friendship, to retire to Kolobeng, while a letter passed me, by another +way, to the missionaries in the south, demanding my instant recall for +'lending a cannon to their enemies.'[14] + +"These notices of the Boers are not intended to produce a sneer at their +ignorance, but to excite the compassion of their friends. + +"They are perpetually talking about their laws; but practically theirs +is only the law of the strongest. The Bechuanas could never understand +the changes which took place in their commandants. 'Why, one can never +know who is the chief among these Boers. Like the Bushmen, they have no +king--they must be the Bushmen of the English.' The idea that any tribe +of men could be so senseless as not to have an hereditary chief was so +absurd to these people, that in order not to appear equally stupid, I +was obliged to tell them that we English were so anxious to preserve the +royal blood that we had made a young lady our chief. This seemed to them +a most convincing proof of our sound sense. We shall see farther on the +confidence my account of our Queen inspired. The Boers, encouraged by +the accession of Mr. Pretorius, determined at last to put a stop to +English traders going past Kolobeng, by dispersing the tribe of +Bechuanas, and expelling all the missionaries. Sir George Cathcart +proclaimed the independence of the Boers. A treaty was entered into with +them; an article for the free passage of Englishmen to the country +beyond, and also another, that _no slavery should be allowed in the +independent territory_, were duly inserted, as expressive of the views +of Her Majesty's Government at home. 'But what about the missionaries?' +enquired the Boers. '_You may do as you please with them_,' is said to +have been the answer of the Commissioner. This remark, if uttered at +all, was probably made in joke: designing men, however, circulated it, +and caused the general belief in its accuracy which now prevails all +over the country, and doubtless led to the destruction of three mission +stations immediately after. The Boers, 400 in number, were sent by the +late Mr. Pretorius to attack the Bechuanas in 1852. Boasting that the +English had given up all the blacks into their power, and had agreed to +aid them in their subjugation by preventing all supplies of ammunition +from coming into the Bechuana country, they assaulted the Bechuanas, +and, besides killing a considerable number of adults, carried off 200 of +our school children into slavery. The natives, under Sechele, defended +themselves till the approach of night enabled them to flee to the +mountains; and having in that defence killed a number of the enemy, the +very first ever slain in this country by Bechuanas, I received the +credit of having taught the tribe to kill Boers! My house, which had +stood perfectly secure for years under the protection of the natives, +was plundered in revenge. English gentlemen, who had come in the +footsteps of Mr. Cumming to hunt in the country beyond, and had +deposited large quantities of stores in the same keeping, and upwards of +eighty head of cattle as relays for the return journeys, were robbed of +all; and when they came back to Kolobeng, found the skeletons of the +guardians strewed all over the place. The books of a good library--my +solace in our solitude--were not taken away, but handfuls of the leaves +were torn out and scattered over the place. My stock of medicines was +smashed; and all our furniture and clothing carried off and sold at +public auction to pay the expenses of the foray. I do not mention these +things by way of making a pitiful wail over my losses, in order to +excite commiseration; for though I feel sorry for the loss of lexicons, +dictionaries, &c., &c., which had been the companions of my boyhood, +yet, after all, the plundering only set me entirely free for my +expedition to the north, and I have never since had a moment's concern +for anything I left behind. The Boers resolved to shut up the interior, +and I determined to open the country." + + * * * * * + +Mr. A. McArthur, of Holland Park, wrote on March 22nd of this year:-- + +"When looking over some old letters a few days ago, I found one from the +late venerable Dr. Moffat, who was one of the best friends South Africa +ever had. It was written in answer to a few lines I wrote him, informing +him that the Transvaal had been annexed by the British Government. I +enclose a copy of his letter." + +Dr. Moffat's letter is as follows:--July 27th, 1877. + +"My dear friend, + +"I have no words to express the pleasure the late annexation of the +Transvaal territory to the Cape Colony has afforded me. It is one of the +most important measures our Government could have adopted, as regards +the Republic as well as the Aborigines. I have no hesitation in +pronouncing the step as being fraught with incalculable benefits to both +parties,--i.e., the settlers and the native tribes. A residence of more +than half a century beyond the colonial boundary is quite sufficient to +authorize one to write with confidence that Lord Carnarvon's measure +will be the commencement of an era of blessing to Southern Africa. I was +one of a deputation appointed by a committee to wait on Sir George +Clarke, at Bloemfontein, to prevent, if possible, his handing over the +sovereignty, now the Free State, to the emigrant Boers. Every effort +failed to prevent the blunder. Long experience had led many to foresee +that such a course would entail on the native tribes conterminous +oppression, slavery, _alias_ apprenticeship, etc. Many a tale of woe +could be told arising, as they express it, from the English allowing +their subjects to spoil and exterminate. Hitherto, the natives have been +the sufferers, and might justly lay claim for compensation. With every +expression of respect and esteem, I remain, yours very sincerely, Robert +Moffat." + + * * * * * + +A letter from a Son of Dr. Moffat may have some interest here. It is +dated December 20th, 1899. + +The Rev. John Moffat, son of the famous Dr. Moffat, and himself for a +long time resident in South Africa, has sent to a friend in London a +letter regarding the relations of the British and Dutch races previous +to the war. Mr. Moffat, throughout his varied experiences, has been a +special friend to the natives. One of his younger sons, Howard, is with +a force of natives 60 miles south west of Khama's town (at the time of +writing, December 20th), and Dr. Alford Moffat, another son, was medical +officer to 300 Volunteers occupying the Mangwe Pass, to prevent a Boer +raid into Rhodesia at that point. + +He writes:-- + +"1. _Had Steyn sat still and minded his own business_ no one would have +meddled with him. Had Kruger confined himself strictly to self-defence, +and _we_ had invaded _him_, we might have had to blame ourselves. + +"2. To have placed an adequate defensive force on our borders before we +were sure that there was going to be war would have been accepted +(perhaps justly) by the Boers as a menace. We did not do it, out of +respect for their susceptibilities. + +"3. To most people in South Africa who knew the Boers it was quite plain +that Kruger was all along playing what is colloquially known as the game +of 'spoof.' He never intended to make the slightest concession. + +"4. Take them as a whole, the Boers are not pleasant people to live +with, especially to those who are within their power, as the natives +have found out sufficiently, and as the British have found out ever +since Majuba, and the retrocession of the Transvaal. The wrongs of the +Uitlanders were only one symptom of a disease which originated at +Pretoria in 1881, and was steadily spreading itself all over South +Africa. + +"5. With regard to the equal rights question, it is quite true that all +is not as it ought to be in the Cape Colony. But the condition of the +native in the Transvaal is 100 years behind that of our natives in the +Cape Colony, and you may take it as a broad fact that in proportion as +Boer domination prevails the gravitation of the native towards slavery +will be accelerated." + +In conclusion, Mr. Moffat has this to say of the "Boer dream of +Afrikander predominance": "We, who have been living out here, have been +hearing about this thing for years, but we have tried not to believe it. +We felt, many of us, that the struggle had to come, but we held our +peace because we did not want to be charged with fomenting race hatred." +He refers to Ben Viljoen's manifesto of September 29th, and to President +Steyn's manifesto, and State Secretary Reitz's proclamation of October +11th, and says, "When I read these in conjunction with the history of +South Africa for the last 18 years, I see that the cause of peace was +hopeless in such hands." + + * * * * * + +Almost contemporaneously with the expression of opinion of Dr. Moffat +(in 1877), the following report was written by M. Dieterlen, to the +Committee of the _Missions Evangéliques de Paris_:-- + +"Lessouto, June 28th, 1876. + +"Gentlemen, + +"I must give you details of the journey which I have just made with four +native evangelists; for no doubt you will wish to know why a missionary +expedition, begun under the happiest auspices, and with the good wishes +of so many Christians, has come to grief, on account of the ill-will of +certain men, and has been, from a human point of view, a humiliating +failure. Having placed myself at the head of the expedition, and being +the only white man in the missionary group, I must bear the whole +responsibility of our return, and if there is anyone to blame it is I. + +"From our departure from Leriba, as far as the other side of Pretoria, +our voyage was most agreeable. We went on with energy, thinking only of +our destination, the Banyaïs country, making plans for our settling +amongst those people, and full of happiness at the thought of our new +enterprise. An excellent spirit prevailed in our little troop,--serious +and gay at the same time; no regrets, no murmurings; with a +presentiment, indeed, that the Transvaal Government might make some +objection to our advance, but with the certainty that God was with us, +and would over-rule all that man might try to do. We crossed the Orange +Free State without hindrance, we passed the Vaal, and continued our +route towards the capital of the Transvaal; we reached the first +village through which we must pass--Heidelberg--and encamped some +distance from there. There they told us that the Boers knew that we were +about to pass, and if they wished to stop us, it would be there they +would do it. Let us take courage, therefore, we said, and be ready for +everything. We unharnessed, and walked through the village in full +daylight, posting our letters, etc. No one stopped us or spoke to us, +and we retired to our encampment, thanking God that He had kept us +through this critical moment. Some days later, we approached a charming +spot, within three hours of Pretoria, near a clear stream, surrounded +with lovely trees and flowers; we took the Communion together, +strengthening each other for the future. Monday, at nine o'clock, we +reached Pretoria. We were looked at with curiosity; they read our names +on the sides of my waggon, they seemed surprised, and held discussions +among themselves; the Field Cornet himself saw us pass, they told me +sometime later. But we passed through the town without opposition. + +"We continued our way to the north-east full of thankfulness, saying to +each other that after all the Government of the Transvaal was not so +ill-disposed towards us. Our oxen continued to walk with sturdy steps; +we had not yet lost one, although the cattle plague was prevalent at the +time. Wednesday, at four o'clock in the evening, we left the house of an +English merchant, with whom we had passed a little time, and who had +placed at our disposal everything which we needed. Towards eight +o'clock, by a splendid moonlight, I was walking in front of my waggon +with Asser (one of the native missionaries), seeking a suitable place +where we could pass the night, when two horsemen galloped up, and +drawing bridle, brusquely asked for my papers, and seeing that I had not +the papers that they desired, ordered us to turn round and go back to +Pretoria. One of these men was the Sheriff, who showed me a warrant for +my arrest, and putting his hand on my shoulder, declared me to be his +prisoner. This, I may say in passing, made little impression on me. We +retraced our steps, always believing that when we had paid some duty +exacted for our luggage and our goods, we should be allowed to go in +peace. Towards midnight they permitted us to unharness near a farm. The +next morning these gentlemen searched all through the waggon of the +native evangelists, and put any objects which they suspected aside. All +this, with my waggon, must be sent back to Pretoria, there to be +inspected by anyone who chose. + +"That same day I arrived in Pretoria in a cart, seated between the Field +Cornet and the Sheriff, who were much softened when they saw that I did +not reply to them in the tone which they themselves adopted, and that I +had not much the look of a smuggler. The Secretary of the Executive +Council exacted from me bail to the amount of £300 sterling, for which a +German missionary from Berlin, Mr. Grüneberger, had the goodness to be +my guarantor. I made a deposition, saying who we were, whence we came, +and where we were going, insisting that we had no merchandise in our +waggon, only little objects of exchange by which we could procure food +in countries where money has no value. We had no intention of +establishing ourselves within the limits of the Transvaal; we were going +beyond the Limpopo, and consequently were simple travellers, and were +not legally required to take any steps in regard to the Government, nor +even to ask a passport. All this was written down and addressed to the +Executive Committee, who took the matter in hand. + +"As they, however, accused us of being smugglers, and having somewhere +a cannon, they proceeded to the examination of my waggon. They opened +everything, ran their hands in everywhere, into biscuit boxes, among +clothes, among candles, etc., and found neither cannon nor petroleum. +The comedy of the smuggling ended, they took note of the contents of my +boxes, and then attacked us from another side. They decided to treat me +as a missionary. The Solicitor-General said to me that the Government +did not care to have French missionaries going to the other side of the +Limpopo. I said, 'these countries do not belong to the Transvaal;' to +which they replied, 'Do you know what our intentions are? Have you not +heard of the treaties which we have been able to make with the natives +and with the Portuguese?' There! that is the reply which they made to +me. They took good care not to inscribe it in the document in which they +ordered us to leave the Transvaal immediately. These are things which +they do not care to write, lest they should awaken the just +susceptibilities of other Governments, or arouse the indignation of all +true Christians. But there is the secret of the policy of the Transvaal +in regard to us missionaries; they feared us, because they know our +attachment to the natives, and our devotion to their interests. + +"They then ordered me to retrace at once my steps, threatening +confiscation of our goods and the imprisonment of our persons if we +attempted to force a passage through the country. I had to pay £14 +sterling for the expenses of this mock trial. They brought the four +native Evangelists out of the prison where they had spent two nights and +a day in a very unpleasant manner; they gave me leave to take our two +waggons out of the square of the Hotel de Ville where they had been put, +together with the Transvaal Artillery, some pieces of ordnance, a large +Prussian cannon and a French mitrailleuse from Berlin. + +"We were free, we were again united, but what a sorrowful reunion! We +could hardly believe that all was ended, and that we must retrace our +steps; so many hopes dissipated in a moment! and the thought of having +to turn back after having arrived so near to our destination, was heart +breaking. We were all rather sad, asking each other if we were merely +the sport of a bad dream or if this was indeed the will of God. T +resolved to make one more effort and ask an interview with the President +of the Transvaal, Mr. Burgers. It was granted to me. I went therefore to +the Cabinet of the President and spoke a long time with the +Solicitor-General, protesting energetically against the force they had +used against us, and I discussed the matter also with the President +himself, but without being able to obtain any reasonable reply to the +objections I raised. I saw clearly that I had to do with men determined +to have their own way, and putting what they chose to consider the +interests of the State above those of all Divine and human laws. + +"Their Parliament (Raad) was sitting, and I addressed myself to two of +its members whom I had seen the day before, and who had seemed annoyed +at the conduct of the Government towards us. I besought them for the +honour of their country, to bring before their Parliament a question on +the subject; but they dared not consent to this, declaring that if the +Government were to put the matter before the representatives of the +country these latter would decide in our favour, but that they could +never take the initiative. + +"I had now exhausted all the means at my disposal. I did all I could to +obtain leave to continue our journey, and only capitulated at the last +extremity. I received a written order from the Government telling me to +leave the soil of the Republic immediately. + +"These gentlemen had made me wait a long time, perhaps because they +found it more difficult and dangerous to put down on paper orders which +it was much easier to give vocally. This note was only a reproduction of +the accusations they had made against us from the beginning. They +declared to us that we were driven from the country because we had +introduced guns, ammunition, and a great quantity of merchandise, and +because we had entered the Transvaal without a passport, in spite of the +Government itself having recently proclaimed a passport unnecessary for +evangelists going through the country. In this document they +systematically misrepresented and violated the right which every white +man had had until then of travelling without permission. From the +beginning to the end of this document it was open to criticism, which +the feeblest jurist could have made; but in the Transvaal, as elsewhere, +might dominates right, and we have to suffer the consequences of this +odious principle. + +"We sorrowfully retraced the route towards the Vaal; this time no more +joyous singing around our fire at night, no more cheerful projects, no +more the hope of being the first to announce the glad Evangel among +pagan populations. The veldt we traversed seemed to have lost its poetry +and to have become desolate. To add to our misfortunes the epidemic +seized our oxen. We lost first one and then a second,--altogether eight. +Those which were left, tired and lean, dragged slowly and with pain the +waggons which before they had drawn along with such vigour. At last we +were in sight of Mabolela, and arrived at our destination, sorrowful, +yet not unhappy, determined not to be discouraged by this first check. +And now we were again at Lessouto, waiting for God to open to us a new +door." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: The extract commences at chapter II, page 29.] + +[Footnote 13: Near Pretoria.] + +[Footnote 14: Livingstone had given to the Chief, Sechele, a large iron +pot for cooking purposes, and the form of it excited the suspicions of +the Boers, who reported that it was a cannon. That pot is now in the +Museum, at Cape Town.] + + + + +IV. + + INTERVIEW WITH DR. JAMES STEWART, MODERATOR (1899) OF THE FREE + CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. LETTER OF MR. BELLOWS TO SENATOR HOAR, U.S.A. + THE REV. C. PHILLIPS. EXTRACTS FROM THE "CHRISTIAN AGE," AND FROM + M. ELISÉE RECLUS, GEOGRAPHER. RETROCESSION OF THE TRANSVAAL. MR. + GLADSTONE'S ACTION. ITS EFFECT ON THE TRANSVAAL LEADERS, AND ITS + CONSEQUENCES FOR THE NATIVE SUBJECTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. + + +The Rev. Dr. James Stewart, of Lovedale Mission Institute, South Africa, +who, in May, 1899, was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the +Scotch Free Church, imparted his views with regard to the Transvaal +question to a representative of the _New York Tribune_ on the occasion +of his visit to Washington in the autumn of 1899, to attend the +Pan-Presbyterian Council as a delegate from the Free Church of Scotland. + +Dr. Stewart's title to speak on matters connected with the Transvaal +rests upon thirty years' residence in South Africa. + +On the morning of his election as Moderator of the General Assembly the +_Scotsman_ coupled his name with that of Dr. Livingstone as the men to +whom the British Central Africa Protectorate was due. + +The interview was published in the _Tribune_ of September 24th, 1899. + +Dr. Stewart said:-- + +"As to the principle politically in dispute, the British Government asks +nothing more than this--That British subjects in the Transvaal shall +enjoy--I cannot say the same privileges, but a faint shadow of what +every Dutchman, as well as every man, white and black, in the Cape +Colony enjoys. Every Dutchman in the Cape Colony is treated exactly as +if he were an Englishman; and every subject of Her Majesty the Queen, +black and white, is treated in the Transvaal, and has always been, as a +man of an alien and subject race. The franchise is only one of many +grievances, and it is utterly a mistake to suppose that England is going +to war over a question of mere franchise. Let us be just, however. There +are in the Cape Colony and out of it loyal Dutchmen, loyal as the day, +to the British power, which is the ruling power. They know the freedom +they enjoy under it, and the folly and futility of trying to upset it. + +"No superfluous pity or sympathy need be wasted on President Kruger or +the Transvaal Republic. The latter (Republic) is a shadow of a name, and +as great a travesty and burlesque on the word as it is possible to +conceive. + +"Paul Kruger is at the present moment the real troubler of South Africa. +If the spirit and principles which he himself and his Government +represent were to prevail in this struggle, it would arrest the +development of the southern half of the continent. It is too late in the +day by the world's clock for that type of man or government to continue. + +"The plain fact is this:--President Kruger does not mean to give, never +meant to give, and will not give anything as a concession in the shape +of just and necessary rights, except what he is forced to give. He wants +also to get rid of the suzerainty. That darkens and poisons his days and +disturbs his nights by fearful dreams. There is no excuse for him, and, +as I say, there need be no sentiment wasted on the subject. Let +President Kruger and his supporters do what is right, and give what is +barely and simply and only necessary as well as right, and the whole +difficulty will pass into solution, to the relief of all concerned and +the preservation of peace in South Africa. If not, the blame must rest +with him. + +"I am sorry I cannot give any information or express any views different +from what I have now stated. They are the result of thirty years' +residence in Africa. But I would ask your readers to believe that the +British Government are rather being forced into war than choosing it of +their own accord. I would also ask your readers to believe that Sir +Alfred Milner, the present Governor of Cape Colony, though undoubtedly a +strong man, is also one of the least aggressive, most cautious, and +pacific of men; and that he has the entire confidence of the whole +British population of the Cape Colony. I know also that when he began +his rule three years ago, he did so with the expectation that by pacific +measures the Dutch question was capable of a happier and better solution +than that in which the situation finds it to-day. The question and +trouble to-day is, briefly, whether the British Government is able to +give protection and secure reasonable rights for its subjects abroad." + + * * * * * + +The following was addressed by Mr. John Bellows of Gloucester, to +Senator Hoar, United States, America, and was published in the _New York +Tribune_, Feb. 22nd, 1900. Mr. Bellows, on seeing the publication of his +letter, wrote the following postscript, to Senator Hoar:-- + +"As the foregoing letter was headed by the Editor of the _New York +Tribune_, 'A Quaker on the War,' I would say, to prevent +misunderstanding, that I speak for myself only, and not for the Society +of Friends, although I entirely believe in its teaching, that if we +love all men we can under no circumstances go to war. There is, however, +a spurious advocacy of peace, which is based, not upon love to men so +much as upon enmity to our own Government, and which levels against it +untrue charges of having caused the Transvaal War. It was to show the +erroneousness of these charges that I wrote this letter." + +The following is the text of the letter:-- + +"Dear Friend, I am glad to receive thy letter, as it gives me the +opportunity of pointing out a misconception into which thou hast fallen +in reference to the Transvaal and its position with respect to the +present war. + + "Thou sayest: 'I am myself a great lover of England; but I do not + like to see the two countries joining hands for warlike purposes, + and especially to crush out the freedom of small and weak nations.' + +"To this I willingly assent. I am certain that war is in all +circumstances opposed to that sympathy all men owe one to another, and +to that Greater Source of love and sympathy in which 'we live and move +and have our being.' Where this bond has been broken, we long for its +restoration; but it cannot but tend to retard this restoration, to +impute to one or other of the parties concerned motives that are +entirely foreign to its action. Peace, to be lasting, must stand on a +foundation of truth; and there is no truth whatever in the idea that the +English Government provoked the present war, or that it intended, at any +time during the negotiations that preceded the war, an attack on the +independence either of the Transvaal or of the Orange Free State. It is +true that President Kruger has for many years carefully propagated the +fear of such an attempt among the Dutch in South Africa, as a means of +separating Boers and Englishmen into two camps, and as an incentive to +their preparing the colossal armament that has now been brought into +play, not to keep the English out of the Transvaal, but to realise what +is called the Afrikander programme of a Dutch domination over the whole +of South Africa. Thus, he a short time ago imported from Europe 149,000 +rifles--nearly five times as many as the whole military population of +the Transvaal--clearly with a view to arming the Cape Dutch in case of +the general rising he hoped for. The Jameson Raid gave him exactly the +grievance he wanted--to persuade these Cape Dutch that England sought to +crush the Transvaal. + +"An examination of the 'Blue Book,' which contains the whole of the +correspondence immediately preceding the war, will at once show the +patient efforts put forth by the London Cabinet to maintain peace. There +are no irritating words used, and the last despatch of importance before +the outbreak of hostilities, dealing with the insinuations just alluded +to, is not only most courteous and conciliatory in tone, but it states +that the Queen's Government will give the most solemn guarantees against +any attack upon the independence of the Transvaal either by Great +Britain or the Colonies, or by any foreign power. I am absolutely +certain that no American reading that despatch would say that President +Kruger was justified in seizing the Netherlands Railway line within one +week after he had received it, and cutting the telegraph wires, to +prepare for the invasion of British territory, in which act of violence +lay his last and only hope of forcing England to fight; his last and +desperate chance of setting up a racial domination instead of the +freedom and equality of the two races that prevail in the Cape and +Natal, and that did prevail in the Orange Free State. + +"The cause of the dispute was this: In 1884 a Convention was agreed on +between Great Britain and the Transvaal, acknowledging the independence +of the Transvaal, subject to three conditions: that the Boers should +not make treaties with foreign Powers without the consent of the +paramount Power in South Africa, i.e., England; that they should not +make slaves of the native tribes; and that they should guarantee equal +treatment for all the white inhabitants of the country as respects +taxation. As the whole war has risen out of Kruger's persistent refusal +to keep his promises, both verbal and in writing, that he would observe +this condition, I append the clause giving rise to the contention:-- + +"Article XIV. (1884 Convention).--'All persons other than natives +conforming themselves to the laws of the South African Republic will not +be subject in respect to their persons or property or in respect of +their commerce and industry to any taxes, whether general or local, +other than those which are or may be imposed upon citizens of the said +Republic. + +"The mines brought so large a population to Johannesburg that it at last +outnumbered by very far the entire Boer burghers in the State. Kruger, +seeing that the inevitable effect of such an increase must be the same +amalgamation of the new and old populations which was going on in Natal +and Cape Colony, and to a smaller extent in the Orange Free State, +unless artificial barriers could be devised to keep the races apart, at +once set to to scheme modes of taxation that should evade Article XIV. +of the Convention, throwing the entire burden on the Uitlanders, and +letting the Boers, who were nearly all farmers, escape scot free. +Farmers, for example, use no dynamite, miners do; and President Kruger +gave a monopoly of its supply to a German, non-resident in the country, +who taxed the miners for this article alone $2,600,000 a year beyond the +highest price it could otherwise have been bought for. This was his own +act, the Volksraad not being consulted. Besides the high price, the +quality of the explosive was bad, often causing accident or death. When +it did cause accident or death, the miners were prosecuted by the +Government, from whose agent they were compelled to buy it, and fined +for having used it! + +"At the time the Convention was signed, in 1884, the franchise was +obtainable after one year's residence. President Kruger determined to +serve the Uitlanders, however, as George III.'s Government served the +American Colonists, that is, tax them while refusing them representation +in the control of the taxes. He went on at one and the same time +increasing their burdens monstrously, while he prolonged the period of +residence that qualified for a vote from one year to five, and so on, +till he made it fourteen years--or fourteen times as long as when the +Convention was signed. Nor was this all. He reserved the right +personally to veto any Uitlander being placed on the register even after +the fourteen years if he thought he was for any reason objectionable. +That is, the majority of the taxpayers were disfranchised for ever! +These Uitlanders had bought and paid for 60 per cent. of all the +property in the Transvaal, and 90 per cent. of the taxes were levied +from them; an amount equal to giving every Boer in the country $200 a +year of plunder. + +"Is a country that is so governed justly to be called a 'Republic?' + +"But even the Boers themselves have been adroitly edged out of power by +Paul Kruger. The Grondwet, or Constitution, provided that to prevent +abuses in legislation, no new law should be passed until the bill for it +had been published three months in advance. To evade this, Kruger passed +all kinds of measures as amendments to existing laws; which, as he +explained, not being new laws, required no notification! Finally, +however, he got the Volksraad to rescind this article of the Grondwet; +and now, as for some time past, any law of any sort can be passed by a +small clique of Kruger's in secret session of the Raad _without notice +of any sort, and without the knowledge or assent of the people_. The +Boers have no more voice in such legislation than if they were Chinese. +The Transvaal is only a Republic in the same sense that a nutshell is a +nut, or a fossil oyster shell is an oyster. + +"All that the British Government has ever contended for with President +Kruger has been the fair and honourable observance of his engagement in +respect of equal rights in Article XIV. of the 1884 Convention. This he +has persistently and doggedly refused, while he has been using the +millions of money he has wrung from the Uitlanders to purchase the +material for the war he has been long years preparing on such a colossal +scale to drive the English out of those Colonies in which they have +given absolute equality to all. It is this very equality which has upset +his calculations, by its leaving too few malcontents among the Dutch +population to make any general rising of them possible in Natal or the +Cape, on which rising Kruger staked his hope of success in the struggle. +As for the Transvaal Boers, the only part they have in the war is to +fight for their independence, which was never threatened until they +invaded British territory, and thus compelled the Queen's Government to +defend it. + +"The only alternative left to England to refuse fighting would have been +the ground that all war is wrong; but as neither England nor any other +nation has ever taken this Christian ground, there was in reality no +alternative. Is it fair to stigmatise England as endeavouring to crush +two small and weak nations because they have been so small in wisdom and +weak in common sense as to become the tools of the daring and crafty +autocrat who has decoyed both friend and foe into this war?--I am, with +high esteem, thy friend,--JOHN BELLOWS." + +It does not come within the scope of this treatise to deal with the +case of the Uitlanders, but I have given the foregoing, because it is a +clear and concise statement of that case, and because it expresses the +strong conviction that I and many others have had from the first, that +the worst enemy the Boers have is their own Government. A Government +could scarcely be found less amenable to the principles of all just Law, +which exists alike for Rulers and ruled. These principles have been +violated in the most reckless manner by President Kruger and his +immediate supporters. The Boers are suffering now, and paying with their +life-blood for the sins of their Government. Pity and sympathy for them, +(more especially for those among them who undoubtedly possess higher +qualities than mere military prowess and physical courage,) are +consistent with the strongest condemnation of the duplicity and +lawlessness of their Government. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. Charles Phillips, who has been eleven years in South Africa, +has given his opinion on the native question. + +It was part of the Constitution of the Transvaal that no equality in +Church or State should be permitted between whites and blacks. In Cape +Colony, on the contrary, the Constitution insisted that there should be +no difference in consequence of colour. Mr. Phillips enumerates the +oppressive conditions under which the natives live in the Transvaal. +They may not walk on the sidepaths, or trade even as small hucksters, or +hold land. Until two years ago there was no marriage law for the blacks, +and that which was then passed was so bad--a £3 fee being demanded for +every marriage, with many other difficulties placed in the way of +marriage--that the missionaries endeavoured to procure its abolition, +and to return to the old state of things. No help is given towards the +education of native children, though the natives pay 3 per cent. of the +revenue, the Boers paying 7-1/2, and the Uitlanders 89-1/2. The natives +have, therefore, actually been helping to educate the Boer children. "In +1896," says Mr. Phillips, "only £650 was granted to the schools of those +who paid nine-tenths of the revenue, £63,000 being spent upon the Boer +Schools. In other words, the Uitlander child gets 1s. 10d., the Boer +child £8 6s. 1d. The Uitlander pays £7 per head for the education of +every Boer child, and he has to provide in addition for the education of +his own children." + + * * * * * + +The following extract is from a more general point of view, but one +which it is unphilosophical to overlook. + +The _Christian Age_ reproduces a communication from an American +gentleman residing in the Transvaal to the New York _Independent_. + +"The Boers," Mr. Dunn says, "are, as a race--with, of course, individual +exceptions--an extraordinary instance of an arrested civilisation, the +date of stoppage being somewhere about the conclusion of the seventeenth +century. But they have not even stood still at that point. They have +distinctly and dangerously degenerated even from the general standard of +civilisation existing when Jan van Riebeck hoisted the flag of the Dutch +East India Company at Cape Point. The great cardinal fact in connection +with the Uitlander population is that, owing to their numbers and +activity, they have brought in their train an influx of new wealth into +the Transvaal of truly colossal dimensions. Thus, to sum up the +distinctive and divergent characteristics of the two classes into which +the population of the South African Republic is divided--the Boers, or +old population, are conservative, ignorant, stagnant, and a minority; +the Uitlanders, or new population, are progressive, full of enterprise, +energy and work, and constitute a large majority of the total number of +inhabitants. + +"It has so happened, therefore, that the Boers, as the ruling and +dominant class, have hopelessly failed to master or comprehend the new +conditions with which they have been called upon to deal. They have not, +as a body, shown either capacity or desire to treat the new developments +with even a remote appreciation of their inherent value and inevitable +trend. The Boer has simply set his back against the floodgates, +apparently oblivious or indifferent to the fact that the hugely +accumulating forces behind must one day burst every barrier he may +choose to set up. That is the whole Transvaal situation in a sentence. + +"It is necessary to point out, further, that this blind and dogged +determination on the part of the Boers to 'stop the clock' affects not +merely the Transvaal; it is vitally and perniciously affecting the whole +of South Africa. But for the obstructiveness and obscurantism of the +Transvaal Boers, the rate of progress and development which would +characterise the whole South African continent would be unparalleled in +the history of any other country. The reactionary policy of the +Transvaal is the one spoke in the wheel. It must therefore be removed in +the name of humanity and civilisation." + + * * * * * + +M. Elisée Reclus, the great Geographer, an able and admittedly impartial +Historian, wrote some years ago in his "Africa," Vol. 4, page 215:-- + +"The patriotic Boers of South Africa still dream of the day when the two +Republics of the Orange and the Transvaal, at first connected by a +common customs union, will be consolidated in a single 'African +Holland,' possibly even in a broader confederacy, comprising all the +Afrikanders from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambesi. The Boer +families, grouped in every town throughout South Africa, form, +collectively, a single nationality, despite the accident of political +frontiers. The question of the future union has already been frequently +discussed by the delegates of the two conterminous Republics. But, +unless these visions can be realized during the present generation, they +are foredoomed to failure. Owing to the unprogressive character of the +purely Boer communities and to the rapid expansion of the +English-speaking peoples by natural increase, by direct immigration, and +by the assimilation of the Boers themselves, the future 'South African +Dominion' can, in any case, never be an 'African Holland.' Whenever the +present political divisions are merged in one State, that State must +sooner or later constitute an 'African England,' whether consolidated +under the suzerainty of Great Britain or on the basis of absolute +political autonomy. But the internal elements of disorder and danger are +too multifarious to allow the European inhabitants of Austral Africa for +many generations to dispense with the protection of the English sceptre. + +"Possessing for two centuries no book except the Bible, the South +African Dutch communities are fond of comparing their lot with that of +the 'Chosen People.' Going forth, like the Jews, in search of a +'Promised Land,' they never for a moment doubted that the native +populations were specially created for their benefit. They looked on +them as mere 'Canaanites, Amorites, and Jebusites,' doomed beforehand to +slavery or death. + +"They turned the land into a solitude, breaking all political +organization of the natives, destroying all ties of a common national +feeling, and tolerating them only in the capacity of 'apprentices,' +another name for slaves. + +"In general, the Boers despise everything that does not contribute +directly to the material prosperity of the family group. Despite their +numerous treks, they have contributed next to nothing to the scientific +exploration of the land. + +"Of all the white intruders, the Dutch Afrikanders show themselves, as a +rule, most hostile to their own kinsmen, the Netherlanders of the mother +country. At a distance the two races have a certain fellow-feeling for +each other, as fully attested by contemporary literature; but, when +brought close together, the memory of their common origin gives place to +a strange sentiment of aversion. The Boer is extremely sensitive, hence +he is irritated at the civilized Hollanders, who smile at his rude +African customs, and who reply, with apparent ostentation, in a pure +language to the corrupt jargon spoken by the peasantry on the banks of +the Vaal or Limpopo." + +No impartial student of recent South African History can fail, I think, +to see that the results of Mr. Gladstone's policy in the retrocession of +the Transvaal have been unhappy, however good the impulse which prompted +his action. To his supporters at home, and to many of his admirers +throughout Europe, his action stood for pure magnanimity, and seemed a +sort of prophetic instalment of the Christian spirit which, they hoped, +would pervade international politics in the coming age. + +To the Transvaal leaders it presented a wholly different aspect. It +meant to them weakness, and an acknowledgment of defeat. "Now let us go +on," they felt, "and press towards our goal, i.e., the expulsion of the +British from South Africa." The attitude and conduct of the Transvaal +delegates who came to London in 1883, and of their chiefs and +supporters, throws much light on this effect produced by the act of Mr. +Gladstone. + +There can be no doubt that the desire to supplant British by Dutch +supremacy has existed for a long time. President Kruger puts back the +origin of the opposition of the two races to a very distant date. In +1881, he said, "In the Cession of the Cape of Good Hope by the King of +Holland to England lies the root out of which subsequent events and our +present struggle have grown." The Dutch believe themselves,--and not +without reason,--capable of great things, they were moved by an ambition +to seize the power which they believed,--and the retrocession fostered +that belief,--was falling from England's feeble and vacillating grasp. +"Long before the present trouble" says a Member of the British +Parliament well acquainted with South African affairs, "I visited every +town in South Africa of any importance, and was brought into close +contact with every class of the population; wherever one went, one heard +this ambition voiced, either advocated or deprecated, but never denied. +It dates back some forty or fifty years."[15] The first reference to it +is in a despatch of Governor Sir George Grey, in 1858; and it is to be +found more definitely in the speeches of President Burgers in the +Transvaal Raad in 1877 before the annexation, and in his _apologia_ +published after the annexation. The movement continued under the +administration of Sir Bartle Frere, who wrote in a despatch (published +in Blue book) in 1879, "The Anti-English opposition are sedulously +courting the loyal Dutch party (a great majority of the Cape Dutch) in +order to swell the already considerable minority who are disloyal to the +English Crown here and in the Transvaal." Mr. Theodore Schreiner, the +brother of the Cape Premier, in a letter to the "Cape Times," November, +1899, described a conversation he had some seventeen years ago with Mr. +Reitz, then a judge, afterwards President of the Orange Free State, and +now State Secretary of the Transvaal, in which Mr. Reitz admitted that +it was his object to overthrow the British power and expel the British +flag from South Africa. Mr. Schreiner adds; "During the seventeen years +that have elapsed I have watched the propaganda for the overthrow of +British power in South Africa being ceaselessly spread by every possible +means, the press, the pulpit, the platform, the schools, the colleges, +the legislature; and it has culminated in the present war, of which Mr. +Reitz and his co-workers are the origin and the cause." + +The Retrocession of the Transvaal (1881) gave a strong impulse to this +movement, and encouraged President Kruger in his persistent efforts +since that date to foster it. A friend of the late General Joubert,--in +a letter which I have read,--wrote of Mr. Kruger as "the man who, for +more than twenty years past, has persistently laboured to drive in the +wedge between the two races. It has been his deliberate policy +throughout." + +I always wish that I could separate the memory of that truly great man, +Mr. Gladstone, from this Act of his Administration. Few people cherish +his memory with more affectionate admiration than I do. Independently of +his great intellect, his eloquence, and his fidelity in following to its +last consequences a conviction which had taken possession of him, I +revered him because he seemed like King Saul, to stand a head and +shoulders above all his fellows,--not like King Saul in physical, but in +moral stature. Pure, honourable and strong in character and principles, +a sincere Christian, he attracted and deserved the affection and loyalty +of all to whom purity and honour are dear. I may add that I may speak of +him, in a measure also as a personal friend of our family. I have +memories of delightful intercourse with him at Oxford, when he +represented that constituency, and later, in other places and at other +times. + +I recall, however, an occasion in which a chill of astonishment and +regret fell upon me and my husband (politically one of his supporters), +in hearing a pronouncement from him on a subject, which to us was vital, +and had been pressing heavily on our hearts. I allude to a great speech +which Mr. Gladstone made in Liverpool during the last period of the +Civil War in America, the Abolitionist War. Our friend spoke with his +accustomed fiery eloquence wholly in favour of the spirit and aims of +the combatants of the Southern States, speaking of their struggle as one +on behalf of liberty and independence, and wishing them success. Not one +word to indicate that the question which, like burning lava in the heart +of a volcano, was causing that terrible upheaval in America, had found +any place in that great man's mind, or had even "cast its shadow before" +in his thoughts. It appeared as though he had not even taken in the fact +of the existence of those four millions of slaves, the uneasy clanking +of whose chains had long foreboded the approach of the avenging hand of +the Deliverer. This obscured perception of the question was that of a +great part, if not of the majority, of the Press of that day, and of +most persons of the "privileged" classes; but that _he_, a trusted +leader of so many, should be suffering from such an imperfection of +mental vision, was to us an astonishment and sorrow. As we left that +crowded hall, my companion and I, we looked at each other in silent +amazement, and for a long time we found no words. + +As I look back now, there seems in this incident some explanation of Mr. +Gladstone's total oblivion of the interests of our loyal native subjects +of the Transvaal at the time when he handed them over to masters whose +policy towards them was well known. These poor natives had appealed to +the British Government, had trusted it, and were deceived by it. + +I recollect that Mr. Gladstone himself confessed, with much humility it +seemed to us, in a pamphlet written many years after the American War, +that it "had been his misfortune" on several occasions "not to have +perceived the reality and importance of a question _until it was at the +door_." This was very true. His noble enthusiasm for some good and vital +cause so engrossed him at times that the humble knocking at the door of +some other, perhaps equally vital question, was not heard by him. The +knocking necessarily became louder and louder, till at last the door was +opened; but then it may have been too late for him to take the part in +it which should have been his. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 15: Speech of Mr. Drage, M.P., at Derby, December, 1899.] + + + + +V. + + VISIT OF TRANSVAAL DELEGATES TO ENGLAND. THE LORD MAYOR'S REFUSAL + TO RECEIVE THEM AT THE MANSION HOUSE. DR. DALE'S LETTER TO MR. + GLADSTONE. MR. MACKENZIE IN ENGLAND. MEETINGS AND RESOLUTIONS ON + TRANSVAAL MATTERS. MANIFESTO OF BOER DELEGATES. SPEECHES OF W.E. + FORSTER, LORD SHAFTESBURY, SIR FOWELL BUXTON, AND OTHERS. THE + LONDON CONVENTION (1884). + + +In 1883, two years after the retrocession of the Transvaal, the Boers, +encouraged by the hesitating policy of the British Government, sent a +deputation to London of a few of their most astute statesmen, to put +fresh claims before Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Derby, then Colonial +Minister. They did not ask the repeal of the stipulations of the +Convention of 1881--that was hardly necessary, as these stipulations had +neither been observed by them nor enforced by our Government, but what +they desired and asked was the complete re-establishment of the +Republic, freed from any conditions of British Suzerainty. This would +have given them a free hand in dealing with the natives, a power which +those who knew them best were the least willing to concede. + +Sir R.N. Fowler was at that time Lord Mayor of London. According to the +custom when any distinguished foreigners visit our Capital, of giving +them a reception at the Mansion House, these Transvaal delegates were +presented for that honour. But the door of the Mansion House was closed +to them, and by a Quaker Lord Mayor, renowned for his hospitality! + +The explanation of this unusual act is given in the biography of Sir R. +Fowler, written by J.S. Flynn, (page 260.) The following extract from +that biography was sent to the _Friend_, the organ of the Society of +Friends, in November, 1899, by Dr. Hodgkin, himself a quaker, whose name +is known in the literary world:--"The scene of Sir R. Fowler's travels +in 1881 was South Africa, where he went chiefly for the purpose of +ascertaining how he could best serve the interests of the native +inhabitants. He left no stone unturned in his search for +information--visiting Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of the Cape, +Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Sir Evelyn Wood, Colonel Mitchell, Bishops +Colenso and Macrorie, the Zulu King Cetewayo, the principal statesmen, +the military, the newspaper editors, the workers at the diamond-fields, +and many others. The result of his inquiries was to confirm his belief +of the charges which were made against the Transvaal Boers of wronging +and oppressing the blacks. + +"It was the opinion of many philanthropists that the only way to insure +good Government in the Transvaal--justice to the natives, the +suppression of slavery, the security of neighbouring tribes--was by +England's insisting on the Boer's observance of the Treaty which had +been made to this effect, and the delimitation of the boundary of their +territory in order to prevent aggression. With this object in view +meetings were held in the City, petitions presented by Members of +Parliament, resolutions moved in the House; and when at last it was +discovered that Mr. Gladstone's Government was unwilling to fulfil its +pledges in reference to South Africa, and that in consequence the native +inhabitants would not receive the support they had been led to expect, +considerable indignation was felt amongst the friends of the +aborigines. The demand which they made seems to have been moderate. The +Transvaal, which before the war, had been reckoned, for its protection, +a portion of the British dominions, was now made simply a State under +British Suzerainty, with a debt to England of about a quarter of a +million (in lieu of the English outlay during the three years of its +annexation), and a covenant for the protection of the 800,000 natives in +the State, and the Zulu, Bechuana, and Swazi tribes upon its borders. +The English sympathisers with these natives simply asked that the +covenant should be adhered to. There was little chance of the debt being +paid, and that they were willing to forego; but they maintained that +honour and humanity demanded that the Boers should not be allowed to +treat their agreement with us as so much waste paper. + +"The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for the Colonies received +the Transvaal delegates graciously, but the doors of the Mansion House +were shut against them. Its occupant at that time would neither receive +them into his house nor bid them God-speed. He had made a careful study +of the South African question, and he felt no doubt that this deputation +represented a body of European settlers who were depriving the natives +of their land, slaying their men, and enslaving their women and +children. He desired to extend the hospitality of the Mansion House to +visitors from all countries, and to all creeds and political parties; +but the line must be drawn somewhere, and he would draw it at the Boers. +The boldness of his action on this occasion startled some even of his +friends. He was, of course, attacked by that portion of the press which +supported the Government. On the other hand, he had numerous +sympathisers. Approving letters and telegrams came from many quarters, +one telegram coming from the 'Loyalists of Kimberley' with 'hearty +congratulations.' As for his opponents, he was not in the least moved by +anything they said. He held it to be impossible for any respectable +person who knew the Boers to support them. This was no doubt strong +language, but it was not stronger than that of Moffat and Livingstone; +not a whit stronger either than that used by W.E. Forster, who had been +a member of the Gladstonian Government." + +Dr. Hodgkin prefaced this extract by the following lines, addressed to +the Editor of the _Friend_: + +"Dear Friend,--In re-perusing a few days ago the life of my late +brother-in-law, Sir R.N. Fowler, I came upon the enclosed passage, which +I think worthy of our consideration at the present time. + +Of late years the disputes between our Government and the African +Republic have turned so entirely on questions connected with the status +of the settlers in and around Johannesburg, that we may easily forget +the old subjects of dispute which existed for a generation before it was +known that there were any workable goldfields in South Africa, and +before the word "Uitlander" had been mentioned amongst us. I must +confess that for my part I had forgotten this incident of Sir R.N. +Fowler's Mayoralty, and I think it may interest some of your readers to +be reminded of it at the present time. I am, thine truly,--THOMAS +HODGKIN. Barmoor, Northumberland." + + * * * * * + +The late Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, was one of those whose minds were +painfully exercised on the matter of the abandonment of the natives of +the Transvaal to the Boers. An extract from his life was sent in +February this year to the _Spectator_, with the following preface:-- + +"Sir,--I have been greatly impressed by the justice of much that has +been said in the _Spectator_ on the fact that the present war is a +retribution for our indifference and apathy in 1881. We failed in our +duty then. We have taken it up now, but at what a cost! In reading +lately the life of Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, I was struck by his remarks +(pp. 438 and 439) on the Convention of Pretoria. These remarks have such +a bearing on the present situation that I beg you will allow me to quote +them:"-- + +"In relation to South African affairs he (Dr. Dale) felt silence to be +impossible. He had welcomed the policy initiated by the Convention of +Pretoria (1881) conceding independence to the Transvaal, but imposing on +the Imperial Government responsibility for the protection of native +races within and beyond the frontiers. In correspondence with members of +the House of Commons and in more than one public utterance, he expressed +his satisfaction that the freedom of the Boers did not involve the +slavery of the natives. At first the outlook was hopeful, but the Boers +soon began to chafe against the restrictions to which they were +subjected.... The Rev. John Mackenzie brought a lamentable record of +outrage and cruelty.... Dr. Dale particularly urged that the Government +should insist on carrying out the 18th article of the Convention of +Pretoria. 'The policy of the Government seemed to me both righteous and +expedient, singularly courageous and singularly Christian. But that +policy included two distinct elements. It restored to the Boers internal +independence, it reserved to the British Government powers for the +protection of native races on the Transvaal frontier. It is not +unreasonable for those who in the face of great obloquy supported the +Government in recognising the independence of the Transvaal, to ask that +it should also use its treaty powers, and use them effectively for the +protection of the natives.' To this statement the _Pall Mall_ (John +Morley) replied that the suzerainty over the Transvaal maintained by us +was a 'shadowy term,' and that those who demanded that our reserved +rights should be enforced were bound to face the question whether they +were willing to fight to enforce them. Was Dr. Dale ready to run the +risk of a fresh war in South Africa? Dr. Dale replied, should the +British Government and British people regard with indifference the +outrages of the Boers against tribes that we had undertaken to +protect?... 'If the Government of the Republic cannot prevent such +crimes as are declared to have been committed in the Bechuana country, +and if we are indifferent to them, we shall have the South African +tribes in a blaze again before many years are over, and for the safety +of our Colonists we shall be compelled to interfere.' In the ensuing +Session the Ministerial policy was challenged in both Houses of +Parliament, and in the Commons Mr. Forster indicted the Government for +its impotence to hold the Transvaal Republic to its engagements. Dr. +Dale wrote a long letter to Mr. Gladstone:--'If it had been said that +power to protect the natives should be taken but not used, it is at +least possible that a section of the party might have declined to +approve the Ministerial policy.... The one point to which I venture to +direct attention is the contrast, as it appears to me, between the +declaration of Ministers in '81, in relation to the native races +generally, and the position which has been taken in the present debate.' +Mr. Gladstone's reply was courteous, but not reassuring." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Mackenzie, British Commissioner for Bechuanaland, came to England in +1882. In the following year the Delegates from the Transvaal came to +London, and in 1884 the Convention was signed, which was called the +"London Convention." + +These years included events of great interest. Mr. Mackenzie +wrote:--"On my way to England I met a friend who had just landed in +South Africa from England. He warned me 'If you say a good word for +South Africa, Mr. Mackenzie, you will get yourself insulted. They will +not hear a word on its behalf in England; they are so disgusted with the +mess that has been made.' + +'They had good reason to be disgusted, but I want all the same to tell +them a number of things about the true condition of the country.' + +'They will not listen,' my friend declared, 'They will only swear at +you.' This was not very encouraging, but it was not far from the truth +as to the public feeling at that time. + +Being in the----counties of England I was offered an introduction to the +Editor of a well-known newspaper, who was also a pungent writer on +social questions under a _nom de plume_ which had got to be so well +known as no longer to serve the purpose of the writer's concealment of +identity. + +'You come from South Africa, do you,' said the great man; 'a place where +we have had much trouble, but mean to have no more.' + +'Trouble, however,' I answered, 'is inseparable from Empire. Whoever +governs South Africa must meet with some trouble and difficulty, +although not much when honestly faced.' + +'I assure you,' he broke in, 'we are not going to try it again after the +one fashion or the other. We are out of it, and we mean to remain so.' + +'You astonish me,' I answered; 'what about the Convention recently +signed at Pretoria (1881)? What about the speeches still more recently +made in this country in support of it?' + +'As to the Convention, I know we signed something; people often do when +they are getting out of a nasty business. We never meant to keep it, nor +shall we.' + +I believe I whistled a low whistle just to let off the steam, and then +replied calmly, 'Will you allow me to say that by your own showing you +are a bad lot, a very bad lot, as politicians.' + +'That may be, but it does not alter the fact, which is as I state.' + +'Well, I am an outsider, but I assure you that the English people, +should they ever know the facts, will agree with me in saying that you +are a bad lot. Such doctrines in commerce would ruin us in a day. You +know that.' + +'The people are with us. They are disgusted and heart-sore with the +whole business.' + +'I grant you that such is their frame of mind, but I think their +attitude will be different when they come to consider the facts, and +face the responsibilities of our position in South Africa. The only +difficulty with me is to communicate the truth to the public mind.' + +I was much impressed by this interview. Did this influential editor +represent a large number of English people? Were they in their own minds +out of South Africa, and resolved never to return? + +... 'I do not know what you think, Mr. Mackenzie, but we are all saying +here that Mr. Gladstone made a great mistake in not recalling Sir Bartle +Frere at once. In fact, we are of opinion that Frere should have been +tried and hanged.' + +The speaker was a fine specimen of an Englishman, tall, with a good +head, intelligent and able as well as strong in speech. He was a large +manufacturer, and a local magnate. His wife was little and gentle, and +yet quite fearless of her grim-looking lord. She begged that I would +always make a deduction when her husband referred to South Africa. He +could never keep his temper on that subject, My host abruptly demanded, +'But don't you think that Frere should have been hanged?' + +'My dear, you will frighten Mr. Mackenzie with your vehemence, and you +know you do not mean it a bit.' + +'Mean it! Isn't it what everybody is saying here? At any rate I have +given Mr. Mackenzie a text, and he must now give me his discourse.' + +I then proceeded to sketch out the work which Sir Bartle Frere had had +before him, its fatal element of haste, with its calamitous failures in +no way chargeable to him. 'In short, I concluded, but for the grave +blunders of others you would have canonized Sir Bartle Frere instead of +speaking of him as you do. He is the ablest man you ever sent to South +Africa. As to his personal character, I do not know a finer or manlier +Christian.' ... + +'I am quite bewildered,' said my host, at the end of a long +conversation. 'I know more of South Africa than I knew before. But we +shall not believe you unless you pitch into someone. You have not done +that yet; you have only explained past history, and have had a good word +for everybody.' + +'Then, Sir,' I quickly answered, 'I pitch into you, and into your +Governments, one after another, for not mastering the facts of South +African life. Why do you now refuse to protect your own highway into the +Interior, and at the same time conserve the work of the missionaries +whom you have supported for two generations, and thus put an end to the +freebooting of the Boers, and of our own people who joined them? At +present there is a disarmed coloured population, disarmed by your own +laws on account only of their colour; and there is an armed population, +armed under your laws, because they are white; and you decline to +interfere in any way for the protection of the former. You will neither +protect the natives nor give them fair play and an open field, so that +they may protect themselves.' + +'Now, my dear,' said the little wife, 'I wonder who deserves to be +hanged now? I am sure we are obliged to Mr. Mackenzie for giving us a +clear view of things.' + +'No, no, you are always too hasty,' said my host, quite gravely. 'The +thing gets very serious. Do I rightly understand you, Mr. Mackenzie, +that practically we Englishmen arm those freebooters (from the +Transvaal,) and practically keep the blacks disarmed, and that when the +blacks have called on us for protection and have offered themselves and +their country to the Queen we have paid no heed? Is this true?' + +'Every word true,' I replied. + +'Then may I ask, did you not fight for these people? You had surely got +a rifle,' said my host, turning right round on me. + +'My dear, you forget Mr. Mackenzie has been a Missionary,' said his +wife. 'You yourself, as a Director of the London Missionary Society, +would have had him cashiered if he had done anything of the kind.' + +'Nonsense, you don't see the thing. I assure you I could not have +endured such meanness and injustice. I should have broken such +confounded laws. I should have shouldered a rifle, I know,' said the +indignant man as he paced his room. + +'My dear, you would have got shot, you know,' said his wife. + +'Shot! yes, certainty, why not?' said my host; and added gravely, 'A +fellow would know _why_ he was shot. Is it true, Mr. Mackenzie, that +those blacks were kind to our people who fled to them from the +Transvaal, and that they there protected them?' + +'Quite true,' I rejoined. + +'Then by heaven,' said Mr.----, raising his voice-- + +'Let us go to supper,' broke in the gentle wife, 'you are only wearying +Mr. Mackenzie by your constant wishes to hang some one.' + +"I trust my friends will forgive me for recalling this conversation, +which vividly pictures the state of people's mind concerning South +Africa in 1882. I found that most people were incredulous as to the +facts being known at the Colonial Office, and there was a uniform +persuasion that Mr. Gladstone was ignorant that such things were going +on." + +I have given these interviews (much abridged) because they illustrate in +a rather humourous way a state of mind which unhappily has long existed +and exists to some degree to this day in England--an impatience of +responsibility for anything concerning interests lying beyond the shores +of our own Island, a certain superciliousness, and a habit of expressing +and adhering to suddenly formed and violent opinions without sufficient +study of the matters in question,--such opinions being often influenced +by the bias of party politics. Our countrymen are now waking up to a +graver and deeper consideration of the tremendous interests at stake in +our Colonies and Dependencies, and to a greater readiness to accept +responsibilities which once undertaken it is cowardice to reject or even +to complain of. + +At the request of the London Missionary Society, Mr. Mackenzie drew up +an extended account of the Bechuanaland question, which had a wide +circulation. He did not enter into party politics, but merely gave +evidence as to matters of fact. There was surprise and indignation +expressed wherever the matter was carefully studied and understood. Many +resolutions were transmitted to the Colonial Secretary from public +meetings; one which came from a meeting in the Town Hall of Birmingham +was as, follows:-- + +"This meeting earnestly trusts that the British Government will firmly +discharge the responsibilities which they have undertaken in protection +of the native races on the Transvaal border." + +Among the people who took up warmly the cause of the South African +natives were Dr. Conder, Mr. Baines, and Mr. Yates of Leeds (who +addressed themselves directly to Mr. Gladstone), Dr. Campbell and Dr. +Duff of Edinburgh, the Rev. Arnold Thomas and Mr. Chorlton of Bristol, +Mr. Howard of Ashton-under-Lyne, Mr. Thomas Rigby of Chester, and +others. + +A Resolution was sent to the Colonial Office by the Secretary of the +Congregational Union of England and Wales, which had been passed +unanimously at a meeting of that body in Bristol:-- + +"That the Assembly of the Congregational Union, recognising with devout +thankfulness the precious and substantial results of the labours of two +generations of Congregational Christian Missionaries in Bechuanaland, +learns with grief and alarm that the lawless incursions of certain Boers +from the Transvaal threaten the utter ruin of peace, civilization, and +Christianity in that land. This Assembly therefore respectfully and most +urgently entreats Her Majesty's Government, in accordance with the +express provision of the Convention by which Self-Government was granted +to the Boers, to take such steps as shall eventually put a stop to a +state of things as inconsistent with the pledged word of England as with +the progress of the Bechuanaland nations." Signed at Bristol, Oct. 1882. + +"These," says Mr. Mackenzie, "were not words of war, but of peace; they +were not the words of enemies, but of friends of the Transvaal, many of +whom had been prominent previously in agitating for the Boers getting +back their independence. They felt that this was the just complement of +that action; the Boers were to have freedom within the Transvaal, but +not licence to turn Bechuanaland (and other neighbouring native states) +into a pandemonium." + +There was a closer contact in Edinburgh with South Africa than +elsewhere, owing to the constant presence at that University of a large +number of students from South Africa. A public meeting was held in +Edinburgh, among the speakers whereat were Bishop Cotterill, who had +lived many years in South Africa; Mr. Gifford, who had been a long time +in Natal; Professor Calderwood, and Dr. Blaikie, biographer of Dr. +Livingstone. The Venerable Mr. Cullen, the first missionary traveller in +Bechuanaland, who had often entertained Dr. Moffat and Dr. Livingstone +in his house, was present to express his interest in that country. There +were the kindest expressions used towards our Dutch fellow-subjects; but +grave condemnation was expressed of the Transvaal policy towards the +coloured people in making it a fundamental law that they were not to be +equal to the whites either in Church or State. + +A South African Committee was formed in London from which a largely +supported address was presented to Mr. Gladstone. + +The High Commissioner for Bechuanaland gave his impressions at several +different times during that and the preceding year on the subject of the +constant illegal passing of the Western Boundary line of the Transvaal +by the Boers. Readers will remember that the delimitation of the western +boundary of the Transvaal was a fixed condition of the Convention of +1881, a Convention which was continually violated by the Boers. No rest +was permitted for the poor natives of the different tribes on that side, +the Boers' land-hunger continuing to be one of their strongest passions. +The High Commissioner wrote, "If Montsioa and Mankoroane were now +absorbed, Banokwani, Makobi and Bareki would soon share the same fate. +Haseitsiwe and Sechele would come next. So long as there were native +cattle to be stolen and native lands to be taken possession of, the +absorbing process would be repeated. Tribe after tribe would be pushed +back and back upon other tribes or would perish in the process until an +uninhabitable desert or the sea were reached as the ultimate boundary of +the Transvaal State."[16] + +The Manifesto presented by the Transvaal delegates to the English people +convinced no one, and its tone was calculated rather to beget suspicion. +The following is an extract from that document: + +"The horrible misdeeds committed by Spain in America, by the Dutch in +the Indian Archipelago, by England in India, and by the Southern +planters in the United States, constitute an humiliating portion of the +history of mankind, over which we as Christians may well blush, +confessing with a contrite heart our common guiltiness." + +"The labours of the Anti-slavery and Protection of Aborigines Societies +which have been the means of arousing the public conscience to the high +importance of this matter cannot be, according to our opinion, +sufficiently lauded and encouraged." + +The manifesto then goes on to meet the charges concerning slavery and +ill-treatment of natives brought against the Transvaal by a flat denial. +"They may be true," they say, "as to actions done long ago, and they +humbly pray to the Lord God to forgive them the sins that may have been +committed in hidden corners. Believe us, therefore, Gentlemen, when we +say that the opposition to our Government is caused by prejudice, and +fed by misunderstanding. If you leave us untrammelled, we hope to God +that before a new generation has passed, a considerable portion of our +natives in the Transvaal will be converted to Christianity; at least our +Government is preparing arrangements for a more thorough Christian +mission among them." + +A public Meeting was held at the Mansion House, called by the Lord +Mayor, Sir R. Fowler, at which the Right Hon. W.E. Forster, referring to +the Sand River and the other Conventions said: "can anything be more +grossly unfair and unjust than on the one hand, to hand over these +native people to the Transvaal Government, and on the other hand to do +our utmost to prevent them from defending themselves when their rights +are attacked? I cannot conceive any provision more contrary to that +principle of which we are so proud--British fair play." + +Speaking of the treatment of the Bechuanaland people by the Boers he +said: "The story of these men is a very sad one; I would rather never +allude to it again." He then referred to "the settlement of the western +boundary of the Transvaal by Governor Keate, and the immediate +repudiation of it by the Transvaal Rulers. Then came the Pretoria +Convention only two years ago which added a large block of native land +to the Transvaal. That was not enough. Freebooters came over, mostly +from the Transvaal, and afterwards from other parts of the country. +Representations and remonstrances were made to the Transvaal Government. +There was a non possumus reply. 'We cannot stop them;' We seem to have +good ground for believing that the freebooters were stimulated by the +officers of the Transvaal Government. The result was that the native +Chiefs of the people lost by far the larger portion of their land. They +appealed to our Government, and we did nothing; there came again and +again despairing appeals to England, and how were they met? I can only +believe it was through ignorance of the question that it was possible to +meet them as we did. It was proposed to meet them by a miserable +compensation in money or in land, not to the people but to the few +Chiefs, who to their credit, as a lesson to us, a great Christian +Country said: 'We will not desert our people even if you desert us.' +Then there followed utter disorder and disorganisation in Bechuanaland. +Then came in the Transvaal Government and virtually said: 'Give us the +country and we will maintain order; if owners of the land object we will +put them down as rebels; we will take their land as we have taken +Mapoch's, and apprentice their children. You have got tired of these +quarrels, leave them to us; we will put a stop to them by protecting the +robbers who have taken the land.' + +"That practically is the demand. Are you prepared to grant it? I for my +part say, that rather than grant it I would (a voice in the +meeting--'fight!') yes, if necessary, fight; but I will do my utmost to +persuade my fellow countrymen to make the declaration that, if +necessary, force will be used, which, if it was believed in, would make +it unnecessary to fight. + +"The Transvaal Boers know our power, and the Delegates know our power. +It is our will that they doubt. If I could not persuade my fellow +countrymen that they meant to show that they would never grant such +demands as these, I would rather do--what I should otherwise oppose with +all my might,--withdraw from South Africa altogether. I am not so proud +of our extended Empire as to wish to preserve it at the cost of England +refusing to discharge her duties. If we have obligations we must meet +them, and if we have duties we must fulfil them; and I have confidence +in the English people that first or last they will make our Government +fulfil its obligations. But there is much difference between first and +last; last is much more difficult than first, and more costly than +first. The cost increases with more than geometrical progression. There +are people who say, (but the British nation will not say it;) 'leave us +alone, let these Colonists and Boers and Natives whom we are tired of, +fight it out as best they can; let us declare by our deeds, or rather by +our non deeds that we will not keep our promise nor fulfil our duty.' +Such a course as that would be as extravagantly costly as it would be +shamefully wrong. This _laissez faire_ policy tends to make things go +from bad to worse until at last by a great and most costly effort, and +perhaps by a really bloody and destructive war, we shall be obliged to +do in the end at a greater cost, and in a worse way, that which we could +do now. It is not impossible to do it now. A gentleman in the meeting +said it was a question of fighting. I do not believe this; but though +born a Quaker, I must admit that if there be no other way by which we +can protect our allies and prevent the ungrateful desertion of those who +helped us in the time of need, than by the exercise of force, I say +force must be exercised." + +Readers will remark how extraordinarily prophetic are these words of Mr. +Forster, spoken in 1883. + +The "venerable and beloved Lord Shaftesbury," as Mr. Mackenzie calls +him, spoke as follows:-- + +"This morning has been put into my hands the reply of the Transvaal +delegates to the Aborigines Protection Society. I read it with a certain +amount of astonishment and of comfort too,--of astonishment that men +should be found possessing such a depth of Christianity, such sentiments +of religion, such love for veracity, and such regard for the human race +as to put on record and to sign with their own hands such a denial of +the atrocities and cruelties which have been recorded against them for +so many years. It is most blessed to contemplate the depth of their +religious sentiments; they express the love they bear to our Lord and +Saviour, and their desire to walk in His steps. All this is very +beautiful, and, _if true_, is the greatest comfort ever given us +concerning the native races. I will take that document as a promise for +the future that they will act upon these principles, that they are +Christians, and that they will act on Christian principles, and respect +the rights of the natives. That is perhaps the most generous view to +take of the matter; but, nevertheless, we shall be inclined to doubt +until we _see_ that they have put these principles into practice. + +"Let me come to the laws of the Transvaal. It is a fundamental law of +that State that there can be no equality either in Church or in State +between white and coloured men. No native is allowed to hold land in the +Transvaal with such a fundamental law. It is nothing more than a +necessary transition to the conclusion that the coloured people should +be contemned as being of an inferior order, and only fit for slavery. +That is a necessary transition, and it is for Englishmen to protest +against it, and to say that all men, of whatever creed, or race, or +colour, are equal in Church and State, and in the sight of God, and to +assert the principle of Civil and Religious Liberty whenever they have +the opportunity. I have my fears at times of the consequences of +democratic action; but I shall never feel afraid of appealing to the +British democracy on a question of Civil and Religious liberty. That +strikes a chord that is very deep and dear to every Briton everywhere. +They believe,--and their history shows that they act upon the +belief,--that the greatest blessing here below that can be given to +intellectual and moral beings is the gift of Civil and Religious +liberty. Sensible of the responsibility we have assumed, we appeal to +the British public, and I have no doubt what the answer will be. It will +be that by God's blessing, and so far as in us lies, Civil and Religious +liberty _shall_ prevail among all the tribes of South Africa, to the end +that they may become civilized nations, vying with us in the exercise of +the gifts that God has bestowed upon us." + +Sir Henry Barkly, who had held the office of Governor of the Cape +Colony, and of High Commissioner for a number of years, said:-- + +"Apart from other considerations, it is essential in the interests of +civilization and of commerce that the route to the interior of the Dark +Continent should be kept in our hands. It has been through the stations +planted by our missionaries all along it, as far as Matabeleland, that +the influence of the Gospel has been spread among the natives, and that +the way has been made safe and easy for the traveller and the trader. +Can we suppose that these stations can be maintained if we suffer the +road to fall within the limits of the Transvaal? We need not recall our +melancholy experience of the past in this region. I would rather refer +to the case of the Paris Evangelical Society, whose missionaries were +refused leave only a short time ago to teach or preach to the +Basuto-speaking population within the Transvaal territory." + +The Hon. K. Southey said:-- + +"I concur entirely with what has been said by the Right Hon. Mr. Forster +with regard to slavery. It must be admitted that the institution does +not exist in name; but in reality something very closely allied to it +exists, for in that country there is no freedom for the coloured races. +The road to the interior must be kept open, not only for the purposes of +trade, but also as a way by which the Gospel may be carried from here to +the vast regions beyond Her Majesty's possessions in that part of the +world. If we allow the Transvaal State to annex a territory through +which the roads to the interior pass, not only will there be +difficulties put in the way of our traders, but the missionary also will +find it no easy task to obey the injunction to carry the Gospel into all +lands, and to preach it to all peoples." + +Sir Fowell Buxton presented the following thought, which might with +advantage be taken to heart at the present time:-- + +"We know how in the United States they have lately been celebrating the +events that recall the time a century ago of the declaration of their +independence. I will ask you to consider what would have been the best +advice that we could have given at that time to the Government at +Washington? Do we not know that in regard to all that relates to the +well-being of the country, to mere matters of wealth and property, the +best advice to have given them would have been, to deliver their country +at once from all connection with slavery in the days when they formed +her constitution." + + * * * * * + +Sir William M'Arthur, M.P., said:-- + +"I have never seen in the Mansion House a larger or more enthusiastic +meeting, and I believe that the feeling which animates this meeting is +animating the whole country. Any course of action taken by Her Majesty's +Ministers towards the Transvaal will be very closely watched. I myself +am for peace, but I am also for that which maintains peace, viz., a firm +and decided policy." + + * * * * * + +The poor Chief, Mankoroane, having heard that the Transvaal Delegates +would discuss questions of vital importance to his people, left +Bechuanaland and went as far as Cape Town on his way to England to +represent his case there. Lord Derby, however, sent him word that he +could not be admitted to the Conference in London, where the ownership +of his own country was to be discussed. Mankoroane then begged Mr. +Mackenzie to be his representative, but was again told that neither +personally nor by representative could he be recognised at the +Conference in Downing Street, but that any remarks which Mr. Mackenzie +might make on his behalf would receive the attention of Government. +(Blue Book 3841, 92.) + +The first and great question which the Transvaal Delegates desired to +settle in their own interests was that of the Western boundary line, +amended by themselves, which was represented on a map. They were +informed that their amended treaty was "neither in form nor in substance +such as Her Majesty's Government could adopt," there being "certain +Chiefs who had objected, on behalf of their people, to be included in +the Transvaal, and there being a strong feeling in London in favour of +the independence of these natives, or (if they, the natives, desired it) +of their coming under British rule." There was now brought before the +delegates a map showing the addition of land which was eventually +granted to the Transvaal, but the delegates would not agree to any such +arrangement. Her Majesty's Government were giving away to them some +2,600 square miles of native territory, concerning which there was no +clear evidence that its owners wished to be joined to the Transvaal. But +this was nothing to the Transvaal demand, as shown by a map which they +put in, and which included an _additional_ block of 4,000 square miles. +Not finding agreement with the Government possible, the delegates then +turned from that position, and took up the question of the remission of +the debt which the Transvaal owed to England, saying that the wishes of +the native chiefs should be consulted first about the boundary line. +This was a bold stroke; they were professing to be representing the +interests of certain chiefs, which was not the case. + +Lord Derby telegraphed to the Cape on the 27th of Feb. 1884, the result +of the protracted labours of the Conference at Downing Street, +mentioning:--"British Protectorate established outside the Transvaal, +with Delegates' consent. Debt reduced to quarter of a million."[17] To +many persons it seems that the Convention of 1884, rather than the +Convention of 1881, was the real blunder. It is remarkable, however, as +illustrating the small attention which South African affairs then +received, that no party controversy was aroused over this later +instrument. Very soon afterwards, however, the question became acute, +owing to the action of Mr. Kruger; and then, it must be remembered, that +Mr. Gladstone did not hesitate to appeal to the armed strength of the +Empire in order to defend British interests and prevent the extension of +Boer rule. That there was not war in 1884 was due only to the fact that +Mr. Kruger at that time did not choose to fight. The raiders and +filibusters were put down before by Sir Charles Warren's force, but Mr. +Gladstone had taken every precaution in view of the contingency of a +collision. + +The conditions laid down in the Convention did not satisfy the +Delegates, although they formally assented to them. Their disappointment +began to be strongly manifested. They had stoutly denied that slavery +existed in their country. This denial was challenged by the Secretary +of the Aborigines Protection Society, who brought forward some very +awkward testimonies and facts of recent date. It was suggested that +President Kruger should for ever silence the calumniators by demanding a +Commission of enquiry on this subject which would take evidence within +and round the Transvaal as they might see fit. The Delegates took good +care not to accept this challenge. The firmness of the British +Government at that moment was fully justified by the actual facts of the +case which came so strikingly before them, and their attitude was +supported by public opinion, so far as this public opinion in England +then existed. It was the Transvaal deputation itself which had most +effectually developed it when they first arrived in London, though it +was known they had many friends, and that numbers of the public were +generally quite willing to consider their claims.[18] They sat for three +months in conference with members of Her Majesty's Government before +coming to any decision. That decision was known as the London Convention +of 1884. + +The displeasure of the Boer Delegates matured after their return to the +Transvaal, and was expressed in a message sent by the Volksraad to our +Government not many months after the signing of the Convention in +London. + +In this document the Boers seem to regard themselves as a victorious +people making terms with those they had conquered. It is interesting to +note the articles of the Convention to which they particularly object. +In the telegram which was sent to "His Excellency, W.E. Gladstone," the +Volksraad stated that the London Convention was not acceptable to them. +They declared that "modifications were desirable, and that certain +articles _must_ be altered." They attached importance to the Native +question, declaring that "the Suzerain (Great Britain) has not the right +to interfere with their Legislature, and that they cannot agree to +article 3, which gives the Suzerain a voice concerning Native affairs, +nor to article 13, by virtue of which Natives are to be allowed to +acquire land, nor to that part of Article 26, by which it is provided +that white men of a foreign race living in the Transvaal shall not be +taxed in excess of the taxes imposed on Transvaal citizens." + +It should be observed here that this reference to unequal and excessive +taxation of foreigners in the Transvaal, pointing to a tendency on the +part of the Boers to load foreigners with unjust taxation, was made +before the development of the goldfields and the great influx of +Uitlanders. + +The Message of the Volksraad was finally summed up in the following +words: "we object to the following articles, 15, 16, 26, and 27, because +to insist on them is hurtful to our sense of honour." (sic.) + +Now what are the articles to which the Boer Government here objects, and +has continued to object? + +Article 15 enacts that _no slavery or apprenticeship shall be +tolerated_. + +Article 16 provides for religious toleration (for Natives and all +alike.) + +Article 26 provides for the free movement, trading, and residence of all +persons, other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the +Transvaal. + +Article 27 gives to all, (Natives included,) the right of free access to +the Courts of Justice. + +Putting the "sense of honour" of the Transvaal Volksraad out of the +question, past experience had but too plainly proved that these Articles +were by no means superfluous. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 16: "Austral Africa, Ruling it or Losing it," p. 157.] + +[Footnote 17: When the Transvaal was annexed, in 1877, the public debt +of that country amounted to £301,727. "Under British rule this debt was +liquidated to the extent of £150,000, but the total was brought up by a +Parliamentary grant, a loan from the Standard Bank, and sundries to +£390,404, which represented the public debt of the Transvaal on the 31st +December, 1880. This was further increased by monies advanced by the +Standard Bank and English Exchequer during the war, and till the 8th +August, 1881, (during which time the country yielded no revenue,) to +£457,393. To this must be added an estimated sum of £200,000 for +compensation charges, pension allowances, &c., and a further sum of +£383,000, the cost of the successful expedition against Secocoemi, that +of the unsuccessful one being left out of account, bringing up the total +public debt to over a million, of which about £800,000 was owing to this +country. This sum the Commissioners (Sir Evelyn Wood dissenting) reduced +by a stroke of the pen to £265,000, thus entirely remitting an +approximate sum of £500,000 or £600,000. To the sum of £265,000 still +owing must be added say another £150,000 for sums lately advanced to pay +the compensation claims, bringing up the actual amount owing to England +to about a quarter of a million."--Report of Assistant Secretary to the +British Agent for Native Affairs. (Blue Book 3917, 46.)] + +[Footnote 18: "Austral Africa." Mackenzie.] + + + + +VI. + + THE CAREER AND RECALL OF SIR BARTLE FRERE. UNFORTUNATE EFFECT IN + SOUTH AFRICA OF PARTY SPIRIT IN POLITICS AT HOME. DEATH OF SIR + BARTLE FRERE. THE GREAT PRINCIPLES OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND LAW. + HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA IF THESE ARE MAINTAINED AND OBSERVED. WORDS + OF MR. GLADSTONE ON THE COLONIZING SPIRIT OF ENGLISHMEN. + + +The case of Sir Bartle Frere illustrates forcibly the inexpediency of +allowing our party differences at home to sow the seeds of discord in a +distant Colony, and the apparent injustices to which such action may +give rise. + +While in England Sir Bartle Frere was being censured and vilified, in +South Africa an overwhelming majority of the colonists, of whatever race +or origin, were declaring, in unmistakable terms, that he had gained +their warmest approbation and admiration. Town after town and village +after village poured in addresses and resolutions in different forms, +agreeing in enthusiastic commendation of him as the one man who had +grasped the many threads of the South African tangle, and was handling +them so as to promise a solution in accordance with the interests of all +the many and various races which inhabited it. + +"In our opinion," one of these resolutions (from Cradock) says, "his +Excellency, Sir Bartle Frere, is one of the best Governors, if not the +best Governor, this Colony has ever had, and the disasters which have +taken place since he has held office, are not due to any fault of his, +but to a shameful mismanagement of public affairs before he came to the +Colony, and the state of chaos and utter confusion in which he had the +misfortune to find everything on his arrival; and we are therefore of +opinion that the thanks of every loyal colonist are due to his +Excellency for the herculean efforts he has since made under the most +trying circumstances to South Africa...."[19] + +Another, from Kimberley says:--"It has been a source of much pain to us +that your Excellency's policy and proceedings should have been so +misunderstood and misrepresented.... The time, we hope, is not far +distant when the wisdom of your Excellency's native policy and action +will be as fully recognized and appreciated by the whole British nation +as it is by the colonists of South Africa."[20] + +At Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, a public meeting was held +(April 24th), which resolved that:-- + +"This meeting reprobates most strongly the action of a certain section +of the English and Colonial Press for censuring, without sufficient +knowledge of local affairs, the policy and conduct of Sir B. Frere; and +it desires not only to express its sympathy with Sir B. Frere and its +confidence in his policy, but also to go so far as to congratulate most +heartily Her Majesty the Queen, the Home Government, and ourselves, on +possessing such a true, considerate, and faithful servant as his +Excellency the High Commissioner." + +A public dinner also was given to Sir B. Frere at Pretoria, at which his +health was drunk with the greatest enthusiasm; there was a public +holiday, and other rejoicings. + +Sir Bartle Frere was intending to go to Bloemfontein, in the + +Orange Free State, to visit President Brand, with whom he was on +cordial terms, and with whom he wished to talk over his plans for the +Transvaal; but instructions came from Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to proceed +to Cape Town. He therefore left Pretoria on May 1st. He was welcomed +everywhere with the utmost cordiality and enthusiasm. At Potchefstroom +there was a public dinner and a reception. On approaching Bloemhof he +was met by a large cavalcade, and escorted into the township, where a +triumphal arch had been erected, and an address was presented. + +"At Kimberley he had been sworn in as Governor of Griqualand West. +Fifteen thousand people, it was estimated, turned out to meet and +welcome him. From thence to Cape Town his journey was like a triumphal +progress, the population at each place he passed through receiving him +in flag-decorated streets, with escorts, triumphal arches, +illuminations, and addresses. At Worcester, where he reached the +railway, there was a banquet, at which Sir Gordon Sprigg was also +present. At Paarl, which was the head-quarters of the Dutch Afrikander +league, and where some of the most influential Dutch families live, a +similar reception was given him. Finally, at Cape Town, where, if +anywhere, his policy was likely to find opponents among those who +regarded it from a provincial point of view, the inhabitants of all +classes and sections and of whatever origin, gave themselves up to +according him a reception such as had never been surpassed in Capetown. + +"In England, complimentary local receptions and addresses to men in high +office or of exalted rank do not ordinarily carry much meaning. Party +tactics and organization account for a proportion of such +manifestations. But the demonstration on this occasion cannot be so +explained. There was no party organization to stimulate it. It was too +general to confer notoriety on any of its promoters, and Sir B. Frere +had not personally the power, even if he had had the will, to return +compliments. And what made it the more remarkable was that there was no +special victory or success or event of any kind to celebrate."[21] + +On reaching Cape Town, a telegraphic message was handed to him, +preparing him for his recall, by the statement that Sir H. Bulwer was to +replace him as High Commissioner of the Transvaal, Natal, and all the +adjoining eastern portion of South Africa, and that he was to confine +his attention for the present to the Cape Colony. + +To deprive him of his authority as regarded Natal, Zululand, the +Transvaal--the Transvaal, which almost by his single hand and voice he +had just saved from civil war--and expressly to direct Colonel Lanyon to +cease to correspond with him, was to discredit a public servant before +all the world at the crisis of his work. + +Sir Bartle Frere's great object had been to bring about a Confederation +of all the different States and portions of South Africa, an object with +which the Home Government was in sympathy. + +What was wanting to bring about confederation was confidence, founded on +the permanent pacification and settlement of Zululand, the Transvaal, +the Transkei, Pondoland, Basutoland, West Griqualand, and the border +generally. How could there, under these circumstances, be confidence any +longer? There was no doubt what he had meant to do. By many a weary +journey he had made himself personally known throughout South Africa. +His aims and intentions were never concealed, never changed. In +confederating under his superintendence all men knew what they were +doing. But he was now to be superseded. Was his policy to be changed, +and how?[22] + +It was expected by the political majority in England that as soon as Mr. +Gladstone came into power, Sir Bartle Frere, whose policy had been so +strongly denounced, would be at once recalled. When the new Parliament +met in May, the Government found many of their supporters greatly +dissatisfied that this had not been done. Notice of motion was given of +an address to the Crown, praying for Sir B. Frere's removal. Certain +members of parliament met together several times at the end of May, and +a memorial to Mr. Gladstone was drawn up, which was signed by about +ninety of them, and sent to him on June 3rd, to the following effect:-- + +"To the Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone, M.P., First Lord of the Treasury." + +"We the undersigned, members of the Liberal party, respectfully submit +that as there is a strong feeling throughout the country in favour of +the recall of Sir Bartle Frere, it would greatly conduce to _the unity +of the party and relieve many members from the charge of breaking their +pledges to their constituents if_ that step were taken."[23] + +The first three signatures to this document were those of L.L. Dillwyn, +Wilfrid Lawson, and Leonard Courtney. + +This has been called not unjustly, "a cynically candid document." The +"unity of the Party," and "pledges to constituents" are the only +considerations alluded to in favour of the recall of a man to whose +worth almost the whole of South Africa had witnessed, in spite of +divided opinions concerning the Zulu War, for which he was only in a +very minor degree responsible. + +The Memorial to the Government had its effect; the successor of Sir +Bartle Frere was to be Sir Hercules Robinson. He was in New Zealand, and +could not reach the Cape at once; therefore Sir George Strahan was +appointed _ad interim_ governor, Sir Bartle being directed not even to +await the arrival of the latter, but to leave by the earliest mail +steamer. + +At the news of his recall there arose for the second time a burst of +sympathy from every town, village, and farm throughout the country, in +terms of mingled indignation and sorrow.[24] The addresses and +resolutions, being spontaneous at each place, varied much, and laid +stress on different points, but in all there was a tone of deep regret, +of conviction that Sir B. Frere's policy and his actions had been wise, +just, and merciful towards all men, and of hope that the British +Government and people would in time learn the truth.[25] + +One from farmers of East London concludes: "May God Almighty bless you +and grant you and yours a safe passage to the Mother Country, give you +grace before our Sovereign Lady the Queen, and eloquence to vindicate +your righteous cause before the British nation."[26] + +The address of the Natives of Mount Cake is pathetic in its simplicity +of language. + +"Our hearts are very bitter this day. We hear that the Queen calls you +to England. We have not heard that you are sick; then why have you to +leave us? By you we have now peace. We sleep now without fear. Old men +tell us of a good Governor Durban (Sir Benjamin Durban) who had to leave +before his good works became law; but red coals were under the ashes +which he left. Words of wicked men, when he left, like the wind blew up +the fire, and the country was again in war. So also Sir George Grey, a +good Governor, good to tie up the hands of bad men, good to plant +schools, good to feed the hungry, good to have mercy and feed the +heathen when dying from hunger, He also had to leave us. We do not +understand this. But your Excellency is not to leave us. Natal has now +peace by you; we have peace by you because God and the Queen sent you. +Do not leave us. Surely it is not the way of the Queen to leave her +children here unprotected until peace is everywhere. We shall ever pray +for you as well as for the Queen. These are our words to our good +Governor, though he turns his back on us." + +The Malays and other Orientals, of whom there is a considerable +population at Capetown, looked upon Frere, a former Indian Statesman, as +their special property. The address from the Mahommedan subjects of the +Queen says:-- + +"We regret that our gracious Queen has seen fit to recall your +Excellency. We cannot help thinking it is through a mistake. The white +subjects of Her Majesty have had good friends and good rulers in former +Governors, but your Excellency has been the friend of white and coloured +alike."[27] + + * * * * * + +The following letter is from Sir John Akerman, a member of the +Legislative Council of Natal:-- + +"August 9th, 1880. + +"Having become aware of your recall to England from the office of +Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, etc., etc., I cannot allow your +departure to take place without conveying to you, which I hereby do, the +profound sense I have of the faithful and conscientious manner in which +you have endeavoured to fulfil those engagements which, at the +solicitation of Great Britain, you entered upon in 1877. The policy was +not your own, but was thrust upon you. Having given in London, in 1876, +advice to pursue a different course in South Africa from the one then +all the fashion and ultimately confided to yourself, it affords me the +greatest pleasure to testify to the consistency of the efforts put forth +by you to carry out the (then) plan of those who commissioned you, and +availed themselves of your acknowledged skill and experience. As a +public man of long standing in South Africa, I would likewise add that +since the days of Sir G. Grey, no Governor but yourself has grasped the +_native question here at all_, and I feel confident that had your full +authority been retained, and not harshly wrested from you, even at the +eleventh hour initiatory steps of a reformatory nature with respect to +the natives would have been taken, which it is the duty of Britain to +follow while she holds her sovereignty over these parts." + +Sir Gordon Sprigg wrote:-- + +"August 29th, 1880. + +"I don't feel able yet to give expression to my sentiments of profound +regret that Her Majesty's Government have thought it advisable to recall +you from the post which you have held with such conspicuous advantage to +South Africa. They have driven from South Africa 'the best friend it has +ever known.' For myself I may say that in the midst of all the +difficulties with which I have been surrounded, I have always been +encouraged and strengthened by the cheerful view you have taken of +public affairs, and that I have never had half-an-hour's conversation +with your Excellency without feeling a better, and, I believe, a wiser +man." + +Madame Koopmans de Wet, a lady of an old family, Dutch of the Dutch, +wrote to him, Nov. 16th, 1880:-- + +"It is with feelings of the deepest sorrow that I take the liberty of +addressing these lines to you.... What is to be the end of all this now? +for now, particularly, do the Cape people miss _their_ Governor, for now +superior qualities in everything are wanted. Dear Sir Bartle, you know +the material we have; it is good, but who is to guide? It is plain to +every thinking mind that our position is becoming more critical every +day.... + +"But with deep sorrow let me say, England's, or rather Downing Street's +treatment, has not tightened the bonds between the mother country and +us. You know we have a large circle of acquaintances, and I cannot say +how taken aback I sometimes am to hear their words. See, in all former +wars there was a moral support in the thought that England, our England, +was watching over us. Now there is but one cry, 'We shall have no +Imperial help.' Why is this? We have lost confidence in a Government who +could play with our welfare; and among the many injuries done us, the +greatest was to remove from among us a ruler such as your Excellency +was." + +"As the day drew near, the Cape Town people were perplexed how to +express adequately their feelings on the occasion. It was suggested that +on the day he was to embark, the whole city should mourn with shops +closed, flags half-mast high, and in profound silence. But more cheerful +counsels prevailed. + +"He was to leave by the _Pretoria_ on the afternoon of Sept. 15th. +Special trains had brought in contingents from the country. The open +space in front of Government House, Plein Street, Church Square, +Adderley Street, the Dock Road, the front of the railway station, the +wharves, the housetops, and every available place, whence a view of the +procession could be procured, was closely packed. The Governor's +carriage left Government House at half-past four,--Volunteer Cavalry +furnishing the escort, and Volunteer Rifles, Engineers, and Cadets +falling in behind,--and amid farewell words and ringing cheers, moved +slowly along the streets gay with flags and decorations. At the dock +gates the horses were taken out and men drew the carriage to the quay, +where the _Pretoria_ lay alongside. Here the General, the Ministers, and +other leading people, were assembled; and the 91st Regiment, which had +been drawn up, presented arms, the Band played "God save the Queen," and +the Volunteer Artillery fired a salute as the Governor for the last time +stepped off African soil. + +"There had been some delay at starting, the tide was ebbing fast, the +vessel had been detained to the last safe moment, and she now moved out +slowly, and with caution, past a wharf which the Malays, conspicuous in +their bright-coloured clothing, had occupied, then, with a flotilla of +boats rowing alongside, between a double line of yachts, steam-tugs and +boats, dressed out with flags, and dipping their ensigns as she passed, +and lastly, under the stern of the _Boadicea_ man-of-war, whose yards +were manned, and whose crew cheered. The guns of the castle fired the +last salute from the shore, which was answered by the guns of the +_Boadicea_; and in the still bright evening the smoke hung for a brief +space like a curtain, hiding the shores of the bay from the vessel. A +puff of air from the south-east cleared it away, and showed once more in +the sunset light the flat mass of Table Mountain, the "Lion's Head" to +its right, festooned with flags, the mountain slopes dotted over with +groups thickening to a continuous broad black line of people, extending +along the water's edge from the central jetty to the breakwater basin. +The vessel's speed increased, the light faded, and the night fell on the +last, the most glorious, and yet the saddest day of Sir Bartle Frere's +forty-five years' service of his Queen and country. + +"For intensity of feeling and unanimity it would be hard in our time to +find a parallel to this demonstration of enthusiasm for a public +servant. The Cape Town people are by race and habit the reverse of +demonstrative; yet it was noticed that day, as it had been noticed when +Frere left Sattara (India) thirty years before, and again when he left +Sind twenty-one years before--a sight almost unknown amongst men of +English or German race in our day--that _men_ looking on were unable to +restrain their tears. At Sattara and in Sind the regret at losing him +was softened by the knowledge that his departure was due to a +recognition of his merit; that he was being promoted in a service in +which his influence might some day extend with heightened power to the +country he was leaving. It was far otherwise when he left the Cape. On +that occasion the regret of the colonists was mingled with indignation, +and embittered with a sense of wrong."[28] + +The writer just quoted makes the following remarks:-- + +"No one who has not associated with colonists in their homes can rightly +enter into the mixed feelings with which they regard the mother country. +As with a son who is gone forth into the world, there is often on one +side the conceit of youth and impatience of restraint, shown in uncalled +for acts of self-assertion or in dogmatic speech; and on the other side +a supercilious want of sympathy with the changed surroundings, the +pursuits and the aspirations of the younger generation. It seems as if +there were no bond left between the two. But a day of trial comes; +parent or offspring is threatened by a stranger; and then it is seen +that the old instinct and yearnings are not dead, but only latent. The +mother country had hitherto not been forgetful of its natural +obligations to its South African offspring." + +"But those" he goes on to say, "who on that fateful evening watched the +hull of the _Pretoria_ slowly dipping below the western horizon felt +that if, as seemed only too probable, dismemberment of the British +Empire in South Africa were sooner or later to follow, the fault did not +lie with the colonists." + +The mother country had, he asserts, sacrificed the interests of her +loyal sons abroad to those which were at that moment pre-occupying her +at home, and appearing to her in such dimensions as to blot out the +larger view which later events gradually forced upon her vision. The +words above quoted are strong, perhaps too strong, but if we are true +lovers of our country and race and of our fellow creatures everywhere, +we shall not shrink from any such warnings, though their wording may +seem exaggerated. For we have a debt to pay back to South Africa; and if +we cannot resume our solemn responsibilities towards her and her +millions of native peoples, in a chastened, a wiser and a more +determined spirit than that which for some time has prevailed, it would +be better to relinquish them altogether. But we are beginning to +understand the lesson written for our learning in this solemn page of +contemporary history which is to-day laid open before our eyes and +before those of the whole world. + +I have recorded some few of the many testimonies in favour of Sir Bartle +Frere, because he,--a man beloved and respected by many of us,--was the +subject of a hastily formed judgment which continues in a measure even +to this day, to obscure the memory of his worth. + +A friend writes: "his letters are admirable as showing his +statesmanlike and humane view of things, and his courage and patience +under exasperating conditions. He returned to England under a cloud, and +died of a broken heart." + +Mr. Mackenzie, writing of his own departure from England in 1884 to +return to South Africa, says:-- + +"The farewell which affected me most was that of Sir Bartle Frere, who +was then stretched on what turned out to be his death-bed. He was very +ill, and not seeing people, but was so gratified that what he had +proposed in 1878 as to Bechuanaland should be carried out in 1884, that +Lady Frere asked me to call and see him before I sailed. + +"The countenance of this eminent officer was now thin, his voice was +weaker; but light was still in his eye and the mind quite unclouded. +'Here I am, Mackenzie, between living and dying, waiting the will of +God.' + +'I expressed my hope for his recovery.' + +'We won't talk about me. I wanted to see you. I feel I can give you +advice, for I am an old servant of the Queen. I have no fear of your +success now on the side of Government. Sir Hercules Robinson, having +selected you, will uphold you with a full support. The rest will depend +on your own character and firmness and tact. I am quite sure you will +succeed. Your difficulties will be at the beginning. But you will get +them to believe in you--the farmers as well as the natives. They will +soon see you are their friend. Now remember this: get good men round +you; get, if possible, godly men as your officers. What has been done in +India has been accomplished by hard-working, loyal-hearted men, working +willingly under chiefs to whom they were attached. Get the right stamp +of men round you and the future is yours.' + +"This was the last kindly action and friendly advice of a +distinguished, noble-minded, and self-forgetful Christian man, who had +befriended me as an obscure person,--our meeting-ground and common +object being the future welfare of all races in South Africa. I went +forth to complete my life work: he remained to die." + +It was a costly sacrifice made on the Altar of Party. + +My friends have sometimes asked me, what then is the ground of my hope +for the future of our country and all over whom our Queen reigns? I +reply,--my hope lies in the fact that above all party differences, above +all private and political theories, above all the mere outward forms of +Government and the titles given to these, there stand, eternally firm +and unchangeable, the great principles of our Constitution which are the +basis of our Jurisprudence, and of every Law which is inherently just. I +use these words deliberately--"eternally firm and unchangeable." A long +and deep study of these principles, and some experience of the grief and +disaster caused by any grave departure from them, have convinced me that +these principles are founded on the highest ethics,--the ethics of +Christ. + +The great Charter of our Liberties was born, as all the most precious +things are, through "great tribulation," at a time when our whole nation +was groaning under injustice and oppression, and when sorrow had +purified the eyes of the noble "Seers" of the time, and their appeal was +to the God of Justice Himself, and to no lower tribunal. These Seers +were then endowed with the power to bend the will of a stubborn and +selfish monarch, and to put on record the stern principles of our +"Immortal Charter." + +I have often longed that every school-boy and girl should be taught and +well-grounded in these great principles. It would not be a difficult nor +a dry study, for like all great things, these principles are simple, +straight, and clear as the day. It is when, we come to intricacies and +technicalities of laws, even though based on these great fundamental +lines, that the study becomes dry, useful to the professional lawyer, +but not to the pupil in school or the public generally. + +The principles of our Constitution have been many times in the course of +our national history disregarded, and sometimes openly violated. But +such disregard and such violation have happily not been allowed to be of +long duration. Sometimes the respect of these principles has been +restored by the efforts of a group of enlightened Statesmen, but more +frequently by the awakened "Common Sense"[29] of the people, who have +become aware that they, or even some very humble section of them, have +been made to suffer by such violation. Again and again the gallant "Ship +of our Constitution," carrying the precious cargo of our inalienable +rights and liberties, has righted herself in the midst of storms and +heavy seas of trouble. Having been called for thirty years of my life to +advocate the rights of a portion of our people,--the meanest and most +despised of our fellow citizens,--when those rights had been destroyed +by an Act of Parliament which was a distinct violation of the +Constitution, and having been driven, almost like a ship-wrecked +creature to cling, with the helpless crew around me, during those years +to this strong rock of principle, and having found it to be political +and social salvation in a time of need, I cannot refrain, now in my old +age, from embracing every opportunity I may have of warning my fellow +countrymen of the danger there is in departing from these principles. + +My hope for the future of South Africa, granting its continuance as a +portion of our Colonial Empire, is in the resurrection of these great +principles from this present tribulation, and their recognition by our +rulers, politicians, editors, writers, and people at large as the +expression of essential Justice and Morality. + +France possesses, equally with ourselves, a record of these principles +in its famous "Declaration of the Rights of Man," born also in a period +of great national tribulation. That document is in principle identical +with our own great Charter. But France has only possessed it a little +more than a century, whereas our own Charter dates back many centuries; +hence the character of our people has been in a great measure formed +upon its principles, and they have been made sensitive to any grave or +continued violation of them. In France, earnest and sometimes almost +despairing appeals are now made to these fundamental principles +expressed in their own great Charter by a minority of men who continue +to see straight and clearly through the clouds of contending factions in +the midst of which they live; but for a large portion of the nation they +are a dead letter, even if they have ever been intelligently understood. + +How far has South Africa been governed on these principles? I boldly +affirm that on the whole, since the beginning of the last century, it is +these principles of British Government and Law, so far as they have been +enforced, which have saved that colony from anarchy and confusion, and +its native populations from bondage or annihilation. But they have not +been sufficiently strongly enforced. They have not been brought to bear +upon those Englishmen, traders, speculators, company-makers, and others +whose interests may have been in opposition to these principles. + +A Swiss missionary who has lived a great part of his life in South +Africa, writes to me:--"The whole of South Africa is to blame in its +treatment of the natives. Take the British merchant, the Boer and Dutch +official, the German colonist, the French and Swiss trader,--there is +no difference. The general feeling among these is against the coloured +race being educated and evangelized.... Only what can and must be said +is this, that _the Laws of the English Colonies are just_; those of the +Boer States are the negation of every right, civil and religious, which +the black man ought to have." I have similar testimonies from +missionaries (not Englishmen); but I regret to say that these good men +hesitate to have their names published,--not from selfish reasons,--but +from love of their missionary work and their native converts, to whom +they fear they will never be permitted to return if the ascendancy of +the present Transvaal Government should continue, and Mr. Kruger should +learn that they have published what they have seen in his country. It is +to be hoped that these witnesses will feel impelled before long to speak +out. The writer just quoted, says:--"I firmly believe that the native +question is at the bottom of all this trouble. The time is coming when, +cost what it will, we missionaries must speak out." + +In connection with this subject, I give here a quotation from the "Daily +News," March 21st, 1900. The article was inspired by a thoughtful speech +of Sir Edward Grey. The writer asks the reason of the loss of the +capacity in our Liberal party to deal with Colonial matters; and +replies: "It is to be found, we think, in want of imagination and in +want of faith. There are many among us who have failed, from want of +imagination, to grasp that we have been living in an age of expansion; +or who, recognising the fact, have from want of faith seen in it +occasion only for lamentation and woe. Failure in either of these +respects is sure to deprive a British party of popular support. For the +'expansion of England' now, as in former times, proceeds from the people +themselves, and faith in the mission of England is firmly planted in the +popular creed." We recall a noble passage in which Mr. Gladstone stated +with great clearness the inevitable tendency of the times in which we +live. "There is," he said, "a continual tendency on the part of +enterprising people to overstep the limits of the Empire, and not only +to carry its trade there, but to form settlements in other countries +beyond the sphere of a regularly organized Government, and there to +constitute a civil Government of their own. Let the Government adopt, +with mathematical rigour if you like, an opposition to annexation, and +what does it effect? It does nothing to check that tendency--that +perhaps irresistible tendency--of British enterprise to carry your +commerce, and to carry the range and area of your settlement beyond the +limits of your sovereignty.... There the thing is, and you cannot +repress it. Wherever your subjects go, if they are in pursuit of objects +not unlawful, you must afford them all the protection which your power +enables you to give." "There the thing is." (But many Liberals have +lacked the imagination to see it.) And being there, it affords a great +opportunity; for "to this great Empire is committed (continued Mr. +Gladstone) a trust and a function given from Providence as special and +as remarkable as ever was entrusted to any portion of the family of +man." But not all Liberals share Mr. Gladstone's faith. They thus cut +themselves off from one of the chief tendencies and some of the noblest +ideals of the time. Liberalism must broaden its outlook, and seek to +promote "the large and efficient development of the British Commonwealth +on liberal lines, both within and outside these islands." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 19: Blue Book, C. p. 28, 2673.] + +[Footnote 20: Blue Book, C. 2454, p. 57.] + +[Footnote 21: Life and Correspondence of Sir Bartle Frere, by J. +Martineau.] + +[Footnote 22: Life and Correspondence of Sir Bartle Frere, by J. +Martineau.] + +[Footnote 23: The italics are my own.] + +[Footnote 24: There are between sixty and seventy resolutions and +addresses recorded in the Blue-book, all passed unanimously except in +one case, at Stellenbosch where a minority opposed the resolution. The +spokesman of the minority, however, based his opposition not on Frere's +general policy, still less on his character, but as a protest against an +Excise Act, which was one of Mr. Spring's measures.] + +[Footnote 25: Life and Correspondence of Sir Bartle Frere.] + +[Footnote 26: Blue Book, C. 2740, p. 46.] + +[Footnote 27: Blue Book, C. 2740, p. 63.] + +[Footnote 28: Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Sir Bartle +Frere, by Martineau.] + +[Footnote 29: In the sense in which the great Lord Chatham used the +words.] + + + + +VII. + + TRANSVAAL POLICY SINCE 1884. DELIMITATION OF BOUNDARY AGREED TO AND + NOT OBSERVED. THE CHIEF MONTSIOA. HIS COUNTRY PLACED UNDER BRITISH + PROTECTION. TRANSVAAL LAW. THE GRONDWET OR CONSTITUTION. THE HIGH + COURTS OF JUSTICE SUBSERVIENT TO THE VOLKSRAAD OR PARLIAMENT. + ARTICLE 9 OF THE GRONDWET REFERRING TO NATIVES. NATIVE MARRIAGE + LAWS. THE PASS SYSTEM. MISPLACED GOVERNMENTAL TITLES,--REPUBLIC, + EMPIRE, ETC. + + +The Boer policy towards the natives did not undergo any change for the +better from 1881 and onwards. + +At the time of the rising of the Boers against the British Protectorate, +which culminated in the battle of Majuba Hill and the retrocession of +the Transvaal, a number of native chiefs in districts outside the +Transvaal boundary, sent to the British Commissioner for native affairs +to offer their aid to the British Government, and many of them took the +"loyals" of the Transvaal under their protection. One of these was +Montsioa, a Christian chief of the Barolong tribe. He and other chiefs +took charge of Government property and cattle during the disturbances, +and one had four or five thousand pounds in gold, the product of a +recently collected tax, given him to take care of by the Commissioner of +his district, who was afraid that the money would be seized by the +Boers. _In, every instance the property entrusted to their charge was +returned intact_. The loyalty of all the native chiefs under very trying +circumstances, is a remarkable proof of the great affection of the +Kaffirs, and more especially those of the Basuto tribes, who love peace +better than war, for the Queen's rule. I will cite one other instance +among many of the gladness with which different native races placed +themselves under the protection of the Queen. + +In May, 1884, in the discharge of his office as Deputy Commissioner in +Bechuanaland, and on behalf of Her Majesty, the Queen, Mr. Mackenzie +entered into a treaty with the chief, Montsioa, by which his country +(the Barolong's country) was placed under British protection, and also +with Moshette, a neighbouring chief, who wrote a letter to Mr. Mackenzie +asking to be put under the same protection as the other Barolong.[30] + +Mr. Mackenzie wrote:[31]--"Whatever may have been the feelings of +disapproval of the British Protectorate entertained by the Transvaal +people, I was left in no manner of doubt as to the joy and thankfulness +with which it was welcomed in the Barolong country itself. + +"The signing of the treaty in the courtyard of Montsioa, at Mafeking, by +the chief and his headmen, was accompanied by every sign of gladness and +good feeling. The speech of the venerable chief Montsioa was very +cordial, and so cheerful in its tone as to show that he hoped and +believed that the country would now get peace. + +"Using the formula for many years customary in proclamations of +marriages in churches in Bechuanaland, Montsioa, amid the smiles of all +present, announced an approaching political union, and exclaimed with +energy, "Let objectors now speak out or henceforth for ever be silent." +There was no objector. + +"I explained carefully in the language of the people, the nature and +object of the Protectorate, and the manner in which it was to be +supported. + +"Montsioa then demanded in loud tones: "Barolong! what is your response +to the words that you have heard?" + +"With one voice there came a great shout from one end of the courtyard +to the other, "We all want it." + +"The chief turned to me and said, "There! you have the answer of the +Barolong, we have no uncertain feelings here." As I was unfolding the +views of Her Majesty's Government that the Protectorate should be +self-supporting, the chief cried out, 'We know all about it, Mackenzie, +we consent to pay the tax.' I could only reply to this by saying that +that was just what I was coming to; but, inasmuch as they knew all about +it, and saw its importance, I need say no more on the subject. + +"Montsioa, in the first instance, did not like the appearance of +Moshette's people in his town. I told him I was glad they had come, and +he must reserve his own feelings, and await the results of what was +taking place. I was pleased, therefore, when in the public meeting in +the courtyard, just before the signing of the treaty, Montsioa turned to +the messengers of Moshette and asked them if they saw and heard nicely +what was being done with the Barolong country? They replied in the +affirmative, and thus, from a native point of view, became assenting +parties. In this manner something definite was done towards effacing an +ancient feud. The signing of the treaty then took place, the translation +of which is given in the Blue Book. + +"After the treaty had been signed, the old chief requested that prayer +might be offered up, which was accordingly done by a native minister. +The satisfaction of the great event was further marked by the discharge +of a volley from the rifles of a company of young men told off for the +purpose; and the old cannon of Montsioa, mounted between the wheels of +an ox-waggon, was also brought into requisition to proclaim the general +joy and satisfaction. + +"But alas! such feelings were destined to be of short duration. While we +were thus employed at Mafeking, the openly-declared enemies of the +Imperial Government, and of peace and order in Bechuanaland, had been at +their appropriate work elsewhere within the Protectorate. Before sunset +the same evening, I was surprised to hear the Bechuana war cry sounded +in Montsioa's Town, and shortly afterwards I saw the old chief +approaching my waggon, followed by a large body of men. + +"'Monare Makence!' (Mr. Mackenzie), 'the cattle have been lifted by the +Boers,' was his first announcement. I shall never forget the scene at +that moment. The excitement of the men, some of whom were reduced to +poverty by what had taken place, and also their curiosity as to what +step I should take, were plainly enough revealed on the faces of the +crowd who, with their chief, now stood before me. + +"'Mr. Mackenzie,' said Montsioa, 'you are master now, you must say what +is to be done. We shall be obedient to your orders.' 'We have put our +names on your paper, but the Boers have our cattle all the same,' said +one man. + +Another shouted out with vehemence, 'please don't tell us to go on +respecting the boundary line. Why should we do so when the Boers don't?' + +'Who speaks about a boundary line?' said another speaker, probably a +heavy loser. 'Is it a thing that a man can eat? Where are our cattle?' + +"As I have already said, I shall never forget the scene in which these +and similar speeches were made at my waggon as the sun went down +peacefully--the sun which had witnessed the treaty-signing and the +rejoicings at Mafeking. Its departing rays now saw the cattle of the +Barolong safe in the Transvaal, and the Barolong owners and Her +Majesty's Deputy Commissioner looking at one another, at Mafeking."[32] + +Mr. Mackenzie then resolved what to do, and announced that he would at +once cross the boundary and go himself to the nearest Transvaal town to +demand redress. There was a hum of approval, with a sharp enquiry from +Montsioa,--did he really mean to go himself? "Having no one to send, I +must go myself," Mackenzie replied. The old Chief, in a generous way, +half dissuaded him from the attempt. "The Boers cannot be trusted. What +shall I say if you do not return?" "All right, Montsioa," replied +Mackenzie, "say I went of my own accord. I will leave my wife under your +care." + +"Poor old fellow," writes Mackenzie, "brave-hearted, though 'only a +native,' he went away full of heaviness, promising me his cart and +harness, and an athletic herd as a driver, to start early next morning." + +Mr. Mackenzie had little success in this expedition. He was listened to +with indifference when he represented to certain Landdrosts and Field +Cornets that he had not come to talk politics, but to complain of a +theft. Those to whom he spoke looked upon the cattle raid not as +robbery, but as "annexation" or "commandeering." A man, listening to the +palaver, exclaimed: "Well, anyhow, we shall have cheap beef as long as +Montsioa's cattle last." At the hotel of the place Mr. Mackenzie met +some Europeans, who were farming or in business in the Transvaal. They +said to him: "Mr. Mackenzie, we are sorry to have to say it to you, for +we have all known you so long, but, honestly speaking, we hope you won't +succeed; the English Government does not deserve to succeed after all +that they have made us--loyal colonists--suffer in the Transvaal. For a +long time scarcely a day has passed without our being insulted by the +more ignorant Boers, till we are almost tired of our lives, and yet we +cannot go away, having invested our all in the country." + +"Many such speeches were made to me," says Mackenzie, "I give only one." + +I cannot find it in my heart to criticize the character of the Boers at +a time when they have held on so bravely in a desperate war, and have +suffered so much. There are Boers and Boers,--good and bad among +them,--as among all nations. We have heard of kind and generous actions +towards the British wounded and prisoners, and we know that there are +among them men who, in times of peace, have been good and merciful to +their native servants. But it is not magnanimity nor brutality on the +part of individuals which are in dispute. Our controversy is concerning +the presence or absence of Justice among the Boers, concerning the +purity of their Government and the justice of their Laws, or the +reverse. + +I turn to their Laws, and in judging these, it is hardly possible to be +too severe. Law is a great teacher, a trainer, to a great extent, of the +character of the people. The Boers would have been an exceptional people +under the sun had they escaped the deterioration which such Laws and +such Government as they have had the misfortune to live under inevitably +produce. + +A pamphlet has lately been published containing a defence of the Boer +treatment of Missionaries and Natives, and setting forth the efforts +which have been made in recent years to Christianize and civilize the +native populations in their midst. This paper is signed by nine +clergymen of the Dutch Reformed Church, and includes the name of the +Rev. Andrew Murray, a name respected and beloved by many in our own +country. It is welcome news that such good work has been undertaken, +that the President has himself encouraged it, and that a number of Zulus +or Kaffirs have recently been baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of +the Transvaal. But the fact strikes one painfully that in this pleading, +(which has a pathetic note in it,) these clergymen appear to have +obliterated from their mind and memory the whole past history, of their +nation, and to have forgotten that the harvest from seed sown through +many generations may spring up and bear its bitter fruit in their own +day. They do not seem to have accepted the verdict, or made the +confession, "we and our fathers have sinned." They seem rather to argue, +"our fathers may have sinned in these respects, but it cannot be laid to +our charge that we are continuing in their steps." + +No late repentance will avail for the salvation of their country unless +Justice is now proclaimed and practised;--Justice in Government and in +the Laws. + +Their Grondwet, or Constitution, must be removed out of its place for +ever; their unequal laws, and the administrative corruption which +unequal laws inevitably foster, must be swept away, and be replaced by a +very different Constitution and very different Laws. If this had been +done during the two last decades of Transvaal history, while +untrammelled (as was desired) by British interference, the sincerity of +this recent utterance would have deserved full credit, and would have +been recognized as the beginning of a radical reformation. + +The following is from the last Report of the Aborigines Protection +Society (Jan., 1900). Its present secretary leans towards a favourable +judgment of the recent improvements in the policy of the Transvaal, and +condemns severely every act on the part of the English which does not +accord with the principles of our Constitutional Law, and therefore this +statement will not be regarded as the statement of a partisan: "It is +laid down as a fundamental principle in the Transvaal Grondwet that +there is no equality of rights between white men and blacks. In theory, +if not in practice, the Boers regard the natives, all of whom they +contemptuously call Kaffirs, whatever their tribal differences, pretty +much as the ancient Jews regarded the Philistines and others whom they +expelled from Palestine, or used as hewers of wood and drawers of water, +but with added prejudice due to the difference of colour. So it was in +the case of the early Dutch settlers, and so it is to-day, with a few +exceptions, due mainly to the influence of the missionaries, whose work +among the natives has from the first been objected to and hindered. It +is only by social sufferance, and not by law, that the marriage of +natives with Christian rites is recognised, and it carries with it none +of the conditions as regards inheritance and the like, which are +prescribed by the Dutch Roman code in force with white men. As a matter +of fact, natives have no legal rights whatever. If they are in the +service of humane masters, mindful of their own interests and moral +obligations, they may be properly lodged and fed, not overworked, and +fairly recompensed; but from the cruelties of a brutal master, +perpetrated in cold blood or a drunken fit, the native practically has +no redress." + +The Rev. John H. Bovill, Rector of the Cathedral Church, Lorenço +Marquez, and sometime Her Majesty's Acting Consul there, has worked for +five years in a district from which numbers of natives were drawn for +work in the Transvaal, has visited the Transvaal from time to time, and +is well acquainted with Boers of all classes and occupations. He has +given us some details of the working out--especially as regards the +natives--of the principles of the Grondwet or Constitution of the +Transvaal. + +To us English, the most astonishing feature, to begin with, of this +Constitution, is that it places the power of the Judiciary below that of +the Raad or Legislative Body. The Judges of the Highest Court of Law are +not free to give judgment according to evidence before them and the +light given to them. A vote of the Raad, consisting of a mere handful of +men in secret sitting, can at any time override and annul a sentence of +the High Court. + +This will perhaps be better understood if we picture to ourselves some +great trial before Lord Russell and others of our eminent judges, in +which any laws bearing on the case were carefully tested in connection +with the principles of our Constitution; that this supreme Court had +pronounced its verdict, and that the next day Parliament should discuss, +with closed doors, the verdict of the judges, and by a vote or +resolution, should declare it unjust and annul it. + +Let us imagine, to follow the matter a little further on the lines of +Transvaal justice, that our Sovereign had power to dismiss at will from +office any judge or judges who might have exercised independence of +judgment and pronounced a verdict displeasing to Parliament or to +herself personally! Such is law and justice in the Transvaal; and that +country is called a Republic! "This is Transvaal justice," says M. +Naville; "a mockery, an ingenious legalizing of tyranny. There are no +laws, there are only the caprices of the Raad. A vote in a secret +sitting, that is what binds the Judges, and according to it they will +administer justice. The law of to-day will perhaps not be the law +to-morrow. The fifteen members of the majority, or rather President +Kruger, who influences their votes, may change their opinion from one +day to the next--it matters not; their opinion, formulated by a vote, +will always be law. Woe to the judge who should dare to mention the +Constitution or the Code, for there is one: he would at once be +dismissed by the President who appointed him." + +It was prescribed by the Grondwet that no new law should be passed by +Parliament (the Volksraad) unless notice of it had been given three +months in advance, and the people had had the opportunity to pronounce +upon it. This did not suit the President; accordingly when desirous of +legalizing some new project of his own, he adopted the plan of bringing +in such project as an addition or amendment to some existing law, giving +it out as _no new law_, but only a supplementary clause. Law No. 1 of +1897 was manipulated in this manner. By this law, the Judges of the High +Court were formally deprived of the right to test the validity of any +law in its relation to the Constitution, and they were also compelled to +accept as law, without question or reservation of any kind, any +resolution passed at any time and under any circumstances by the +Volksraad. This Law No. 1 of 1897 was passed through all its stages in +three days, without being subjected in the first instance to the people. + +But I am especially concerned with what affects the natives. + +Article 1 of this section says:--A native must not own fixed property. + +(2) He must not marry by civil or ecclesiastical process. + +(3) He must not be allowed access to Civil Courts in any action against +a white man. + +Article 9 of the Grondwet is not only adhered to, but is exaggerated in +its application as follows:--"The people shall not permit any equality +of coloured persons with white inhabitants, neither in the Church, nor +in the State." + +"These principles" says Mr. Bovill, "are so engrained in the mind of an +average Boer that we can never expect anything to be done by the +Volksraad for the natives in this respect. It appears inconceivable," he +continues, "that a Government making any pretence of being a civilized +power, at the end of the nineteenth century, should be so completely +ignorant of the most elementary principles of good government for such a +large number of its subjects." + +As to the access by the natives to the Courts of Law. + +"If you ask a native he will tell you that access to the law-courts is +much too easy, but they are the Criminal Courts of the Field Cornets and +Landdrosts. He suffers so much from these, that he cannot entertain the +idea that the Higher Courts are any better than the ordinary Field +Cornets' or Landdrosts'. However, there are times when with fear and +trepidation he does appeal to a Higher Court. With what result? If the +decision is in favour of the native, the burghers are up in arms, crying +out against the injustice of a judgment given in favour of a black +against a white man; burghers sigh and say that a great disaster is +about to befall the State when a native can have judgment against a +white man. The inequality of the blacks and superiority of the white +(burghers) is largely discussed. Motions are brought forward in the +Volksraad to prohibit natives pleading in the Higher Courts. Such is the +usual outcry. Summary justice (?) by a Landdrost or Field Cornet is all +the Boer would allow a native. No appeal should be permitted, for may it +not lead to a quashing of the conviction? The Landdrost is the friend of +the Boer, and he can always "square" him in a matter against a native. +"It was only to prevent an open breach with England that these appeals +to the Higher Courts were permitted in a limited degree."[33] + +No. 2.--The Native Marriage Laws. "Think," says Mr. Bovill, "what it +would mean to our social life in England if we were a conquered nation, +and the conquerors should say: 'All your laws and customs are abrogated; +your marriage laws are of no consequence to us; you may follow or leave +them as you please, but we do not undertake to support them, and you may +live like cattle if you wish; we cannot recognise your marriage laws as +binding, nor yet will we legalise any form of marriage among you.' Such +is in effect, the present position of the natives in the Transvaal. + +"I occasionally took my holidays in Johannesburg, and assisted the +Vicar, during which time I could take charge of Christian native +marriages, of which the State took no cognisance. A native may marry, +and any time after leave his wife, but the woman would have no legal +claim on him. He could marry again as soon as he pleased, and he could +not be proceeded against either for support of his first wife or for +bigamy. And so he might go on as long as he wished to marry or could get +anyone to marry him. The same is applicable to all persons of colour, +even if only slightly coloured--half-castes of three or four generations +if the colour is at all apparent. All licenses for the marriage of white +people must be applied for personally, and signed in the presence of the +Landdrost, who is very cautious lest half-castes or persons of colour +should get one. Colour is evidently the only test of unfitness to claim +recognition of the marriage contract by the Transvaal State. + +"The injustice of such a law must be apparent; it places a premium on +vice.[34] It gives an excuse to any 'person of colour' to commit the +most heinous offences against the laws of morality and social order, and +protects such a one from the legal consequences which would necessarily +follow in any other civilised State." + +Mr. Bovill has an instructive chapter on the "Compound system," and the +condition of native compounds. This is a matter which it is to be hoped +will be taken seriously to heart by the Chartered Company, and any other +company or group of employers throughout African mining districts." The +Compound system of huddling hundreds of natives together in tin shanties +is the very opposite to the free life to which they are accustomed. If +South African mining is to become a settled industry, we must have the +conditions of the labour market settled, and also the conditions of +living. We cannot expect natives to give up their free open-air style of +living, and their home life. They love their homes, and suffer from +homesickness as much as, or probably more than most white people. The +reason so many leave their work after six months is that they are +constantly longing to see their wives and children. Many times have they +said to me, 'It would be all right if only we could have our wives and +families with us.'" + +"The result of this compound life is the worst possible morally.".... + +"We must treat the native, not as a machine to work when required under +any conditions, but as a raw son of nature, very often without any moral +force to control him and to raise him much above the lower animal world +in his passions, except that which native custom has given him." + +The writer suggests that "native reserves or locations should be +established on the separate mines, or groups of mines, where the natives +can have their huts built, and live more or less under the same +conditions as they do in their native kraals. If a native found that he +could live under similar conditions to those he has been accustomed to, +he will soon be anxious to save enough money to bring his wife and +children there, and remain in the labour district for a much longer +period than at present is the case. + +"It would be a distinct gain to the mining industry as well as to the +native." + +Mr. Bovill goes into much detail on the subject of the "Pass Laws." I +should much desire to reproduce his chapter on that subject, if it were +not too long. That system must be wholly abolished, he says: "it is at +present worse than any conditions under which slavery exists. It is a +criminal-making law. Brand a slave, and you have put him to a certain +amount of physical pain for once, but penalties under the Pass Law +system mean lashes innumerable at the direction of any Boer Field Cornet +or Landdrost. It is a most barbarous system, as brutal as it is +criminal-making, alone worthy of a Boer with an exaggerated fear of and +cowardly brutality towards a race he has been taught to despise." + +Treating of the prohibition imposed on the Natives as to the possession +in any way or by any means of a piece of land, he writes: "Many natives +are now earning and saving large sums of money, year by year, at the +various labour centres. They return home with every intention of +following a peaceful life; why should they not be encouraged to put +their money into land, and follow their 'peaceful pursuits' as well as +any Boer farmer? They are capable of doing it. Besides, if they held +fixed property in the State, it would be to their advantage to maintain +law and order, when they had everything they possessed at stake. With no +interest in the land, the tendency must always be to a nomadic life. +They are as thoroughly well capable of becoming true, peaceful, and +loyal citizens of the State as are any other race of people. Their +instincts and training are all towards law and order. Their lives have +been disciplined under native rule, and now that the white man is +breaking up that rule, what is he going to give as a substitute? Anarchy +and lawlessness, or good government which tends to peace and prosperity? + +"We can only hope for better times, and a more humane Government for the +natives, to wipe out the wrong that has been done to both black and +white under a bastard civilization which has prevailed in Pretoria for +the past fifteen years. The Government which holds down such a large +number of its subjects by treating them as cut-throats and outlaws, will +one day repent bitterly of its sin of misrule."[35] + + * * * * * + +Tyranny has a genius for creeping in everywhere, and under any and every +form of government. This is being strikingly illustrated in these days. +Under the name of a Republic, the traditions of a Military Oligarchy +have grown up, and stealthily prevailed. + +When a nation has no recorded standard of guiding principles of +government, it matters not by what name it may be called--Empire, +Republic, Oligarchy, or Democracy--it may fall under the blighting +influence of the tyranny of a single individual, or a wealthy clique, or +a military despot. + +Too much weight is given just now to mere names as applied to +governments. The acknowledged principles which underlie the outward +forms of government alone are vitally important, and by the adherence to +or abdication of these principles each nation will be judged. The +revered name of _Republic_ is as capable of being dragged in the mire +as that of the title of any other form of government. Mere names and +words have lately had a strange and even a disastrous power of +misleading and deceiving, not persons only, but nations,--even a whole +continent of nations. It is needful to beware of being drawn into +conclusions leading to action by associations attaching merely to a +name, or to some crystallized word which may sometimes cover a principle +the opposite of that which it was originally used to express. Such names +and words are in some cases being as rapidly changed and remodelled as +geographical charts are which represent new and rapidly developing or +decaying groups of the human race. Yet names are always to a large part +of mankind more significant than facts; and names and appearances in +this matter appeal to France and to Switzerland, and in a measure to the +American people, in favour of the Boers. + +Among the concessions made by Lord Derby in the Convention of 1884, none +has turned out to be more unfortunate than that of allowing the +Transvaal State to resume the title of the "South African Republic." In +South Africa it embodied an impossible ideal; to the outside world it +conveyed a false impression. The title has been the reason of widespread +error with regard to the real nature of the Transvaal Government and of +its struggle with this country. If "Republican Independence" had been +all that Mr. Kruger was striving for, there would have been no war. He +adopted the name, but not the spirit of a Republic. The "Independence" +claimed by him, and urged even now by some of his friends in the British +Parliament, is shown by the whole past history of the Transvaal to be an +independence and a freedom which _involve the enslavement of other men._ + +A friend writes:--"In order to satisfy my own mind I have been looking +in Latin Dictionaries for the correct and original meaning of 'impero,' +(I govern,) and 'imperium.' The word 'Empire' has an unpleasant ring +from some points of view and to some minds. One thinks of Roman +Emperors, Domitian, Nero, Tiberius,--of the word 'imperious,' and of the +French 'Empire' under Napoleon I. and Napoleon III. The Latin word means +'the giving of commands.' All depends on whether the commands given are +_good_, and the giver of them also good and wise. The Ten Commandments +are in one sense 'imperial.' Now, I think the word as used in the phrase +_British Empire_ has, in the most modern and best sense, quite a +different savour or flavour from that of Napoleon's Empire, or the +Turkish or Mahommedan Empires of the past. It has come to mean the +'Dominion of Freedom' or the 'Reign of Liberty,' rather than the giving +of despotic or tyrannical or oligarchic commands. In fact, our +Imperialism is freedom for all races and peoples who choose to accept +it, whilst Boer _Republicanism_ is the exact opposite. How strangely +words change their weight and value! + +"And yet there still remains the sense of 'command' in 'Empire;' and in +the past history of our Government of the Cape Colony there has been too +little wholesome command and obedience, and too much opportunism, +shuffling off of responsibility, with self-sufficient ignorance and +doctrinaire foolishness taking the place of knowledge and insight. Want +of courage is, I think, in short, at the bottom of the past +mismanagement." + + * * * * * + +The assertion is repeatedly made that "England coveted the gold of the +Transvaal, and hence went to war." It is necessary it seems, again and +again, to remind those who speak thus that England was not the invader. +Kruger invaded British Territory, being fully prepared for war. England +was not in the least prepared for war. This last fact is itself a +complete answer to those who pretend that she was the aggressor. + +In regard to the assertion that "England coveted the gold of the +Transvaal," what is here meant by "England?" Ours is a representative +Government. Are the entire people, with their representatives in +Parliament and the Government included in this assertion, or is it meant +that certain individuals, desiring gold, went to the Transvaal in search +of it? The expression "England" in this relation, is vague and +misleading. + +The search for gold is not in itself a legal nor a moral offence. But +the inordinate desire and pursuit of wealth, becoming the absorbing +motive to the exclusion of all nobler aims, is a moral offence and a +source of corruption. + +Wherever gold is to be found, there is a rush from all sides; among some +honest explorers with legitimate aims, there are always found, in such a +case, a number of unruly spirits, of scheming, dishonest and careless +persons, the scum of the earth, cheats and vagabonds. The Outlanders who +crowded to the Rand were of different nations, French, Belgians and +others, besides the English who were in a large majority. The presence +and eager rush of this multitude of gold seekers certainly brought into +the country elements which clouded the moral atmosphere, and became the +occasion of deeds which so far from being typical of the spirit of +"England" and the English people at large, were the very reverse, and +have been condemned by public opinion in our country. + +But, admitting that unworthy motives and corrupting elements were +introduced into the Transvaal by the influx of strangers urged there by +self-interest, it is strange that any should imagine and assert that the +"corrupting influence of gold," or the lust of gold told upon the +British alone. The disasters brought upon the Transvaal seem to be +largely attributable to the corrupting effect on President Kruger and +his allies in the Government, of the sudden acquisition of enormous +wealth, through the development, by other hands than his own, of the +hidden riches within his country. + +What are the facts? In 1885 the revenue of the Transvaal State was a +little over £177,000. This rose, owing to the Outlanders' labours, and +the taxes exacted from them by the Transvaal government to £4,400,000 +(in 1899). Thus they have increased in the proportion of 1 to 25. "If +the admirers of the Transvaal government, who place no confidence in +documents emanating from English sources, will take the trouble to open +the _Almanack de Gotha_, they will there find the financial report for +1897. There they will read that of these £4,400,000, salaries and +emoluments amount to nearly one-quarter--we will call it +£1,000,000,--that is, £40 per head per adult Boer, for it goes without +saying that in all this the Outlanders have no share. If we remember +that the great majority of the Boers consist of farmers who do not +concern themselves at all about the Administration, and who consequently +get no slice of the cake, we can judge of the size of the junks which +President Kruger and the chiefly foreign oligarchy on which he leans +take to themselves. The President has a salary of £7,000--(the President +of the Swiss Confederation has £600)--and besides that, what is called +"coffee-money." This is his official income, but his personal resources +do not end there. The same table of the _Almanack de Gotha_ shows a sum +of nearly £660,000 entitled "other expenses." Under this head are +included secret funds, which in the budget are stated at a little less +than £40,000 (more than even England has), but which always exceed that +sum, and in 1896 reached about £200,000. Secret Service Funds!--vile +name and viler reality--should be unknown in the affairs of small +nations. Is not honesty one of the cardinal virtues which we should +expect to find amongst small nations, if nowhere else? What can the +chief of a small State of 250,000 inhabitants do with such a large +amount of Secret funds? + +"We can picture to ourselves what the financial administration of the +Boers must be in this plethora of money, provided almost entirely by the +hated Outlander. An example may be cited. The Raad were discussing the +budget of 1898, and one of the members called attention to the fact that +for several years past advances to the amount of £2,400,000 had been +made to various officials, and were unaccounted for. That is a specimen +of what the Boer _régime_ has become in this school of opulence."[36] M. +Naville continues:--"We do not consider the Boers, as a people, to be +infected by the corruption which rules the administration. The farmers +who live far from Pretoria have preserved their patriarchal virtues: +they are upright and honest, but at the same time very proud, and +impatient of every kind of authority.... They are ignorant, and read no +books or papers--only the Old Testament; but Kruger knew he could rouse +these people by waving before them the spectre of England, and crying in +their ears the word 'Independence.' And this is what disgusts us, that +under cover of principles so dear to us all, independence and national +honour, these brave men are sent to the battlefield to preserve for a +tyrannical and venal oligarchy the right to share amongst themselves, +and distribute as they please, the gold which is levied on the work of +foreigners." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 30: Parliamentary Blue Book, 4194, 42.] + +[Footnote 31: Austral Africa, Chap. 4, pages 235-250.] + +[Footnote 32: Austral Africa, p. 233 and on.] + +[Footnote 33: Natives under the Transvaal Flag. Revd. John H. Bovill.] + +[Footnote 34: It is stated on the authority of _The Sentinel_ (London, +June, 1900), that Mr. Kruger was asked some years ago to permit the +introduction in the Johannesburg mining district of the State regulation +of vice, and that Mr. Kruger stoutly refused to entertain such an idea. +Very much to his credit! Yet it seems to me that the refusal to legalize +native marriages comes rather near, in immorality of principle and +tendency, to the legalizing of promiscuous intercourse.] + +[Footnote 35: Natives under the Transvaal Flag, by Rev. J. Bovill.] + +[Footnote 36: La question du Transvaal, by Professor Ed. Naville, of +Geneva.] + + + + +VIII. + + THE THEOLOGY OF THE BOERS. EXPLOITATION OF NATIVES BY CAPITALISTS. + BRITISH COLONIZING.--ITS CAUSES AND NATURE. CHARACTER OF PAUL + KRUGER AS A RULER. THE MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE WAR. OUR + RESPONSIBILITIES. HASTY JUDGMENTS. DENUNCIATIONS OF ENGLAND BY + ENGLISHMEN. THE OPEN BOOK. MY LAST WORD IS FOR THE NATIVE RACES. + + +Even in these enlightened days there seems to be in some minds a strange +confusion as to the understanding of the principle of Equality for which +we plead, and which is one of the first principles laid down in the +Charter of our Liberties. What is meant in that charter is _Equality of +all before the Law_; not by any means social equality, which belongs to +another region of political ideas altogether. + +A friend who has lived in South Africa, and who has had natives working +for and with him, tells me of this confusion of ideas among some of the +more vulgar stamp of white colonists, who, my friend observes, amuse +themselves by assuming a familiarity in intercourse with the natives, +which works badly. It does not at all increase their respect for the +white man, but quite the contrary, while it is as little calculated to +produce self-respect in the native. My friend found the natives +naturally respectful and courteous, when treated justly and humanely, in +fact as a _gentleman_ would treat them. Above all things, they honour a +man who is just. They have a keen sense of justice, and a quick +perception of the existence of this crowning quality in a man. +Livingstone said that he found that they also have a keen eye for a man +of pure and moral life. + +The natives in the Transvaal have never asked for the franchise, or for +the smallest voice in the Government. In their hearts they hoped for and +desired simple legal justice; they asked for bread, and they received a +stone. It does not seem desirable that they should too early become +"full fledged voters." Some sort of Education test, some proof of a +certain amount of civilization and instruction attained, might be +applied with advantage; and to have to wait a little while for that does +not seem, from the Englishwoman's point of view at least, a great +hardship, when it is remembered how long our agricultural labourers had +to wait for that privilege, and that for more than fifty years English +women have petitioned for it, and have not yet obtained it, although +they are not, I believe, wholly uncivilized or uneducated. + +The Theology of the Boers has been much commented upon; and it is +supposed by some that, as they are said to derive it solely from the Old +Testament Scriptures, it follows that the ethical teaching of those +Scriptures must be extremely defective. A Swiss Pastor writes to me: "It +is time to rescue the Old Testament from the Boer interpretation of it. +We have not enough of Old Testament righteousness among us Christians." +This is true. Those who have studied those Scriptures intelligently see, +through much that appears harsh and strange in the Mosaic prescriptions, +a wisdom and tenderness which approaches to the Christian ideal, as well +as certain severe rules and restrictions which, when observed and +maintained, lifted the moral standard of the Hebrew people far above +that of the surrounding nations. When Christ came on earth, He swept +away all that which savoured of barbarism, the husk which often +however, contained within it a kernel of truth capable of a great +development. "Ye have heard it said of old times," He reiterated, "_but +I say unto you_"--and then He set forth the higher, the eternally true +principles of action. + +Yet if the Transvaal teachers and their disciples had read impartially +(though even exclusively) the Old Testament Scriptures, they could not +have failed to see how grossly they were themselves offending against +the divine commands in some vital matters. I cite, as an example, the +following commands, given by Moses to the people, not once only, but +repeatedly. Had these commands been regarded with as keen an +appreciation as some others whose teaching seems to have an opposite +tendency, it is impossible that the natives should have been treated as +they have been by Boer Law, or that Slavery or Serfdom should have +existed among them for so many generations. The following are some of +the often-repeated commands and warnings: + +Ex. xii. _v_ 19.--"One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto +the stranger that sojourneth among you." + +Num. ix. _v_ 14.--"If a stranger shall sojourn among you, ... ye shall +have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in +the land." + +Num. xv. _v_ 15.--"One ordinance shall be both for you of the +congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an +ordinance for ever in your generation: as ye are so shall the stranger +be before the Lord." + +Verse 16.--"One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the +stranger that sojourneth with you." + +Lev. xix. _v_ 33.--"And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye +shall not vex him." + +Verse 34.--"But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you +as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were +strangers in the land of Egypt." + +Verse 35.--"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in +weight, or in measure." + +Although the natives of the Transvaal were the original possessors of +the country, they have been reckoned by the Boers as strangers and +foreigners among them. They have treated them as the ancient Jews +treated all Gentiles as for ever excluded from the Commonwealth of +Israel,--until in the "fulness of time" they were forced by a great +shock and terrible judgments--to acknowledge, with astonishment, that +"God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life," and that +they also had heard the news of the glorious emancipation of all the +sons of God throughout the earth. + +Not only is the non-payment, but even delay in the payment of wages +condemned by the Law of Moses. Is it possible that Boer theologians, who +quote Scripture with so much readiness, have never read the following? + +Lev. xix. _v_ 13.--"Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob +him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night +until the morning." + +Deut. xxiv. _v_ 14.--"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is +poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that +are in thy land, within thy gates." + +Verse 15.--"At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the +sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest +he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." + +Jer. xxii. _v_ 13.--"Woe unto him that buildeth his house by +unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's +service without wages, and giveth him not for his work." + +Mal. iii. _v_ 5.--"And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will +be a swift witness against ... those that oppress the hireling in his +wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger +from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts." + +The following is from the New Testament, but it might have come under +the notice of Boer theologians and Law makers:-- + +The epistle of St. James v. _v_ 4.--"Behold the hire of the labourers +who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud, +crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the +ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." + +Verse 3.--"Your gold and your silver is cankered, and the rust of them +shall be a witness against you." + +Jer. xxxv. _v_ 17.--"Because ye have not proclaimed Liberty every man to +his neighbour, behold I proclaim Liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the +Sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." + +I am aware that there will be voices raised at once in application to +certain English people of the very commands here cited; and justly so, +so far as that application is made to individuals or groups of persons +who have transgressed not only Biblical Law but the Law of our Land in +their dealings with native races; and the warning conveyed to us in such +recriminations must not and, I believe, will not be unheeded. + +The following occurs in a number of the "Ethical World," published early +in the present year:--"We know that capitalists, left to themselves, +would mercilessly exploit the labour of the coloured man. That is +precisely the reason why they should not be left to themselves, but +should be under the control of the British Empire. It is a reason why +Crown colonies should supersede Chartered Companies; it is a reason for +much that is often called 'shallow Imperialism.' If the present war had +been staved off, and if, by mere lapse of time and increase of numbers +_without British intervention_, the Outlanders had come to be the +masters of the South African Republic, they might have established a +system of independent government quite as bad as that now in existence, +though not hardened against reform by the same archaic traditions." + +To my mind some of the published utterances of the Originator and +members of the "Chartered Company" are not such as to inspire confidence +in those who desire to see the essential principles of British Law and +Government paramount wherever Great Britain has sway. There is the old +contemptuous manner of speaking of the natives; and we have heard an +expression of a desire to "eliminate the Imperial Factor." + +This elimination of the Imperial Factor is precisely that which is the +least desired by those who see our Imperialism to mean the continuance +of obedience to the just traditions of British Law and Government. The +granting of a Charter to a Company lends the authority (or the +appearance of it) of the Queen's name to acts of the responsible heads +of that company, which may be opposed to the principles of justice +established by British Law; and such acts may have disastrous results. +It is to be hoped that the present awakening on the subject of past +failures of our government to enforce respect for its own principles may +be a warning to all concerned against any transgression of those +principles. + +Continental friends with whom I have conversed on the subject of the +British Colonies have sometimes appeared to me to leave out of account +some considerations special to the subject. They regard British +Colonization as having been accomplished by a series of acts of +aggression, solely inspired by the love of conquest and desire for +increased territory. This is an error. + +I would ask such friends to take a Map of Europe, or of the World, and +steadily to regard it in connection with the following facts. Our people +are among the most prolific,--if not the most prolific,--of all the +nations. Energy and enterprise are in their nature, together with a +certain love of free-breathing, adventure and discovery. Now look at the +map, and observe how small is the circumference of the British Isles. +"Our Empire has no geographical continuity like the Russian Empire; it +is that larger Venice with no narrow streets, but with the sea itself +for a high-road. It is bound together by a moral continuity alone." What +are our Sons to do? Must our immense population be debarred from passing +through these ocean tracts to lands where there are great uninhabited +wastes capable of cultivation? What shall we do with our sons and our +daughters innumerable, as the ways become overcrowded in the mother +land, and energies have not the outlets needful to develop them. Shall +we place legal restrictions on marriage, or on the birth of children, or +prescribe that no family shall exceed a certain number? You are +shocked,--naturally. It follows then that some members of our large +British families must cross the seas and seek work and bread elsewhere. + +The highest and lowest, representing all ranks, engage in this kind of +initial colonization. Our present Prime Minister, a "younger son," went +out in his youth,--as others of his class have done,--with his pickaxe, +to Australia, to rank for a time among "diggers" until called home by +the death of the elder son, the heir to the title and estate. This +necessity and this taste for wandering and exploring has helped in some +degree to form the independence of character of our men, and also to +strengthen rather than to weaken the ties of affection and kinship with +the Motherland. Many men, "nobly born and gently nurtured," have thus +learned self-dependence, to endure hardships, and to share manual labour +with the humblest; and such an experience does not work for evil. Then +when communities have been formed, some sort of government has been +necessitated. An appeal is made to the Mother Country, and her offspring +have grown up more or less under her regard and care, until +self-government has developed itself. + +The great blot on this necessary and natural expansion is the record +(from time to time) of the displacement of native tribes by force and +violence, when their rights seemed to interfere with the interests of +the white man. Of such action we have had to repent in the past, and we +repent more deeply than ever now when our responsibilities towards +natives races have been brought with startling clearness before those +among us who have been led to look back and to search deeply into the +meanings of the present great "history-making war." + +The personality of Paul Kruger stands out mournfully at this moment on +the page of history. Mr. FitzPatrick wrote of him in 1896, as follows:-- + +"_L'Etat c'est moi_, is almost as true of the old Dopper President as it +was of its originator; for in matters of external policy and in matters +which concern the Boer as a party, the President has his way as +completely as any anointed autocrat. To anyone who has studied the Boers +and their ways and policy ... it must be clear that President Kruger +does more than represent the opinion of the people and execute their +policy: he moulds them in the form he wills. By the force of his own +strong convictions and prejudices, and of his indomitable will, he has +made the Boers a people whom he regards as the germ of the Afrikander +nation; a people chastened, selected, welded, and strong enough to +attract and assimilate all their kindred in South Africa, and thus to +realize the dream of a Dutch Republic from the Zambesi to Cape Town. + +"In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim old President +will loom large and striking,--picturesque as the figure of one who, by +his character and will, made and held his people; magnificent as one +who, in the face of the blackest fortune, never wavered from his aim or +faltered in his effort ... and it maybe, pathetic too, as one whose +limitations were great, one whose training and associations,--whose very +successes had narrowed and embittered and hardened him;--as one who, +when the greatness of success was his to take and to hold, turned his +back on the supreme opportunity, and used his strength and qualities to +fight against the spirit of progress, and all that the enlightenment of +the age pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and a +healthy State. + +"To an English nobleman, who in the course of an interview remarked, 'my +father was a Minister (of the Queen),' the Dutchman answered, 'and my +father was a shepherd!' It was not pride rebuking pride; it was the ever +present fact which would not have been worth mentioning but for the +suggestion of the antithesis. He, too, was a shepherd,--a peasant. It +may be that he knew what would be right and good for his people, and it +may be not; but it is sure that he realized that to educate would be to +emancipate, to broaden their views would be to break down the defences +of their prejudices, to let in the new leaven would be to spoil the old +bread, to give to all men the rights of men would be to swamp for ever +the party which is to him greater than the State. When one thinks of the +one century history of that people, much is seen which accounts for +their extraordinary love of isolation, and their ingrained and +passionate aversion to control; much, too, that draws to them a world of +sympathy; and when one realizes the old President hemmed in once more by +the hurrying tide of civilization, from which his people have fled for +generations--trying to fight both fate and Nature--standing up to stem a +tide as resistless as the eternal sea--one realizes the pathos of the +picture. But this is as another generation may see it. We are now too +close--so close that the meaner details, the blots and flaws, are all +most plainly visible, the corruption, the insincerity, the injustice, +the barbarity--all the unlovely touches that will bye and bye be +forgotten--sponged away by the gentle hand of time, when only the +picturesque will remain."[37] + +And now that his sun is setting in the midst of clouds, and the great +ambition of his life lies a ruin before him, and age, disappointment, +and sorrow press heavily upon him, reproach and criticism are silenced. +Compassion and a solemn awe alone fill our hearts. + +A late awakening and repentance may not serve to maintain the political +life of a party or a nation; but it is never too late for a human soul +to receive for itself the light that may have been lacking for right +guidance all through the past, and God does not finally withdraw Himself +from one who has ever sincerely called upon His name. + +I beg to be allowed to address a word, in conclusion, more especially to +certain of my own countrymen,--among whom I count some of my valued +fellow-workers of the past years. These latter have been very patient +with me at times when I have ventured a word of warning in connection +with the Abolitionist war in which we have together been engaged, and +perhaps they will bear with me now; but whether they will do so or not, +I must speak that which seems to me the truth, that which is laid on my +heart to speak. I refer especially to the temper of mind of those whose +present denunciations of our country are apparently not restrained by +considerations derived from a deeper and calmer view of the whole +situation. + +When God's Judgments are in the earth, "the people of the world will +learn righteousness." Are we learning righteousness? Am I, are you, +friends, learning righteousness? I desire, at least, to be among those +who may learn something of the mind of God towards His redeemed world, +even in the darkest hour. But you will tell me perhaps that there is +nothing of the Divine purpose in all this tribulation, that God has +allowed evil to have full sway in the world for a time. Others among us, +as firmly believe that there is a Divine permission in the natural +vengeance which follows transgression, that we are never the sport of a +senseless fate, and that God governs as well as reigns. + + "God's fruit of justice ripens slow; + "Men's souls are narrow; let them grow, + "My brothers, we must wait." + +Many among us are learning to see more and more clearly that the present +"tribulation" is the climax of a long series,--through almost a century +past,--of errors of which till now we had never been fully +conscious,--of neglect of duty, of casting off of responsibility, of +oblivion of the claims of the millions of native inhabitants of Africa +who are God's creatures and the redeemed of Christ as much as we,--of +ambitions and aims purely worldly, of a breathless race among nations +for present and material gain. + +There are hasty judges it seems to me who look upon this war as the +_Initial Crime_, a sudden and fatal error into which our nation has +leapt in a fit of blind passion aroused by some quite recent event, and +chiefly chargeable to certain individuals living among us to-day, who +represent, in their view, a deplorable deterioration of the whole +nation. The evils (which are not chiefly attributable to our nation) +which have led up to this war, and made it from the human point of view, +inevitable, are all ignored by these judges. Like the servant in one of +the Parables of Christ, who said "my Lord delayeth his coming," (God is +nowhere among us,) and began to beat and abuse his fellow-servants, they +fall to inflicting on their fellow citizens unmeasured blows of the +tongue and pen, because of this war. Their hearts are so full of +indignation that they cannot see anything higher or deeper than the +material strife. They judge the combatants, our poor soldiers, the first +victims, with little tenderness or sympathy. When King David was warned +by God of approaching chastisement for his sins as a ruler, he pleaded +that that chastisement should fall upon himself alone, saying, "these +sheep (the people) what have they done?" We may ask the same of the rank +and file of our army. What have they done? It was not they who ordained +the war, and so far as personal influence may have gone to provoke war, +many of those who sit at home at ease are more to blame than the men who +believe that they are obeying the call of duty when they offer +themselves for perils, for hardships, wounds, sickness, and lingering as +well as sudden death. + +God's thoughts, however, are "not as our thoughts," nor "His ways as our +ways." The record I might give of spiritual awakening and extraordinary +blessing bestowed by Him at this time in the very heart of this war on +these, the "first victims" of it, would be received I fear with complete +incredulity by those to whom I now address myself. Be it so. The sources +of my information are from "the front," they are many and they are +trustworthy. It seems to me that in visiting the sins of the fathers on +the children, or of rulers on the people, the Great Father of all, in +His infinite love has said to these multitudes: "Your bodies are given +to destruction, but I have set wide open for you the door of salvation; +you Shall enter into my kingdom through death." And many have so +entered.[38] + +The following is the expression of the thought of many of our humble +people at home, who are neither "jingoes" nor yet impatient judges of +others. The Journal from which the extract is taken represents not the +wealthy nor ambitious part of society, but that of the middle class of +people, dependent on their own efforts for their daily bread, among whom +we often find much good sense:--"Some persons are humiliated for the +sins and mistakes they see in other people. As for themselves, their one +thought is 'If my advice had been taken the country would never have +been in this pass!' This is the expression of an utterly un-Christian +self-conceit. Others, again, take delight in recording the sins of the +nation. That our ideals have been dimmed, that a low order of public +morality has been openly defended in the highest places, and that the +reckoning has come to us we fully believe. Yet it is possible to judge +the heart of our people far too harshly. It is a sound heart when all is +said and done. We fix our eyes upon the great and wealthy offenders; but +it must be remembered that the British people are not wealthy. The +number of rich men is small. Most of us, in fact, are very poor. Even +those who may be called well off depend on the continuance of health and +opportunity for their incomes. The vast majority of those who believe +that our cause is righteous are not exultant jingoes, neither are they +millionaires. They are care-worn toilers, hard-worked fathers and +mothers of children. They have in many cases given sons and brothers and +husbands to our ranks; their hearts are aching with passionate sorrow +for the dead. Many more are enduring the racking agony of suspense. +Multitudes, besides, spend their lives in a hard fight to keep the wolf +from the door. Already they are pinched, and they know that in the +months ahead their poverty will be deeper. Yet they have no thought of +surrender. They do not even complain, but give what they can from their +scanty means to succour those who are touched still more nearly. It is +quite possible to slander a nation when one simply intends to tell it +plain truths. The British nation, we are inclined to believe, is a great +deal better and sounder than many of its shrillest censors of the +moment. And, for our part, we find among our patient, brave, and silent +people great seed-beds of trust and hope."[39] + +These are noble words, because words of faith--worthy of the Roman, +Varro--to whom his fellow-citizens presented a public tribute of +gratitude because "he had not despaired of his country in a dark and +troubled time." + +It can hardly be supposed that I underrate the horrors of war. I have +imagination enough and sympathy enough to follow almost as if I beheld +it with my eyes, the great tragedy which has been unfolded in South +Africa. The spirit of Jingoism is an epidemic of which I await the +passing away more earnestly than we do that of any other plague. I +deprecate, as I have always done, and as strongly as anyone can do, +rowdyism in the form of violent opposition to free speech and freedom of +meeting. It is as wholly unjustifiable, as it is unwise. Nothing tends +more to the elucidation of truth than evidence and freedom of speech +from all sides. Good works on many hands are languishing for lack of +the funds and zeal needful to carry them on. The Public Press, and +especially the Pictorial Press, fosters a morbid sentiment in the public +mind by needlessly vivid representations of mere slaughter; to all this +may be added (that which some mourn over most of all) the drain upon our +pockets,--upon the country's wealth. All these things are a part of the +great tribulation which is upon us. They are inevitable ingredients of +the chastisement by war. + +I see frequent allusions to the "deplorable state of the public mind," +which is so fixed on this engrossing subject, the war, that its +attention cannot be gained for any other. I hear our soldiers called +"legalized murderers," and the war spoken of as a "hellish +panorama,"[40] which it is a blight even to look upon. + +But,--I am impelled to say it at the risk of sacrificing the respect of +certain friends,--there is to me another view of the matter. It is this. +In this present woe, as in all other earthly events, God has something +to say to us,--something which we cannot receive if we wilfully turn +away the eye from seeing and the ear from hearing. + +It is as if--in anticipation of the last great Judgment when "the Books +shall be opened,"--God, in his severity and yet in mercy (for there is +always mercy in the heart of His judgments) had set before us at this +day an open book, the pages of which are written in letters of blood, +and that He is waiting for us to read. There are some who are reading, +though with eyes dimmed with tears and hearts pierced with sorrow--whose +attitude is, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." + +You "deplore the state of the public mind." May not the cloud of +celestial witnesses deplore in a measure the state of _your_ mind which +leads you to turn your back on the opened book of judgment, and refuse +to read it? Does your sense of duty to your country claim from you to +send forth such a cry against your fellow-citizens and your nation that +you have no ears for the solemn teachings of Providence? Might it not be +more heroic in us all to cease to denounce, and to begin to +enquire?--with humility and courage to look God in the face, and enquire +of Him the inner meanings of His rebukes, to ask Him to "turn back the +floods of ungodliness" which have swelled this inundation of woe, rather +than to use our poor little besoms in trying to sweep back the Atlantic +waves of His judgments. + +It is good and necessary to protest against War; but at the same time, +reason and experience teach that we must, with equal zeal, protest +against other great evils, the accumulation of which makes for war and +not for peace. War in another sense--moral and spiritual war--must be +doubled, trebled, quadrupled, in the future, in order that material war +may come to an end. We all wish for peace; every reasonable person +desires it, every anxious and bereaved family longs for it, every +Christian prays for it. But _what_ Peace? It is the Peace of God which +we pray for? the Peace on Earth, which He alone can bring about? His +hand alone, which corrects, can also heal. We do not and cannot desire +the peace which some of those are calling for who dare not face the open +book of present day judgment, or who do not wish to read its lessons! +Such a peace would be a mere plastering over of an unhealed wound, which +would break out again before many years were over. + +There seems to me a lack of imagination and of Christian sympathy in the +zeal which thrusts denunciatory literature into all hands and houses, as +is done just now. It would, I think, check such action and open the eyes +of some who adopt it, if they could see the look of pain, the sudden +pallor, followed by hours and days of depression of the mourners, +widows, bereaved parents, sisters and friends, when called upon to read +(their hearts full of the thought of their beloved dead) that those who +have fought in the ranks were morally criminal, legalized murderers, +"full of hatred," actors in a "hellish panorama." Some of these +sufferers may not be much enlightened, but they know what love and +sorrow are. Would it not be more tender and tactful, from the Christian +point of view, to leave to them their consoling belief that those whom +they loved acted from a sense of duty or a sentiment of patriotism; and +not, just at a time of heart-rending sorrow, to press upon them the +criminality of all and every one concerned in any way with war? I +commend this suggestion to those who are not strangers to the value of +personal sympathy and gentleness towards those who mourn. + +No, we are not yet looking upon hell! It may be, it _is_, an earthly +purgatory which we are called to look upon; a place and an hour of +purging and of purifying, such as we must all, nations and individuals +alike, pass through, before we can see the face of God. + +Mr. Fullerton, speaking in the Melbourne Hall, Leicester, on Jan. 7th of +this year, said:--"The Valley of Achor (Trouble), may be a Door of +Hope." "You say the Transvaal belongs to the Boers; I say it belongs to +God. If it belongs specially to any, it belongs to the Zulus and +Kaffirs, on whom, for 100 years, there have been inflicted wrongs worthy +of Arab slave dealers. What has the Boer done to lift these people? +Nothing. As a Missionary said the other day, 'A nation that lives +amongst a lower race of people, and does not try to lift them, +inevitably sinks.' The Boers needed to be chastised; only thus could +they be kept from sinking; only thus can there be hope for the native +races. Who shall chastise them? Another nation, which God wishes also to +chastise. Is therefore God for one nation and not for another? May He +not be for one, and for the other too? If both pray, must He refuse one? +Perhaps God is great enough to answer both, and bringing both through +the fire, purge and teach them." + +It would have been bad for us if we had won an early or an easy victory. +We should have been so lifted up with pride as to be an offence to high +Heaven. But we have gone and are going through deep waters, and the +wounds inflicted on many hearts and many homes are not quickly healed. +In this we recognise the hand of God, who is faithful in chastisement as +in blessing. + +Many have, no doubt, read, and I hope some have laid to heart, the words +which Lord Rosebery recently addressed to the Press, but which are +applicable to us all at this juncture. They are wise and statesmanlike +words. Taking them as addressed to the Nation and not to the Press only, +they run thus: "At such a juncture we must be sincere, we must divest +ourselves of the mere catchwords and impulses of party.... We must be +prepared to discard obsolete shibboleths, to search out abuse, to +disregard persons, to be instant in pressing for necessary +reforms--social, educational, administrative, and if need be, +constitutional. + +"Moreover, with regard to a sane appreciation of the destinies and +responsibilities of Empire, we stand at the parting of the ways. Will +Britain flinch or falter in her world-wide task? How is she best to +pursue it? What new forces and inspiration will it need? What changes +does it involve? These are questions which require clear sight, cool +courage, and freedom from formula."[41] + +In the conscientious study which I have endeavoured to make of the +history of the past century of British rule in South Africa, nothing has +struck me more than the unfortunate effects in that Colony of our +varying policy inspired by political party spirit in the Mother Country; +and consequently I hail with thankfulness this good counsel to "divest +ourselves of mere catchwords and impulses of party, to discard obsolete +shibboleths, to free ourselves from formula, and to disregard persons," +even if these persons are or have been recognized leaders, and to abide +rather by principles. "What new forces and inspiration do we need," Lord +Rosebery asks, for the great task our nation has before it? This is a +deep and far-reaching question. The answer to it should be sought and +earnestly enquired after by every man and woman among us, who is worthy +of the name of a true citizen. + +My last word must be on behalf of the Natives. When, thirty years ago, a +few among us were impelled to take up the cause of the victims of the +modern white slavery in Europe, we were told that in our pleadings for +principles of justice and for personal rights, we ought not to have +selected a subject in which are concerned persons who may deserve pity, +but who, in fact, are not so important a part of the human family as to +merit such active and passionate sympathy as that which moved our group. +To this our reply was: "We did not _choose_ this question, we did not +ourselves deliberately elect to plead for these persons. The question +was _imposed upon us_, and once so imposed, we could not escape from the +claims of the oppressed class whose cause we had been called to take up. +And generally, (we replied,) the work of human progress has not +consisted in protecting and supporting any outward forms of government, +or the noble or privileged classes, but in undertaking the defence of +the weak, the humble, of beings devoted to degradation and contempt, or +brought under any oppression or servitude." + +It is the same now. My father was one of the energetic promoters of the +Abolition of Slavery in the years before 1834, a friend of Clarkson and +Wilberforce. The horror of slavery in every form, and under whatever +name, which I have probably partly inherited, has been intensified as +life went on. It is my deep conviction that Great Britain will in future +be judged, condemned or justified, according to her treatment of those +innumerable coloured races, heathen or partly Christianized, over whom +her rule extends, or who, beyond the sphere of her rule, claim her +sympathy and help as a Christian and civilizing power to whom a great +trust has been committed. + +It grieves me to observe that (so far as I am able to judge) our +politicians, public men, and editors, (with the exception of the editors +of the "religious press,") appear to a great extent unaware of the +immense importance of this subject, even for the future peace and +stability of our Empire, apart from higher interests. It _will_ be +"imposed upon them," I do not doubt, sooner or later, as it has been +imposed upon certain missionaries and others who regard the Divine +command as practical and sensible men should do: "Go ye and teach _all_ +nations." All cannot _go_ to the ends of the earth; but all might cease +to hinder by the dead weight of their indifference, and their contempt +of all men of colour. Dr. Livingstone rebuked the Boers for +contemptuously calling all coloured men Kaffirs, to whatever race they +belonged. Englishmen deserve still more such a rebuke for their habit of +including all the inhabitants of India, East and West, and of Africa, +who have not European complexions, under the contemptuous title of +"niggers." Race prejudice is a poison which will have to be cast out if +the world is ever to be Christianized, and if Great Britain is to +maintain the high and responsible place among the nations which has been +given to her. + +"It maybe that the Kaffir is sometimes cruel," says one who has seen and +known him,--"he certainly requires supervision. But he was bred in +cruelty and reared in oppression--the child of injustice and hate. As +the springbok is to the lion, as the locust is to the hen, so is the +Kaffir to the Boer; a subject of plunder and leaven of greed. But the +Kaffir is capable of courage and also of the most enduring affection. He +has been known to risk his life for the welfare of his master's family. +He has worked without hope of reward. He has laboured in the expectation +of pain. He has toiled in the snare of the fowler. Yet shy a brickbat at +him!--for he is only a Kaffir! "However much the Native may excel in +certain qualities of the heart, still, until purged of the poison of +racial contempt, that will be the expression of the practical conclusion +of the white man regarding him; "Shy a brickbat at him. He is only a +nigger." + +A merely theoretical acknowledgment of the vital nature of this +question, of the future of the Native races and of Missionary work will +not suffice. The Father of the great human family demands more than +this. + + "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? + To loose the bands of wickedness, + To undo the heavy burdens, + To let the oppressed go free, + And that ye break every yoke?" + + (ISAIAH lviii. 6.) + +I have spoken, in this little book, as an Abolitionist,--being a member +of the "International Federation for the Abolition of the State +regulation of vice." But I beg my readers to understand that I have here +spoken for myself alone, and that my views must not be understood to be +shared by members of the Federation to which I refer. My Abolitionist +friends on the Continent of Europe, with very few exceptions, hold an +opinion absolutely opposed to mine on the general question here treated. +It is not far otherwise in England itself, where many of our +Abolitionists, including some of my oldest and most valued +fellow-workers, stand on a very different ground from mine in this +matter. I value friendship, and I love my old friends. But I love truth +more. I have very earnestly sought to know the truth in the matter here +treated. I have not rejected evidence from any side, having read the +most extreme as well as the more moderate writings on different sides, +including those which have reached me from Holland, France, Switzerland, +Germany, and the Transvaal, as well as those published in England. +Having conscientiously arrived at certain conclusions, based on facts, +and on life-long convictions in regard to some grave matters of +principle, I have thought it worth while to put those conclusions on +record. J.E.B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 37: The Transvaal from Within. FitzPatrick.] + +[Footnote 38: This may also be true of the Boer combatants sacrificed +for the sins of their rulers, but I prefer only to attest that of which +I have full proof.] + +[Footnote 39: "British Weekly."] + +[Footnote 40: An Expression reported to have been used by Mr. Morley.] + +[Footnote 41: _Daily News_, June 4th, 1900.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Native Races and the War +by Josephine Elizabeth Butler + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14299 *** |