.♦ > 
 
 «l 
 
 THE HIISTOK.'Y ^c^yx'^gj^ 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH RULE AND POLICY 
 
 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 J^ LECTTJK,E 
 
 DELIVERED m THE LECTUPvE ROOM, NELSON STREET, 
 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT SPENjCE WATSON, 
 
 On FRIDAY, the 30T11 MAY, 1879, 
 
 At the request of the Newcastle Liberal Association, 
 
 P'lRIOE T^WOIPEIsrCS- 
 
 newcastle-upon-tyhe : 
 
 J. FORSTER, TYNE PRINTING WORKS, Taj!^ ^TRMl'L . 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
I 
 
THE IIISTOI?.'^ 
 
 OP 
 
 ENGLISH RULE AND POLICY 
 
 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The English people are engaged in a strange enterprise in South 
 Africa.* They are deliberately and of malice aforethought compassing 
 the subjugation and possible extermination of a gallant though savage 
 people. They have embarked in an aggressive war which must be 
 troublesome and costly in any event ; — a war in which failure is not to 
 be thought of, but in which, the greater the success, the_gr.eatjey.. their 
 disgrace. And they have done this, paradox though it seem, without 
 knowing it, and against their will. It is because every one of us is so 
 deeply interested in this matter ; because everjr true born Englishman 
 must feel that a stain on the honour of Ms nation'ls>.a 'personal 4i^5?a<5e, 
 that I wish — however imperfectly, yet faithfully and fairly — to trace out 
 for you the history of our rule and policy in South Africa ; so that those 
 of my fellow citizens who do me the honour to listen to me may be able 
 to form an opinion, founded upon knowledge, of the deeds which we are 
 called upon to ratify and confirm. 
 
 In 1806 the Dutch had maintained a colony at the Cape of Good 
 Hope for more than a century and a half, as a convenient station on the 
 old route from Europe to India. They had imported slaves to assist 
 in the cultivation of the land which they purchased from the natives 
 whom they called Hottentots. They fought these natives from time to 
 time, and annexed more and more of their land, but instead of giving 
 way or perishing before the white men, the Hottentots amalgamated 
 
 * The War with the Zulus. 
 
with them, until some writers now tell us that there is not one pure 
 Hottentot left. Whether this be so or not the native race has exercised 
 a great influence upon the character and appearance of the major part of 
 the population of to-day. 
 
 In 1806 the English took forcible possession of the Cape Colony 
 with which they had been playing since 1795, when the Prince of Orange 
 had fled for safety from Holland to England, and they looked after it for 
 him. It has been perhaps the most foolish of all the silly extensions of 
 territory we have made. 
 
 In 1811 came our flrst Kaffir war. The word "Kaffir," I should 
 explain, is sometimes used to express the whole of the native tribes 
 inhabiting South Africa, and sometimes to denote only those which 
 inhabit the district known as Kaffraria, which lies to the east of Cape 
 Colony, but has (for the most part) been annexed by us and added to it. 
 The Dutch had established what they called a neutral zone between 
 themselves and the Kaffirs, but the Kaffirs soon came across this zone for 
 purposes of plunder. To the English and Dutch of that day no doubt 
 this seemed an unpardonable offence, but to us it scarcely seems so 
 enormous. The land had undoubtedly belonged to them before we 
 stole it from the Dutch or the Dutch from them. True they had been 
 driven out of it, but very much against their will, and (remembering the 
 depravity of even white human nature) it seems rather natural that they 
 should bear malice against those who had stolen away their homes and 
 fatherland. An improvised force marched against them under a magis- 
 trate who was unfortunately killed, and then we began a systematic 
 and pitiless war with them. We took no prisoners ; every Kaffir who 
 was caught was killed ; until the whole people were driven back across 
 the Great Fish River — some sixty miles, as the crow flies, beyond the 
 neutral belt. The punishment was scarcely in proportion to the offence. 
 
 Our next difficulty was with the Dutch settlers — the so-called 
 " Boers" or farmers. Then as now they were big, resolute, stubborn, 
 simple men — only wishing to be left alone to rule both themselves and 
 the natives about them. It is interesting to remembar that, of all the 
 Teutonic peoples, the Dutch are the most nearly allied to us, that their 
 language is our mother tongue, and that their true home is our true 
 fatherland, and then that of all quarrels the bitterest are those which at 
 times unfortunately break out between near relatives. 
 
 This trouble with the Dutch came in 1815. They were slave 
 
3 
 
 owners as we then were. We made laws regulating their conduct to 
 their slaves which they disliked, and they rebelled. They were soon 
 beaten, six of them were hanged as an example, their friends being made 
 to stand by and witness the execution. But this was not all. Under the 
 weight of six men the gallows broke. In vain did the friends implore 
 that the lives of the senseless wretches might be spared. The repairing 
 of the gallows was a work of hours ; the victims were slowly restored 
 to life ; their poor friends were compelled to remain on the spot, and at 
 last the rebels were hanged for the second and last time, and that 
 so effectually that the patient but unforgetful Boers still curse the place 
 and the deed. 
 
 Small wars with the Kaffirs were of constant occurrence, and in 
 1819, there was a severe one which resulted, as did each in turn, in the 
 extension of English territory. In 1820 our Government sent out four 
 thousand emigrants to Algoa Bay, four hundred miles to the east of 
 Cape Town, and they there laid the foundations of the Eastern Province, 
 the most thriving and prosperous part of the Cape Colony. Those of 
 you who have taken any interest in Cape politics must have noticed the 
 constant struggle for power which goes on between the Western Province 
 which we took from the Dutch, and where the Dutch element still pre- 
 ponderates, and the Eastern Province which we colonized ourselves. 
 
 In 1820 the Cape Colony was ruled, much as we rule India, by an 
 English Governor who was an absolute despot. We need not linger 
 over the disputes with the Boers, and the wars with the natives, but 
 may come at once to the great disturbances from which our present 
 difficulties have to some extent sprung. Anti-slavery doctrines had at 
 length triumphed in England. In 1834 slavery was abolished through- 
 out the British dominions. The slaves belonging to the Cape colonists 
 were 35,745 in number, and they were valued at £3,000,000, whilst the 
 compensation to be paid for them was fixed at £1,200,000. But even 
 this was not paid at once ; it was long delayed, and fell into the hands 
 of fraudulent agents, who would only part with it upon receiving heavy 
 discounts. In 1833 and 1834 the Dutch began to leave the Cape 
 Colony. They complained that the Government, which had so long 
 encouraged slavery, now arbitrarily put an end to it; that they had 
 parted with their independence, but had not obtained security; and 
 they dreaded yet greater evils in the form of heavy taxation, which it 
 was rumoured, the English Government intended to impose upon them. 
 
By the close of 1836 nearly 10,000 people had "trekked," as they called 
 it — made tracks, as we should say. So anxious were they to depart that 
 they sold the farms and lands which had been theirs for many genera- 
 tions at merely nomiaal prices, — an entire farm being disposed of for a 
 single waggon, — and moved off with their wives and children into the 
 unknown world beyond, in search of some happy spot where the English 
 should cease from troubling, and the Dutch should be at rest. Some 
 stayed when they had crossed the Orange River, some reached Natal, 
 and some even found their way beyond the Yaal River itself. 
 
 But before this migration reached its height, we had another Kaffir 
 war, which hastened it greatly. In 1834 there was one of the constant 
 land disputes, in which the farmers took what land they wanted without 
 inquiring to whom it belonged, the Kaffirs revenged themselves by- 
 stealing their cattle; then a Commando was instituted, a number of 
 soldiers, commanded by an English officer, and accompanied by the 
 aggrieved farmers, invaded the Kaffir territory, seized all the cattle they 
 found at the nearest Kaffir kraals, and sometimes burned the houses and 
 shot the inhabitants in cold blood. This had been the case in 1834, and 
 in December of that year the outraged Kaffirs rose suddenly and invaded 
 the Cape Colony. To read the reception of the news by the House of 
 Commons recals the feelings of pain and horror, and almost of dismay, 
 with which we received the sad tidings of the defeat and slaughter of 
 British troops at the battle of Isandula. "The news had filled the friends 
 of the settlers in the colony, and of the missionaries who had gone thither 
 to convert the natives, with the utmost alarm and dismay." The Kaffirs 
 had swept along the frontier of the colony, had burned the farms, killed 
 the colonists, and carried off an immense quantity of cattle. The colony 
 seemed at their mercy, for contrary winds prevented the succour sent 
 from the Cape to the East Province reachiQg its destination. But even 
 at the moment of communicating this sad news to the House of Com- 
 mons it was fully and fairly stated that the war had arisen out of the bad 
 conduct of the colonists, and Sir Thomas Eowell Buxton confirmed this 
 statement by citing several instances of robbery and atrocious cruelty; 
 and " he hoped our treatment of* the natives would undergo strict revi- 
 sion, for it had been such as to make every honest man blush."* 
 
 But right is not always might ; when the white and the black man 
 come to blows the ultimate result is certain. A terrible and stem 
 
 * Hansard, vol. xxvi p. 726 (1835). 
 
5 
 
 revenge was taken ; we carried out to the full that Scriptural injunction, 
 the full comprehension of which is one of the many substantial advan- 
 tages which the English have derived from their Christianity, — "To 
 him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but 
 from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth 
 to have." We received the submission of the Kaffirs; we took away 
 their herds ; and we punished them for endeavouring to regain the land 
 we had taken from them, by taking away the land to which we had 
 driven them. 
 
 But there was then (as I trust and believe there is now) a strong 
 party in England who refused to allow injustice to be done in her name 
 even to Kaffirs. The causes which had led to the war were carefully 
 inquired into. Lord Glenelg, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
 openly declared that the Kaffirs had ample justification for their conduct ; 
 he recalled Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the then Governor, and restored to 
 the natives the land of which they had been wrongfully despoiled.* 
 
 This act of justice is worth our while remembering : it is possible 
 that we may even wisely profit by the precedent it affisrds us. 
 
 Let me sum up the position of afiairs at the end of the Dutch 
 migration, say 1838. We had ruled the Cape Colony for 32 years; we had 
 carried on three extensive wars with the Kaffirs, and nearly constant 
 petty ones; we had quelled the Dutch rebellion; we had abolished 
 the use of the Dutch language in Government despatches, and the old 
 Dutch Courts for the settlement of disputes ; we had given the Hotten- 
 tots the same privileges and position in the eye of the law as the Euro- 
 peans ; we had put down slavery. A large number of the Dutch inhabi- 
 tants had left the colony, and had gone away beyond the Orange River. 
 Our possessions consisted of but a portion of the district which we now 
 call the Cape Colony, and that the portion bordering the coast. 
 
 And now we will follow those Dutch boers who did not like us, and 
 who had shaken off the dust of their feet against us, and gone out into 
 the great continent of Africa in search of independence and peace. A rough 
 and weary time they had of it, constantly harassed by the natives, and 
 without house or home, but they were brave men and persevered to the 
 end. Some of them, after encountering incredible hardships and priva- 
 tions, forced their way over the Drakenberg Mountains (the Dragon 
 Hills) into what we now call the Province of Natal. They found the 
 
 * " Handbook of Cape Colony," by John Noble, p. 23 
 
fair land almost without inhabitants, for Tschaka, the great Zulu King, 
 had carried out in it his policy of extermination. This man had, during 
 the sixteen years of his reign, acquired permanent authority over nearly 
 the whole of South Eastern Africa, including the districts now known 
 as Basuto Land, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal. He 
 *was the Napoleon of Southern Africa, and carried out his conquests at a 
 cost in human suffering which almost approaches that of his great white 
 contemporary. I have not the time, nor should I venture to weary you 
 by relating the bitter wars between Tschaka's successor, Dingaane, and 
 the Dutch, but they at length triumphed over him (460 of them under 
 Pretorius defeating his picked army of 12,000 men on Dec. 16th, 1838)t 
 and established the free Dutch Republic of Natalia, and I think that 
 you will agree with me that they had also established some claim to the 
 right of self-government. 
 
 But we could not let them alone, although they had gone nearly a 
 thousand miles away from us. In 1842 we sent our troops to invade 
 their territory. They were told that they owed obedience and fealty 
 to English rule, and, after a brief but brave resistance they were over- 
 powered; and on the 8th August, 1843, Natal was formally annexed, 
 and became a British dependency. At this time there were about 6,000 
 whites and 25,000 natives in the land, there are now only about 20,000 
 whites and 320,000 natives, so that, although it is called the Garden of 
 Africa, it has not been a very successful colony. 
 
 I stated that only a part of the Dutch emigrants had forced their 
 way into Natal. Those who settled in the Orange Biver territory 
 formed themselves into a kind of Republic, and laid down laws to regu- 
 late the position of the natives who continued to dwell in the district, 
 but they speedily received notice from Governor Napier that they were 
 not released from their allegiance to the British Crown. They had 
 many wars with the natives who were openly encouraged by the English, 
 Earl Grey, who was then at the Colonial Office, actually writing to Sir 
 Harry Smith, " I would advise you to enter into friendly relations with 
 those chiefs ; advise those chiefs to combine against the Boers under 
 a general authority ; tell them the British Government will help them. 
 If they choose, the Governor of the Cape will send them an officer to 
 reside amongst them, and aid them by his advice and directions, if is first 
 
 * Shooter's " Kaffirs of Natal t'nd the Zulu Country," p. 240. 
 t *' Natal," by Brooks and Mann, p. 219. 
 
step is to induce the chief to establish a confederacy against the Boers." 
 
 And yet it is denied that the English Government has ever incited 
 the natives against the Boers, or ever used the dangerous weapon of 
 savage allies against a civilized people. 
 
 But the Boers in the Orange River territory received reinforce- 
 ments of an unexpected kind. The English Government in Natal soon 
 made itself hateful to the Dutch, from whom the English had seized it. 
 They were not allowed to purchase lands; and Kaffirs were located on the 
 lands which already did belong to them. No attempt was made in any 
 way to regulate the conduct of these Kaffirs, and the Dutch, after 
 appealing through Pretorius to the Governor of Cape Colony in vain, 
 once again abandoned all their possessions, and set out to seek a home 
 in the wilderness. 
 
 It was the wet season of the year when Sir Harry Smith met them 
 on their road, and was moved to tears by their condition. He says : 
 *" These families were exposed to a state of misery which I never before 
 saw equalled, except in Massena's invasion of Portugal, when the whole 
 of the population of that part of the seat of war abandoned their homes 
 and fled. The scene here was truly heartrending." But the Dutch 
 persevered, and made their way for the most part into the district we 
 now call the Transvaal, some going to the Orange River territory. 
 
 In the latter territory they were attacked by the English in 1848, 
 and at Boomplaats they were defeated after one of the most severe skir- 
 mishes ever witnessed, and the Orange River territory was declared to 
 belong to England. 
 
 And yet, at this very time, the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir 
 Henry Pottenger, f declared that there should be a complete reversal of 
 English policy in South Africa, and that, instead of adding to the limits 
 of the Colony, he would gladly retrench them. 
 
 We must now return to that Colony. In 1846 we were again at 
 war with the Kaffirs. Two of them had stolen an axe, and were rescued 
 by their countrymen as they were being taken to prison. | In the war which 
 ensued we were again victorious, and the Kaffirs were driven beyond the 
 Kei River. Then in 1850 came the bloodiest struggle in which the Cape 
 Colony ever engaged, it was a kind of sacred war, to which the Kaffirs 
 were roused by the preaching of one of their prophets : it lasted for two 
 
 * J. Noble's "South Africa, Past aud Present," p. 124. 
 
 t Hansard, vol. c. xvi, p. 250. 
 
 } Bisseta's "Sport and War in South Africa," p. 54. 
 
8 
 
 years and a half, but at length the natives submitted to Sir George 
 Cathcart, and Kaffraria became a British dependency. Since that time 
 the Cape Colony has been free from war until the year 1877. 
 
 But the peculiar interest to us of this struggle is that its long dura- 
 tion forced the English Parliament to give it quite an unusual amount 
 of attention. Debate followed debate in the House of Commons, and 
 the whole question of our South African policy was thoroughly discussed. 
 We learn from these debates that the patriotic British merchants at the 
 Cape had been supplying the natives with fire-arms. We learn also that 
 one of the principal causes of the war was the support which the Eng- 
 lish had given to the Kaffirs when they came into collision with the 
 Dutch. We learn that many of the colonists found the Kaffir wars a 
 lucrative source of income, and that it was commonly said in the colony 
 that the war would last as long as the expenditure went on, and would 
 begin to end "when the price of wrggons fell." How history repeats 
 itself ! How one thinks of the difficulty which there is now in Natal to 
 find means of transport; how the very men for whose sake England is 
 putting forth such efforts are plundering her for their own benefit, and 
 how scarcely for love or money can a single waggon be got to cross the 
 frontier ! yet public meetings are held, and resolutions that the war 
 should be vigorously carried on, are enthusiastically passed. 
 
 But to return to the debates. In 1848 Earl Grey had told the 
 colonists that " it was not to be expected that in future this country 
 should bear the expenses incurred in maintaining a force to defend the 
 Colony, and that it was incumbent upon the colonists to make a suitable 
 provision for that purpose." Upon this point most of the debates in 
 1851 turned, and I propose to make some quotations from them, as 
 they bear closely upon the position of affairs to-day. 
 
 Perhaps the principal part in the discussions was taken by Sir 
 William Molesworth. On the 10th April he made a remarkable speech, 
 in which he reviewed England's entire policy in reference to her colonies, 
 and from this speech I must read at some length, because I find there 
 expressed, eloquently and forcibly, that which I believe to be the common- 
 sense view of the matter taken by a man who does not agree with some 
 of us upon the unlawfulness of war. 
 
 After speaking of the forces maintained in our various colonies, and 
 of possible reductions in them, he thus proceeds : — * 
 '' Hansard, vol. cxv, p. 1385. 
 
" With the permission of the House, I will explain as shortly as I can 
 the reasons which have led me to the conclusions which I have just stated. 
 I have said that the policy of this country with regard to its true colonies 
 is of a very diiferent character from its policy with regard to military 
 stations ; for the motives which have induced it to plant colonies are 
 quite diflerent from those which led it to occupy military stations. We 
 all know that, ever since the new world was discovered, it has been the 
 unceasing desire of England to plant that new world with new Englands. 
 It was the ardent wish of this countr} that its children should occupy 
 the uninhabited portions of the earth's surface, and carry along with 
 them to their new homes the laws, the institutions, and feelings of 
 Englishmen ; that they should there become bold, energetic, and self- 
 relying men, capable and willing to aid their parents in times of need, 
 and not weak, puling infants, ever crying to their mother for assistance 
 and emptying her purse. Now it is as true of bodies of men as it is of 
 individual men, that the best mode of developing in them energy, 
 courage, and self-reliance, is not to coddle and fondle them, and to tie 
 them to a mother's apron, but to throw them upon their own resources, 
 and to let them rough it and battle it with the world. Therefore it was 
 the old policy of this country, with regard to plantations, and it still is 
 the recognized constitutional doctrine with regard to them, that their 
 inhabitants should take care of themselves, and manage their local 
 affairs, and govern themselves by representative institutions. Now, 
 most of our colonies, properly so called, do possess representative institu- 
 tions, and all of them are about to possess those institutions. With 
 such institutions no taxes can be levied in these colonies without the 
 consent of the representatives of the people; and their inhabitants 
 cannot be constitutionally compelled to contribute out of their taxes to 
 the revenues of the United Kingdoms. Therefore reciprocally, the 
 people of the United Kingdoms ought not to be called upon to pay out 
 of their own taxes any portion of the local expenses of such colonies ; 
 and consequently in such colonies all expenses for local purposes should 
 be paid out of local revenues, while all expenses for imperial purposes 
 should be paid for out of imperial revenues." 
 
 He then proceeds to apply the principles he has laid down to 
 answering the question — who ought to pay for the military force which 
 is maintained in a colony, and points out that such a force can only be 
 required for war with external foes, or to preserve order and tranquility 
 
10 
 
 in the colony. Although the entire speech is full of interest, the part 
 which affects us to-night is as follows : — 
 
 "I will next speak of wars with savage tribes on the frontier of a 
 colony. The answer to the question whether such wars ought to be 
 considered as strictly local wars or not — whether any portion of the 
 expense of such wars ought to be defrayed by the local government or 
 not — the answers to these questions depend upon the nature of the 
 government of the colony. If the inhabitants of a colony have represen- 
 tative institutions, and the management of their local affairs, and if the 
 relations between them . and the frontier tribes be conducted by local 
 officers, then the local government must be held responsible for the 
 result, and if the result be war, and that war be conducted by local 
 officers, and the expenditure on account of it be under local control, 
 then I think that it is quite clear that the whole expense of that war 
 should be paid by the colony, and no portion of it by the United 
 Kingdoms. And I feel convinced that if the local government had to 
 pay the expense of native wars, those governments would take care not 
 rashly to engage in war, and when engaged in it, it would be for their 
 interest to bring the war to a termination as speedily as possible, and at 
 the least possible cost. Unfortunately it is quite different when the 
 imperial Government has to pay for a native war. Then it is the interest 
 of many persons in the colony that the war should be made as expensive 
 as possible. 
 
 I believe that it is almost impossible for the imperial Government at 
 home to exercise any real check over such expenditure ; and I believe 
 that it is also very difficult, if not impossible, for the imperial officers in 
 the colony to resist the claims poured in upon them from every quarter; 
 for, the imperial purse being considered inexhaustible, every one in the 
 colony is intent either upon picking it himself, or assisting others in 
 doing so, whenever a fair opportunity, like a native war, occurs. On 
 the other hand, the resistance offered by the imperial officers in a colony 
 is generally languid, for they have no clear and permanent interest in 
 offending those around them by keeping down imperial expenditure, pro- 
 vided it do not become so extravagantly great as to cause a great outcry 
 in this House ; and, generally speaking, hon. members know nothing 
 about the matter till two or three years after the money has been spent. 
 Then it is too late ; fair promises are made which are invariably broken. 
 
11 
 
 It appears to me to be of the utmost importance that we should not, if 
 })Ossible, be made liable for any bill on account of native wars, for such 
 a bill will always be a most extortionate one ; and yet in no one case 
 that I remember, were the extortioners contented, but invariably accused 
 us of being mean, shabby, and not paying enough. If in any excep- 
 tional case it should be deemed expedient to assist a colony, possessing 
 self-government, in a native war, I am inclined to think that th(i wisest 
 plan would be to give the colony a round sum of money, and let the local 
 government employ it in the manner which it deems best. On the other 
 hand, I must admit that if the inhabitants of a colony do not possess 
 representative institutions, if they have no voice in the management of 
 their local afFairs^ if they be governed by the Colonial Office, and if the 
 relations between them and the native tribes be conducted by officers 
 responsible to the Colonial Office, then the Colonial Office, that is, the 
 Imperial Government, must be held responsible for the result, and, if 
 the result be war, as the war will be conducted by imperial officers, as 
 the expenditure on account of it will be under imperial control, as such 
 wars are apt to be hastily produced, unnecessarily prolonged, and con- 
 ducted with lavish expense, it would not be just to throw the whole 
 burden of such wars on the colony ; but a portion at least of the expense 
 ought to be paid by the Imperial Government." 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Hume, Mr. Adderley, 
 and many others, enunciated and enforced similar views in the various 
 debates ; Mr. Cobden quoting Adam Smith, who said we should make 
 the colonies pay their own expenses in time of peace, and contribute as 
 much as would indemnify us in time of war. 
 
 It is amusing to notice, en passant, that the Zulus were mentioned 
 in this debate of the 10th April, 1851, by Lord Mandeville, but only to 
 say that they were perfectly peaceable, and never attacked us ! 
 
 In Natal the inhabitants have only a partial voice in the manage- 
 ment of their local affairs. The Imperial Government is conducting the 
 war " hastily produced," and will be expected to bear all the cost of its 
 unnecessary prolongation. The Colonists alone can and do benefit by it. 
 
 The most important result of the long Kaffir War of 1850, and of 
 the discussion which it aroused, was that our Government was led to 
 give representative government on an unusually wide, popular basis to 
 the Cape Colony; but it was not until 1872 that the Governor was re- 
 moved, and that they received an entirely responsible government with 
 
12 
 
 an Elective Legislative Council and House of Assembly, and a Ministry- 
 accountable only to their own Parliament. 
 
 I shall have but little more to say about Cape Colony. It lies far 
 away from the present source of anxiety, but in order that you may see 
 how strange a people the Kaffirs are, I must tell you of their amazing 
 conduct in 1857 in Kaffraria.* More than 50,000 of them voluntarily 
 starved themselves to death. They were told that the English would 
 be driven away, and that their race would be restored to its ancient 
 glory, not by the living but by the dead. They sowed no seed ; they 
 slaughtered their cattle ; they burned their grain ; aud then they sat 
 down, and died the most lingering and painful of deaths, in quiet faith 
 and hope. 
 
 But this is a digression. I have already mentioned how some of 
 the wandering Dutch found their way to the Transvaal, where the Eng- 
 lish of that day thought it too far to follow them. Comparatively few, 
 however, settled there until after the battle of Boomplaats, when the 
 English took the Orange River Territory from them. Then Pretorius 
 fled across the Vaal river into the Transvaal, and the English Govern- 
 ment set a reward of £2,000 upon his head.f The Dutch Boers followed 
 him ; he established a Republic ; and as he was so far away, and as the 
 great debates to which I have alluded began to bear fruit, the English 
 Government sent commissioners to negotiate with this doughty rebel, 
 and in 1852 they entered into the Sand River Treaty, now of so much 
 importance. JThe Transvaal had never been declared to be British 
 territory, and by the first article of this convention the Assistant Com- 
 missioners guaranteed " in the fullest manner, on the part of the British 
 Government, to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River the right 
 to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves according to their 
 own laws, without any interference on the part of the British Govern- 
 ment ; and that no encroachment shall be made by the said Government 
 in the territory beyond, to the north of the Yaal River ; with the fur- 
 ther assurance that the warmest wish of the British Government is to 
 promote peace, free trade, and friendly intercourse with the emigrant 
 farmers now inhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit, that country ; it 
 being understood that this system of non-interference is binding upon 
 both parties." 
 
 * J. Noble's " South Africa, Past and Present," p. 225. 
 t J. Noble's "South Africa, Past and Present," p. 123. 
 J This Treaty is given verbatun at p. 148 of J. Noble's -'South Afi-ica, Past and Present." 
 
13 
 
 In the further articles the Commissioners disclaimed all alliances 
 whatsoever and with whomsoever of the coloured nations to the north 
 of the Vaal River ; the Dutch agreed neither to permit nor to practise 
 slavery ; all trade with the natives in ammunition was mutually prohi- 
 bited ; and thus the Transvaal Republic was founded by treaty with the 
 English nation. 
 
 Let us return to the Orange River Territory. After the defeat of 
 the Dutch, a British Resident was appointed, who, with the aid of a 
 small council, might make laws for everybody but the natives, but even 
 the fact that we did not make laws for them was insufficient for them, 
 and they would fight us. The Dutch naturally refused to help us ; we 
 were surrounded by hostile peoples ; we were making great exertions 
 and going to vast expense to maintain our government over a people 
 who hated us, and not without cause. The game was evidently not 
 worth the candle. In 1851 Earl Grey had written to the High Com- 
 missioner that "the ultimate abandonment of the Orange River sove- 
 reignty must be a settled point of our policy," and that when this was 
 effected, no wars, however sanguinary, which might occur between the 
 native tribes and the independent peoples should afford a ground for our 
 interference. This was followed by the appointment of the Commis- 
 sioners who had consented to the treaty with the Transvaal farmers, 
 and they entered into a similar convention with the Boers of the Orange 
 River territory.* The future independence of that State and its govern- 
 ment were guaranteed, and its inhabitants were declared to be a free 
 and independent people. Existing treaties with coloured people north 
 of the Orange River were renounced, and none were thereafter to be 
 entered into which might be injurious or prejudicial to the interests of 
 the new Republic. This convention was coniirmed by Royal proclama- 
 tion on the 8th April, 1854. 
 
 The Orange River Republicans had many a difficulty to contend 
 with, and had to make great sacrifices. They had to fight as well as to 
 pay taxes ; they had to suspend the action of their law courts ; and their 
 whole industries were paralyzed, whilst their state revenue was exhausted. 
 But they struggled bravely on for more than 14 years ; they got through 
 their troubles, and their land is now the only inland state which is peaceful 
 and prosperous. It has a population of 50,000 whites and 25,000 blacks 
 in a country not quite so large as England and Wales ; that is to say, 
 * Given verbatim in J. Noble's " South Africa, Past and Present," p. 169, 
 
14 
 
 the entire population, of a land nearly as large as our own, is less than 
 that of North Shields. 
 
 I have gone so carefully into this history of our dealings with the 
 Dutch in the Orange Free State because it is one of the few glimpses of 
 justice and common sense which the whole of our dealings with them 
 afford. We voluntarily came to the opinion that our annexation had 
 not been wise and judicious, and we abandoned it. There is thus a 
 precedent which might be fairly and fully weighed in connection with 
 our recent course of dealing in the Transvaal, and the policy which we 
 may hereafter adopt in regard to it. 
 
 But the case is yet stronger than I have stated it. There were 
 some of the inhabitants of the Orange River Territory who did not wish 
 to be without the care and. protection of England.* They memorialized 
 the Secretary of State, and even sent a deputation to England to urge 
 the impolicy and injustice of the proposed measure. It would destroy 
 confidence in the stability of the British rule throughout Southern 
 Africa j it would occasion cruel and interminable wars between the 
 Natives and the Europeans which would endanger the security and peace 
 of Cape Colony itself. But though these are the very views which have 
 occasioned the annexation of the Transvaal, Sir George Clerk and Sir 
 George Cathcart took a decided stand in opposition to those who did not 
 wish to be free. "The more I consider the position of the territory," 
 said Sir George Clerk, " the more I feel assured of its inutility as an 
 acquisition. It unquestionably has some attractions * * ^ * but it is 
 nevertheless a vast territory, possessing nothing that can sanction its 
 being permanently added to a frontier already inconveniently extended. 
 Jt secures no genuine interests ; it is recommended by no prudent or 
 justifiable motive ; it answers no really beneficial purpose ; it imparts no 
 strength to the British Government, — no credit to its character, no lustre 
 to its crown." 
 
 Every word might have been spoken of the Transvaal ! but how 
 strangely inconsistent is our policy with these Dutch. We take their 
 land from them by force of arms ; and then compel them to receive it 
 back again. We insist upon annexing a State where the great majority 
 of the inhabitants do not desire it ; we refuse to keep a State where 
 some of the inhabitants do not wish for independence. Such 
 conduct looks like a set resolve to thwart the wishes of the Dutch what- 
 ever they might be. 
 
 * I have been informed by Sir George Clerk that it was the few English settlers in the Orange River 
 Territory who took this action. It was the few English settlers in the Transvaal also who 
 invoked us im our unfortunate annexation of the territnrv fy,a ir,Aa^^^A i-i-»- - ' - 
 
15 
 
 Let us now sum up the state of affairs in South Africa twenty-five 
 years ago. Cape Colony has fought its longest war with the natives, has 
 greatly extended its boundaries, and is to enjoy peace for twenty years ; 
 it has received a representative government, although the Home Govern- 
 ment will appoint its Chief for eighteen years longer. Natal has been 
 wrested from the Dutch, and is governed by a Lieutenant Governor. 
 The Orange River Territory has been taken forcibly from the Dutch, but 
 has been given up to them again, and is a E-epublic ; and the Transvaal 
 is also a Republic by express agreement with the English Government j 
 and thus things remained for the next thirteen years. Every province 
 had its difficulties and troubles, bat the arrangement which had been 
 come to seems on the whole a wise and fair one. It would have been 
 better had Natal been added to the other i-epublics, but in two direc- 
 tions, at all events, the Dutch had fairly won their independence, whilst 
 we had the barrier of the two young republics between our Cape Colony, 
 and the most warlike tribes of natives. 
 
 And now we come to one of those curious discoveries which change 
 the political history of the world, and show us how infinitely true it is 
 that "trifles make the sum of human things." *In 1867 a diamond was 
 seen in the hands of some children who were playing with it in their 
 father's house. He was a Dutchman, living in the extreme north of 
 Cape Colony, and almost on the south bank of the Orange River. 
 Another plaything was substituted for this one; the diamond passed 
 through several hands, and was at last purchased for £500 by Sir 
 Philip Woodhouse, the then Governor of Cape Colony. That stone 
 should surely be amongst the regalia at the Tower of London, for it has 
 become historical, and has cost the English people untold gold and some 
 priceless honour. In 1868 and 1869 search was made, and diamonds 
 were found upon some of the farms in the west of the Orange Free 
 State ; and in 1870 there was a general rush to the Diamond Fields of 
 needy men anxious to pick up a fortune, — a rush like that which many 
 of us remember to the A.ustralian gold diggings in 1851. And now 
 most unfortunately the English Government forgot all about the treaty 
 they had made when they forced the Dutch to establish the Orange 
 River Free State : they crossed the river ; they set aside the claims of 
 the Dutch, who were in possession ; and they professed to purchase the 
 territory now called Griqualand West from an old Kaffir who laid claim 
 * TroUope's "South Africa," vol. ii, p. 161. 
 
16 
 
 to it. In one sense it was a cheap enough purchase, the diamonds found 
 upon a single farm in four years were worth £3,500,000 ; more than 
 £10,000,000 worth have been taken from another farm. We stole the 
 land from the Dutch in the first place, and then got a sham title to it 
 by giving Nicholas Waterboer, the Kaffir, a life annuity of £1000 for 
 it, and securing to his wife and children a pension of £500 a year.* The 
 Orange Free State had no armed force wherewith to arrest our wanton 
 and wicked aggression, but they protested stoutly against the act- 
 Lord Kimberley was then at the Colonial Office : in this matter of 
 wrong-doing in South Africa neither of our political parties have clean 
 hands. It has been a national, not a party question, and where both 
 have so much to be ashamed of, it would be difficult and unjust to en- 
 deavour to apportion the weight of blame. Lord Kimberley then being 
 at the Colonial Office, the Diamond Fields were declared to be British 
 territory on the 27th October, 1871, but we had done this grievous 
 wrong in a muddled and blind way, for although we had got the Dia- 
 mond Fields, the mines themselves had been bought by private specu- 
 lators. The most valuable one of all had been sold by a Dutch Boer to 
 an English firm for £6,600 ; they cleared £35,000 a year from it for 
 four years, and sold it in 1875 to the English Government for £100,000.1 
 
 But I have not time to go at all fully into the curious history of 
 the Diamond Fields. The annexation was not popular even amongst 
 the English, and in 1874 an English resident told Mr. Froude that the 
 transaction made him ashamed of his country. J The Government wished 
 the Cape Colony to accept the new territory, but it objected to do so, and 
 not even, yet have the terms upon which it would consent to take the 
 awkward gift been arrived at. 
 
 But President Brand not only protested against the wrong done to 
 his little republic, he came over to England and urged the justice of 
 his case so pertinaciously that Lord Carnarvon, who had then become 
 Secretary for the Colonies, whilst refusing to entertain the question of 
 right, agreed to pay to the Orange Free State the sum of £90,000, and 
 the further sum of £15,000 in case that State should at any time make 
 a railway in connectien with the other colonial railways, and thus the 
 difficulty was ended in a somewhat strange and undignified way. 
 
 - * The end of tbis business is amusing. We have not paid Waterboer. We have disputed his title 
 at law, putting him to £3000 expense, and have cast him into prison for some trifling offence. 
 "The Native Question in South Africa," by W, H. James- M.P., p. 43. 
 
 t Cunjmghair.c's "ily command in South Africa," p. 172. 
 
 i Froude's •' bhort Studies on Great Subjects." " Leaves from a South African Journal," p. 532. 
 
17 
 
 And now you will learn how these Diamond Fields have been an 
 unmitigated curse to us, and how seriously they have afiected the 
 chances of permanent peace in the adjoining territories. The work in 
 the mines was performed by Kaffirs who were enticed irom all parts of 
 the surrounding country by the prospect of liberal pay, fur Kaffirs can 
 and do work when it suits them to do so. We had bound ourselves by 
 treaty not to deal in ammunition with the natives, but, having already 
 broken the treaty in one particular, it was easier to break it in another. 
 "We allowed the unreserved sale of fire-arms and gunpowder to the Kaffirs 
 at the Diamond Fields, and much of their wages was spent in the pur- 
 chase of these articles. General Cunynghame thinks that 400,000 fire- 
 arms (chiefly rifles) were thus distributed amongst the warlike nations 
 adjoining the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal. ^ 
 
 The result of this state of affairs was soon seen, and we have had 
 to pay dearly for our gross faithlessness. 
 
 The Transvaal, or as it was then called " The South African Ke- 
 public," had a rough struggle almost for existence. There were fierce and 
 bloody wars between the Dutch and the Kaffirs, in which acts of savage 
 cruelty were followed by bitter retaliation. There was an attempt to 
 unite the two Dutch republics under one government, but we interfered 
 and declared that such a proceeding would annul both the Conventions 
 of 1852 and 1854. Strange and invariable blindness to the true course 
 of honest policy ! We break the treaties ourselves directly and with 
 impunity, even when our doing so involves the worst consequences : the 
 Dutch must not even break them by implication ! Then there was a 
 dispute with the Griquas, and we broke the Sand River Treaty, and, 
 although their territory bounded that of the Transvaal, we declared that 
 they were British subjects. There had been internal dissensions also, 
 for the land was rich and of great extent, and the people were few, and 
 inclined to a simple patriarchal form of government, and there was not 
 that community of interest which produces strong community of feeling, 
 which lies at the root of what we call patriotism, and which induces men 
 to make great sacrifices, pecuniary and otherwise for their common 
 country. But the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West intensified 
 every difficulty ; not only were the natives armed, but we began to play 
 them off against the Dutch in order to keep the republics in check. 
 Then in 1871 gold was discovered in the North of the Transvaal, and 
 
 ■^ Cunynghame's "My command in South Africa," p, xi. 
 
18 
 
 the diggers rushed off to avail themselves of the discovery. Diggers are 
 not the most orderly and scrupulous of men, and they soon began to 
 involve the Dutch with the Natives who were already ripe for mischief. 
 Then noble old Andries Pretorius was long dead, his last words advising 
 concord among his countrymen, and the President (elected in 1872), the 
 Rev. Thomas Frangois Burgers, was by no means a typical Dutchman. 
 He had the "go" of a steam-engine always at high pressure, and his 
 overflowing energy was sometimes misapplied.* He had not learned 
 the wisdom of hurrying gently, and so, although his exchequer was 
 empty, he initiated great railways and other enterprises, succeeded in 
 obtaining credit, and rushed his Pepublic into heavy debt. Then the 
 waywardness of the digger produced its certain result, and Secocoeni, 
 the Chief whose possessions lay nearest to the Leydenburg diggings, 
 declared war, and the result (when, after three months' fighting, the 
 volunteer army broke up of its own accord and went home) was some- 
 what doubtful, although Secocoeni sued for and obtained peace upon 
 agreeing to pay a small indemnity. It is said that some of the farmers 
 in out-lying districts subsidized the local chiefs in order that they might 
 live in safety. Then there were frontier questions with Cetewayo, the 
 King of the Zulus, whose land lay between the Transvaal and Natal 
 and the Sea, and here again we supported the Natives against the 
 Boers. Then the English Government was perpetually sending poor 
 President Burgers irritating and insulting messages based on an in- 
 sufficient knowledge of the facts, and he was rated in turn by each 
 Colonial Secretary. There was no doubt that the Transvaal was passing 
 through many and great difficulties, but its position was not nearly so 
 desperate as that of the Orange Biver Free State had been. At length 
 tbe English Government professing that it feared something might 
 happen which would endanger the English possessions sent Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone to investigate matters, and to advise the Dutch authorities. 
 Already there had been a clamour for annexation from the English 
 colonists who had recently settled in the state, but the Dutch believed 
 that the mission was a friendly one, and received it in a friendly manner, 
 and (so reckless of facts are men resolved upon excusing injustice) that 
 this very friendliness has been adduced as a proof that the Boers desired 
 annexation ] 
 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone took with him a small escort of mounted 
 
 * Trollope's "South Africa," vol. ii, p. 44. 
 
19 
 
 police. The Dutch knew that the entire armed power, of England was 
 at his Lack ; they did not know that a commission which was to be the 
 death-blow to their independence was in his pocket. 
 
 This commission is so strange a production, that I would fain have 
 quoted it to you in its entirety.* It was purposely vague, so that it could 
 be said that any successful act of aggression was covered by it. It was 
 guarded in its language, so that any unsuccessful act could be success- 
 fully repudiated. The most important poition — after declaring that Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone may annex and admin seer such territories as after 
 due consideration he shall think fit, but only provisionally and during 
 the Queen's pleasure, and without ever mentioning the Transvaal in any 
 way, runs thus : — " Provided first that no such proclamation should be 
 issued by you with respect to any district, territory, or state, unless you 
 shall be satisfied that the inhabitants thereof, or a sufiicient number of 
 them, or the Legislature thereof, dcisire to become our subjects ; nor if 
 any conditions unduly limiting our power and authority therein are 
 sought to be imposed." 
 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone arrived at Pretoria on the 22nd Jan., 187'< , 
 and on the 12th April, without having made any public or general attempt 
 to ascertain what the wishes of the people were, and in direct defiance of 
 the plain sense of his commission, he issued a proclamation coolly annexing 
 the whole of a territory as large as France, and with a population of 
 40,000 whites and 250,000 blacks : — f'Now therefore I do, in virtue of 
 the power and authority conferred upon me by Her Majesty's Boyal 
 Commission, and in accordance with instructions conveyed to me thereby 
 and otherwise^ proclaim and make known that from and after the 
 publication hereof the territory heretofore known as the South African 
 Republic shall be and shall be taken to be British territory," 
 
 " And otherwise." What were the instructions conveyed to this 
 mighty Commissioner "otherwise," and what way was that "otherwise," 
 and from whom and by whom were tliey conveyed 1 It does not read like 
 a piece of honest English history this, nor is it. A more wicked and 
 wanton deed was never done by any man in the name of any nation, and 
 yet it was not i-epudiated. It is not too late to repudiate it now. 
 
 When the news came to England people did not understand it or 
 care about it. There was indeed a debate in the House of Commons in 
 
 * It will be found in Aylward's "The Transvaal of To-Day," p. 389, and in Noble's "South Africa 
 
 Past and Present," Appendix p. 339. 
 t Noble's "South Africa, Past and Present," p. 341. 
 
20 
 
 which Mr. Courtney, Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Parnell, Mr. O'Donnell, 
 and a few others, stood up manfully for those rights of the people which 
 are the first article in the creed of all Liberals who see that it is 
 possible for other peoples as well as the English people to have rights. 
 But, as a whole, Tories, Whigs, and Radicals joined hands over the 
 business, and sang a chorus of thanksgiving and joy over this most 
 wicked and wanton violation of popular rights. 
 
 How was this possible 1 Chiefly from a misconception of the facts. 
 
 Lord Carnarvon was busily forwarding his scheme for a great South 
 African confederation at this very time. If we read the deeply-interesting 
 debates upon this subject, as well as that upon the annexation question, 
 we shall find the following statements constantly made, and the facts 
 involved therein as constantly assumed to be correct : — 
 
 1. — That the inhabitants of the Republic wished to be annexed. 
 
 2. — That they had instituted and maintained slavery. 
 
 3. — That they had exercised exceptional cruelty towards the natives 
 in their wars, and exceptional injustice in their government. 
 
 4. — That they had been disgracefully beaten by the natives in war. 
 
 5. — That annexation was ardently desired by the natives, and would 
 insure peace with them in the Transvaal, and would also pre- 
 vent disturbances in our other colonies. 
 
 We will take each of these assertions seriatim, and endeavour to 
 ascertain its truth or falsehood. 
 
 The first proviso of Sir Theophilus Shepstone's commission requires 
 him as a condition precedent to annexation to obtain the popular sanc- 
 tion. The second proviso shows clearly that annexation, if it were 
 desired, was not to be sudden, and should not be forcible, but was to be a 
 matter of negotiation and arrangement, for it contemplates the people 
 wishing to be annexed, yet requiring conditions which, unduly limiting 
 the power of the Crown, would not permit its compliance with their 
 wishes. In this case no annexation was to take place. 
 
 No one pretends that the Transvaal Yolksraad* (or Parliament) 
 sanctioned the annexation, although Sir Theophilus Shepstone urged 
 them to do so. No one ventures to assert that any public meetings 
 were held in favour of it. The Commissioner says that he was satisfied 
 by addresses, memorials, and letters received, and by personal inter- 
 
 • "A nation with a popular parliament can only be held to express its ojinion to another nation by 
 the voice of its parliament : and the Volksraad of the Transvaal was altogether opposed to 
 the interference of Great Britain." " South Africa," by Anthony Trollope, vol. ii, p. 51. 
 
21 
 course with the inhabitants — that a large proportion of the people desired 
 the establishment of Her Majesty's authority and rule. As he was 
 living in Pretoria, which has but some 2,000 inhabitants (men, women, 
 and children), and as his staff charged themselves with the task of 
 getting suitable addresses, this was not quite so satisfactory as it should 
 have been, seeing that the popular sanction lies at the root of the whole 
 matter. But the question has been tested. The President and Yolks- 
 raad at once formally and forcibly protested against the deed. A depu- 
 tation was sent to England to plead for justice to their country. When 
 Lord Carnarvon told them that their people had desired annexation, 
 they were astounded, and he was equally amazed to hear it stoutly denied. 
 This was a point which was capable of proof. The deputation apparently 
 misunderstood Lord Carnarvon, and thought that he undertook that the 
 annexation shoukl be cancelled if it were shown to have been contrary 
 to the wish of the inhabitants. They went home, and sent out memo- 
 rials to be signed by those who had not desired or approved of the 
 annexation. What did Sir Theopliilus Shepstone do when his accuracy 
 was to be put to the proof 1 He issued a ^proclamation that the setting 
 on foot of the memorials was promoted by a spirit of sedition, and warned 
 the promoters that they were by that — his proclamation — made liable to 
 imprisonment, fine, and such further and other punishments as the law 
 might direct ! And when the Deputies held a meeting at Pretoria to 
 tell the people how they had fared on their journey to pray from free 
 England for the restoration of independence, dearer than life, to them- 
 selves and to their children, this representative of an English Queen 
 had cannon directed upon the Assembly, and held troops in readiness 
 with which it might be overawed If 
 
 Are such things really possible? Am I telling you of the deeds of 
 our own countryman in this 19th century, or do I dream, and are these 
 things but recollections of the hateful rule of the Spanish Don Alva over 
 the Netherlands ; of the wretched tyranny of Napoleon's minions over 
 the Spaniards struggling for their country's liberty ; of the brutal 
 Haynau trampling out the last sparks of freedom's torch in bleeding 
 Hungary 1 Of such men, and of such men alone, are such proclamations 
 and actions worthy. They reek cf the foul atmosphere of despotic 
 Imperialism. There is a rank Russian flavour about them. They are 
 
 ■ Given in extenso in Ayl ward's "The Transvaal of To-Day," p. 404. 
 t Hansard, vol. ccxiii, p. 2064. 
 
22 
 
 emanations from the mind of a detective policeman, not from that of 
 an English statesman. The Dutch were too scattered, too feeble, too 
 peaceful a people, to fight against the armed legions of England who 
 crushed them ruthlessly, and then forbade them to murmur. 
 
 But they are a patient, determined, obstinate people; and Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone's threats were futile. The memorials were signed 
 and came in, one hundred and thirt-five against and thirty-one in favour 
 of annexation. There are 8,000 adult males in the Transvaal — of these 
 6,591 enfranchised burghers voted against annexation, and only 587 
 ^enfranchised burghers voted fur it : thirteen sixteenths of the entire 
 adult male population voted against the deed. 
 
 What becomes of the statement so constantly repeated in Parlia- 
 ment, that the annexation was by mutual consent, and that the large 
 majority of the whites were in favour of it 1 What is Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone's "satisfaction" worth? and how comes it that an English 
 Commissioner tramples on the principle of popular sanction, and that 
 an English Parliament applauds his deedl Even the Imperial 
 despot of France did not dare to act so shamelessly. 
 
 Now let us examine the second charge, that the Dutch had insti 
 tuted slavery in their territory. There must be old Africans to whom 
 such a charge as this, made by the nation which inflicted the slave trade 
 upon Africa, and carried it on as one of her most important enterprizes 
 until the year 1807, must sound somewhat ironical. The fact itself of 
 the existence of slavery in the Transvaal is by no means proved, nay 
 further, the Dutch themselves deny it absolutely, and ask how many 
 slaves our Adminstrator has liberated since he annexed their country. 
 This is a fair question, and unless it be answered we must conclude that 
 the charge is false, and has only lived (like many a lie before it) because it 
 has been so current. Mr. Froude, who visited the Republic in 1874, 
 says,t " In the Transvaal the blacks swarm as they do in Natal. They 
 do as little work, and as little does any one think of forcing them to 
 work. Their women cultivate their corn patches. The men wander 
 about and steal cattle." 
 
 Yet there is no smoke without fire, and there is a wide concurrence 
 of testimony that what is called forced labour did exist in both of the 
 Dutch republics. In the Orange Free State it is rather a matter of 
 police : vagrancy is strictly prohibited, and a confirmed vagrant is set to 
 
 * Hansard, vol. ccxlii, p. 2005. 
 t Froude's ** Leaves from a South African Journal," p. 525. 
 
23 
 
 work upon the road or elsewhere for the common weal. So we find that 
 in the Orange Free State there are comparatively few natives ! But in 
 the Transvaal there was evidently more than this. The work which 
 seems to me to speak with the most assured authority upon this subject 
 is "South Africa, Past and Present," by Mr. John ISToble, the Clerk to 
 the House of Assembly in Cape Colony. He says that the Dutch made 
 little scruple about obtaining possession of native children, sometimes as 
 captives in war, sometimes by purchase from the natives, sometimes by 
 mere violence. The children so procured were indentured up to the age 
 of 22 or 25 years. Mr. Aylward says that these children were frequently 
 brought by their parents to be apprenticed. After their term of appren- 
 ticeship they were free to go where they liked, but they generally 
 continued in the service of the farmer who had brought them up. Now 
 I dread and dislike forced labour. Call it the apprenticeship system, 
 the coolie system, or what you will, it is always open to grave abuses, 
 and is often only slavery disguised. But surely we cannot in ordinary 
 decency pretend that we have a right to annex the Transvaal in order to 
 put down forced labour. Why we have just been introducing it into 
 our most recent undesirable acquisition — the island of Cyprus. We have 
 for many years sanctioned the detestable coolie system in British Guiana 
 in Natal itself, and in other of our dependencies ; and no tale of cruelty 
 to their apprentices has ever been told about the Boers to compare for an 
 instant with the sickening details of fiendish barbarity which an English 
 Judge has related about that accursed coolie trafiic in our own colony of 
 British Guiana."^ Only upon the principle, which some Englishmen would 
 fain make popular to day, that what is vice in the inhabitant of any other 
 country may be virtue in an Englishman-— that England's mission is to 
 remove the moces from the eyes of the nations of the world (albeit the 
 beams in her own render the operation tedious and disagreeable), can we 
 condemn the Dutch in the Transvaal for taking a leaf out of our book. 
 
 We next come to the point that the Boers had exercised brutal 
 cruelty towards the natives in war, and exceptional injustice in their 
 government in peace. There can be no doubt that, wherever fighting 
 goes on, the men who get the upper hand will often be guilty of gross 
 cruelty to the conquered, and in war with savage peoples the accustomed 
 barbarities of the savage are wont to arouse a thirst for simple and 
 
 * "The new Slavery. An account of the Indian and Chinese Immigrants in British Guiana," by 
 Joseph Beaumont, late Chief Justice of British Guiana. 
 
24 
 
 terrible revenge. War is a bnital business at tlie best, and our 
 own hands are too deeply dyed with blood to admit of our casting 
 stones at other people.* Even in 1851 Mr. Adderley said, fin the great 
 Kaffir war debate to which I have alluded, " The dealings of the Boers 
 with the Kaffirs would not present us with a more atrocious or barbarous 
 system of warfare than that we were then carrying on upon the frontier 
 of Cape Colony, under the command of Sir Harry Smith, Her Majesty's 
 representative." 
 
 In the }>ractical government of the natives in time of peace our 
 Cape Colony affords a bright and noble example. For the last quarter 
 of a century slowly but surely has the social scale of the black inhabitant 
 been raised. He has been treated with kindness and justice. Education 
 has been afforded to his children, and he is gradually acquiring settled 
 habits of industry and thrift. This is a work of which we may well be 
 proud. But we must compare like things with like, and if we contrast 
 the treatment of the natives in the Transvaal and in Natal, we shall not 
 find much difference, and what difference there is will not always be in 
 our favour. 
 
 Let us look for a few minutes at our government of the natives in 
 Natal where we were in authority eleven years before the Dutch rule 
 was established in the Transvaal. They are for the most part Zulus, 
 and there are not less than 320,000 of them. We rule them by Kaffir 
 law ; we do not compel them to work ; we allow them to have as many 
 wives as they like, and to live in idleness whilst there unfortunate wives 
 are dealt with and dealt in as simple slaves. We draw the line, how- 
 ever, at murder, and do not permit them to steal if we can prevent it. 
 To illustrate our method of ruling them I must tell you the stories of the 
 two chiefs — Mattyana and Langalibelee. 
 
 I A young Zulu chief, Mattyana by name, was accused of a murder, 
 and Mr. Shepstone was told to arrest him. Mr. Shepstonadid not credit 
 the charge, but sent for the chief to come and see him, and he came with 
 an escort of 300 men. Both parties agreed to be unarmed at the con- 
 ference, Vjut Mr. Shepstone hid a gun under his cloak. Mattyana's men 
 left their arms at some distance fi'om the place of interview, as agreed 
 upon, and they were secured by some of Mr. Shepstone's men, whom he 
 had ordered to steal secretly away for that purpose. He next thought 
 that the Zulus had been as deceitful as he was, and that he saw the 
 
 * Since this was written we have employed the savage Swazies against Secocoeni with sickening 
 results, and the war now waging with the Basutos leaves us but little cause to boast of our way 
 of dealing with native peoples in South Africa. 
 
 t Hansard, vol. cxvii, p. 741. 
 
 t Froude's "Leaves from a South African Jou.inal, p. 509. 
 
25 
 
 handles of short assegais (iron-headed spears) beneath their leopard skins 
 There was a quarrel ; blows were struck on both sides ; Mattyana cried 
 out that he was betrayed; Mr. Shepstone fired off his gun over the 
 heads of the Zulus, who ran back for their arms, but found them gone ; 
 and then the armed English fired upon the defenceless Zulus and killed 
 thirty of them. 
 
 This peculiar mode of punishing a murder, which had probably 
 never been committed, bore such fruit as we might reasonably expect. 
 Soon afterwards unlicensed guns were seen in the kraals of a tribe living 
 under the Drakenberg Mountains, and the natives refused to give them 
 up because they belonged to their chief, Langalibele. He was twice 
 summoned to go and see the English authorities, but he had heard of 
 their short way with contumacious chiefs, and he declined. On the 
 4th of October, 1873,* five thousand soldiers, under the command of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor himself, went up to the chief's territory. He ab- 
 sconded, and his people tried to follow him. A small party of English 
 overtook them and summoned them to stop, but were fired at, and three 
 of the English and two natives were killed. Then the army swept over 
 the country ; burned every house ; shot down every man taken with 
 arms in his hands ; carried off the whole of the women, children, and 
 cattle ; and followed and captured Langalibele and many of his men. 
 He was tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life (which has since 
 been commuted by the Home Authorities to expatriation), five hundred 
 of his followers were kept in prison for twelve months without trial,! and 
 they were then sentenced to penal servitude for terms varying from two 
 to twenty years, —a sentence which to a free man accustomed to live in 
 the open air is worse than any death. The Home Government com- 
 muted some of these sentences also, saying that the matter should have 
 been dealt with by the police, not by an army. 
 
 For the refusal of their chief to appear before the English authorities 
 we had destroyed two large native tribes. We can scarcely say that, 
 the circumstances being similar, we govern the blacks in time of peace 
 better than the Boers do ! 
 
 I have already dealt with the fourth point urged as justifying the 
 annexation of the Transvaal, viz., that the Dutch had been disgracefully 
 beaten by the natives in war. In the first place it was not true ; in the 
 second place, we, who had supplied the natives with arms, and had sup- 
 
 ■* "Natal," by Brooks and Mann, p. 263. 
 t " Leave* from a South African Journal." p. 611. 
 
26 
 
 ported them in their claims against the Boers, were the last people who 
 should bring forward such an accusation. 
 
 The last and strongest argument was that annexation was ardently- 
 desired by the natives, and would insure peace with them in the Trans- 
 vaal, and would also prevent disturbances in our other colonies. 
 
 It was stated that the natives were not hostile to the English ; and 
 that by annexing the Transvaal we should be spared the horrors of a 
 war which was imminent, and which, if it once broko out, might spread 
 to our own provinces. We were indeed thus to effect an insurance 
 against native wars. All South Africa, it was said, would know that 
 England was in the Transvaal, and would rejoice that England had 
 kindly shelved the wicked Dutch, and the reign of universal and ever- 
 lasting Peace would once more begin positively for the last time. But 
 before the year 1877 was out we were at war in Kaffraria, and the war, 
 which was brought about by the misconduct of the Cape Government,* 
 lasted for twelve months, and is scarcely well done with yet ; in the 
 next year we were massacreing men, women, and children to put down 
 an outbreak in Griqua Land West, and we were at war with the 
 ungrateful natives in the Transvaal itself, who were actually under the 
 guidance of Secocoeni himself, who treated us as though we were only 
 Boers, — and we have not beaten him yet j and in the beginning of the 
 third year we are at war with the Basutos and with our old allies and 
 friends, the natives of Zululand. If we took the Transvaal from the 
 Dutch because they went to war with the natives, who is going to be 
 kind enough to take it from us 1 
 
 But the Zulu war springs directly out of the annexation itself. 
 Before I go to it let me say one word more about the Transvaal under 
 English government. Sir Theophilus Shepstone himself wrote on Janu- 
 ary 22th, 1878,t "Buin is staring the farmers in the face, and their 
 position is for the time worse under Her Majesty's Government than it 
 was under the Bepublic." But far beyond this : the very men who 
 signed the memorial in favour of annexation, and who were, for the most 
 part Englishmen, have presented another memorial upon the subject, 
 and how do they describe the King Stork which has superseded King 
 Log]— 
 
 J" Upon the faith of (Sir Theophilus Shepstone's Proclamation and 
 
 * General Cunynghame's "My command in South Africa," p. 370. 
 
 t Blue Book, C. 2079. Enclosure 8 in No. 79. 
 
 X Hansard, vol. ccxlii, p. 2068. 
 
27 
 
 Address of the 12th April, 1877), and in order to avoid civil strife and 
 confusion, many of your Petitioners assisted or acquiesced in the annexa- 
 tion and military occupation of the late Republic . . . That it was 
 distinctly promised to your Petitioners by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 
 when he deprived them of their independence, that in view of an alleged 
 inherent weakness of the Republic, the British Government would afford 
 the inhabitants of that state the security and protection which they were 
 unable to obtain by themselves ; that all legal courts of Justice in exist- 
 ence at the time of the annexation should be continued ; that the Trans- 
 vaal should remain a separate government, with its own laws and legis- 
 lature ; that the laws then in force should be retained until altered by 
 competent legislative authority ; that all private bona fide rights to 
 property guaranteed by the late government, and all bona fide conces- 
 sions and contracts, should be honourably maintained and respected : 
 That as soon as it might be convenient some of Her Majesty's troops 
 would enter this country, although they were not to do so to coerce the 
 people, but to show those by whom they were surrounded that, with the 
 changes in the form of ruling the country, would also come a great and 
 necessary accession of strength to enable Her Majesty's Government to 
 discharge the obligations it had undertaken : 
 
 " That in direct violation of the aforesaid promises, upon the strength 
 of which the inhabitants of the late Republic were willing to give a 
 peaceable trial to the new order of things, your Petitioners find that 
 after 1 2 months experience of the government of Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
 the following are amongst the most prominent of his breaches of faith : — 
 That, in the first place, he has utterly failed to give to the people the 
 promised protection against the natives, and is even now compelled to 
 call for Volr.nteers to do the work which ought to be done by the Im- 
 perial troops in the settlement of the still pending Secocoeni revolt, for 
 the suppression of which it was stated that the mere entry of British 
 troops into this country was sufficient. And your Petitioners say gene- 
 rally, as regards the the native question, that the present position of the 
 country is far more critical than under the old regime. That, in violation 
 of the promise to retain all legal courts of Justice at the time of the 
 annexation. Sir Tlieo|4iilus has, by arbitrary proclamation, abolished the 
 system of trial by Jury as exemplified in the old Courts of Landdrost 
 and Heemraden of this country, and instituted a new High Cotirt and a 
 totally unfamiliar system of legal procedure, administered under the 
 
28 
 
 supervision of only one Judge in place of a bench of three (as agreed upon 
 by the late government), and in disregard of the acceptance of office by a 
 second, if not a third, Judge; and your Petitioners further complain 
 that the duties of the civil gaol officials and of the civil police, even on 
 the floor of the High Court itself, have been usurped by the military 
 authorities under orders of the Administrator. That the Legislature of 
 this country has been dissolved, and no deliberative Kepresentative 
 Assembly of any kind substituted for it, although promised in his Ex- 
 cellency's Proclamation of the 12th April, 1877. That the laws of the 
 country are being altered by mere Government Proclamation or Notice, 
 and this without any prospect of the granting of any political constitution 
 to the country. That with reference to the promised non-coercion by the 
 British troops or authorities, your Petitioners complain that at a meeting 
 which was held at Pretoria on the return of their Commissioners from 
 Europe, certain artillery was trained upon the meeting, and the troops 
 were held in readinesss to over-awe the meeting." 
 
 Soldiers in the place of policemen : trial by Jury abolished : repre- 
 sentative government abolished : laws altered by simple proclamation : 
 military coercion ! This is indeed Imperialism with a vengeance. 
 Talk of Russian tyranny after that ! Henceforth there can be little 
 doubt in the mind of any reasonable man who reads the history of the 
 transaction that the annexation of the Transvaal, the culmination 
 of our seventy three years persecution of the Dutch, was a terrible 
 mistake. 
 
 The Zulu war sprang directly from that annexation. Its causes are 
 so fresh in the memories of us all that there is little need for me to dwell 
 much upon them, but I think that, the more we reflect upon the war and 
 the more we know of its true history, the more we shall be amazed at 
 it. For twenty-two years had Cetewayo maintained altogether friendly 
 relations with the Natal government. He had been visited at least twice 
 by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who on the 1st September, 1873, actually 
 performed the ceremony of his coronation, taking with him more than 
 400 soldiers as a guard of honour, and two cannon to fire royal salutes ! 
 Everywhere vast numbers of natives met him with the warmest express- 
 ions of satisfaction and gratitude. " The impression which Cetewayo 
 made upon him during this interesting and very notable visit was that 
 he is immeasurably superior to any other native chief he had ever come 
 into communication with. He has a dignified bearing, and is unques- 
 
29 
 
 tionably possessed of considerable ability and of much force of character. 
 He was entirely frank and straightforward in all his personal communi- 
 cations. Sir Theophilus Shepstone was convinced that he was too old 
 and too fat to aspire to military renown, and that the Zulu tribe was a 
 materially less formidable power then it was when the English first took 
 possession of Natal."* 
 
 And what has changed all this 1 Why are we now sending great 
 bodies of troops against this man '? Why are we about to invade his 
 country and to punish his people and him 1 What has he done to us to 
 deserve this treatment at our hands '? 
 
 It would be hard to answer these questions honourably and satis- 
 factorily. Sir Theophilus Shepstone has annexed the Transvaal since he 
 crowned Cetewayo. The interests which were Dutch are' now English, 
 and a change has now come over the spirit of his dream. He has found 
 out that he was in error when he thought the Dutch were ; that their 
 claims, which he had advised Cetewayo were wrong, were just and 
 right ; but, last year, even when independent Commissioners of our own 
 appointment have declared that the Zulu Chiefs contentions were correct, 
 the English Administrator has refused to allow him to reap the fruits of 
 the verdict in his favour. 
 
 No doubt and no wonder that Cetewayo was roused at this sudden 
 and self-interested change of treatment, and he stormed as some English- 
 men (who would not like or deserve to be called savages) would have 
 stormed had they been so served. But he did not declare war against 
 us or touch our territory. Suddenly Sir Bartle Frere discovered that 
 the army, which is the oldest of Zulu iustitutions, and which Cetewayo 
 had commanded for 22 years without injury to us, was a standing 
 menace, and he poured oil upon the fire by way of putting it out. He 
 sent demands to Cetewayo which he must have known that Chiaf could 
 never willingly submit to, and then wantonly and wickedly declared war 
 against him. 
 
 Cetewayo is a heathen and a savage ; Sir Bartle Frere is an Eng- 
 lishman and a Christian : but if the words and spirit of the letters which 
 passed between the two were weighed by an impartial judge, those of the 
 savage Chief would be held the more truly Christian of the two. 
 
 But the war is going on. We invaded their country, and the 
 Zulus, in self-defence, have killed 2,500 of our troops in all, while we 
 
 * "Natal," by Brooks and Mann, p. 258. 
 
30 
 
 have upheld our prestige by killing three times as many Zulus. Cete- 
 wayo has not attempted to retaliate upon us by invading Natal even 
 when it lay at his mercy. He has even sent messengers to sue for 
 peace, but Sir Bartle Frere has refused to receive them.* What do we 
 wish to do ? Is it to make these Zulus Christians by force that we are 
 going to carry this accursed and shameful war further? Are ue by 
 fire and sword to spread what we are pleased to call the blessings of 
 civilisation amongst them 1 Well may they dread those blessings ! 
 Christian England has much to answer for in the civilisation which she 
 has inflicted upon savage peoples. Too often has she baptised men in 
 the name of Christ but to make them the children of the devil ; too 
 often have loathsome and foul disease, and the ruinous appetite for 
 strong drink, been made the companions of the Bible. 
 
 But again I ask what do we really wish to do in this matter ? If 
 we were moved by fear of the Zulu army, and felt it a standing menace, 
 could we not, at a tithe of the cost already incurred in this war, have so 
 fortified our frontier next Zululand as to make it impossible for Cetewayo 
 to invade Natal with success, even if he wished to do so? When a 
 hundred determined Englishmen behind a few biscuit boxes can turn 
 back the flower of his army, surely it was within the bounds of our 
 military and engineering science to have accomplished this ! 
 
 But the truth is that, deny it as we may, there has been the disease 
 of land-hunger in England of late, and Sir Bartle Frere has inherited the 
 vain idea of forming a second Indian Empire in Southern Africa. I 
 rejoice in the fact that the eyes of our Government seem at length to be 
 fairly opened in this matter, and that we are to be spared the trouble, 
 expense, and iniquity of a fresh annexation of land even for "a scientific 
 frontier." Would that the instructions to Sir Garnet Wolseley which 
 are kept so secret contained an express injunction to conclude an honour- 
 able peace without shedding another drop of Zulu blood. 
 
 I have finished my task, but would fain say a few words as to the 
 future of this great South African Land, so much of which we have 
 already undertaken to govern, — a land as large as the United Kingdom 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, Holland and 
 
 ♦Daily News Special Correspondent, in paper of June 9th: "Durban, May 18th.— Cetewayo 
 expressed surprise at the treatment to which he had been subjected ; reiterated his unwilling- 
 ness to fight ; said that the quarrel was not his own seeking ; and that he desired to live at 
 peace as the White Man's Son. He believed that the movements against him were without 
 the Queen of England's sanction." Would that it were so ! 
 
31 
 
 Belgium, Prussia, and Switzerland, all put together, and containing some 
 two millions of people black and white. Lord Carnarvon, who has 
 shown that he has the best interests of the country really at heart (al- 
 though he has been misled by the men he has chosen to do his work) 
 proposed a measure of confederation for the several colonies of South 
 Africa which passed both Houses of Parliament. Like most of our 
 recent legislation it was (and in this case rightly) a permissive measure. 
 The South African Colonies would not adopt it, and there are indeed great 
 difficulties in the way of the successful carrying out of such a scheme. 
 In the Cape Colony there is a truly representative government, and 
 almost universal suffrage for black and white man alike. In Natal there 
 is the despotism of a Lieutenant Governor modified by a small, partly 
 nominated and partly elected, legislative council. In the Transvaal 
 there is an Administrator who is practically an absolute, and may be a 
 tyrannical, monarch. The Orange Free State can scarcely be anxious to 
 mix itself up with us when it sees the evil effects of our mal-administra- 
 tion. If Confederation is to save South Africa I fear that we shall not 
 Bee its salvation. "Would that we could be truly wise; that we 
 would acknowledge the precedent of the Orange Kiver Sovereignty, 
 and would retire from the false position which we have assumed 
 in the Transvaal, or, better still, that (with the consent of both) we 
 could and would form Natal and the Transvaal into an independent, self- 
 governed, and united State, and thus get rid at once of the shame of 
 our wrongful deed, and of the constant wars and rumours of wars which 
 so harass and perplex us. 
 
 "We may beat the Zulus after a more or less bloody war, but 
 we shall not have made them as friendly a people as they were 
 before tbe annexation of the Transvaal. We may send our 
 Dragoons to over-awe the Dutch, but that will not make of their deeply- 
 wronged Republicans loyal subjects of Queen Yictoria. Peace with the 
 Zulus upon honourable terms is all we have the right to ask for — we 
 are the aggressors. Restitution of the territory we have stolen from 
 them, and of the Government we have violated, is the only honest 
 course we can adopt towards the Dutch. I trust that when the present 
 troubles are over the Government in power will send out a strong Com- 
 mission of independent and capable men, — men unbiassed by colonial ex- 
 perience, and untrammelled by military traditions, but among the best and 
 wisest of England's sons, who will patiently, carefully, and dispassion- 
 
32 
 
 ately search into and ascertain the facts of the whole case, and will frame 
 some scheme for the future government of all the States with which we 
 have to do, which can fairly be carried into ejffect, and by which right 
 and justice shall be secured for white and black alike. 
 
 For of one thing be certain, that in dealing with either savage or 
 civilized peoples right and justice will ultimately go the furthest. His- 
 tory shows us only too often the terrible results which spring from the 
 common intercourse between the white and the coloured races of man- 
 kind ; but the history of England can also tell us of one instance at all 
 events in which the white man and the red Indian, mutually trustful, 
 entered into a treaty which was never broken, and the blessed effects of 
 which still endure, though two centuries have elapsed since it was made. 
 England has in late years done much for native peoples. She has purged 
 away from her thoroughly at last the gigantic crimes of the slave trade 
 and of slavery. She has made it her proudest boast that the very touch 
 of English soil strikes off the fetters of the slave — that free men alone 
 can breathe English air. She has avowed herself the protector and the 
 friend of the coloured race ; she has shown her practical belief in the 
 universal brotherhood of man. Is she not strong enough and brave 
 enough to-day to acknowledge that she has been made to sin grievously, 
 in these Dutch and Zulu matters, against her own faith and in spite of 
 her truest convictions'? Will she not show the nations of the world that, 
 to her, honour is dearer than revenge; and that Justice and Mercy, 
 Honesty and Truth, are more righteous and more powerful factors in the 
 dealings of man with man than all the gigantic and infernal paraphernalia 
 of thrice-accursed War ? 
 
 May Zlst, 1879. 
 
 NoTB. — In the Transvaal we sowed the wind and are reapmg the whirl-wind. 
 It is not yet too late for the English people to prevent the perpetuation of a flagrant 
 wrong done in their name to the Boers. Surely Commissioners would be better 
 able to cope with the present difficulty than Generals, and it would be more con- 
 sistent with the truest glory of England to acknowledge the wrong and to set it 
 right, than to crush a small but gallant people who have risen in the name of 
 Freedom. 
 
 January 2\st, 1881. 
 
 J. FoB««E, TrKB Pbiktwo Works, 4, Diah Strmt, Nkwcastli-ox-Tykb. 
 
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