TOPICS OF THE DAY.
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THE SETTLEMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA. THE debate of Friday week upon South Africa was in many ways an exceedingly satisfactory one. In the first place, it showed that the country was nearly unanimous as to the course to be pursued. The Irish Members, had they been present, would no doubt have struck a discordant note, and indeed Mr. Healy did strike one in a speech which showed that his recent outbursts in Ireland have not exhausted his stores of well-modulated invective. The Irish Members were, however, away, and when after Mr. Chamberlain's speech Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman practically endorsed it, and the amendment was withdrawn, it was evident that difference of opinion between the two great parties no longer existed. Indi- viduals might be dissatisfied, but the great mass of repre- sentatives accepted the Government proposals as reasonable and sound. an acceptance which of itself must double their weight with the Boers. Secondly, the debate revealed a distinct inclination towards mercy on the part of the Government, as well as the House, which will influence the generals on the spot even more than direct orders, British officers not belonging to a caste with a separate policy of its own, but being most of them gentle- men in full touch alike with the civil authorities and with national sentiment. And thirdly, the policy described by Mr. Chamberlain is in itself thoroughly sensible and sound. It is perfectly clear that while the guerilla resistance goes on the military must rule, and they will therefore continue to rule until it ceases, though with cautions that they must be merciful and offer good terms to all who submit ; but the moment submission is obtained civil government will recommence. Sir Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner, will be Governor of the Transvaal and the Orange Colony, and with the aid of an Executive Council will govern for a time with absolute authority. He will use Afrikanders as officials whenever he can trust their loyalty, and whatever his method of government, it will be regulated by those principles of justice and abstinence from needless interference which have made of our administration in India and Ceylon such conspicuous successes. There will be an appeal against all wrongs to independent Courts. Cool officials, without interest in oppression or bias against any race, will carry out the orders of the Executive, and punishments for misdoing will be of the kind usual in all civilised communities. Rioting will be kept down by armed police rather than by soldiers, and it will be understood by every head of a district that the acquiescence and peacefulness of his people will be his own highest claim to promotion. And then the moment acquiescence is universal, or so general that resistance to law is no longer to be feared, and Englishmen and Dutch- men can live in peace side by side, the right of self- government, with, we presume, some reserves as to the treatment of natives and as to the control of the armed force, will be completely restored. Municipal self-govern- ment, if we understand Mr. Chamberlain aright, will not be delayed even for this happy consummation, but will in all the large towns commence at once. What more could any conqueror do to conciliate a conquered people, or when did any conqueror do half so much ? The Germans say we are oppressive, but has Alsace-Lorraine even now, thirty years after annexation, been allowed to govern itself ? A few doctrinaires say we might go farther and grant self-government now, but they belong to the school which holds that all theories, if only sound in themselves, will suit all people under all circumstances. To grant self-government before the bitterness caused by the struggle has passed away would be simply to allow the majority to plan rebellion, and, what is worse, to fill the minority with restless suspicions as fatal to prosperity as to progress. There can be no good government in a ship while the officers are always fingering their revolvers and listening for the first sounds of mutiny. The British people will be only too delighted to be rid of the cares of government in the Transvaal, and if the Boers are hungry for the vote which they refused to the Outlanders, they have only to tender an honest submission and they will receive it at once. Who in this country has the slightest interest in rejecting them as fellow-citizens ? It will all fail, we are told, and the two new Colonies will form only another Ireland, eternally restless, perpetu- ally discontented, always requiring a garrison to prevent rebellion. It may be so, and if so we must accept the position, and hold on, as we have done in Ireland, for the next few centuries ; but we see no reason to believe that it will be so. There is no subject race in Ireland hostile alike to Celt and Saxon, and outnumbering both by about five to one. Englishmen and Boers must from the beginning be bound together by that comradeship of white men as against all other colours which, even under terrible circumstances, has so rarely failed. In Ireland there is a division of race, in the Transvaal all who bear rule will belong to the same family of mankind. In Ireland there are two creeds, in the Transvaal there will be but one. There will be, it is true, a division of language ; but so there is in Wales, where neverthe- less Englishmen and Welshmen live together in peace, trade together, study together, and intermarry without op- probrium. That thorough amalgamation will be delayed for years is possible, for it has not occurred yet within Cape Colony ; but the intermediate period need not be marked by rebellions, or even by social bickerings any worse than those which for half a century before the Raid flickered and smouldered in Cape society. That the new state of affairs will involve a great experiment we admit, but we see no reason for concluding, if we are fairly per- sistent in well-doing, that the experiment will ultimately fail. It has not failed in the Canadas, and the French- Canadians were far more widely separated from the English by race, by creed, and by ideals of life than the English and the Boers are. We have fought, it is true, and fought hard ; but so have the English and the Scotch, who, we may add, when the countries were united, belonged, like the English and the Boers to-day, to two planes of civilisation. All that is required to fuse them is just, strong, and free government granted to both peoples equally and at the same time, and this they are to obtain. We feared for a moment, owing to the bitter irritation created by Boer obstinacy, that this might not be the case, but we underrated the fortitude of our countrymen and the judicial fairness which enabled Mr. Chamberlain to end his speech with a hearty eulogium on the bravery and the general good conduct of his defeated foes. His language of itself ought to convince all Boers that they will be welcomed within the Empire whenever they choose with- out arriere pewee to demand equal rights, and once within it careers are open to them of which they have never dreamed. We believe that gradually, and as it were one by one, they will accept the offer, the more so beeause if they refuse it the rule of Great Britain will still continue. Their friends may quote the example of Ireland, but there are two lessons, not one, to be learned from Irish history. It is seven centuries since Strongbow landed at Waterford, and though we have failed to reconcile the majority, our flag still flies in every province.
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