BOOKS.
SIR BARTLE FRERE., BIOGRAPHIES of recently deceased statesmen are eminently unsatisfactory both from the historical and the personal point of view. A brief political study like Condorcet's Turgot or Disraeli's Lord George Bentinck may have an enduring value either on account of the subject or of the treatment ; and there is much to be said, on the other hand, for a publication of letters, or of speeches like those of the late Lord Derby, a method which allows the subject of the book to speak for himself, and the reader to form his own opinion, on evidence which is complete as far as it goes, of the character and achievement of a public man. Sir Bartle Frere's career would have lent itself admirably to either method, for, on the one hand, his life's work touches at many points the history of England at the most interesting, per- haps the most critical, period of her imperial development, and on the other, he himself was a voluminous writer of clear, able, and readable letters. The ordinary biographical method, however, which is here, as in most eases of the same kind, attempted, is hardly ever successful, and the present volumes are no exception to the rule. The neces- sity imposed upon the writer of giving a bird's-eye view of great historical events based upon wholly insufficient information (for the greater part of the official and private records are necessarily inaccessible) makes his narra- tive either incomplete or incorrect; the prominence given to the central figure of the book unavoidably exaggerates his position in relation both to the events described and to the other actors in this drama; and consideration for the • Life and Oorreeyondenee ”f Sir Bartle Frets, Bart.. 9.0.B., F.S.S. By John Martineau. London : John Murray. 189S.
feelings of family and friends, whose co-operation alone makes the publication possible, prevents any attempt at impartial appreciation, and gives the work an appearance of indiscriminate laudation or determined vindication. We hasten to add that Mr. Martineau's biography is a good specimen of a bad class. All the faults we have specified, especially the last, are indeed present in it, but the writer has digested and arranged, with considerable skill, the vast mass of material at his disposal. His style is agreeable and sympathetic, and his enthusiasm for his subject genuine and unaffected, and especially remarkable in one who never even saw Sir Bartle Frere, and has formed his opinion exclusively at second-hand. "If," he says, speaking of this opinion, "it is too good to be true. I cannot help it. I cannot paint shadows which I cannot see." Such a confession is entitled to all possible weight; but the fact that no one of all the men whom Mr. Martineau has consulted—and among them were "statesmen, soldiers, naval officers, civilians, lawyers, men of science, travellers, merchants, missionaries "—breathed one word of criticism, we do not say of Sir Bartle Frere's character, but even of the policy of his public life, only shows either that he failed to consult many of the most important witnesses, or that it is impossible for contemporaries to speak of one another in a manner to satisfy posterity.
Sir Bartle Frere's public life divides itself into two distinct periods, the first comprising his service in India, the second his connection with more strictly Colonial affairs. Both periods ended in disappointment, if not failure, and a notice like the present must be confined to some comments on the two crucial episodes which excited so much contemporary controversy,—his Governorships of Bombay and of the Cape Colony. For this reason, in dealing with the first period, we must pass over the wholly creditable record of his Com- missionership of Sindh, and his conduct during the Mutiny, which exhibited at its best his devotion to the people he ruled, and his energy, courage, and public spirit.
It is not uninteresting to note, by the way, that Sir Bartle Frere, whose name became afterwards so much identified with the forward policy both in Afghanistan and in Africa, strongly condemned Lord Dalhousie's "dangerous policy" of annexation and centralisation, which he always considered one of the predisposing causes of the Mutiny, and that he seems, when a member of the Governor-General's Council, to have been in full sympathy with Lord Canning. In 1862 he was transferred from Calcutta to the Governorship of Bombay at a moment when a man of his sanguine and imperious temper was little likely to succeed in that post. The cotton famine in Lancashire caused by the American Civil War was the great opportunity of the Indian cotton producer, and Frere, who in his Sindh day had turned his attention to cotton- growing, threw himself into the development of the new industry, by making cotton roads and canals, and encouraging public works of all kinds on a vast scale. The first result of this energy was to bring him into collision with the Supreme Government and with Sir Charles Trevelyan, who had just (in 1863) returned to India as Finance Member of Council, to create a system of financial control according to English ideas. Of the Budget system thus introduced, Frere at once fell foul ; and he maintained during the whole time of his Governorship a constant struggle with the Public Works Department at Calcutta to obtain more than his share of expenditure for Bombay,—a struggle in which he used to the full his power of corresponding direct with the Secretary of State, in order to obtain support against the Indian Government. Ardent, optimistic, impatient of con- trol, he could not bear to see his plans for the development of the Presidency thwarted by what he considered the parsi- mony of the supreme Government, and their short-sighted desire to show a good surplus, remit taxation, and pay off debt. What wonder if they on their side looked upon him as extravagant and insubordinate. The controversy between the two opposing schools began, and can only end with the English rule, and Indian statesmanship has no higher task than to reconcile their rival claims; but no prudent man looking to the general course of events since Frere's time, will be able to sympathise with the intemperate advocate of expenditure, however beneficial, as against those who upheld the principles of sound finance.
Meanwhile, the rise in the price of cotton continued, and the value of the cotton exported from Bombay rose from less than seven millions in 1860-61, to more than thirty-one millions in 1864-65. The consequence of the great influx of wealth was to create a spirit of wild speculation, followed, before Sir Bartle Frere left Bombay, by the crash which in- volved the mercantile community in ruin, and by the collapse of the Bank of Bombay. Mr. Martineau endeavours, with little success, to dissociate the Governor from blame in con- nection with these events. It is clear from his narrative that Sir Bartle Frere did not understand the true character of this period of inflation, or foresee the inevitable reaction. He urged on the rebuilding of Bombay ; he repeatedly pressed for the raising of the salaries of the officials, on account of the temporary rise of prices to famine-point, consequent on reckless speculation ; and he encouraged the famous Back Bay reclamation scheme, actually reproaching the Indian Government for neglecting to secure the four hundred shares which had been reserved for them, and by which they might have made a million of money before the scheme collapsed! Finally, it was from the India Office, and not from observa- tion on the spot, that he received the first warning as to the possibility of danger to the Bank, when it was probably already too late for effective intervention.
The eulogistic character of the biography has led us, as it will undoubtedly lead its readers, to dwell perhaps unduly on the darker sides of Sir Bartle Frere's Governorship, and it is a pleasure to observe how many-sided he was in his interests and in his power of stimulating progress in every direction, and how permanently useful was his work in bringing about social intercourse with the natives and advancing education among them. It would be difficult to award higher praise than this to an Indian administrator; but the fact remains that a Governor who had possessed some elementary ideas of financial prudence, and who would have moderated and controlled instead of stimulating the spirit of commercial speculation, would have rendered a more useful service to the community.
If Sir Bartle Frere was unfortunate in the outward cir- cumstances of his rule in Bombay, he was still more so in those of his appointment to the Cape. The situation has during the last few years so wonderfully changed to the advantage of the predominant race, that it is somewhat diffi- cult to realise the position of affairs with which he had to deal, when there was practically equality of power between the Dutch and English elements, and the issue of the struggle with the native people still hung in the balance. A far more serious danger, however, was the state of opinion in the mother-country. The moment was one at which the oppo- sing forces of democracy at home and imperialism abroad, came markedly into conflict. It was the conviction of those who most firmly believed in the possibilities of popular government that the responsibilities of Great Britain as an imperial and colonial Power were a hindrance to her pro- gress, and of those who were in a position to observe the capacity of Englishmen for ruling inferior races that demo- cracy would be the ruin of what they regarded as their country's greatest work in the world's history. Many of the most logical thinkers of the time believed that to recon- cile these tendencies was hopeless, and that the struggle between them would end in the submergence of England as a power for good in the world ; and leaders who held these strangely divergent opinions did not hesitate to address the most passionate appeals to a necessarily ignorant electorate. We may say at once that the best part of these volumes is the account of Frere's South African policy. Partial it undoubtedly is ; but it would perhaps have been difficult to write on this subject except as a partisan, and the facts at all events seem to be fairly laid before the public. The conviction is forced upon the reader that Frere's failure was due not to any grave fault of his own, nor even to the inherent diffi- culties of the situation in South Africa, but to the combined ignorance and prejudices of English public opinion, which led to his disgraceful abandonment by English Governments, Conservative and Liberal. Lord Carnarvon's policy of con- federation, which Sir Bartle Frere went out to carry into effect, was probably premature; but it is difficult to say that with the South African States in their then stage of develop- ment it was impossible ; and no better agent could have been found than one who combined in so singular a degree an almost oleaginous urbanity of manner with great determina- tion of character. But with Lord Carnarvon's resignation all
real intelligent support from home disappeared, and the disaster of Isandhlwana, which threw England into one of her fits of ungenerous passion, left Sir Bartle Frere without a friend in the Governments he had served. Of the many charges hurled against him, one only can be in any degree supported. The annexation of the Transvaal was not his doing, but was effected on orders from home by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, just after his arrival in Capetown. Nor was be more respon- sible for the events which followed upon that annexation. If he had been allowed to retain the High Commissionership, which was given first to Sir Garnet Wolseley, and then to Sir George Colley, he would most probably have been able to pacify the Boers by restoring to them responsible govern- ment, and to avert the Boer War and its consequences. Bat with reference to the inception of the Zulu War, there may be room for doubt whether hostilities might not have been postponed. Avoided altogether we do not believe they could have been, for the military organisation of the Zulus, like that of the Matabele nation, was incompatible not only with the interests of our Colonists, but with the real interests of those and of all other native races and Mr. Gladstone's language in 1880 was, to say the least of it, as wide of the mark as Mr. Labouchere's on the more recent occasion. However this may be, it is certain that no Governor in touch with public opinion in England would have taken the responsibility of beginning the war without direct authorisation from the Secretary of State. Even as it was, the accident of a purely military reverse (retrieved, be it observed, by the remaining troops on the spot) alone prevented Sir Bartle Frere from bringing his whole work in Africa to a creditable, if not to a triumphant, conclusion. When the disaster occurred, the game was up, and it would have been better in his own interests had he chosen the less magnanimous part of speedy resignation of his post.
We regret to be obliged to close with so much still un- touched, this notice of a career which presents many of the characteristics of true greatness, but which, judged by the supreme test of success, must be pronounced to have fallen short of that character.
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