REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA.
[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR:9 SIR,—On the question of the fixing of a definite period at the end of which representative government should be established in South Africa, the follow; g quotation from Mr. John Morley's " Oliver Cromwell " seems pertinent :— "The date fixed for the expiry of the Parliament was three years off. The time was too long for effective concentration, and too short for the institution of a great scheme of comprehensive reform. A provisional government working within the limits of a fixed period inevitably works at a heavy disadvantage. Every- thing is expected from it, yet its authority is impaired. Anxiety to secure the future blunts attention to the urgencies of the present. Men with a turn for corruption seek to make hay while the sun shines. Parties are shifting and unstable. The host of men who are restless without knowing what it is that they want are never so dangerous. A governing body in such a situation was certain to be unpopular."—(p. 346.)
Liscard.
Previous page
