Spain as well as England is discovering that colonies can
only be peaceably and safely retained by conceding a large share of local government. The Ministers of Queen Isabella the Second are endeavouring to save their most valuable colony by an unex- pected stroke of policy—by giving representative institutions, and allowing to the colony Deputies in the Cortes at Madrid. The efficacy of such a measure depends upon its reality and thorough- ness; but we have scarcely enough faith to imagine that the De- puties for Cuba would be more than representatives of "the Spanish party," leaving the bulk of the inhabitants as discontented as ever.
The Cape of Good Hope furnishes another example, for our own instruction. There is a new reason why the Caffres are not likely to attack us: they have, themselves, been severely attacked by the colonists of Natal and the Dutch of the Transvaal Republic under General Prtetorius ; who has inflicted upon them a scourging not unlike that which Colonel Pelissier inflicted upon the Algerine rebels in the caverns of the Dahra. The Caffies had savagely murdered Dutch men and women ; the colonists hunted them down, and have probably broken their spirit for a long time to come. The story is perhaps not so cruel as it looks: we have not all the facts before us, but only reports written with a flying pen. The Dutch managed the affair for themselves ; and, at all events, neither English nor Dutch have this time been obliged to wait for those instructions and those armies from England which are so slow, so ineffectual, and so costly.
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