18 NOVEMBER 1899, Page 19

Sir Michael Hicks-Beaeh made an excellent speech at the Dolphin

Dinner at Bristol on Monday. As to the future, he clearly foreshadowed the policy we have have always upheld in these columns,—the policy ex- pressed by Lord Salisbury. Having taken precautions that such an evil as the present war should never recur, we must establish pure and honest government on the basis of equal rights for men of both races. "Subject to that we should give whatever sell-government might be possible, remembering that there was no one in any part of South Africa where white men were competent to hold their own against native races, whether of English or Dutch blood, who would for a moment desire that that country should be per- manently governed from Downing Street." That is excellent sense, and shows, what we never doubted for a moment, that the final settlement will be on large and liberal lines, and that we shall not attempt to reverse oar whole Colonial policy and deprive white communities of the right of self-government. In other words, when things have settled down, the whole of the South African States will be within the Empire, but all the States will enjoy as full self-government as the Cape.