MR. CECIL RHODES.
WE are not inclined to take Mr. Cecil Rhodes so entirely upon trust as a great many people in this country show a disposition to do. They are so sick of the flabbiness of English statesmen, who crouch before popular opinion as if it were divine, that they overestimate the qualities of decision and audacity. Mr. Rhodes un- doubtedly possesses both, and great general ability be- sides ; but we should like, before accepting him as a great man, to understand more fully the uses to which be pur- poses to apply his gifts. He boasted at Kimberley on March 31st, that he had striven for twenty years to" amal- gamate" the diamond-mines ; but his success in that effort at fortune-making, though it shows perseverance and business capacity, is no proof by itself that the mono- polist's ideas will benefit either England or the world. A diamond " Ring " does no harm to mankind, even if it runs up the price of the sparkling stones, or confines their possession to the very rich ; but making a "Ring" in anything cannot be considered of itself a boon conferred upon humanity. It is a much greater benefit to bind together the English and Dutch of South Africa, as Mr. Rhodes has apparently done, at least within the confines of the Cape Colony ; but we should like to know whether the Cape Premier, in order to perform this service, has or has not accepted the whole of the " Afri- kander " ideas. That party used to favour a method of managing black men indistinguishable, except in words, from slavery. Union among the Whites to be purchased by the slavery or serfage of the Blacks is neither a Christian nor an English object, and it is one which, if pursued, will lay the seeds of unending calamities, and completely poison the development of civilisation in South Africa. It is not a new South, as "the South" was before the war, that Englishmen are endeavouring to found. Moreover, we care about England, and should like to know much more exactly than any one seems to do, whether Mr. Rhodes is fighting for England or for his own hand ; whether he proposes in the end to be a great English Viceroy, or to be the first President of a strong and well-knit but independent Republic in South Africa. His speech of March 81st, though exceedingly astute, and full of gratitude for his reception in the " old country," does not entirely reassure us as to that great issue, Throughout it is penetrated by three ideas,—that the English and Dutch in Africa should forget their differences ; that separation from the Mother-country should be post- poned until it suits the convenience of South Africa more completely ; and that in the intermediate time every ques- tion which may arise shall be settled according to the judgment of the Afrikandere,—that is, the English and Dutch who have thrown in their lot for all time with South Africa. This last condition of amity is reiterated so often and so harshly, and the self, government demanded is evidently to be so complete, that Englishmen are tempted to ask whether any room at all is left for the Imperial claim, whether they gain any good or avoid any evil by protecting so wilful a dependency, and whether they may not find themselves pledged in the end to strengthen an African Empire—call it Dominion or Commonwealth, it will still be an Empire—based upon principles which they regard as politically unsound, and morally distinctly bad. We do not want the Queen to reign. in South Africa if her sceptre will not protect its black population, and would have her decline a loyalty, however profitable, only to be purchased by a long retro- gression in the road which England has now travelled for fifty-eight years. We wish Mr. Rhodes or his friends, before they ask for more Parliamentary help, on the ground of confidence in him as a great administrator, would make this point a little clearer than it is. Does Mr. Rhodes look in the end to make of the coloured people guests of the State, with all rights of protection and freedom, though no right of rule—which should be their position for a century or two, till the savage has worked out of them— or does he intend to hold them to labour for the benefit of white employers ? It may be said that the latest incident reported from South Africa conclusively proves that Mr. Rhodes is at heart an Englishman ; but we are not so certain of that. He has acted, we have little doubt, strongly in the English interest ; but then, he has also acted in defence of his own policy. The facts of the situation, as we read them, are these. A section of the Boers of the Transvaal are weary of the increasing immigration of Englishmen into their Republic. The diamond-diggers and gold-hunters, and immigrants generally, who have restored the finances of the State, and are building cities as rapidly as Western Americans ever did, are highly disagreeable to the Dutch farmers, who want to be shepherd-kings and not miners, and who complain that they have no room, no peace, and no security for possession of their slaves. With more than five souls to the ten square miles, they feel too crowded to draw breath. A large body of them—five thousand, it is said—therefore resolved to " trek " into Mashonaland and establish a Republic upon the great plateau, making at the same time a league with the Portuguese, who own the coast provinces, and can give them an independent route to the sea. The Portuguese, in their mad irritation with Great Britain, leaped at this proposal, though ultimately it would be fatal to them- selves, Dutch Calvinists not being tolerant of either re- monstrances or taxation from half-caste Catholics ; and the trek appears to have been arranged. Lord Salisbury, however, put his veto upon it. The movement was perfectly certain to end either in the loss of a British province just granted to the Chartered Company of South Africa, or in an armed collision between Boers and Englishmen, which might develop into a civil war between the white races throughout South Africa. Sir Henry Loch, the High Commissioner, was therefore allowed to signify this week to President Kruger that "reports have reached her Majesty's Government that a trek into Mashonaland, with a view to the establishment of a Republic in that territory, is proposed. Her Majesty's Government informs your Honour that they will regard this as an act of hostility to the Queen. The Transvaal Republic is held to the engagement contained in Article 10 of the Swaziland Convention. Her Majesty's Government expects an immediate assurance of the loyal co-operation of the Transvaal." In other words, her Majesty's Govern- ment would prohibit the "trek," even if it took an army to make its prohibition effective. That was decided, as well as wise, and, President Kruger, who probably does not want to lose his Dutch supporters, or to be left stranded in the Transvaal with English settlers only, at once accepted the situation thus created, " damped " the project of emigration, and protested that the Government of the Transvaal was "quite alive to its obligations." His tone is that of a man quite in earnest, and he can, with English assistance, render any attempt to invade Mashona- land in force quite abortive. So far, so good ; a danger has been averted by manliness ; and as Mr. Rhodes must have agreed to or counselled this decisive action, that will be counted to the credit of his English sympathies. The deduction is reasonable enough ; but then, we have also to remember that Mr. Rhodes is the head of the Chartered Company of South Africa, whose property the migrating Boers proposed to take away or materially diminish. They would not, it is true, dig for gold, being shepherds and herdsmen, and not miners, but they would occupy vast spaces of the plateau which might be full of minerals—a Boer's idea of the irreducible minimum for a farm is ten square miles, 6,400 acres—and they would claim for their Republic just those royalties on mining operations to which the Chartered Company partly looks for its ex- pected dividends. Mr. Rhodes was bound, therefore, as Chairman of the Company, to resist the Boer movement, which, again, threatened him directly as Premier of Cape Colony. He holds that position first of all because he is the favourite of the Dutch settlers, and the only man who can induce them to keep step with their English rivals. It is, moreover, essential to the success of his scheme for creating a great " self-governing " State, that English and Dutch should sink their differences and work together, either in one Federation, or, as many of his projects seem to indicate, within a single State strongly centralised at Cape Town, where he is creating a University avowedly intended to diffuse Cape patriotism as well as general learning. The creation of independent Republics on the Orange River and in the Transvaal was, in his judgment, as he said at Kimberley, a mistake, and the rise of a new Republic in Mashonaland, necessarily hostile to English- men, if not in alliance with the Portuguese, would have thwarted all his schemes by reviving the bitter jealousy between the Dutch and English, and perhaps making continued peace impossible. His resistance to this plan, therefore, though in itself wise and in accordance with English interests, does not prove that Mr. Rhodes is devoted to Great Britain. He may be, but as yet his record seems to show that he is genuinely " Afrikander," and disposed to postpone the interests of the land of his birth to those of the land of his adoption, whenever the two shall clash. That is not unnatural, considering Mr. Rhodes's career, nor, if he condemns slavery, should we blame him more for being Afrikander than for being 'Australian or Canadian ; but still, a statesman's patriotism,
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