The long speech delivered by Mr. Rhodes at Klipdam at
the outset of his candidature in Barkly West, and reported at length in the Cape papers received last Tuesday, was certainly more cautions, if not more coherent, than most of his plat- form utterances. His criticism of the organisation of the Afrikander Bond and its increased centralisation was fair enough, though it is rather amusing to hear Mr. Rhodes declaring : "I do not think that the will of the people should be subject to one or two individuals, however angelic they may be." He met the accusations of bribery with a general denial and counter-charges against the Bond, and, turning to racial questions, laid down the two principles that pure native- races must be treated as children until they were educated ; and, as regards the white man, that there should be equal rights for every civilised man south of the Zambesi. As. regardsEnglish and Dutch, "the accident of occupation is- nothing as against work and energy, and the principle that the best man must come to the front independent of race.' For the rest, their greatest efforts should be to keep them together. The conclusion of the speech was devoted to warning his bearers of the risks of returning a Ministry hostile to the Nortb,—i.e., Rhodesia. In that case the North would say : "If you will have nothing to do with us, we will have nothing to do with you." At the close of his speech he was careful to define her Majesty's power as simply a pro- tective power, and in no way interfering with colonial self- government. Many of Mr. Rhodes's sentiments were unim- peachable, but it passes the wit of man to reconcile them with his record.
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