HOW TO TREAT SOUTH AFRICAN REBELS.
[TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—You ask me if I " would never disfranchise a corrupt borough because such disfranchisement must necessarily do an injustice to many persons who have not been guilty of corruption." Is there not a vital difference between the two cases ? The victorious party after a General Election does not appoint the Tribunal which is to sit in judgment on an impeached constituency. Would you think it fair that a triumphant majority of Radical Home-rulers should appoint a special Tribunal for the trial of all election petitions ? Sorely that is the true analogy. I did not forget the honourable part which the Spectator has always taken in denouncing Mr. Rhodes and his Raid ; nor do I forget that " two wrongs do not make a right." But Mr. Rhodes and his fellow-conspirators were more guilty than Cape Boers who—in some cases probably under constraint—joined Boer commandos, or sold fruit to Transvaal soldiers; for I observe that even that venial offence, if an offence at all, is accepted as proof of treason. So long as Mr. Rhodes holds his Privy Councillorship—not given him by a Tory Minister,
I am glad to remember—it would surely become us to view as leniently as possible the conduct of the Ct.pe Dutch in very trying circumstances. Is it wise to sacrifice the future of South Africa to the gratification of the amour propre of the Colonists in their present excitement ? They should be saved from themselves. The wholesale penalties which are being inflicted on " rebels " under martial law seem to me exceedingly ominous. The Dutch have long memories.—
[The Commissions which inquire and report whether con- stituencies have proved so corrupt that they ought to be disfranchised are appointed by the Government of the day. If we remember rightly, the Commission on whose Report Oxford was for a time disfranchised was appointed by the Liberal Government of which Sir William Harcourt was a member, Sir William Harcourt was the Member defeated at the election which caused the petition. Needless to say, the Commission acted with absolute fairness, as we believe would the Com- mission we have suggested.—ED. Spectator.]
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