The Government has given the country a surprise. On Friday,
the 21st, they published a despatch, dated only on the 19th, in which Sir M. Hicks-Beach administers to the High Commis- sioner in South Africa a rebuke such as has rarely been inflicted on an agent so highly placed without being accompanied by his recall. Sir Bartle Frere, who had previously (March 6th) been told that he must not annex Zululand without orders, is informed that her Majesty's Government have failed to find in his despatches "that evidence of urgent necessity for immediate action which could alone justify you in taking, with- -out full knowledge and sanction, a course almost certain to result in a war, which, as I had previously impressed upon you, every effort should have been used to avoid." The "circum- stances rendered it imperative," that even at the risk of losing the advantage of a favourable season, "full explanations should be exchanged." Sir M. Hicks-Beach then gravely compliments Sir Bartle Frere on his "experience, ability, and energy," and states that the Government will not, in consequence of his omission "to follow a course peculiarly incumbent upon him," withdraw their confidence, but will continue him in South Africa, trust- ing that "there will be no recurrence of any cause for complaint on this score." This document, which repudiates all the essen- tial points on which Sir Bartle Frere's policy depends, yet re- tains him in office, created on Saturday a kind of stupor of surprise, and even after the debate of Tuesday remains wholly unexplained.
