British Policy During the Middle of the Century
By the middle of the century there were some twenty thousand emigrant farmers scattered over the region between the Orange and Vaal Rivers and north of the latter. They had no organized government; no bond of union except a feeling of hostility to British sovereignty and a common love of independent isolation; no adequate security against sudden attacks from surrounding savages. Occasionally they combined in small forces and fell with merciless severity upon tribes which had aroused their displeasure. They would brook no control, even from self-constituted authorities, and at first endeavoured to govern themselves by general meetings of citizens. Distances were too great, however, to render this practicable, and small elective Assemblies in several semi-republican communities eventually developed. But the Boer character possessed a positive genius for disobedience, and the feuds of families and communities soon became as marked as those of the native tribes around them—whose cattle they delighted to capture and whose children were occasionally enslaved by Dutch commandos. The settlers were not seriously interfered with by the British Government in London, or in Cape Town. A general supervision, or pretence at supervision, over their relations with the natives was maintained and with ultimately important results. But for some years following the Natal annexation nothing of importance occurred. No formal recognition of their feeble efforts at self-government was given, they remained British subjects in the eyes of the law, and Sir Peregrine Maitland's Proclamation of August 21, 1845, at the Cape, expressly reserved the rights of the Crown in this connection.
Moshesh the Basuto
Meanwhile, however, two other communities had developed in their neighbourhood. East of what afterwards became the Orange Free State and in territory which the emigrant farmers, or Boers as they were beginning to be called, claimed for themselves, an exceedingly able native chief, in the person of Moshesh the Basuto, had risen into power and had welded together the scattered fragments of tribes which had been crushed by the raids of the Matabele and Zulus. From the rugged heights of Thaba Bosigo he dominated a large extent of country, an increasing native population and much spoil in cattle and slaves. To the south and west of the Boers two half-breed leaders named Adam Kok and Waterboer had established themselves respectively with strong, armed bands of Griquas—the name given to the offspring of Dutch farmers and Hottentot women—and had become a recognized force. With Moshesh they constituted the elements of a new British policy which was inaugurated in 1843. The Colonial Office did not want at this time to extend its territories. South Africa, indeed, appeared during the first portion of this century as the least promising, and the most turbulent and troublesome, of all British possessions. The soil was supposed to be arid and without fertility or minerals, the population seemed hostile and the net result of colonization and administration had been a series of costly Kaffir wars. In dealing with the Kaffirs, or Kosas, on the eastern frontier of the Colony the British Government had shown this disinclination with quite sufficient clearness. But to allow the emigrant Boers to repudiate their allegiance was another matter, and even to the not very far-seeing statesmen of the Colonial Office of that day it presented possibilities deserving of consideration. With Sir Harry Smith's arrival and the termination of the Kaffir War of 1846-47 came another development of the situation. The new Governor of Cape Colony, who for the first time had also been appointed High Commissioner with power of control over native matters outside of the bounds of the Colony, visited the Orange River region, looked into the results of the Treaty State policy, came to the conclusion that agreements with native chiefs were like arrangements made with little children, and determined to suppress these creations of missionary statecraft as soon as might be possible.
Orange River Sovereignty
Meanwhile the High Commissioner was well received at Bloemfontein, and soon made arrangements with Adam Kok and Moshesh which greatly curtailed their authority and independence. On February 3, 1848, he announced the annexation to British dominions of the whole territory between the Vaal and Orange Rivers and the Drakensberg mountains under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. The colored population was left under the control of its chiefs, and their land was carefully reserved for their own use. All relations between tribes, however, or with Europeans, were to be guided by British authorities. Major Warden was continued at Bloemfontein as the Governor, or Resident, and Sir Harry Smith returned to Cape Town after having carried out a policy which should have been effected long before. And it was now too late. Although without any definite government amongst themselves, or any allegiance to the little republics which had sprung up over the Vaal, a certain number of Dutch farmers in the new Sovereignty would not accept British rule, and they were speedily aided by the Transvaal Boers under Pretorius in a direct attack upon Bloemfontein. Major Warden was compelled to surrender, and the British officials were speedily driven out of the country. Sir Harry Smith, however, was too vigorous and able a commander to stand this sort of thing, and he hastily got some troops together, crossed the Orange River, attacked Pretorius in a strong position at a place called Boomplaatz, defeated him and re-established the Sovereignty Government. Those of the Boers who were inveterately opposed to British rule at once crossed the Vaal and were not interfered with by British officials. Their places, to some extent, were taken by fresh emigrants from Cape Colony, many of them English, and from this time forward the Orange River State was populated by white settlers more or less passively friendly toward England and composed of the least hostile amongst the emigrant farmers with a certain proportion of Englishmen.
Rebellion of Molitsane
For a time all went apparently well. Then, in 1851, Moshesh, finding his power had been restricted by the new arrangements, and knowing that he was much stronger in a military sense than the British authorities had any conception of, began to foment disturbances between his own people and native clans in the Sovereignty. He did not appear publicly in the matter, but his policy was none the less effective in drawing both Major Warden and the Cape Governor into a determination to punish Molitsane—a vassal of Moshesh—who was a distinct offender. With 162 soldiers, 120 Boers and some fifteen hundred natives, Major Warden marched out from Bloemfontein, and at Viervoet was drawn into a trap and suffered a disastrous defeat. It is said that Moshesh himself was surprised at the easy result. At any rate, he at once threw off the mask and joined forces with his vassal. A section of the Boers also repudiated the Sovereignty Government, so far, at least, as to promise Moshesh absolute neutrality if he would leave their cattle and property unharmed. This he promised and fulfilled by plundering without mercy the Boers who remained loyal. Major Warden was now helpless at Bloemfontein, as Cape Colony was in the throes of another Kaffir war. and not a soldier could be spared—a fact of which Moshesh and the disloyal Dutch were perfectly aware. The latter added to the difficulties of the situation by suggesting to Pretorius that now was his time to avenge Boomplaatz. He was not unwilling, but thought a primary duty lay to his own adherents beyond the Vaal; so he wrote Warden that if the independence of the Boers of that region were definitely acknowledged he would refrain from participation in the struggle.
The Sand River Convention
Major Warden reported to Sir Harry Smith that the safety of the Sovereignty for the time lay in assenting to this proposal, as he could not hold it against the Basutos and the Transvaal Boers combined. The result was the appointment of Commissioners and the negotiation in 1852 of the Sand River Convention "with the Commandant and Delegates of the Boers living beyond the Vaal," by which the British Government "guaranteed to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs and to govern themselves according to their own laws without any interference on the part of the British Government." Provisions were included by which the British authorities disclaimed all alliances with colored peoples north of the Vaal, and the Boers accepted the declaration (on paper) that "no slavery is or shall be permitted or practiced" in the country under their control. This arrangement finally severed the two communities, carried across the Vaal another migration of the anti-British element, and in time consolidated the bitterly hostile and prejudiced sections of population into the present Transvaal Republic. Meanwhile, peace had been made with the Kaffirs, and Sir George Cathcart, who was now Governor at the Cape, invaded Basutoland with a considerable force of regulars for the purpose of punishing Moshesh. As usual in South African warfare, he under-estimated the numbers and fighting skill of his opponents as well as the natural strength of this Switzerland of the Veldt. Thaba Bosigo was too hard a nut for his force to crack, and he was, besides, drawn into an ambush and defeated. Moshesh, however, was wise enough not to press his advantage too far, and with statecraft which was worthy of a greater sphere, asked and received peace on terms very beneficial to himself.
Changed Policy
But the Colonial Office was now in the hands of the Manchester School party, England was living in the exhilaration of a period of great and growing commercial prosperity, and her politicians were sick of the prolonged succession of petty and costly wars which had marked South African history. It was decided that all further responsibility must be avoided, that existing boundaries must be drawn back wherever possible, and that extension of territory must be imperatively resisted. The first point of contact with this feeling was the Sovereignty, and the Duke of Newcastle, who was then acting as Colonial Secretary, sent Sir George Russell Clerk out in 1853, as a Special Commissioner: "To ascertain whether it was practicable to make arrangements for the abandonment of the whole of that territory." Then followed the most extraordinary and perhaps regrettable incident in all the turbulent and troubled history of South Africa. The Commissioner had called a Convention of European Delegates for the purpose of taking over the government of the Sovereignty. But these twenty-four men sounded public opinion, and they had soon found that the feeling was clear and unmistakable that from every standpoint of right, honor and expediency Great Britain should retain its authority and continue its protection. Sir George Clerk, however, was under definite instructions, and any protests from the Delegates, or from the public meetings which were hastily held, were simply regarded as so much unnecessary obstruction to the fulfilment of his mission. The Convention refused to accept in any way his proposition, and was promptly dissolved.Formation of the Orange Free StateA small body of men were found, however, to favor independence, and with these representatives of a distinct minority Sir George concluded an agreement on February 23, 1854, by which the country was practically handed over to them as the Orange Free State. This precious document "guarantees on the part of Her Majesty's Government the future independence of that country and Government"—although it also provides "that this independence shall, without unnecessary delay, be confirmed and ratified by an instrument promulgated in such form and substance as Her Majesty shall approve, finally freeing them from their allegiance to the British Crown, and declaring them, to all intents and purposes, an independent people." So far as can be ascertained this instrument was never actually promulgated, and it may be a delicate technical point as to whether the Free State people have ever been legally freed from their allegiance to Great Britain.[1]
[1] Westminster Review. April, 1869.
Large popular gatherings were held to protest against the policy of dismemberment, and the Chairman and another member of the late Convention were sent to England to bring the whole case before the Queen's Government. But it was all in vain. Hardly any notice had been taken in Great Britain of the Sand River Convention, and even less concern was exhibited over this new development of weak and nerveless Colonial administration. A motion upon the subject in the House of Commons had to be withdrawn for lack of a seconder, and Parliament voted $240,000 as a compensation to loyal settlers—presumably as a solace for having forced them to give up their allegiance. By the terms of the Bloemfontein Convention—already quoted from—no slavery or trade in slaves was to be permitted and the Government was made free to levy import duties and to buy ammunition in the British Colonies. In this way were two Boer Republics founded in South Africa, and the evils which might naturally have been expected from the intense isolation and ignorance of the emigrant farmers crystallized into constitutional shape, and finally into military form. These Conventions of 1852 and 1854 legalized a lasting and bitter schism in the small European population of South Africa, and even the conditions and interests of the Free State and the Transvaal were not, for many years afterwards, considered identical by the Boers themselves.
Development of the Two Republics
From 1854 to 1877 the two Republics developed along very different lines. Their general principle of government was the same, but it was not administrated in the same way. In form their constitutions were nominally republican; in practice they became essentially arbitrary and absolutely antagonistic to British and Colonial ideas of government. The coloured people who, in hundreds of thousands, were established around the Dutch, had few civil rights and no political ones. They were the prey of small military bodies, the source of an enforced labour which could not in practice be distinguished from slavery, the object of personal contempt and with little protection from public law or private conscience. Citizenship was practically limited to the Boer, in the Transvaal; and in the Orange Free State, through the stringent military conditions connected with the privilege, the same result followed for some years. The right of participating in the Government of the country was thus confined to one class, the burghers or native-born Dutch citizens. These alone could elect the President, the Executive Council and the Volksraad, or popular Assembly.
Important Differences
There were important differences, however, in the further evolution of the Republics. Something of this was due to the modified feeling of the Orange River Boers towards England, to their proximity to the Cape and to the fact of English settlers being scattered amongst them with the natural result of friendly association and occasional intermarriage. They, therefore, approximated in character and type to the Dutchmen of Cape Colony. The Boer of the Transvaal, on the other hand, was entirely isolated, of unmixed stock and with sentiments of hostility toward everything British as strong and stern as they were when he first left Colonial territory. Both Republics were allowed to develop their own institutions in their own way and were, as the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854 declared, "to all intents and purposes a free and independent people." No slavery, or trade in slaves, was to be permitted, however, and what might be termed Imperial rights of control over native questions was retained along lines enunciated as follows, by Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, in a despatch dated November 20, 1879: "Neither by the Sand River Convention of 1852, nor at any other time, did Her Majesty's Government surrender the right and duty of requiring that the Transvaal should be governed with a view to the common safety of the various European communities." The same principle, of course, covered the Free State position and, later on, was applied in connection with Moshesh and the Basuto question.
Early Organization
Without roads and bridges, churches and schools, or the ordinary machinery of government, the Dutch of the Free State commenced the work of organization in 1854, and the ultimate result reflects considerable credit upon the ignorant burghers of those scattered communities. As in the Cape Colony and the Transvaal the fundamental law was the old Roman system as modified by the Legislature of Holland prior to 1652. The official language was Dutch, and the Courts were constituted after the Dutch fashion. For a short period Josias Hoffman was President, and then Jacobus Nicolaus Boshof was elected to the position. Relations with Moshesh and the Basuto tribe constituted the chief trouble of this early period. The continuous object of this ambitious ruler was to recover certain territory which had once belonged to tribes of which the remnants now acknowledged his rule. The Boers wished to retain regions which had in great part appeared as wild and empty wastes when they had settled there. Apart from the general question, both sides were aggressive and warlike. Each hated the other, and the intermittent struggles which ensued were of the usually merciless character. But Moshesh was too much for the Boers in skill and craft, and, in 1858, the Free State President, after appealing in vain to his Transvaal brethren for aid, turned to Sir George Grey, who was then Governor of the Cape. Sir George accepted the position of mediator, studied the situation closely, and came to the apparent conclusion that the claims of Moshesh were in a measure just. To him, therefore, he gave a piece of territory which the Boers believed to be theirs, and handed over to the latter an outlying mission station which had hitherto acknowledged Basuto authority. Mr. Boshof promptly resigned the Presidency, and was succeeded by Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, a son of the famous general. He devoted himself to effecting a union with the Transvaal republics of the time, but was unsuccessful, owing to conflicting interests and jealousies and to the declaration from Cape Town that such action would dissolve the Conventions with Great Britain.
Chronic Condition of War
Meantime, and during the greater part of the years from 1854 to 1868, the Boers of the Free State were in a chronic condition of war with the Basutos. There were few direct conflicts, and the troubles consisted mainly in raids, the burning of houses or kraals, the stealing of cattle, or the kidnapping of children. The Basutos fought in much the same Fabian manner that the Boers themselves practiced, and met invaders concealed behind rocks or cairns or the ever-present kopje. The region ruled by Moshesh was a compact and round-shaped territory lying between Natal, Cape Colony and the Free State. Its surface was broken by steep hills or mountains with more or less flat summits admirably fitted for villages or kraals, and with every requisite for defence in the form of perpendicular wall-like sides.The BasutolandBetween these natural fortresses were the sweeping and fertile valleys where the Basutos grew their corn and raised their cattle, and which for years it was the delight of the Boers to raid; as it was the primal pleasure of the Basutos to pour down in sudden forays from their rocky fastnesses upon Dutch territory. This constant interchange of robbery and pillage embittered the character of both peoples, but naturally had the most degrading effect upon that of the Boer. For a presumably civilized and Christian race to be engaged year in and year out in the seizure of cattle from a savage enemy and in the occasional enslavement of children or the shooting down of stray individuals and small parties of a mobile enemy could not but have an evil influence upon a character so peculiar as was that of even the best and most enlightened of the emigrant farmers.
Basutoland Overrun
After a decade of this sort of intermittent struggle, however, the Boers were encouraged by familiarity with that part of the Basuto country which lay in the valleys and fields to try the task of storming some of the strongholds of the enemy. With the aid of a few small cannon, the first attempts were successful and surprisingly easy. Thus encouraged, within the three years following 1865, the greater part of Basutoland was overrun and the best cornfields captured. They were promptly "annexed" to the Free State, and then attention was devoted to the French missionaries, who had, meanwhile, been doing a splendid work amongst the natives. They were turned out of the country in which half a million of dollars had been expended upon their stations; their homes were plundered and the private property of men who had, in some cases, been laboring for thirty years in the region was confiscated; furniture, books and other items of value were destroyed, and all redress was refused. Permission was afterwards given to re-occupy their stations, not as such, but as farms for which $500 was in each case to be paid the Boer Government. Much of the conquered territory was also surveyed and sold. But the power of the Boers was a very fitful one. With a weak Government at home they were unable to hold the regions which they captured from time to time, and the result was a re-occupation by the Basutos, an attempt to cultivate their fields, further reprisals, and more attacks upon the mountain strongholds. Upon one occasion the Boers destroyed all the growing crops of an extensive section. But Thaba Bosigo, the central fortress of the country, could not be subdued by any force available.
AN ARMORED TRAIN SHELLING A BOER BATTERY AT NIGHT.AN ARMORED TRAIN SHELLING A BOER BATTERY AT NIGHT.
BOERS CROSSING THE MALMANI FORD NEAR MAFEKINGBOERS CROSSING THE MALMANI FORD NEAR MAFEKING
Basutoland under British Rule
In 1867 one last struggle occurred, and then Moshesh, weakened by age and realizing that his sons were much as other natives were, and did not possess the ability to hold the country together when his own end had come, turned to Sir Philip Wodehouse, the Governor and High Commissioner at Cape Town, and asked that his people be proclaimed British subjects. This was done, partly from a wise unwillingness to have the Free State so immensely strengthened as it would have been by the possession of Basutoland, partly by a natural objection to have so large a number of natives dispersed over the country without home or special object, and partly by dislike of the policy which the Boers had been for years pursuing in regard to savages generally and missionaries in particular. The Free Staters were intensely annoyed. They had lost the opportunity for a lasting revenge upon their enemy and the possibility of possessing the Switzerland of South Africa. In the light of after events the action of Sir Philip Wodehouse seems almost Providential, and is certainly one of the few instances where British statecraft was really brought into play in this part of the world. Were the Basuto strongholds in possession of Dutch sharpshooters and fortified by German science and artillery, the struggle of 1899-1900 would be infinitely more serious than it is at the time of writing.
"The Hollanders"
The Boers of the Free State bitterly resented this annexation. Although now governed by the wisest Dutchman who has come to the front in South Africa—Jan Hendrik Brand—(afterwards better known as Sir John Brand) who had succeeded Pretorius as President in 1865—they were also greatly influenced by a small and compact body of men, known as Hollanders, who had obtained possession of nearly all the offices of emolument in the State. These Hollanders afterwards drifted largely into the Transvaal where they had fuller and freer scope for anti-British sentiment and policy; and for isolation from the British ideas and principles which gradually and, in the end, powerfully, controlled the policy of President Brand. Meantime, however, these adventurers from Holland had much influence in the Free State. In 1858, when the Basutos had driven back the farmers and were threatening their homes and cattle during one of the ups and downs of the long struggle, a number of the Boers, and even some of the Hollanders, were in favor of seeking annexation to Cape Colony, and actually a resolution to that effect went through the Volksraad. But five years later, when fifteen hundred and fifty signers of a memorial asked the Volksraad to press an agitation to this end, the situation in regard to the Basutos had meanwhile changed, and the Hollanders opposed the proposition strongly. The movement was never seriously revived. Speaking in this connection at the prorogation of the Cape Parliament in September, 1868, Sir Philip Wodehouse declared that: "Entirely on my own responsibility, giving expression only to my own opinions, I may say that I regard the measures which severed from their allegiance the European communities in those regions to have been founded in error."
The Boers Protest
This Hollander party refused to enter into any negotiation with the High Commissioner concerning the Basutoland annexation, indulged in much talk about French and Russian intervention, and finally despatched two Commissioners to London armed with a long and emphatic protest. Fortunately for all concerned, the British Government approved of the policy pursued by Sir Philip Wodehouse and authorized him to take such further action as, to his knowledge of local conditions, might seem desirable. This wisdom of this course was so unusual and striking in connection with South African affairs that a tribute of respect seems due to the Colonial Secretary of that period—the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The annexation was, in fact, in the immediate interest of the Free State as well as in the future interests of Great Britain. It gave the exhausted republic a rest from protracted and injurious conflict. It afforded an opportunity for the statesmanship of the new President to assert and express itself. It facilitated the development of a friendliness between Cape Colony and the Free State which, so long as President Brand lived and ruled (1865-88), did much for the general good of South Africa and something for the improvement of individual character amongst the less implacable farmers of the little republic. There was indeed much for a statesman to do. Ideals of Government amongst the best of the Boers were still so crude as to be almost laughable. Masses of useless paper money were in existence. Farms or ranches had been neglected, many cattle destroyed and heavy debts incurred.
Discovery of Diamonds
Just at this moment the discovery of diamonds effected a revolution in South African affairs. As this incident is variously described by many writers, and as its importance is so great from an historical point of view, I propose to pin my faith upon the record given by Dr. George M. Theal. His position as a civil servant and Historiographer to the Cape Government would, perhaps, lay the most impartial of historians open to occasional allegations of favoritism in dealing with annals so permeated with Dutch and English rivalry as are those of South Africa. But there can be no question as to his accuracy in treating of such questions of fact as this.[1] He states that: "One day, in 1867, a child on a farm in the north of Cape Colony was observed to be playing with a remarkably brilliant pebble, which a trader, to whom it was shown as a curiosity, suspected to be a gem of value. It was sent for examination to a qualified person in Grahamstown, who reported that it was a diamond of twenty-one carats weight and that its value was £500. Search was immediately commenced in the neighborhood by several persons in odd hours, and soon another, though much smaller, was found. Then a third was picked up on the bank of the Vaal River, and attention was directed to that locality. During 1868 several were found, though as yet no one was applying himself solely to looking for them. In March, 1869, the 'Star of South Africa' was obtained from a Korana Hottentot, who had been in possession of it for a long time without the least idea of its value except as a powerful charm. It was a magnificent brilliant of eighty-three carats weight when uncut, and was readily sold for £11,000."
[1] The Story of the Nations Series.South Africa, p. 322.
Ownership and Territorial Rule
The lower Vaal then became the scene of a bustling, restless and struggling population of miners and speculators. Wealth and diamonds go together, and with them naturally came questions of ownership and territorial rule. The latter was and had been in dispute for many years. The southern bank of the river was probably Free State territory, but the ownership of the northern bank was in grave doubt. No actual government had been established there, although the Transvaal, the Free State, the Batlapin tribe of natives, and the Griqua captain—Waterboer—all claimed portions of the ground. There was naturally much disorder at the mines, both north and south of the River, under such conditions, and, finally, as the bulk of the miners were British subjects, the High Commissioner at Cape Town decided to interfere, and proposed a general arbitration. President Brand declined the suggestion, but President Pretorius of the Transvaal acceded, and a Court was established at Bloemhof, on the northern bank of the Vaal, with Mr. Keate, Governor of Natal, as final Umpire. From the information then available there seems no doubt that the Award issued by Mr. Keate in October, 1871, was just. He acted, and could only act, upon the evidence presented to the Court, and, as the Free State refused to work up or present its case, and as Waterboer was enabled by the use of a clever advocate to prepare a fairly strong one, the region in dispute was finally awarded to him. He had already offered his claim to the territory to the British authorities, and, as soon as the legal decision was announced, Sir Henry Barkly, as High Commissioner, proclaimed the Diamond Mines and what had long been familiarly known as Griqualand West, to be a British dependency. Afterwards, during the holding of a special Court for the settlement of individual ground-claims, a minute search into the history of the region south of the Vaal revealed an unsuspected flimsiness in Waterboer's title, and the judgment of the Court thereupon threw out all titles based upon Griqua grants. This very impartial verdict—under all the circumstances of the case—at once gave President Brand a position in the matter which he did not hesitate to use. He went to London and laid his case before the British Government, which replied that the possession of the country in question was a necessity to the paramount Power in South Africa, but that he would be given $450,000 as a settlement of the Free State claims. This he accepted.
A Momentous Decision
The decision was as momentous in its results as the annexation of Basutoland. Without the possession of Griqualand West, the British Government and settlers, and Cape Colony itself, would have been shut off from expansion to the north. The unclaimed country from the Limpopo to the Zambesi would have been open to the raids and eventual occupation of the Boers of the two Republics. The diamond mines of South Africa—with their hundreds of millions' worth of precious stones—would have been in the hands of England's enemies as well as the gold mines. Matabeland and Mashonaland and the empire created by Cecil Rhodes to the north and west of the republics would have been alien ground. The development of British South Africa would, in a word, have been effectually confined to the limited region south of the Orange River and the Drakensberg Mountains. The Keate Award, therefore, and the dispute between the two Dutch Governments and that of Great Britain, turned upon more important issues than the discovery of diamonds. The Boers did not really want the latter, but it is fairly evident now that they fully appreciated the importance of holding the only route to the north which still remained open to British acquisition. Had President Brand shared in the hostile sentiments of many of his own people and of his compatriots over the Vaal toward Great Britain, he would never have sold his claim even for the sum which did so much to place the finances of the Free State upon a sound footing. From this time forward to the end of the century, however, the Orange Free State enjoyed a condition of progressive prosperity. Roads, public buildings and bridges were constructed. A fairly good system of Dutch public schools was established in the villages, though it did not greatly affect the farmers on their wide ranches.Railway from Cape TownA railway was run through the country from Cape Town to Pretoria, largely at the expense of the Cape Government, while branch lines in time connected the Free State system with Durban, in Natal, and with Port Elizabeth and East London, on the southeast coast of Cape Colony. President Brand was re-elected to his position until he died in 1888, leaving the highest of reputations as a wise administrator, a warm friend of Great Britain, and a sincere admirer of British institutions. After his time other influences predominated, and the first evidence of this was in the election of Mr. F. W. Reitz—previously Chief Justice of the State—as his successor.
Condition of the Transvaal
Meanwhile, the Transvaal State, or South African Republic as it called itself, was passing through an infinite variety of more or less painful experiences. The region possessed by the Boers north of the Vaal is a great tract of fairly fertile and level land broken here and there by rugged hills. The climate is varied, but upon the whole pleasant and healthful. Its wheat-producing capabilities are famed throughout South Africa. Coffee and tobacco also thrive. But cattle-raising was and is the primary pursuit of almost the entire white or Dutch population. The Boers of this region did not arrive there all at once, or found their State upon conditions of mutual interest and a basis of common principles. Their one tie of union, their single basis of co-operation, was hatred of the English. Whether trekking north from Cape Colony under Potgieter and fighting the Matabele for a country to live in; or leaving Natal in utter disgust at the proposed free institutions of the new British administration; or crossing the Vaal from the Orange River Sovereignty to escape from even friendly relations with British communities; they were, and remained, the most implacable, the most ignorant, the most isolated and unmanageable of the emigrant farmers. At first the Boer population numbered only some sixteen thousand, and in 1837, after the destruction of Moselkatze and the Matabele power on the south side of the Limpopo, an unsuccessful attempt was made to form a common government. A little later four republics—Pochefstroom, Zoutpansberg, Lydenburg and Utrecht—were established, but without much effect so far as practical government was concerned. A period of wild license followed, and was marked by much cruelty towards the natives as well as anarchy and strife amongst the farmers themselves.
Transvaal Under Pretorius
In all the great region between the Orange River and the Limpopo these conditions, however, prevailed between 1836 and 1850 to a greater or lesser degree. South of the Vaal a check came through the vicinity of British power and population; but north of that historic river there was little ameliorative influence until about 1864. Marthinus Wessel Pretorius became President of one of the Transvaal sections, or republics, in 1857, and by 1860 had united the entire region under his control. Even then, however, there was a further period of civil war until, in 1864, Pretorius succeeded in obtaining general acceptance by the people and a legal election, with S. J. P. Kruger as Vice-President. He at once resigned the Presidency of the Orange Free State, which he had also held since 1858—but without success to his efforts at uniting the northern and southern republics—and devoted himself to breaking the power of the Baramapulana tribe which had established itself, in great and growing strength, upon the southern banks of the Limpopo and in territory which the Boers thought they should control. During more than three succeeding years the Transvaal tried in vain to subjugate this tribe. The State, however, had no money, and could not even pay for the transport of ammunition from Durban, on one occasion, while its people were not united in the prosecution of the war. The result was a practical withdrawal from the Zoutpansberg region; a recognition of the independence of the Baramapulana under the nominal form of a small annual tribute; and the creation of difficulties amongst other tribes which realized the check thus given to a people who had often oppressed them and frequently attacked their kraals. Wars followed with the Baralong and other clans, and the Republic presently found itself unable to assert its authority over the natives within its claimed sphere of supremacy, or to even hold its own territory intact. By 1870, when the Transvaal became mixed up in the Diamond Fields controversy and entered into the arbitration resulting in the Keate Award, the condition of the people was deplorable.Ignorance and IsolationThe generation which was now grown up had absolutely no knowledge of anything beyond their own family circle, and had no acquaintance whatever with books, or history, or external affairs. The rivers were unbridged, the Treasury was empty, the salaries of the officials were only occasionally paid and trade was carried on by barter in the absence of gold or silver. The natives around them could not be more densely ignorant, or more completely isolated, than were these farmers on the veldt with all their thriving flocks and herds and stores of grain and vegetables and fruit. Whatever the poverty of intellect, or knowledge, or the primitive nature of their government, there was never any lack of food and wealth of cattle amongst the Dutch of the Transvaal. Like the Matabele and Zulu in their days of power, the Boers always possessed these requisites of life. Yet they would not pay taxes, or support their government, or educate their children.
Discontent and Disintegration
President Pretorius was compelled to resign as a result of his participation in the Diamond Fields' arbitration, and the Reverend Thomas Francois Burgers, a clergyman of unorthodox views, who had distinguished himself as a lawyer, was elected, in 1872, to the position. He was an able man, but somewhat visionary for the strained situation which required his attention. He had to deal with a few thousand ignorant men of seventeenth century views who were unable to govern themselves, or to control the surrounding natives, and be expected within a few years to mould out of this unpromising material a prosperous Republic with colleges, railways, telegraphs and a great name amongst the nations of the world. That his dreams were afterwards in a measure realized reflects credit upon his patriotism and perspicacity; but his policy broke down before the obstacles of the immediate present. Money to the extent of $450,000 was obtained from Holland, which the President visited in 1874, under authority from the Volkraad. With this sum railway material was purchased for a proposed line from Lorenzo Marques to Pretoria, and a Superintendent of Education was brought back to manage a system which was not yet in existence and for the creation of which there was neither money nor popular desire. When Mr. Burgers arrived home again he found discontent and disintegration everywhere visible, and his educational scheme was put aside; while his railway material was sent to rot at the Portuguese port for want of more money to carry on the enterprise. Then the strong Bapedi tribe under Sekukuni rose in rebellion; many of the Boers refused to fight under an agnostic President; and a large commando which he succeeded in getting together failed to accomplish anything and in the end stampeded homeward. The first result of this failure was anarchy, and the secondary consequence was the development of a situation, through the menacing attitude of the Zulu forces upon the frontier, which brought about annexation to the British Crown and the creation of the strictly modern phase of the South African question.
Gradual Growth of Cape Colony
The dismemberment of South Africa, which commenced in the days of the Great Trek, which was made more distinct by the Conventions of 1852-4, and was destined to culminate in the Conventions of 1881-4, was at first somewhat of a boon to Cape Colony. It removed about ten thousand of the most discontented, restless and ignorant portion of its population and left plenty of land and room for the occupation of future immigrants. They came slowly, however, as the Kaffir wars had given the country a bad name and the reputation of its climate was not particularly good. But, between 1845 and 1850, some five thousand British settlers were brought in under aid from the Government, and a little later a number of Germans who had fought for England in the Crimean war migrated to the Cape. In 1858, two thousand German peasants were settled on lands near the southern coast of the Colony which had once belonged to the Kaffirs. They made excellent settlers, and in time merged with the British population, which came to predominate in the eastern part of the country, as the Dutch did in the western section.
The Climate
The climate was found to be reasonably healthful. To newcomers the sudden change from heat to cold, owing to the south-east winds, was found unpleasant, and in cases of weak constitutions somewhat dangerous. But with proper care in clothing and gradual acclimatization this difficulty soon moderated, and the peculiar dryness of the climate was found to make strongly for health. Sunstrokes were rare, and the only serious evil arising from the heat was the drying up of the rivers in the interior of the country. In most parts of the continent malarial fever was then an admitted and serious danger, as it is to-day in the great lake region of Central Africa and in the valley of the Nile. In German East-Africa, in parts of the Transvaal and in the Delagoa Bay region there is still a similar state of affairs. But Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal were then, and are at the present time, almost entirely free of this dreaded disease. For weak lungs it was discovered that no finer country exists in the world than the Cape, and for the development of general healthfulness and vigour the settlers of the Colony soon found themselves in an ideal region.
Natural Resources, etc.
Natural resources were not quite so apparent. A wealth of brilliant flowers and tropical plants existed, but forests were few, timber was scarce and costly, and it was years before the introduction of the Australian Eucalyptus embowered many a village from the Cape to Kimberley and from Buluwayo to Pretoria in groves of that useful tree. The land in some cases was fertile, but, on the whole, was perhaps more suited to the raising of sheep and cattle than to agriculture in the American or Canadian sense. Farming of the latter kind involves severe labour, and neither the original slaves, the coloured labourers of an after-time, nor the Dutch farmers, were fitted by disposition or nature for the work. But, as the population increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1805 to 182,000 in 1865, and to 237,000 ten years later, the country assumed a more civilized and prosperous appearance. Sheep and cattle were literally scattered over a thousand hills, while various collateral industries were developed by English settlers which the slow-moving Dutch would never have dreamed of. Between 1812 and 1820 the Merino sheep was introduced, and its wool soon became a source of profit and wealth. In 1865 ostrich farming was commenced, and speedily developed great importance through the process of artificial incubation. Roads were made, churches and schools were built, municipal government in the towns and villages was introduced, and the Colonial finances were put into shape despite the expenses of Kaffir wars and native troubles—which were mainly charged to the Imperial exchequer. The first railway was constructed in 1859, and wagon roads were carried over various mountain passes and through much of the settled part of the country.
An Executive Council Created
In 1834 an Executive Council had been created composed of members nominated by the Governor, and therefore more or less dependent upon his good-will. Perhaps at that time, and in view of the limited population, the racial rivalry and religious and educational complications, it was just as well that such a body should not be elective, as some desired. Twenty years later, however, when conditions had somewhat changed, a representative Legislature was established composed of a Council and a House of Assembly. Members were to be elected upon a wide franchise, with no distinction of race or color, excepting that a Kaffir had to hold some small amount of property and to have given up the tribal system. There were very few natives in this condition. Meanwhile the dissensions between the Dutch part of the population and the missionaries continued, and they extended at times to the English settlers also. There can be no doubt of the intense irritation aroused by this controversy. The Dutchman looked upon the native as created and existing for his special benefit, and through the effect of contiguity and similarity of conditions often induced the English farmer to agree with him. The missionary, on the other hand, believed himself appointed to guard the interests of the weaker race, and was too apt to forget the suffering caused by Kaffir raids from the outside, in his general sympathy for the downtrodden representatives of the race in the Colony itself.
A Long Struggle
From about 1820 to 1860 this struggle lasted. It weakened the hands of the Governors, who usually shared the Colonial view of the Kaffir wars, as against the missionaries. It injured the reputation of the Colonial Office throughout South Africa from the widespread belief that its officials were inspired, or guided, by the friends of the missionaries and by the impracticable sentiments of Exeter Hall, rather than by the wishes of the people of Cape Colony. It seriously affected the continuity of policy which should have marked the action of the British Government, in these regions of all others, and which, unfortunately, so seldom characterized their treatment of either Cape Governors or native questions. In 1846 commenced the seventh Kaffir or Kosa war. Sandili was the heir of Gaika, the Kosa chief who had figured in a previous conflict, and he had for some time prior to this date permitted raids upon the settlers of the Colony's eastern territory, and had entirely disregarded pledges and arrangements. Finally, Sir Peregrine Maitland sent a military force to occupy the region controlled by Sandili and bring him to terms. With incomprehensible but oft-repeated carelessness in South African warfare, a long ammunition wagon train following the expedition was left practically unguarded, and was, of course, surprised and seized by the Kaffirs.A Sweeping RaidThe result of the ensuing retreat of the British troops was a combination of the Kosa and the Tembu tribes, a sweeping raid along the entire frontier, the murder of settlers, the capture of cattle, and the burning of dwellings. The local forces of the Colony were hastily got together, and operations carried on in a scattered sort of way for some months until the arrival of several British regiments from abroad. A temporary submission was then made by the natives with a view to the planting of their maize. As soon as this was garnered the war broke out again.
The province of British Kaffraria
The Governor had meantime been recalled, and was succeeded for a few months by Sir Henry Pottinger. Sandili, however, soon had enough of the struggle, and, in 1847, peace was made after an enormous cost to the British authorities and amid the clamor of ruined Eastern farmers. At the end of the year Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith came out as Governor and High Commissioner, with unusual personal powers and under the awakening perception of the Colonial Office that it was better to let the man on the spot guide affairs than to attempt the real government of South Africa from six thousand miles away. It was not a permanent awakening, but it was useful so long as it lasted. Sir Harry Smith adopted the repudiated native policy of Sir Benjamin D'Urban; proclaimed the territory between the Kei and the Keiskama as a British possession for the absolute use of the western clans of the Kosa tribe; appointed a Commissioner to exercise general authority over the Chiefs and sent a strong body of troops to garrison various forts; and named the region—which once for a brief season had been called after Queen Adelaide—the Province of British Kaffraria. A few years later the eighth Kaffir war took place. The tribes seem to have considered the peace as nothing more than a truce, and as soon as the British authorities began to suppress the worst of their savage customs—notably the murders and tortures arising out of the hunt for witchcraft—discontent very speedily developed into the war of 1850-51. The usual struggle followed, with surprises, raids, murders and the ravaging of the frontier. The war was the most costly of all the conflicts with these restless tribes, and was specially marked by an event memorable in the annals of British bravery—the loss of H. M. S.Birkenheadwith 400 soldiers on board. It occurred near Algoa Bay, where the ship had struck a reef in the middle of the night. The women, children and sick people were sent away safely, in all the available boats, while the troops remained drawn up in line as though on parade, with the ship breaking up under them and a sea swarming with sharks around them.
An Extraordinary Incident
For two years a large force of soldiers, farmers and auxiliaries of various kinds were employed in trying to end a war with enemies who had the fleetness of the antelope and powers of disappearance equal to that of a bird. When their food was exhausted, and not before, the Kosas gave in and asked for peace. As usual in such cases, the Governor was recalled, and Sir George Cathcart appointed his successor. The government of British Kaffraria was reorganized and the region subdivided amongst the Tembus, a section of the Kosa tribe under a chief named Kreli, the western clans of the Kosa and the loyal Fingos. Several regiments of regular troops were maintained in the Province and a body of local police formed from amongst the younger white colonists. In 1857 there took place one of those extraordinary incidents which can only occur in a region such as South Africa. The Kosas, prompted by some wizard who professed to wield unknown and vast powers and to hold communication with the unseen world, destroyed all their cattle and stores of grain in the belief that their ancestors would, as a reward for their faith, join them in driving the white man out of the country and in creating for them a boundless stock of new cattle and a limitless supply of fresh crops. Famine naturally followed, and some 30,000 natives perished of hunger or disease despite all that Sir George Grey, who, in 1854, had become Governor at Cape Town, could do for them in a hurried supply of provisions and work. Some good came out of the evil. Large tracts of depopulated land were taken possession of by European settlers, peace came to the exhausted region, and in 1865 it was annexed to Cape Colony. It may be added here that some small risings occurred in 1877, termed the ninth Kaffir war, and that in 1880 the region held by the Pondos was formally annexed to the Colony, and its borders thus became coterminous with those of Natal.
A GENERAL VIEW OF ESTCOURT, TWENTY-FIVE MILES SOUTH OF LADYSMITH. GENERAL VIEW OF CITY OF LADYSMITH, NATAL (From Photo by Henry Kisch).A GENERAL VIEW OF ESTCOURT, TWENTY-FIVE MILES SOUTH OF LADYSMITH.GENERAL VIEW OF CITY OF LADYSMITH, NATAL (From Photo by Henry Kisch).
MAP SHOWING COUNTRY FROM DURBAN TO LADYSMITHMAP SHOWING COUNTRY FROM DURBAN TO LADYSMITH
A Vexed Question
Meanwhile, the history of Cape Colony was by no means confined to conflicts with border natives or to the controversies with the Orange Free State, which have been detailed in preceding pages. In 1850 occurred one ol the most striking illustrations of what mistakes a fair-minded and well-meaning Home Government may at times be involved in when dealing with far-away regions. There seems to have been no perception in those days of the wrong which might be inflicted upon a Colony by the exportation of convicts undergoing various terms of penal servitude. Confinement in Australia or South Africa seemed to British statesmen, and especially to Earl Grey, who presided over the Colonial Office at this time, no more objectionable on principle than it would be if they were kept at home in the British Isles. They forgot that on being released these men—some punished for serious crimes, some for slight offenses—were let loose upon a community widely scattered and isolated and composed of many persons who, taken in this way, were easy victims to robbery or attack. And they entirely overlooked the danger of allowing hundreds, or in time thousands, of men without personal responsibility or character, to roam at will amongst a large and restless population of natives. They appear to have felt only that in the vast and vacant spaces of the Colonies there was room and verge for a released convict, or a ticket-of-leave man, to make for himself a new career untrammelled by the past, or by the danger of drifting again into the deeps of the great cities at home.
Penal Settlement in the Colony
When it was understood at the Cape that the Imperial Government proposed to establish a penal settlement in the Colony, similar to the one which had been formed at Botany Bay, the indignation aroused was immediate and intense, petitions and protests were sent in great number to London, meetings were held throughout the Colony, and when theNeptunearrived in Simon's Bay, Cape Town, with convicts on board, nearly all the people of the Peninsula bound themselves together in a pledge to supply nothing to the ship or to have any dealings with persons connected with it. Sir Harry Smith, who was then Governor, had expressed his own strong opposition to the plan; but he was compelled to obey his orders from home and could not therefore send the vessel back. For five months it lay in the Harbor, supplied from passing men-of-war and treated by the Colonists as though the plague were within its wooden walls. And then, at last, came the order—in frank and acknowledged response to the petitions of the Colonists—transferring its convict cargo to Tasmania.
A New Constitution
Four years after the satisfactory settlement of this vexed question came the grant of Parliamentary institutions to the Colony. This action was part of a general Colonial plan by which full responsible or ministerial government was established in Canada, under Lord Elgin—there had long been elective legislatures in the British-American Provinces—and a system formulated in the Australias similar to that of the Cape. The details of the proposed changes were left by the Colonial Office largely in the hands of the Governor and the appointive Legislative Council, which had been created in 1834, and it was therefore not expected that the result would be extreme in a democratic sense. The new constitution was promulgated on March 11, 1853, and by its terms an elective House of Assembly numbering forty-six members was created—afterwards increased to seventy-six, and with a five years' limit in time as against the earlier seven years period. The Upper Chamber or Legislative Council was, to the surprise of many, also made elective. It consisted of fifteen members, who were afterwards increased to twenty-two, with the Chief Justice of the Colony as an additional member andex-officioPresident. The right to vote for both Houses was given to every male British subject over twenty-one years of age who occupied a house or land worth $125, or was in receipt of a salary or mixed remuneration valued at $250. There was no distinction as to race, color, religion or mode of life, and this pronounced measure of electoral liberty was a matter of constant friction in the minds of the Dutch settlers—so far as they cared in these years to think or trouble themselves about the affairs of an alien rule. The legislation, however, was more important as the enunciation of a principle than because of its working out in practice at this particular period. There were few natives for many years in a position to take advantage of even this low franchise, and, of course, all who continued to share in the tribal system were absolutely debarred.Right to Vote LimitedIn 1892 the right to vote was limited by fresh legislation—resulting from the rising political power of the Afrikander Bund and the Dutch dislike to the natives—to such adult males as were able to sign their names and write down their addresses and employment. The franchise qualification was raised to a property one of $375, while the wage qualification was allowed to remain as it had been.
The First Parliament of the Colony
The first Parliament of the Colony met in June, 1854, and from that time onward all laws had to be sanctioned by both Houses and approved by the Governor. As elsewhere in the Empire the right of disallowance was reserved to the Queen for a given period after such laws reached London, but in practice the power was, and is, seldom used. Like so many of the apparently dormant prerogatives of the Crown it is, however, available for an emergency. Following this creation of Parliamentary institutions came the usual struggle for Parliamentary control over the appointments to office, over the expenditure of money, and over thepersonnelof the Governor's Council. As in other Colonies, it was found impossible to construct in a day, or a year, an exact imitation of Great Britain's Cabinet and governmental system, with all its complex Parliamentary code, its elaborate constitutional checks and counter-checks, its numerous traditions and precedents. And there was, of course, the same difficulty as Canada had already faced and overcome—the presence of a large electoral population with no hereditary or natural adaptability to the British constitutional system, and without, in some cases, the basis of cordial loyalty which is so essential to its successful operation. At first, therefore, the officials of the Executive Council (or what afterwards became the Ministry) were appointed by the Colonial Secretary. They framed the financial legislation of the Government and introduced it to the House of Assembly, and they held the right of discussion, though not of voting, in both Houses. This system was maintained for eighteen years, and, in view of England's heavy financial responsibilities in South Africa, the racial condition of Cape Colony itself and the continuous troubles everywhere with natives and Boers, it was, perhaps, as well that the threads of government should be largely held in London. And this may be said despite all the vacillations of the Colonial Office. Had there been firmness and continuity in the general Home policy concerning South Africa, there could be no question at all upon this point.
Wise Administration
Meanwhile, Sir George Grey had been distinguishing himself by a singularly wise administration between the years 1854 and 1859. He conciliated the Hottentots of the Colony by granting certain claims which had been long and fruitlessly pressed upon the authorities. He settled tor a time the native troubles in Kaffraria, and founded a great hospital for natives, in which, by 1890, more than 130,000 cases had been treated, and the resulting cures heralded in many corners of "Darkest Africa" as a proof of the Englishman's power and unexpected beneficence. He despatched troops to India at a critical period of the Mutiny and upon his own responsibility, settled the German Legion from the Crimea in the Colony, and brought out a number of German families for its members to marry into. Finally, during his first Governorship, he urged the union of the Legislatures of the Cape, Natal and Orange Free State in a common federal system, and at a time when the Free State might easily have been persuaded to accept the policy. But the Colonial Office would have none of it. Unfortunately, and to the lasting injury of South Africa, the Home Government distrusted him, and in 1858 he was recalled.
Sir George Grey Reappointed
The Derby Administration, however, met with defeat while Sir George Grey was on the sea, and when he reached London it was to find that he had been reappointed to his position. It long afterwards became known that this was done by the personal command of the Queen, who had appreciated the policy he pursued and had sympathized with his proposed federal scheme.[1] But despite this fact the new Government, as a whole, was so strongly opposed to the much-feared increase of responsibilities, under a federation in South Africa, that Sir George Grey was obliged to forego the hope of even attempting to carry his schema further. During his second administration, which only lasted until 1861, he entertained Prince Alfred (the Duke of Edinburgh), and traversed with him a great part of Cape Colony, Kaffraria and Natal; improved to an immense extent the splendid natural Harbor at Cape Town; visited the Orange Free State and established at Bloemfontein, as a token of friendship, the Grey Institute, in which so much has since been done for the higher education of the youth of that State.Annexation of BasutolandIn 1861 he accepted the Governorship of New Zealand, and was succeeded by Sir P. E. Wodehouse, whose administration was chiefly distinguished for the annexation of Basutoland. In 1870 Sir Henry Barkly took charge of affairs and assumed possession for Great Britain of the Diamond Fields. With the coming of Sir Bartle Frere, in 1877, arose new developments along the lines of Sir George Grey's disappointed hopes and hampered policy. This time, however, a check was to be given from within the Colony instead of by the Colonial Office. The wheel of fate refused to reverse itself.
[1]Life and Times of Sir George Grey. By W. L. Rees. London, 1892. Vol. XI., p. 298.
The First Cape Ministry
The year 1872 had seen the grant of full responsible government to the Colony and the crowning of its Parliamentary system by the establishment of the first Cape Ministry. As in the British-American Colonies, from 1854 onwards, the Ministry now had to obtain and hold the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Assembly, and its defeat upon any important question necessitated immediate retirement. The head of the Government, or Prime Minister, wasex-officioin charge of native affairs within the Colony, but, owing to the complex position of South Africa in the relationship of its various states to each other and towards the natives, the Governor of Cape Colony remained High Commissioner in South Africa with the control of British interests outside the bounds of Cape Colony. In such matters he was responsible to the Crown and not to his own Colonial Ministry. Parliament could be dissolved, constitutionally, at the pleasure of the Governor, but practically and mainly upon the advice of his Ministry. It could not sit longer than five years, so that the people were, and are, able to turn out their Government either through pressure upon their representatives at Cape Town, resulting in a Parliamentary vote of want of confidence, or by their own votes at the polls as the result of a general election. The following have been successively Prime Ministers of Cape Colony:
1872, Sir John C. Molteno, K.C.M.G.1878, Sir J. Gordon Sprigg, K.C.M.G.1881, Sir Thomas C. Scanlen, K.C.M.G.1884, Sir Thomas Upington, K.C.M.G.1886, Sir J. Gordon Sprigg, K.C.M.G.1890, The Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes.1893, Right Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes, P.C.1896, Right Hon. Sir Gordon Sprigg, P.C.1898, Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Q.C., C.M.G.
Lord Carnarvon's Scheme of Federation
Upon the structure of these Governments and around the names of their members turns much of the history of Cape Colony during these years; although a man of the wide influence of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr never held office except for a few months in 1881, while Sir John Henry de Villiers has not been in a Ministry since 1873 when he retired from the Molteno Cabinet to accept the Chief Justiceship of the Colony. The first great question which had to be dealt with under the new constitution was Lord Carnarvon's scheme of federation. This most cultured representative of British statecraft had, curiously enough, been Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time when the head of that Department, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, had refused any favorable consideration to the policy proposed by Sir George Grey in 1858. He had then agreed with his chief; now he was at the head of the Colonial Office, under the inspiration of Lord Beaconsfield's new Imperialism, as a convert in the most enthusiastic degree to the general principle of Colonial federations under the Crown. Accordingly, in 1875, he addressed a despatch to the Cape Government pointing out the complications of South African inter-state relations, the advantages of unity and the willingness of the Imperial Government to enact legislation bringing into effect a federal union of the various communities. At the same time he sent out, as a sort of confidential envoy to press the matter upon public attention, a man who, with all his brilliant attainments as a writer and historian—the late James Anthony Froude—seems to have been without that tact and personal magnetism so essential to the success of a delicate mission. His own record of the matter inOceanaproves this conclusively. And it was not a favorable moment for any general consideration of the matter. The Orange Free State was in a somewnat exasperated condition over the annexation of Griqualand West to Cape Colony, and had not yet become mollified by the personal influence of President Brand and by the results of the monetary return given for the loss of the Diamond Fields. The Transvaal was in a position of such factional discontent and general disintegration that its people could hardly have dealt clearly with such an important issue had even their still keen hatred of the English been eliminated from the question. Natal was in imminent danger from the massing of Zulu spears upon its frontiers; while the Dutch people in Cape Colony looked upon the whole matter with suspicion and certainly without sympathy.
Sir Garnet Wolseley as Governor
Following Mr. Froude's mission to the Cape came the appointment of Sir Garnet (afterwards Field Marshal Lord) Wolseley as Governor of Natal, with the special object of studying the situation and promoting federation. He returned to London after a few months without accomplishing anything very definite, and on August 3, 1876, presided over a Conference held in the metropolis and attended by several South African delegates. Amongst them was Theophilus Shepstone, a clever and ambitious man who had for years been in charge of native affairs in and around Natal, and for some time prior to this date had been in London urging a union of the various States as the only way out of existing evils and difficulties. The meeting adjourned, however, without any practical result, and in the succeeding year Sir Bartle Frere, a brilliant Anglo-Indian administrator, was sent out as Governor and High Commissioner with a special view to the promotion of confederation.Steps for Annexation of TransvaalAbout the same time Mr. (now created Sir) Theophilus Shepstone was given exceptional authority as a Special Commissioner in Natal to steps for take steps for the annexation of the Transvaal under certain possible conditions of necessity or willingness on the part of its inhabitants. These conditions appeared to present themselves and annexation followed; as did the Zulu war and the war of 1881. Meantime Sir Bartle Frere found himself and his policy opposed by practically the whole Dutch population of Cape Colony. He was violently criticised by the press and politicians of the Colonial Boers—who were now awakening to the possibilities of racial power under the new institutions of the country—and in 1880 had the mortification of having his carefully prepared federal proposals thrown out of the Cape Parliament; chiefly at the instigation of the Transvaal Boers, who were just then entering upon their struggle for independence. Meanwhile the Beaconsfield Government was defeated, Mr. Gladstone came into power, and in the prompt recall of Sir Bartle Frere and the equally prompt repudiation of his policy another unmerited grave was dug in the cemetery which South Africa has provided for the reputations of many Governors.
THE NAVAL BRIGADE AT LADYSMITH SHELLING THE BOERS, OCTOBER 30, 1899. The large gun mounted on Captain Scott's carriage is shown in action.THE NAVAL BRIGADE AT LADYSMITH SHELLING THE BOERS, OCTOBER 30, 1899.The large gun mounted on Captain Scott's carriage is shown in action.
THE LEICESTER REGIMENT RETREATING TO LADYSMITH BOMBARDED BY THE BOERSTHE LEICESTER REGIMENT RETREATING TO LADYSMITH BOMBARDED BY THE BOERS
This action of the Cape Parliament was an effective evidence of the growing political influence of the Dutch population in the Colony. Another was the establishment in 1882 of the dual language system. Prior to this date, and since 1828, the English language alone could be used in Parliamentary debate, in the Courts of Law, or in the Public Offices. But now the local Dutch farming population had awakened to its real political influence—largely through the formation of the Afrikander Bund in 1881—and its representatives in the Assembly soon obtained a change in the law. Henceforward either language could be used in any place or position, and it was also enacted eventually that no one should be admitted to the ordinary branch of the Civil Service without a perfect knowledge of both English and Dutch. Such a result was inevitable, under the circumstances, but it is hard to see any real advantage which has ensued. The measure did not improve the standard of public life, and even Dr. Theal, who is disposed to give the brightest view of Dutch development in the Colony, declares that it would be incorrect to say that the change "raised the tone of debate in Parliament or improved the administration of justice in the slightest degree." As a matter of fact it helped still further to isolate the Dutch people, encouraged the publication of Dutch newspapers, helped the progress of Dutch political organization in Parliament and in the Afrikander Bund, and promoted the use of apatoiswhich was very far, indeed, from being the mother-tongue of the race.
General Progress
Meanwhile, Cape Colony was making considerable material and general progress. It was largely an English development, as the Dutch population still adhered to the slow-going ways of its ancestors, and cattle and sheep remained the chief support of the farmers under British rule as they did of those beyond the Orange or the Vaal. At the beginning of the century, when the Colony finally came under the control of Great Britain, its products had been limited to grain, cattle and wine—the total exports being under half a million of dollars in value. At present they include aloes, coffee, copper ore, ostrich feathers, dried fruits, guano, angora hair, hides, horns, skins, tobacco, wine, wool and diamonds. In 1875 the vines of the Colony yielded four and a half million gallons of brandy. In the same year three million pounds of tobacco were produced; while the Colony, as a whole, possessed eleven million sheep, twenty-two thousand ostriches, over three million goats and a million horned cattle. The trade of the country has always been chiefly with Great Britain and carried in British vessels.Facts and FiguresBetween 1861 and 1886 the imports doubled and the exports trebled. From 1872 to 1897 they rose by leaps and bounds—the imports increasing by $67,000,000 and the exports by $66,000,000. Since English agricultural settlement and work has increased the growth of grain in some of the richer regions has been considerable. Wheat, maize, oats, barley and millet are common crops, while rice and cotton are grown in certain localities—the latter being still an experimental production. Merino sheep have largely taken the place of the big-tailed sheep of the early Dutch settlers. The following table,[2] beginning with 1854 and including 1872, as the years marked by important constitutional changes, will illustrate the general progress in this connection: