Mr. Cecil Rhodes
First and foremost of all English leaders in South Africa, and ranking higher in practical power and developed policy than any British Governor or ruler in its history, is Mr. Cecil John Rhodes. He has been in the Parliament of Cape Colony since 1880, and was for a short time, in 1884, Treasurer in the Scanlen Ministry. He held no other official post until he became Chairman of the British South Africa Company in 1889, and Premier of the Colony in 1890. Of the other Prime Ministers of the Cape Sir Thomas Upington was a clever Irish Roman Catholic lawyer, a brilliant speaker and strong Imperialist, who became Attorney-General in 1878, after he had only been a couple of years in the Colony. Six years later he was Premier. Sir John Gordon Sprigg is an Englishman by birth and a politician of acknowledged personal probity. He is, however, described by a well-known writer on Colonial affairs[[3]] as a political opportunist who has changed his opinions upon various subjects, and who generally believes in being in accord with the majority wherever an opening may occur. This opinion arises somewhat from the fact that his policy of recent years has been in accord with that of Rhodes—up to 1895—and was very conciliatory toward the Dutch majority, while his own views were known to be strongly British. Sir James Sivewright Sir James Sivewright has not been Premier of the Colony, but was the pioneer head and front of its telegraph system—a native of Scotland and a graduate of Aberdeen—and was a member of the first Rhodes Ministry and the third Sprigg Ministry. One other politician must be mentioned—the Hon. John Xavier Merriman. A native of England, a son of Bishop Merriman of Grahamstown, a graduate of Oxford, and an early Tory and loyalist of strong views and enthusiastic adherence to Rhodes; he has developed into a Radical and a follower of Schreiner and the Afrikander Bund. It has been a remarkable change, presents a curious combination of racial inconsistencies, and has made him intensely unpopular amongst the Progressive, or Rhodes' party of recent years, as well as amongst the English element of the troubled present. He has been a member of the Scanlen Ministry, the first Rhodes Ministry, and belongs to the present Schreiner Government.
[[3]] Problems of Greater Britain. By Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bart., M.P. London, 1890.
The Parties of To-day
Meanwhile the parties of to-day had been developing—the Afrikander party and the Progressives. The former included Dutch leaders such as Hofmeyr, Schreiner, Te Water and Sauer, and a few Englishmen like J. X. Merriman. The latter was composed of English politicians such as Rhodes, Sprigg and Upington, and a few Dutchmen like Sir P. Faure. The policy of the former is and has been openly for some time voiced in the phrase: "Africa for the Afrikander." The policy of the latter is that of territorial expansion—as in the annexations to Cape Colony of Griqualand West and Bechuanaland—and of British supremacy throughout South Africa. Of course there have been many changes and developments, and it has only been within the past few years (1896-1900) that the policy of conciliating the Dutch has been in great measure dropped owing to its apparent impracticability. For the time being the Afrikander party is in power. It triumphed in the general elections of 1898, and the Legislative Assembly at Cape Town has a Dutch majority, the Ministry is emphatically a Bund Government, and the Legislative Council has fifteen Boer members to eight English. Such has been the final development of equal rights and British constitutional freedom in this South African Colony.
CHAPTER VII.
Imperial Policy in South Africa.
The Early Governors of Cape Colony
Like most of England's Colonial Governors those of the Cape were, from the time of Lord Caledon's arrival in 1807, men of character, standing and ability. They might make mistakes in policy, they might occasionally be led astray by local advisers and they were always liable to censure or recall from a Colonial Office which too often judged local conditions from the standpoint of Downing Street rather than by a clear comprehension of the difference between struggling pioneer communities and a wealthy and matured home society. But their intentions were good, they were never known to be, or even charged with being corrupt, and they usually had a degree of experience in public life which was naturally useful to a new country with crude institutions. Lord Caledon improved the postal system and established Circuit Courts for the better administration of justice in outlying districts. Sir John Cradock, who came out in 1811, established schools in the country regions and tried to control the nomadic tendencies of the Dutch farmers by making them freeholders of farms ranging from 6000 to 20,000 acres in extent. Lord Charles Somerset—a brother of the Duke of Beaufort and of Lord Raglan, the well-known Crimean General of after-years—was appointed in 1814 and carried out many measures of value to the infant Colony. He founded new townships, promoted industrial development, encouraged the importation of sheep and himself brought out Merinos whom he established in sundry breeding-farms. At the same time he broached and carried out the important scheme of immigration known in its result as the Albany Settlement and as one of the chief factors in the progress of the period. His large salary of fifty thousand dollars, paid by the Local Government was, therefore, well earned and though an unpopular and arbitrary man he certainly appears to have done good service to the community.