South Africa and the Boer-British War Part 8

[Sidenote: 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 ill.u.s.trations 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 s.p.a.ces 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.

[Sidenote: 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, pet.i.tions and protests were sent in great number to London, meetings were held throughout the Colony, and when the _Neptune_ arrived 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 s.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sing 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 pet.i.tions of the Colonists--transferring its convict cargo to Tasmania.

[Sidenote: A New Const.i.tution]

Four years after the satisfactory settlement of this vexed question came the grant of Parliamentary inst.i.tutions 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 const.i.tution was promulgated on March 11, 1853, and by its terms an elective House of a.s.sembly 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 and _ex-officio_ President. 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 p.r.o.nounced 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. [Sidenote: Right to Vote Limited] In 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.

[Sidenote: 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 inst.i.tutions came the usual struggle for Parliamentary control over the appointments to office, over the expenditure of money, and over the _personnel_ of 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 const.i.tutional 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 const.i.tutional 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 a.s.sembly, 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.

[Sidenote: Wise Administration]

Meanwhile, Sir George Grey had been distinguis.h.i.+ng 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 Governors.h.i.+p, 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.

[Sidenote: 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 friends.h.i.+p, the Grey Inst.i.tute, in which so much has since been done for the higher education of the youth of that State.

[Sidenote: Annexation of Basutoland] In 1861 he accepted the Governors.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sumed 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.

[Sidenote: 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 a.s.sembly, and its defeat upon any important question necessitated immediate retirement. The head of the Government, or Prime Minister, was _ex-officio_ in charge of native affairs within the Colony, but, owing to the complex position of South Africa in the relations.h.i.+p 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, const.i.tutionally, 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.

[Sidenote: 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 Justices.h.i.+p of the Colony. The first great question which had to be dealt with under the new const.i.tution 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 in _Oceana_ proves 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 ma.s.sing of Zulu spears upon its frontiers; while the Dutch people in Cape Colony looked upon the whole matter with suspicion and certainly without sympathy.

[Sidenote: 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 accomplis.h.i.+ng 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.

[Sidenote: Steps for Annexation of Transvaal] About 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 inst.i.tutions 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LEICESTER REGIMENT RETREATING TO LADYSMITH BOMBARDED BY THE BOERS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NAVAL BRIGADE AT LADYSMITH Sh.e.l.lING THE BOERS, OCTOBER 30, 1899. The large gun mounted on Captain Scott's carriage is shown in action.]

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 a.s.sembly 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a _patois_ which was very far, indeed, from being the mother-tongue of the race.

[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: Facts and Figures] Between 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 const.i.tutional changes, will ill.u.s.trate the general progress in this connection:

1854 1872 1897

Receipts, $1,479,010 $ 5,770,205 $ 36,949,830 Expenditures, 1,562,605 4,612,840 34,261,930 Public Debt, none 7,755,470 136,412,025 s.h.i.+pping, tons (inwards), 1,202,715 2,412,780 32,101,005 " (outwards), 1,197,975 2,353,455 32,166,020 Imports, 7,740,185 21,943,640 89,659,390 Exports, 3,822,305 30,347,645 97,181,520

[2] Condensed from official figures in the _Statistical Register_.

Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 1897.

In 1868 the declared value of diamonds exported was $750, while from 1881 onwards the export averaged twenty millions a year--in 1897 being $22,271,880. In 1872 the export of wool reached its highest point, and exceeded sixteen millions in value. Since then it has diminished, owing to the effect of frequent droughts upon the sheep, and, in 1897, was but little over seven millions. Of all the exports Angora hair is now the most important, and excels gold, diamonds and precious stones.

In 1857 its export was about $5,000 in value; forty years later it was $60,900,000. The population had meantime been growing slowly. The Census of 1865 gave the Europeans as numbering 181,592, and the natives 314,789. Ten years later the figures were 236,783 and 484,201, respectively, and in 1891 the Census of that year showed an increase to 382,198 Europeans and 1,217,762 natives. How far these figures are accurate it is difficult to say. There has been an objection to differentiating between European races in the official returns--partly from the English portion not liking to appear in so marked a minority and partly, perhaps, from the Dutch themselves not desiring to have their full strength known. And it is not improbable that the last Census very greatly understated the numbers of the latter; as seems to have also been the case with the figures of Boer population in the two Republics.

[Sidenote: Other Statistics]

In other branches of development there have been marked evidences of advancement; though in the figures which follow, and notably in connection with railways and banking, the English part of the population is again the princ.i.p.al progressive element. In 1860 there were 225 schools and 18,757 scholars, and in 1897 2,358 schools and 119,812 scholars. The railways were taken over by the Government in 1873 to the extent of 64 miles. In 1897 the railways under Government control covered 1901 miles, with total receipts of $15,350,000 and expenditures of $9,500,000. This particular branch of progress was greatly a.s.sisted by the Orange Free State under President Brand.

Telegraph lines, with 19 stations, 781 miles of wire sending 15,500 messages in the year, were also a.s.sumed by the Government in 1873, and in 1897 there were 426 stations, 18,631 miles of wire, and 2,392,503 messages despatched. The fixed and floating deposits in the banks of the Colony amounted, in 1865, to ten million dollars and the bills and notes under discount to over fifteen millions. In 1897 the fixed deposits were $13,500,000, the floating deposits $24,000,000, and the discounts $17,000,000, in round numbers. The chief railways in the Colony start from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, and the main line into the interior now reaches Buluwayo. If Mr. Cecil Rhodes ever succeeds in the aim of his life, it will eventually reach Cairo, and thus connect the Cape with Egypt.

[Sidenote: The Colony from a Religious Standpoint]

Until the discovery of gold in the Transvaal the British emigration to South Africa was never extensive, and even since that time it has not been greatly added to so far as Cape Colony is concerned. The total of those sent from England between 1873 and 1884 was only 23,337. From a religious standpoint the condition of the Colony is somewhat complex.

There are two Church of England Dioceses, and the Church is very popular amongst the English part of the community, whilst its organization is excellent--a fact largely due to the work done during many years by Dr. Gray, Bishop of Cape Town. It is in close touch with the Church at home, and in 1874 had 45,000 adherents, of whom 19,000 were colored people. The Roman Catholic Church at that time numbered 8,000, and the Dutch Reformed Church, which is, of course, the Church of the Boers, included 132,000 adherents. In 1891 there were, according to the Census, 186,073 white members of the Dutch Reformed congregations in the Colony and 24,441 colored; 46,114 white adherents of the Church of England and an equal number of colored; 20,215 white adherents of Wesleyan Methodism and over a hundred thousand colored; and 12,000 Roman Catholics, mostly white; with the balance of the population scattering amongst minor denominations and the various sections of the Lutheran Church.

The most prominent public man of British extraction in the earlier period of the history of Cape Colony was the Hon. William Porter, C.M.G., who died in 1880 after many years' seclusion at his home in Ireland. A native and barrister of Erin, he was Attorney-General of Cape Colony as far back as 1839, and held office for a long period prior to the attainment of responsible government. The const.i.tution of 1854 was largely his creation, and his personality, combined with great natural eloquence, made him a strong place in the hearts of the people.

Three times he refused the position of Chief Justice, and, in 1872, declined the office of Prime Minister under the newly established system of complete self-government. Bishop Gray of Cape Town, who died in the year just mentioned, was also one of its great public figures.

During quarter of a century, and amidst innumerable ecclesiastical storms and political complications, he administered the affairs of the Anglican Church, and left it in a strongly organized position as the "Church of South Africa," with its own Synod, prosperous finances and growing members.h.i.+p. Sir Walter Curry, of Cape Mounted Rifles fame; Sir Sydney Smith Bell, a learned Judge of twenty-three years' labor; Sir Christoffel Josephus Brand, the first Speaker of the House of a.s.sembly; the Hon. Robert G.o.dlonton, M.L.C., and Thomas Burt Glanville, M.L.A.; Hon. Saul Solomon, M.L.A., Sir Andries Stockenstrom, Bart., M.L.A., Hon. J. W. Leonard, M.L.A., Hon Jonathan Ayliff, M.L.A., Hon. George Wood, M.L.C., the Hon. Andries Stockenstrom, Judge of the Supreme Court, and John n.o.ble, C.M.G., were all men who left their mark upon the history of the Colony.

After William Porter, the most prominent of the earlier Colonists, was the Hon. John Paterson. A Scotchman by birth, he went out to South Africa in 1840, and became a teacher, a journalist, a capitalist, a banker, and, finally, during many years was a keen politician. A member of both Houses in turn, a strong advocate of Confederation and railway development, a progressive leader in every sense of the word, his death by drowning in 1880 left a serious void in the life of the Colony. Of Sir John Charles Molteno, the first Premier at the Cape, much might be said. An Englishman by birth, he was a Colonist from the age of sixteen (1830) until his death in 1886. Partic.i.p.ating in different Kaffir wars, fighting for responsible government, struggling for railway extension, sharing in all the ups and downs of local political life, he became Prime Minister in 1872, and retired from public life in 1883, after receiving the honor of knighthood from the Queen.

In later years and in the development of Dutch individuality the Afrikander Bund did some measure of good.