that England, across the seas, was afraid of him. Again I think that by vacillating policy we foolishly forced upon the Dutch the necessity of creating Republics, first across the Vaal and then between the Vaal and the Orange, when, but a short time before, we had refused them permission to do the same thing in Natal. I myself think that there should have been no Republic;—that in the Transvaal, and in the Orange State, as in Natal, we should have recognized the necessity of providing Government for our migrating subjects.
But in all this there has been no lust of power, no dishonesty. There has been little, if anything, of mean parsimony. In that matter of the Diamond Fields as to which the accusations against the Colonial Office have been the heaviest, I feel assured not only of the justice but of the wisdom of what was done. Had we not assumed the duty of government at Kimberley, Kimberley would have been ungovernable.
But the question which is of all the one of moment is the condition of the coloured races. Just now there is still continued among a small fraction of them a disturbance which the opponents of the present Government in the Cape Colony delight to call a War. In spite of this, throughout the length and breadth of South Africa,—even in what is still called Kreli's country,—the coloured man has been benefitted by our coming. He has a better hut, better food, better clothing, better education, more liberty, less to fear and more to get, than he had when we came among him, or that he would have enjoyed had we not come. If this be so, we ought to be contented with what our Government has done.
