f LIBRARY UNIVERSITY* CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Photograph by] [ i and no more of Canada 3 The Colony or Island of Newfoundland i and no more Atlantic Is- and its Depen- lands . . 6 dencies , 3 The Colony or Islands" i and no more of the Bermudas ' West Indies 3 3 The Colony or Island" i and no more — of Jamaica \ Total . 60 20 ( f>} THE SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD, 33 I further direct my Trustees to establish American additional Scholarships sufficient in number for s the appropriation in the next following clause hereof directed and those Scholarships I some- (/) The following is a list of Colonies to which no Scholarships have been appropriated : — POPULATION. WHITE. COLOURED. CANADA Nova Scotia 459.000 New Brunswick 331,000 Prince Edward Island ... 103,250 about Manitoba 246,500 ... 100,000 North-West Territories ... 220,000 British Columbia 190,000 WEST INDIES ... Bahamas Leeward Islands Windward Islands ... i 549,750 100,000 15,000 38,000 5,000 122,500 5,000 92,500 MEDITERRANEAN... Trinidad and Tobago Gibraltar Malta 10,000 262,000 50,000 695,000 22,000 264,000 179,000 20,000 3,922,000 Hong Kong 2,500 97,500 3,75' 621,^0^ i S'Q ' ' The following is have been allotted :- SOUTH AFRICA AUSTRALASIA CANADA ATLANTIC ISLANDS WEST INDIES TOTAL . the population of Rhodesia Cape Colony Natal New South Wales .. the Colonies to which scholarships POPULATION. SCHOLAR- WHITE. COLOURED. SHIPS. n,coo ... 800,000 ... 9 500,000 ...1,850,000 ... 12 64,900 ... 865,000 ... 3 ... 1,35^,000 ... 7,200 . 3 South Australia Queensland Western Australia. .. New Zeiland Tasmania Ontario ... 353,000 ... 7,000 ... 3 473,000 ... 30,200 ... 3 152,500 ... 30,000 ... 3 770,000 ... 46,030 ... 3 ... 173,000 ... ... 3 ... 2,168,000 ... ... 3 Jamaica 15,000 ... 730,000 ... 3 Thus a population of 13,460,000 persons in the British Colonies is allotted 60 scholarships. A population of 76,000,000 in the United States is only allowed 100 scholarships. But a population of 7,405,000 persons, excluding India, Nigeria and Egypt, are allotted no scholarships at all. The average of scholarships to population is one in 760,000 in the United States, and one in 224,000 in the fifteen British Colonies to which they have been allotted. If the omitted British Colonies were dealt with on the same scale as the fifteen, 33 new scholarships would have to be founded. 34 THE WILL OF CECIL J. RHODES. times hereinafter refer to as " the American Scholarships." I appropriate two of the American Scholar- ships to each of the present States and Territories of the United States of North America, (q] Pro- (g) The following is a list of the States and Territories of the United States, with their population at the time of the last census : — POPULATION — UNITED STATES, 1900. STATE. POI'ULATION. STATE. POPULATION. Alabama 1,828,697 Rhode Island 428,556 Arkansas i,3II>564 South Carolina . I,340,3l6 California 1,485,053 South Dakota 401,570 Colorado 539.7°° Tennessee 2,O2O,6l6 Connecticut. 908,355 Texas 3,048,710 Delaware 184,735 Utah . . . 276,749 Florida . 528,542 Vermont . 343,641 Georgia . 2,216,331 Virginia . 1,854,184 Idaho 161,772 Washington . 5l8,I03 Illinois . 4,821,550 West Virginia 958,800 Indiana . 2,516,462 Wisconsin 2,069,042 Iowa 2,231,853 Wyoming. 92,531 Kansas . i,47o,495 Kentucky . 2,i47,i74 45 STATES. TOTAL 74,610,523 Louisiana 1,381,625 Maine . 694,466 Maryland 1,190,050 TERRITORIES, ETC. Massachusetts . 2,805,346 Alaska . 63,441 Michigan 2.420,982 A rizona 122,931 Minnesota . Mississippi . 1,751.394 loS1, 27° District of Col-) umbia . $ 278,718 Missouri 3.106,665 Hawaii . 154,001 Montana Nebraska 243,329 '1,068,539 Indian Terri-j tory . . J 391,960 Nevada . 42,335 New Mexico . 195,310 New Hampshire 411,588 Oklahama . 398,245 New Jersey . 1,883,669 PERSONS IN New York . 7,268,012 SERVICE North Carolina . 1,893,810 STATIONED 84,400 North Dakota . 319,146 ABROAD. Ohio . . . 4,157,545 5 Territories. Oregon . 4i3,536 Pennsylvania 6,302,115 U.S. TOTAL . 76,299,529 THE SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD. 35 vided that if any of the said Territories shall in my lifetime be admitted as a State the Scholarships appropriated to such Territory shall be appropriated to such State and that my Trustees may in their uncontrolled dis- cretion withhold for such time as they shall think fit the appropriation of Scholarships to any Territory. I direct that of the two Scholarships appropriated to a State or Territory not more than one shall be filled up in any year so that at no time shall more than two Scholar- ships be held for the same State or Terri- tory, (r) By Codicil executed in South Africa Mr. German Rhodes after stating that the German Emperor Sc.holar- , , , . ° . i~i €. . , . ships. had made instruction m English compulsory in German schools establishes fifteen Scholarships at Oxford (five in each of the first three years after his death) of ^250 each tenable for three years for students of German birth to be nomi- nated by the German Emperor for " a good understanding between England Germany and the United States of America will secure the (r) Mr. Stevenson, of Exeter College, told an interviewer recently a good story of an American who came to Oxford without a scholarship or other aid. He was a wild Westerner, and unceremoniously walked into a college one day and asked to see the Head. He then asked to be admitted on the books. He had no particular references, but clearly was a strong man. After some time he was admitted. He read hard and played hard. In the long vacation he returned to America and worked for his living— at one time as a foreman of bricklayers — and brought back enough money to go on with. In the Christmas " vac." he went to America and lectured on Oxford and England, and again brought back more money. And so he gradually kept his terms and eventually took double honours. " He was very well read : most interesting : most enthusiastic. We could do with many like him." THE WILL OF CECIL J. RHODES. The selec- tion of the scholars. The four qualifica- tions. peace of the world and educational relations form the strongest tie." (s) My desire being that the students who shall be elected to the Scholarships shall not be merely bookworms I direct that in the election of a student to a Scholarship regard shall be had to (i.) his literary and scholastic attainments (ii.) his fondness of and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket football and the like (iii.) his qualities of manhood truth courage devotion to duty sympathy for the protection of the weak kindliness unselfishness and fellowship and (iv.) his exhibition during school days of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his school- mates for those latter attributes will be likely in after-life to guide him to esteem the per- formance of public duty as his highest aim. (s) I am assured, says the Daily Telegraph Berlin corre- spondent, that Kaiser Wilhelm himself was much struck by the donor's generosity, and by the motives which actuated him in thinking of Germany in this way. His Majesty was specially touched by the attention shown to himself, and forthwith signified his intention to comply with the stipulation thai candidates for the scholarships should be nominated by himself. In due time they will be so selected by the Kaiser. Mr. W. G. Black, of Glasgow, writes to the Spectator : — " Mr. Rhodes seems to have been impressed by the German Emperor's direction that English should be taught in the schools of Germany. It may not be uninteresting to note that his Majesty's first action on receiving Heligoland from Great Britain was to prohibit the teaching of English in the island schools. That was in 1890. The prohibition was bitterly resented by the people, who had since 1810 been subjects of the British Crown, but they were, of course,, powerless." 37 38 THE WILL OF CECIL J. RHODES. Apportion- As mere suggestions for the guidance of those marks! w^° w^l have the choice of students for the Scholarships I record that (i.) my ideal qualified student would combine these four qualifications in the proportions of three-tenths for the first two-tenths for the second three-tenths for the third and two-tenths for the fourth qualification so that according to my ideas if the maximum number of marks for any Scholarship were 200 they would be apportioned as follows — 60 to each of the first and third qualifications and 40 to each of the second and fourth qualifications (ii.) the marks for the several qualifications would be awarded independently as follows (that is to say) the marks for the first qualification by examination for the second and third qualifica- tions respectively by ballot by the fellow-students of the candidates and for the fourth qualification by the head master of the candidate's school and (iii.) the results of the awards (that is to say the marks obtained by each candidate for each qualification) would be sent as soon as possible for consideration to the Trustees or to some person or persons appointed to receive the same and the person or persons so appointed would ascertain by averaging the marks in blocks of 20 marks each of all candidates the best ideal quali- fied students. (/) (/) The following account of the discussion which took place when the proportion of marks was finally settled is quoted from the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, May, 1902, p. 480. The discussion is reported by Mr. Stead, who was present with Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Hawksley : — Then, later on, when Mr. Hawksley came in, we had a long discussion concerning the number of marks to be allotted under each of the heads. Mr. Rhodes said : " I'll take a piece of paper. I have got my three things. You know the way I put them," he said THE SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD. 39 No student shall be qualified or disqualified for No Racial 1 • 011 !_• fi_ • °r Religious election to a Scholarship on account ot his race or Tests, religious opinions. Except in the cases of the four schools herein- Method of before mentioned the election to Scholarships shall be by the Trustees after such (if any) con- sultation as they shall think fit with the Minister laughing, as he wrote down the points. " First, there are the three qualities. You know I am all against letting the scholar- ships merely to people who swot over books, who have spent all their time over Latin and Greek. But you must allow for that element which I call 'smug,' and which means scholar- ship. That is to stand for four-tenths. Then there is ' brutality,' which stands for two-tenths. Then there is tact and leadership, again two-tenths, and then there is ' unctuous rectitude,' two-tenths. That makes up the whole. You see how it works." Then Mr. Hawksley read the draft clause, the idea of which was suggested by Lord Rosebery, I think. The scheme as drafted ran somewhat in this way : — A scholarship tenable at Oxford for three years at ^300 a year is to be awarded to the scholars at some particular school in the Colony or State. The choice of the candidate ultimately rests with the trustees, who, on making their choice, must be governed by the following considerations. Taking one thousand marks as representing the total, four hundred should be allotted for an examination in scholarship, conducted in the ordinary manner on the ordinary subjects. Two hundred shall be awarded for proficiency in manly sports, for the purpose of securing physical excellence. Two hundred shall be awarded (and this is the most interesting clause of all) to those who, in their intercourse with their fellows, have dis- played most of the qualities of tact and skill which go to the management of men, who have shown a public spirit in the affairs of their school or their class, who are foremost in the defence of the weak and the friendless, and who display those moral qualities which qualify them to be regarded as capable leaders of men. The remaining two hundred would be vested in the headmaster. The marks in the first category would be awarded by com- petitive examination in the ordinary manner ; in the second and third categories the candidate would be selected by the vote of his fellows in the school The headmaster would of 40 THE WILL OF CECIL J. RHODES. having the control of education in such Colony, Province, State or Territory. A qualified student who has been elected as aforesaid shall within six calendar months after his election or as soon thereafter as he can be admitted into residence or within such extended time as my Trustees shall allow commence course vote alone. It is provided that the vote of the scholars should be taken by ballot ; that the headmaster should nomi- nate his candidate before the result of the competitive examina- tion under (i), or of the ballot under (2) and (3) was known, and the ballot would take place before the result of the competitive examination was known, so that the trustees would have before them the names of the first scholar judged by competitive examination, the first selected for physical excellence and for moral qualities, and the choice of the headmaster. The candidate under each head would be selected without any knowledge as to who would come out on top in the other categories. To this Mr. Rhodes had objected on the ground that it gave "unctuous rectitude" a casting vote, and he said "unctuous rectitude" would always vote for " smug," and the physical and moral qualities would go by the board. To this I added the further objection that " smug" and "brutality" might tie, and "unctuous rectitude " might nominate a third person, who was selected neither by " smug " nor " unctuous rectitude," with the result that there would be a tie, and the trustees would have to choose without any information upon which to base their judgment. So I insisted, illustrating it by an imaginary voting paper, that the only possible way to avoid these difficulties was for the trustees or the returning officer to be furnished not merely with the single name which heads each of the four categories, but with the result of the ballot to five or even ten down, and that the headmaster should nominate in order of preference the same number. The marks for the first five or ten in the competitive examination would of course also be recorded, and in that case the choice would be automatic. The scholar selected would be the one who had the majority of marks, and it might easily happen that the successful candidate was one who was not top in any one of the categories. Mr. Rhodes strongly supported this view, and Mr. Hawksley concurred, and a clause is to be prepared stating that all the votes rendered at any rate for the first five or ten should be notified to the trustees, and also the Photograph by} Mr. B. F. Hawksley. [E. H. Mills. D 2 THE SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD. 43 residence as an undergraduate at some college in the University of Oxford. The scholarships shall be payable to him from the time when he shall commence such residence. I desire that the Scholars holding the scholar- Scholars to ships shall be distributed amongst the Colleges of be djstri- the University of Oxford and not resort in undue colleges™ numbers to one or more Colleges only. order of precedence for five or ten to the headmaster. Mr. Rhodes then said he did not see why the trustees need have any responsibility in the matter, except in case of dispute, when their decision should be final. This I strongly supported, saying that provided the headmaster had to prepare his list before the result in the balloting or competition was known, he might be constituted returning officer, or, if need be, one of the head boys might be empowered to act with him, and then the award of the scholarship would be a simple sum in arith- metic. There would be no delay, and nothing would be done to weaken the interest. As soon as the papers were all in the marks could be counted up, and the scholarship proclaimed. First I raised the question as to whether the masters should be allowed to vote. Mr. Rhodes said it did not matter. There would only be fourteen in a school of six hundred boys, and their votes would not count. I said that they would have a weight far exceeding their numerical strength, for if they were excluded from any voice they would not take the same interest that they would if they had a vote, while their judgment would be a rallying point for the judgment of the scholars. I protested against making the masters Outlanders, depriving them of votes, and treating them like political helots, at which Rhodes laughed. But he was worse than Kruger, and would not give them the franchise on any terms. Then Mr. Hawksley said he was chiefly interested in the third category — that is, moral qualities of leadership. I said yes, it was the best and the most distinctive character of Mr. Rhodes's school ; that I was an outside barbarian, never having been to a university or a public school, and therefore I spoke with all deference ; but speaking as an outside barbarian, and knowing Mr. Rhodes's strong feeling against giving too much preponderance to mere literary ability, I thought it would be much better to alter the proportion of marks to be awarded for " smug " and moral qualities respectively, that is to say, I would reduce the " smug " to 200 votes, and put 4op 44 THE WILL OP CECIL J. RHODES. Discipline. The Annual Dinner. Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore con- tained my Trustees may in their uncontrolled discretion suspend for such time as they shall think fit or remove any Scholar from his Scholarship. In order that the Scholars past and present may have opportunities of meeting and discussing their experiences and prospects I desire that my Trustees shall annually give a dinner to the past and present Scholars able and willing to attend at on to moral qualities. Against this both Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Hawksley protested, Mr. Rhodes objecting that in that case the vote of the scholars would be the deciding factor, and the " smug " and " unctuous rectitude " would be outvoted. If brutality and moral qualities united their votes they would poll 600, as against 400. It was further objected, both Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Hawks- ley drawing upon their own reminiscences of school-days, that hero-worship prevailed to such an extent among schoolboys that a popular idol, the captain of an eleven, or the first in his boat, might be voted in although he had no moral qualities at all. Mr. Hawksley especially insisted upon the importance of having a good share of culture in knowledge of Greek and Roman and English history. Then I proposed as a com- promise that we should equalise " smug " and moral qualities. Mr. Rhodes accepted this, Mr. Hawksley rather reproaching him for being always ready to make a deal. But Mr. Rhodes pointed out that he had resisted the enfranchisement of the masters, who were to be helots, and he had also refused to reduce " smug " to 200, and thought 300 was a fair com- promise. So accordingly it was fixed that it had to be 300 — 300 for " smug " and 300 for moral qualities, while " unctuous rectitude " and " brutality " are left with 200 each. We all agreed that this should be done, half the marks are at the disposal of the voting of the scholars, the other half for competition and the headmaster. It also emphasises the importance of qualities entirely ignored in the ordinary com- petitive examinations, which was Mr. Rhodes's great idea. Mr Rhodes was evidently pleased with the change, for just as we were leaving the hotel he called Mr. Hawksley back and said, " Remember, three-tenths," so three-tenths it is to be. THE DALHAM HALL ESTATE. 45 which I hope my Trustees or some of them will be able to be present and to which they will I hope from time to time invite as guests persons who have shown sympathy with the views expressed by me in this my Will. (6.) The Dalham Hall Estate. The Dalham Hall Estate (21) is by Codicil dated January i8th 1902 strictly settled on Colonel Francis Rhodes and his heirs male with remainder to Captain Ernest Frederick Rhodes and his heirs male. The Codicil contains the following clause :— Whereas I feel that it is the essence of a proper "The life that every man should during" some substantial essence °f a . T , v T , r • • i proper life." period thereof have some definite occupation and I object to an expectant heir developing into what I call a " loafer." And whereas the rental of the Dalham Hall On encum- Estate is not more than sufficient for the mainten- k.ered r , , ... Estates. ance of the estate and my experience is that one of the things making for the strength of England is the ownership of country estates which could maintain the dignity and comfort of the head of the family but that this position has been abso- lutely ruined by the practice of creating charges upon the estates either for younger children or for the payment of debts whereby the estates become insufficient to maintain the head of the family in dignity and comfort. And whereas I humbly believe that one of Country the secrets of England's strength has been the streng[nSof & existence of a class termed " the country land- England. (u) Dalham Hall Estate was purchased by Mr. Rhodes the year before his death. It is situate in Suffolk, not far from Newmarket, and is 3,475 acres in extent. 46 THE WILL OF CECIL J. RHODES. Conditions of tenure. No encum- brance. lords " who devote their efforts to the maintenance of those on their own property, (v) And whereas this is my own experience. Now therefore I direct that if any person who under the limitations hereinbefore contained shall become entitled as tenant for life or as tenant in tail male by purchase to the possession or to the receipt of the rents and profits of the Dalham Hall Estate shall attempt to assign charge or incumber his interest in the Dalham Hall Estate or any part thereof or shall do or permit any act or thing or any event shall happen by or in consequence of which he would cease to be entitled to such interest if (v) In the Fortnightly Review for May, 1902, Mr. Iwan- Miiller gives the following account of the reasons which Mr. Rhodes gave him for preferring country landlords to manufacturers : — " He told me how during a recent visit to England he had stayed with an English country gentleman of very large estates. " ' I went about with him,' he said in effect, although I do not profess to be able to recall the exact wording of his sentences, 'and I discovered that he knew the history and personal circumstances of every man, woman, and child upon his property. He was as well instructed in their pedigrees as themselves, and could tell how long every tenant or even labourer had been connected with the estate, and what had happened to any of them in the course of their lives. From there T went on to a successful manufacturer, a man of high standing and benevolent disposition. He took me over his works, and explained the machinery and the different improve- ments that had been made, with perfect familiarity with his subject, but, except as to the heads of departments, foremen and the like, he absolutely knew nothing whatever about the lives and conditions of his " hands." Now,' he added, ' my manufacturing friend was a more progressive man, and probably a more capable man than my landlord friend. Yet the very necessities of the latter's position compelled him to discharge duties of the existence of which the other had no idea. The manufacturer built schools and endowed libraries, and received reports as to their management, but he never knew, or cared to know, what effect his philanthropy had upon the individual beneficiaries.' " THE DALHAM HALL ESTATE. 47 the same were given to him absolutely or if any such person as aforesaid (excepting in this case my said brothers Francis Rhodes and Ernest Frederick Rhodes) (i) shall not when he shall become so entitled as aforesaid have been for at least ten consecutive years engaged in some Ten years' profession or business or (ii.) if not then engaged work- in some profession or business and (such profes- sion or business not being that of the Army) not then also a member of some militia or volunteer Serve in corps shall not within one year after becoming so ^'l1 entitled as aforesaid or (being an infant) within one year after attaining the age of twenty-one years whichever shall last happen unless in any case prevented by death become engaged in some profession or business and (such profession or business not being that of the Army) also become a member of some militia or volunteer corps or (iii.) shall discontinue to be engaged in any profession or business before he shall have been engaged for ten consecutive years in some profession or business then and in every such case and forthwith if such person shall be tenant for life then his estate for life shall absolutely deter- mine and if tenant in tail male then his estate in tail male shall absolutely determine and the Forfeiture of Dalham Hall Estate shall but subject to estates if title- any prior to the estate of such person immediately go to the person next in remainder under the limitations hereinbefore contained in the same manner as if in the case of a person whose estate for life is so made to determine that person were dead or in the case of a person whose estate in tail male is so made to determine were dead and there were a general failure of issue of that person inheritable to the estate which is so made to determine. 48 THE DALHAM HALL ESTATE. 49 Provided that the determination of an estate for life shall not prejudice or effect any contin- gent remainders expectant thereon and that after such determination the Dalham Hall Estate shall but subject to estates if any prior as aforesaid remain to the use of the Trustees appointed by my said Will and the Codicil thereto dated the iith day of October 1901 during the residue of the life of the person whose estate for life so determines upon trust during the residue of the life of that person to pay the rents and profits of the Dalham Hall Estate to or present the same to be received by the person or persons for the time being entitled under the limitations hereinbefore con- tained to the first vested estate in remainder expectant on the death of that person. After various private dispositions Mr. Rhodes in his original will left the residue of his real and personal estate to the Earl of Rosebery, Earl Grey, Alfred Beit, William Thomas Stead, Lewis Lloyd Michell and Bourchier Francis Hawksley absolutely as joint tenants. The same persons were also appointed execu- tors and trustees. In a Codicil dated January, 1901, Mr. Rhodes directed that the name of W. T. Stead should be removed from the list of his executors. In a second Codicil dated October, 1901, Mr. Rhodes added the name of Lord Milner to the list of joint tenants, executors and trustees. In a third Codicil, dated March, 1902, Mr. Rhodes appointed Dr. Jameson as one of his trustees, with all the rights of other trustees. " The Right Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes. (From a sketch by the Marchioness of Granby.) PART II. THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF MR. RHODES. WHEN Mr. Rhodes died, the most conspicuous figure left in the English-speaking race since the death of Queen Victoria disappeared. Whether loved or feared, he towered aloft above all his contemporaries. There are many who hold that he would be entitled to a black statue in the Halls of Eblis. But even those who distrusted and disliked him most, pay reluctant homage to the portentous energy of a character which has affected the world so deeply for weal or for woe. Outside England none of our politicians, statesmen, or administrators impressed the imagination of the world half as deeply as Cecil Rhodes. For good or for evil he ranked among the dozen foremost men of his day. He was one of the few men neither royal nor noble by birth who rose by sheer force of character and will to real, although not to titular, Imperial rank. After the Pope, the Kaiser, the Tsar, there were few contemporary statesmen who commanded as much attention, who roused as much interest, as the man who has passed from our midst while still in his prime. The few who knew him loved him. The majority, to whom he was unknown, paid him their homage, some of their admiration, and others of their hate. And it must be admitted that the dread he inspired among those who disliked him was more widespread than the affection he com- manded from those who came within the magic of his presence. He is gone, leaving a gap which no one at present can ever aspire to fill. The world has echoed words and deeds of his which will long reverberate in the dim corridors of time. To those who, like myself, have to bear the poignant grief caused by the loss of a dearly loved friend, whose confidence and affection had stood the test even of the violent antagonism roused by extreme difference of opinion on the subject of the 52 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. South African War, it is impossible to speak of Cecil Rhodes at this moment with judicial impartiality. I knew him too intimately and loved him too well to care to balance his faults against his virtues or to lay a critical finger upon the flaws in the diamond. For with all his faults the man was great, almost immeasurably great, when contrasted with the pigmies who pecked and twittered in his shade. To those who are inclined to dwell more upon the wide-wasting ruin in which his fatal blunder involved the country that he loved, it may be sufficient to remark that even the catastrophe which was wrought by his mistake may contribute more to the permanent welfare of the Empire than all the achievements of his earlier life. Mr. Rhodes's last Will and Testament reveals him to the world as the first distinguished British statesman whose Imperialism was that of Race and not that of Empire. The one specific object* defined in the Will as that to which his wealth is to be applied proclaims with the simple eloquence of a deed that Mr. Rhodes was colour-blind between the British Empire and the American Republic. His fatherland, like that of the poet Arndt, is coterminous with the use of the tongue of his native land. In his Will he aimed at making Oxford University the educational centre of the English-speaking race. He did this of set purpose, and in providing the funds neces- sary for the achievement of this great idea he specifically prescribed that every American State and Territory shall share with the British Colonies in his patriotic benefaction. Once every year " Founder's Day " will be celebrated at Oxford ; and not at Oxford only, but wherever on the broad world's surface half-a-dozen old " Rhodes scholars " come together they will celebrate the great ideal of Cecil Rhodes — the first of modern statesmen to grasp the sublime conception of the essential unity of the race. Thirty years hereafter there will be between two and three thousand men in the prime of life scattered all over the world, each one of whom will have had impressed upon his mind in the most susceptible period of his life the dream of the Founder. It is, therefore, well to put on record in accessible form all available evidence as to the nature of his dream. What manner of man was this Cecil Rhodes who has made 53 Photograph by\ The Earl of Rosebery. [Jerrard, Regent Street. 54 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. such careful provision for perpetuating the memory of the dreams which he dreamed, in order that generations yet unborn may realise the ideals which fired his imagination when a youth at Oxford, and which he followed like the fiery cloudy pillar through all his earthly pilgrimage ? To answer this question we have, first of all, his own writings ; secondly, his public speeches ; and, lastly, we have confidential communings with the friends whom he loved and trusted. Mr. Rhodes at home studying the Map of Africa. 55 CHAPTER I.— HIS WRITINGS. I WILL deal with them each in their order, taking his writings first — writings which were made known to the world for the first time after his death. Of his last Will and Testament, executed in 1899, printed in the first part of this volume, I need not speak. I confine myself in this part to his other writings. Cecil Rhodes, in the current phrase of the hour, was an empire maker. He was much more than that. Empire makers are almost as common as empire breakers, and, indeed, as in his case, the two functions are often combined. But Cecil Rhodes stands on a pedestal of his own. He was a man apart. It was his distinction to be the first of the new Dynasty of Money Kings which has been evolved in these later days as the real rulers of the modern world. There have been many greater millionaires than he. His friend and ally, Mr. Beit, could probably put down a bank-note for every sovereign Mr. Rhodes possessed, and still be a multi- millionaire. As a rich man Mr. Rhodes was not in the running with Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Rockefeller, or Mr. Astor. But although there have been many wealthier men, none of them, before Mr. Rhodes, recognised the opportunities of ruling the world which wealth affords its possessor. The great financiers of Europe have no doubt often used their powers to control questions of peace or war and to influence politics, but they always acted from a strictly financial motive. Their aims were primarily the shifting of the values of stocks. To effect that end they have often taken a leading hand in political deals. But Mr. Rhodes inverted the operation. With him political considerations were always paramount. If he used the market he did it in order to secure the means of achieving political ends. Hence it is no exaggeration to regard him as the first — he will not be the last — of the Millionaire Monarchs of the Modern World. He was the founder of the latest of the dynasties which seems destined to wield the sceptre of sovereign power over the masses of mankind. He has fallen in mid-career. His 56 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. plans are but rudely sketched in outline, and much of the work which he had begun is threatened with destruction by his one fatal mistake. But he lived long enough to enable those who were nearest to him to realise his idea and to recog- nise the significance of his advent upon the stage in the present state of the evolution of human society. Mr. Rhodes was more than the founder of a dynasty. He aspired to be the creator of one of those vast semi-religious, quasi-political associations which, like the Society of Jesus, have played so large a part in the history of the world. To be more strictly accurate, he wished to found an Order as the instrument of the will of the Dynasty, and while he lived he dreamed of being both its Caesar and its Loyola. It was this far-reaching, world-wide aspiration of the man which rendered, to those who knew him, so absurdly inane the speculations of his critics as to his real motives. Their calculations as to his ultimate object are helpful only because they afford us some measure of the range of their horizon. When they told us that Mr. Rhodes was aiming at amassing a huge fortune, of becoming Prime Minister of the Cape, or even of being the President of the United States of South Africa, of obtaining a peerage and of becoming a Cabinet Minister, we could not repress a smile. They might as well have said he was coveting a new pair of pantaloons or a gilded epaulette. Mr. Rhodes was one of the rare minds whose aspirations are as wide as the world. Such aspirations are usually to be discovered among the founders of religions rather than among the founders of dynasties. It is this which constituted the unique, and to many the utterly incomprehensible, combination of almost incompatible elements in Mr. Rhodes's character. So utterly incomprehensible was the higher mystic side of Mr. Rhodes's character to those among whom it was his fate to live and work, that after a few vain efforts to explain his real drift he gave up the task in despair. It would have been easier to interpret colour to a man born blind, or melody to one stone- deaf from his birth, than to open the eyes of the understanding of the " bulls " and " bears " of the Stock Exchange to the far- reaching plans and lofty ambitions which lay behind the issue of Chartereds. So the real Rhodes dwelt apart in the sanctuary of his imagination, into which the profane were never admitted. 57 Lord Milner, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. (From Mr. P. Tennyson- Cole's portrait in the Royal Academy.} £ 2 58 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. But it was in that sphere that he really lived, breathing that mystic and exalted atmosphere which alone sustained his spiritual life. When Mr. Rhodes had not yet completed his course at Oxford he drew up what he called " a draft of some of my ideas." It was when he was in Kimberley. He wrote it, he said, in his letter to me of August, 1891, when he was about twenty-two years of age. When he promised to send this to me to read, he said, "You will see that I have not altered much as to my feelings." In reality he must have written it at the beginning of 1877, otherwise he could not have referred to the Russo-Turkish War, which began in that year. On inquiry among those who were associated with him in his college days, I find that, although he talked much about almost every subject under heaven, he was very reticent as to the political ideas which were fermenting in his brain in the long days and nights that he spent on the veldt, away from intellectual society, communing with his own soul, and medi- tating upon the world-movements which were taking place around him. This document may be regarded as the first draft of the Rhodesian idea. It begins in characteristic fashion thus, with the exception of some passages omitted or summarised : — "It often strikes a man to inquire what is the chief good in life ; to one the thought comes that it is a happy marriage, to another great wealth, and as each seizes on the idea, for that he more or less works for the rest of his existence. To myself, thinking over the same question, the wish came to me to render myself useful to my country. I then asked the question, How could I ?" He then discusses the question, and lays down the following dicta. " I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory means the birth of more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence. HIS WRITINGS. 59 Added to this, the absorption of the greater portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars." He then asks himself what are the objects for which he should work, and answers his question as follows : " The furtherance of the British Empire, for the bringing of the whole uncivilised world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for the making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire. What a dream ! but yet it is probable. It is possible." " I once heard it argued — so low have we fallen — in my own college, I am sorry to own it, by Englishmen, that it was a good thing for us that we have lost the United States. There are some subjects on which there can be no argument, and to an Englishman this is one of them. But even from an American's point of view just picture what they have lost All this we have lost and that country has lost owing to whom ? Owing to two or three ignorant, pig- headed statesmen in the last century. At their door is the blame. Do you ever feel mad, do you ever feel murderous ? I think I do with these men." The rest of his paper is devoted to a dis- cussion as to the best means of attaining these objects. After recalling how the Roman Church utilises enthusiasm, he suggests the formation of a kind of secular Church for the extension of British Empire which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea, who should have its members placed at our universities and our schools, and should watch the English youth passing through their hands. Mr. Rhodes then proceeded to sketch the kind of men upon whose 6o Photograph, by] Earl Grey. . H. Mills. HIS WRITINGS. 6 r help such a Church could depend, how they should be recruited, and how they would work to " advocate the closer union of England and her tj colonies, to crush all disloyalty and every move- ment for the severance of our Empire." He concludes : " I think that there are thousands now existing who would eagerly grasp at the opportunity." Even at this early date, it will be perceived, the primary idea which found its final embodiment in the will of 1899 had been sufficiently crystallised in his mind to be committed to paper. It was later in the same year of 1877 that he drew up his first will. This document he deposited with me at the same time that he gave me his " political will and testament." It was in a sealed envelope, and on the cover was written a direction that it should not be opened until after his death. That will remained in my possession, unopened, until March 27th, 1902, when I opened it in the presence of Mr. Hawksley. It was dated Kimberley, September igth, 1877. It was written throughout in his own handwriting. It opened with a formal statement that he gave, devised, and bequeathed all his estates and effects of every kind, wherever they might be, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies for the time being, and to Sidney Godolphin Alexander Shippard (who died almost immediately after Mr. Rhodes ; Mr. Shippard was then Attorney-General for the province of Griqualand West), giving them full authority to use the same for the purposes of extend- ing British rule throughout the world, for the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom to all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour, and enterprise, the consolidation of the Empire, the restoration of the Anglo Saxon unity destroyed by the schism of the eighteenth century, the representation of the colonies in Par- liament, " and finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to hereafter render wars impossible and to promote the best interests of humanity." This first will contains the master thought of Rhodes's life, the thought to which he clung with invincible tenacity to his 62 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. dying day. The way in which he expressed it in these first writings which we have from his hand was " the furtherance of the British rule " ; but in after years his ideas were broadened, especially in one direction — viz., the substitution of the ideal of the unity of the English-speaking race for the extension of the British Empire throughout the world. To the under- graduate dreamer in the diamond diggings it was natural that the rapidly growing power of the United States and the ascendency which it was destined to have as the predominant partner in the English-speaking world was not as clear as it became to him when greater experience and a wider outlook enabled him to take a juster measure of the relative forces with which he had to deal. This first will was, however, speedily revoked. Mr. Rhodes seems to have soon discovered that the Colonial Secretary for the time being was of all persons the last to whom such a trust should be committed. He then executed his second will, which was a very informal document indeed. It was written on a single sheet of notepaper, and dated 1882. It left all his property to Mr. N. E. Pickering, a young man employed by the De Beers Company at Kimberley. Mr. Rhodes was much attached to him, and nursed him through his last illness. How much or how little he confided to Mr. Pickering about his ultimate aims I do not know, nor is there any means of ascertaining the truth, for Mr. Pickering has long been dead, and his secrets perished with him. Mr. Rhodes, in making the will in his favour, wrote him a note, saying the conditions were very curious, "and can only be carried out by a trustworthy person, and I consider you one." After the death of Mr. Pickering Mr. Rhodes executed a third will in 1888, in which, after making provision for his brothers and sisters, he left the whole of the residue of his fortune to a financial friend, whom I will call " X.," in like manner expressing to him informally his desires and aspira- tions. This will was in existence when I first made the acquaintance of Mr. Rhodes. All these wills were framed under the influence of the idea which dominated Mr. Rhodes's imagination. He aimed at the foundation of a Society composed of men of strong HIS WRITINGS. 63 convictions and of great wealth, which would do for the unity of the English-speaking race what the Society of Jesus did for the Catholic Church immediately after the Reformation. The English-speaking race stood to Mr. Rhodes for all that the Catholic Church stood to Ignatius Loyola. Mr. Rhodes saw in the English-speaking race the greatest instru- ment yet evolved for the progress and elevation of mankind — shattered by internal dissensions and reft in twain by the declaration of American Independence, just as the unity of the Church was destroyed by the Protestant Reformation. Unlike Loyola, who saw that between Protestants and Catholics no union was possible, and who therefore devoted all his energies to enable the Catholics to extirpate their adversaries, Mr. Rhodes believed that it was possible to secure the reunion of the race. Loyola was an out-and-out Romanist. He took sides unhesitatingly with the Pope against the Reformers. The attitude of Mr. Rhodes was altogether different. He was' devoted to the old flag, but in his ideas he was American, and in his later years he expressed to me his unhesitating readiness to accept the reunion of the race under the Stars and Stripes if it could not be obtained in any other way. Although he had no objection to the Monarchy, he unhesitatingly preferred the American to the British Constitution, and the text-book which he laid down for the guidance of his novitiates was a copy of the American Constitution. Imagine the soul of an Erasmus in the skin of a Loyola ready to purchase the unity of Christendom by imposing upon the Pope the theses which Luther nailed upon the church door at Wittenberg, and you have some idea of the standpoint of Mr. Rhodes He was for securing union, if necessary, by means which at first sight were little calculated to promote unity. If the American Constitution was his political text-book, his one favourite expedient for inducing Americans to recognise the need for unity was the declaration of a tariff war waged by means of differential duties upon imports from those English- speaking commonwealths which clapped heavy duties on British goods. Finding that I sympathised with his ideas about English- speaking reunion and his Society — although I did not see eye 64 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. to eye with him about the tariff war — Mr. Rhodes superseded the will, which he had made in 1888, on a sheet of notepaper, which left his fortune to " X.," by a formal will, in which the whole of his real and personal estate was left to " X." and to " W. Stead, of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS." This will, the fourth in order, was signed in March, 1891. On bidding me good-bye, after having announced the completion of this arrangement, Mr. Rhodes stated that when he got to Africa he would write out his ideas, and send them to me. It was in fulfilment of this promise that he sent me the letter dated August igth and September 3rd,. 1891. It was written by him at his own suggestion in order that I might publish it in literary dress in his name as an expression of his views. I carried out his instruc- tions, and published the substance of this letter, with very slight modifications necessary to give it the clothing that he desired, as a manifesto to the electors at the General Election of 1895. Mr. Rhodes's personality, however, at that time had not loomed sufficiently large before the mind of the British public for the expression of his opinions to excite the interest and attention of the world. But when I published the original draft after his death it was received every- where as throwing altogether new light upon Mr. Rhodes's character. Mr. Rhodes's political ideas were thus written out by him in one of the very few long letters which he ever wrote to anyone, just before his departure from Kimberley to Mashonaland in the autumn of 1891. The communication takes the shape of a resiime of a long conversation which I had had with him just before he left London for the Cape. Despite a passage which suggests that I should sub-edit it and dress up his ideas, I think the public will prefer to have these rough, hurried, and sometimes ungrammatical notes exactly as Mr. Rhodes scrawled them off rather than to have them supplied with " literary clothing " by anyone else : — Please remember the key of my idea discussed with you is a Society, copied from the Jesuits as to organisation, the practical solution a diffe- rential rate and a copy of the United States Pltotograph by\ [£. H. Mills. Mr. Alfred Beit 66 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. Constitution, for that is Home Rule or Federation, and an organisation to work this out, working in the House of Commons for decentralisation, remembering that an Assembly that is responsible for a fifth of the world has no time to discuss the questions raised by Dr. Tanner or the important matter of Mr. O'Brien's breeches, and that the labour question is an important matter, but that deeper than the labour question is the question of the market for the products of labour, and that, as the local consumption (production) of England can only support about six millions, the balance depends on the trade of the world. That the world with America in the forefront is devising tariffs to boycott your manufactures, and that this is the supreme question, for I believe that England with fair play should manufacture for the world, and, being a Free Trader, I believe until the world comes to its senses you should declare war — I mean a commercial war with those who are trying to boycott your manufactures— that is my programme. You might finish the war by union with America and universal peace, I mean after one hundred years, and a secret society organised like Loyola's, supported by the accumu- lated wealth of those whose aspiration is a desire to do something, and a hideous annoyance created by the difficult question daily placed before their minds as to which of their incompetent relations they should leave their wealth to. You would furnish them with the solution, greatly relieving their minds and turning their ill-gotten or inherited gains to some advantage. I am a bad writer, but through my ill-con- nected sentences you can trace the lay of my ideas, and you can give my idea the literary clothing Photograph by] Mr. L. L. Michell. 68 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. that is necessary. I write so fully because I am off to Mashonaland, and I can trust you to respect my confidence. It is a fearful thought to feel that you possess a patent, and to doubt whether your life will last you through the circumlocution of the forms of the Patent Office. I have that inner conviction that if I can live I have thought out something that is worthy of being registered at the Patent Office ; the fear is, shall I have the time and the opportunity ? And I believe, with all the enthusiasm bred in the soul of an inventor, it is not self-glorification I desire, but the wish to live to register my patent for the benefit of those who, I think, are the greatest people the world has •ever seen, but whose fault is that they do not know their strength, their greatness, and their destiny, and who are wasting their time on their minor local matters, but being asleep do not know that through the invention of steam and electricity, and in view of their enormous increase, they must now be trained to view the world as a whole, and not only consider the social questions of the British Isles. Even a Labouchere who possesses no sentiment should be taught that the labour ot England is dependent on the outside world, and that as far as I can see the outside world, if he does not look out, will boycott the results of English labour. They are calling the new country Rhodesia, that is from the Transvaal to the southern end of Tanganyika ; the other name is Zambesia. I find I am human and should like to be living after my death ; still, perhaps, if that name is coupled with the object of England every- where, and united, the name may convey the dis- covery of an idea which ultimately led to the cessation of all wars and one language throughout the world, the patent being the gradual absorption 69 FACSIMILE PAGES OF ONE OF MR. RHODES'S LETTERS TO W. T. STEAD. .yt [E. H. Mills. Sir Harry Johnston. 128 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. partnership. I believe also that in the event stated this will be the case, and that the Irish people will cheerfully accept the duties and responsibilities assigned to them, and will justly value the position given them in the Imperial system. I am convinced that it would be the highest statesmanship on Mr. Gladstone's part, to devise a feasible plan for the con- tinued presence of the Irish members here, and from my obser- vation of public events and opinion since 1885, I am sure that Mr. Gladstone is fully alive to the importance of the matter, and that there can be no doubt that the next measure of autonomy for Ireland will contain the provisions which you rightly deem of such moment. It does not come so much within my province to express a full opinion upon the question of Imperial Federation, but I quite agree with you that the continued Irish representation at Westminster will immensely facilitate such a step, while the contrary provision in the Bill of '86 would have been a bar. Undoubtedly this is a matter which should be dealt with in accordance with the opinion of the Colonies themselves, and if they should desire to share in the cost of Imperial matters, as certainly they now do in the responsibility, and should express a wish for representation at Westminster, I quite think it should be accorded to them, and that public opinion in these islands would unanimously concur in the necessary constitutional modifications. — I am, dear sir, yours truly, CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. C. J. Rhodes, Esq. Mr. Rhodes confirmed the bargain by the following letter:— Westminster Palace Hotel, London. June 24, 1888. Dear Mr. Parnell, — I have to thank you for your letter of the 23rd inst., the contents of which have given me great pleasure. I feel sure that your cordial approval of the retention of Irish representation at Westminster will gain you support in many quarters from which it has hitherto been withheld. As a proof of my deep and sincere interest in HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 129 the question, and as I believe that the action of the Irish party on the basis which you have stated will lead, not to disintegration, but really to a closer union of the Empire, making it an Empire in reality, and not in name only, I am happy to offer a contribution to the extent of j£ 10,000 to the funds of your party. I am also authorised to offer you a further sum of ;£i,ooo from Mr. John Morrogh, an Irish resident in Kimberley, South Africa. — Believe me, yours faithfully, C. J. RHODES. P.S. — I herewith enclose a cheque for ,£5,000 as my first instalment. A year after this, Mr. Parnell went down to Hawarden to settle the details of the next Home Rule Bill with Mr. Glad- stone. In the beginning of 1890 he wrote to Mr. Rhodes to say that the retention of the Irish Members at Westminster had been agreed upon, but that Mr. Gladstone insisted on reducing the representation in order to conciliate English public opinion. Mr. Rhodes, characteristically enough, had lost Mr. Parnell's letter, and the evidence as to its contents is a report of Mr. Parnell's speech in 1891. When the unfortunate breach between Mr. Pamell and the majority of the Irish Party took place at the beginning of 1891, Mr. Parneil so far forgot the roU which he had marked out for himself as to address to a meeting at Navan a declaration that u some day or other, in the long-distant future, someone might arise who may have the privilege of addressing you as men of Republican Meath." Mr. Rhodes, on seeing a report of this speech, at once wrote to expostulate with Mr. Parnell, pointing out how inconsistent was this declaration about Republican Meath with the loyal maintenance of Imperial unity on a federal basis. Instead of resenting being thus recalled to the letter of his contract, Mr. Parnell wrote promptly and admitted his mis- take. He said he regretted the words he had used ; he had gone further than he intended, and, as a matter of fact, the words in question were contradicted by other passages of the same speech, as, for example, when he said : 4< We are willing i3o POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. to show that the existence of Irish autonomy is compatible with Imperial prosperity and progress." Neither Mr. Rhodes's letter of expostulation nor Mr. Parnell's letter of explanation and apology is in existence, Mr. Parnell's letter having been burnt in the fire that destroyed Groote Schuur. The Parnell correspondence proves one thing conclusively, if nothing else — namely, that the suspicion and distrust excited by Mr. Rhodes' contribution to the Irish National Fund was absolutely without justification. Nothing could have been straighter and more above-board than the bargain between the two men, and the aim and object of that deal was not, as Mr. Rhodes's assailants pretended and still pretend, to assist in a separatist movement intended to break up the Empire ; its aim was exactly the reverse — namely, to confine the move- ment for local self-government in Ireland within the limits of a federal system, and make it the stepping-stone to that federa- tion which is the condition of the continued existence of our Empire. Mr. Rhodes's second contribution to British political funds took place three years after the subscription to Mr. Parnell. The correspondence which took place in 1891 did not appear till 1901, when it was extracted from Mr. Rhodes by the extra- ordinary blunder of the editor of the Spectator, who, hearing from a correspondent signing himself " C. B." that Mr. Rhodes had given Mr. Schnadhorst a contribution to the funds of the Liberal Party, on condition that its leaders should not urge or support our retrogression from Egypt, jumped to the remark- able conclusion that this fact explained the greatest of all mysteries in regard to Mr. Rhodes, the mystery why the Liberals on the South African Committee allowed him to get off so very easily. The absurdity of this is apparent from the fact that it was not Mr. Rhodes but Mr. Chamberlain who was let off easily by the South African Committee, and that the Liberals assented to the whitewashing of Mr. Chamberlain on condition that they might be allowed to pronounce sentence of major excommunication upon Mr. Rhodes. Nevertheless, the Spectator, floundering still more hopelessly into the morass, declared that if the transactions recorded were correct, the Liberal leaders were at the mercy of Mr. Rhodes. HIS CORRESPONDENCE. \^i To this Sir Henry Campbell-Baunerman replied bluntly by declaring that the story was from beginning to end a lie. Mr. Rhodes then wrote a letter which appeared in the Spectator of October 12, 1901 : — Sir, — I have been appealed to upon the controversy that has arisen in your paper between a correspondent signing himself " C. B.'r and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. I may say that the letter of "C. B." was written without my knowledge or approval, still, as his statement has been characterised as "a lie," it is my duty to send you the facts. I made the acquaintance of Mr. Schnadhorst when he was visiting the Cape for his health early in 1890. I saw a great deal of him in Kimberley, and found that his political thoughts were in the direction of what would now be called Liberal Imperialism ; and his views as to Empire were no doubt enormously strengthened by his visit to Africa. I told him that my ideas were Liberalism////^ Empire, and I added that I thought the Liberal party was ruining itself by its Little England policy, my thoughts being then on the point of their desire to scuttle out of Egypt. I subsequently met Mr. Schnadhorst in London, and he asked me whether I would be willing to subscribe to the party funds. I said I was prepared to do so provided that the policy was not to scuttle out of Egypt, and that in the event of a Home Rule Bill being brought forward provision should be made for the retention of Irish Members at Westminster, as I considered the first Home Rule Bill of Mr. Gladstone's simply placed Ireland in a subject position, taxed for our Imperial purposes without a voice in the expenditure ; and it was hopeless ever to expect 132 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. closer union with the Colonies if a portion of the Empire so close as Ireland had been turned into a tributary State. It is ridiculous to suppose, as I have seen it stated, that I thought I should purchase the Liberal policy for the sum of ,£5,000 or any other sum, and any Liberal making such a suggestion only insults his own party ; but I naturally did not want to help a party into power whose first act would be what I most objected to — namely, the abandonment of Egypt. I understood from Mr. Schnadhorst that he would consult Mr. Gladstone, which quite satis- fied me, as I looked upon Mr. Gladstone as the Liberal party. Mr. Schnadhorst accepted ,£5,000 from myself for party purposes, coupled with the conditions defined in letter marked "A." Some time after I read a speech of Mr. Glad- stone's at Newcastle — I think it was at the end of 1891 — in which he expressed the hope that Lord Salisbury would take some step "to relieve us from the burdensome and embarrassing occupa- tion of Egypt." This naturally surprised me after what had passed between Mr. Schnadhorst and myself, and I therefore wrote to him letter " B," and received in reply letter " C." (You will notice that in this letter, referring to my subscription, I say :— " As you are aware, the question of Egypt was the only condition I made." I was only writing at sea from memory, but I knew the fear of losing Egypt, to which I referred in the postscript to my letter addressed to Mr. Schnadhorst marked "A," had been the paramount thought in my mind.) I took no more trouble in the matter, as soon after I arrived in Africa Lord Rosebery joined the Ministry HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 133 Mr. Gladstone was forming, and I knew that Egypt was saved The correspondence speaks for itself, and I leave your readers to decide how far Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman was justified in character- ising the statement of " C. B." as being "from beginning to end a lie." According to their statement, neither Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman nor Sir William Harcourt was acquainted with the facts ; but I naturally assumed Mr. Schnadhorst to be speak- ing with authority. — I am, sir, etc., C. J. RHODES. [A.] Monday, February 23, 1891. My dear Schnadhorst,— I enclose you a cheque for ,£ 5,000, and I hope you will, with the extreme caution that is necessary, help in guiding your party to consider politics other than England. I do not think your visit to Kimberley did you harm, either physically or politically, and I .am glad to send you the contribution I promised. The future of England must be Liberal, perhaps, to fight Socialism. I make but two conditions ; please honourably observe them — (i) that my contribution is secret (if, of course, you feel in honour bound to tell Mr. Gladstone, you can do so, but no one else, and he must treat it as confidential) ; (2) if the exigencies of party necessitate a Home Rule Bill without represen- tation at Westminster, your Association must return my cheque. — Yours, (Signed) C. J. RHODES. P.S. — I am horrified by Morley's speech on 134 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. Egypt. If you think your party hopeless keep the money, but give it to some chanty you approve of. It would be an awful thing to give my money to breaking up the Empire. [B.] On board the Dunottar, April 25, 1892. My dear Schnadhorst, — I am sorry to have missed you, but glad to hear that you are so much better, though it robs one of the chance of seeing you again in South Africa. I gather in England that your party is almost certain to come in, though there may be subse- quent difficulty as to the shape of the Home Rule Bill. The matter that is troubling me most is your policy as to Egypt. I was horrified when I returned from Mashonaland to read a speech of Mr. Gladstone's evidently foreshadowing a scuttle if he came in. I could hardly believe it to be true, and sat down to write to you, but thought it better to wait and see you. I have now missed you, so must trust to writing. I do hope you will do your best to check him from the mad step, which must bring ruin and misery on the whole of Egypt, whilst our retirement will undoubtedly bring it under the influence of one or other of the foreign Powers, which of course by reciprocal treaties will eventually manage the exclusion of our trade. However, if your respected leader remains obdurate when he comes into power, and adopts this policy of scuttle, I shall certainly call upon you to devote my subscription to some public charity in terms of my letter to you, as I certainly, though a Liberal, did not subscribe to your party to assist in the one thing that I hate above HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 135 everything, namely, the policy of disentegrating and breaking up our Empire. As you are aware, the question of Egypt was the only condition I made, and it seems rather extraordinary to me that the first public speech your leader should make — which sketches gener- ally his views upon the near approach of office- should declare a policy of abandonment. I asked you at the time I wrote to see him and tell him of my action, and I suppose you must have mentioned the Egyptian question, which was really all I cared about. We are now one-third of the way with a telegraph through the continent from the South, only to hear of your policy of scuttle from the North. (Signed) C. J. RHODES. P.S. — I have to send this to be posted in England, as I have forgotten your direction. The postscript explains how it was that this letter came into my possession. It was sent to me to be copied, and forwarded to Mr. Schnadhorst. In reporting the receipt of the letter to Mr. Rhodes I wrote as follows : — "May i6th, 1892. " Dear Mr. Rhodes, — Received your letter for Schnadhorst, and duly forwarded it to him. I think the fault lies with Mr. Schnadhorst, not with Mr. Gladstone. I was writing to Mr. Gladstone about something else, and incidentally mentioned that you were very indignant with several speeches about Egypt, whereupon Mr. Gladstone wrote asking what were those speeches to which Mr. Rhodes took exception, as he had not the plea- sure of knowing what Mr. Rhodes's views were concerning Egypt. From this I infer that Mr. Schnadhorst has never informed Mr. Gladstone of anything that you said to him, in which case he deserves the bad quarter of an hour he will have after receiving your letter. I saw Mr. Balfour the other day, who said he did not think the difficulty was with Mr. Gladstone, but rather with Sir William Harcourt, who believed K 136 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. in the curtailment of the British Empire, if he believed in nothing else. Balfour was very sorry that he had not a chance of meeting you when you were here, as he had looked forward to your coming in the hope of making your acquaintance. — I am, yours very truly, " (Signed) W. T. STEAD." The following is Mr. Schnadhorst's reply : — [C] National Liberal Federation, 42, Parliament Street, S.W. June 4th, 1892. My dear Rhodes, — I regret very much I did not see you when you were here, as your letter places me in a position of extreme perplexity. Your donation was given with two con- ditions, both of which will be observed, but in a postscript you referred to John Morley's speech on Egypt in the sense in which you have written about Mr. Gladstone's reference to the same subject. It is eighteen months ago since I saw you, when you referred to the subject in conversation, and I told you then, as I think now, that J. M.'s speech was very unwise, and that it did not represent the policy of the party. The General Election has been coming near, and is now close at hand. Your gift was intended to help in the Home Rule struggle. It could do so only by being used before the election. Being satisfied that I could observe your con- ditions, and that J. M.'s speech was simply the expression of an individual opinion, I felt at liberty to pledge your funds for various purposes in connection with the election. This was done to a large extent before Mr. G. spoke at Newcastle. I am bound to say that in my view his reference to Egypt was no more than an expression of a pious opinion. It did not alter my feelings that a Liberal Govern- ment would not attempt withdrawal. Sir W. Harcourt was annoyed at Mr. G.'s reference at the time, and since I heard from you I have seen Lord Rosebery, who will become Foreign Minister, and who I am satisfied from what he said to me would not sanction such a policy. Mr. Gladstone, I expect, had been worked on by a few individuals, possibly by J. M. alone ; but in my opinion it would be simply madness for him to add to HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 137 the enormous difficulties with which he will have to deal by risking complications on such a subject. There is no danger ; besides, the next Liberal Foreign Secretary will be a strong man who will take his own course, very different from the pliant and supple Granville. Of course, I may be wrong; time alone can show; but if I waited for that the purpose for which I asked your help, and for which you gave it, would go unaided. You will see what a precious fix you have put me in. I will not make any further promises until I hear from you. — With all good wishes, I am, faithfully yours, "(Signed) F. SCHNADHORST." It would seem from this correspondence that there is not a shadow or tittle of reason for attributing to Mr. Rhodes or to the Liberal leaders any corrupt contract, much less that there was any subscription to the party fund which would justify the monstrous assertion of the Spectator that the acceptance of this subscription, of the existence of which probably Mr. Gladstone was unaware, in any way influenced either the policy of the Government about Egypt or the action of the Liberal leaders on the South African Committee. The attempt that was made in some quarters to represent Mr. Rhodes as dictating the policy of the Imperial Government by a subscription of ^5,000 to an election fund is too puerile to be discussed. All that Mr. Rhodes did was to take the course which is almost invariably taken by any person who is asked to subscribe to a campaign fund. There is hardly anything subscribed to the election expenses of a candidate on either side which is not accompanied by a publicly and privately expressed opinion as to the political cause which it is hoped the candidate will support. Subscriptions are constantly given or refused every year because the donor agrees with or dissents from some particular article in the programme of the candidate he is asked to support. It is a curious thing that a great part of the outcry against Mr. Rhodes's subscription to the Liberal Party arises from those who, when Mr. Gladstone went off to the Home Rule cause, transferred their subscriptions from the Liberal to the Unionist exchequer. The use of electoral subscriptions as a means of promoting political ideas K 2 138 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. may be as objectionable as some critics maintain, but it does not lie in the mouths of those who remorselessly used the advantages of superior wealth in order to penalise the adoption of a policy of justice to Ireland, to throw stones at Mr. Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes in 1885 wrote a letter of such phenomenal length that it filled a whole sheet of the Times, but as it related chiefly to the controversy as to the best way of administering Bechuanaland, and was the product of the combined wits of Mr. Maguire and himself, it is not necessary to quote it here. A Portrait of Mr. Rhodes taken in the Matoppos, 1899. 139 CHAPTER IV.— HIS SPEECHES. MR. RHODES'S speeches between 1881 and 1899 were col- lected and published in 1900 (publishers, Chapman and Hall). Whether the publication of Mr. Rhodes's speeches will tend to vindicate his reputation — -as the publication of Oliver Cromwell's speeches tended to justify the favourable verdict of Mr. Carlyle — remains to be seen. Here, at least, we have material for judgment. In this book, the painstaking research of a chronicler who preferred to veil his identity behind the pseudonym of " Vindex," are collected all the public speeches of Mr. Rhodes which have ever been reported since he entered public life in the Cape in 1881, down to his famous speech at Kimberley immediately after the relief of the beleaguered city. These speeches, however, we are given to understand, have neither been bowdlerised nor edited, excepting so far as is necessary to correct the somewhat slipshod grammar of Colonial reporters, excusable enough when grappling with the ill-hewn sentences of a man who thinks as he is speaking. Mr. Rhodes, however, had no reason to fear being tried by this ordeal. He does not emerge an immaculate saint, carved in the whitest of Parian marble. He is revealed not as an archangel of radiant stainless purity, but neither was he a cloven-footed devil. Judging him by his stature in influence, in authority and in driving force, he belonged to the order of archangels ; but he was a grey archangel, with a crippled wing, which caused him to pursue a somewhat devious course in the midst of the storm-winds of race-passion and political intrigue. A grey archangel crossed with a Jesuit, who was so devoted to his ends that almost all means were to him indifferent, excepting in so far as they helped him to attain his goal — that is the man who is revealed to us in these speeches. Mr. Rhodes did not execute so many curves in his political career as did Mr. Gladstone. His course, with one great and lamentable exception, was characterised by an unswerving adhesion to one political line ; but throughout the whole of his life there was manifest the same steady purpose, to which he 140 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. was true in good report and in ill. He tacked hither and thither, steering now to the north and now to the south ; but he ever kept his goal in view. He did not navigate these crowded sea,s without a compass and chart. Short-sighted mortals, who have no other mete-wand by which to test the consistency of statesmen than their fidelity to the ephemeral combinations of parties, were bewildered and declared that there was no knowing what this man was after. But by those who watched his course afar off it was seen that his apparent divagations from the direct course were only those of the mariner whom long experience has taught that against an adverse wind the shortest way to your port is often the longest way about. Mr. Rhodes himself always maintained to those who knew him intimately and who could enter into his higher thoughts, that he had one object — namely, to promote by all the means in his power the union, the development, the extension of the English-speaking race. Empire with Mr. Rhodes meant many things, chiefly the maintenance of the union between the widely scattered communities which owe allegiance to the British Crown; secondly, the established authority of this race — peaceful, industrious and free — over the dark-skinned myriads of Africa and Asia ; thirdly, the maintenance of an open door for the products of British manufactures to all the markets of the world. These were Mr. Rhodes's political objects. To attain these ends he devoted his life and dedicated the whole of his money, the acquisition of which some erroneously imaginecf'to be the great object of his life. To achieve these ends he worked first with one set of men and then with another ; but on the whole it will be found by reference to the speeches that for the most part he stood in with the Dutch. Without further preface I will proceed to examine the book, and quote from the 912 pages of the speeches here collected some short and pithy extracts. It is impossible to read Mr. Rhodes's speeches without feeling that " Vindex " had good reason for the faith that was within him. I always thought a great deal of Mr. Rhodes, but the perusal of these speeches led me to feel that I had never done justice to many sides of his singularly attractive character. Take, for instance, the fascination which he undoubtedly 141 •*4LJ. «ta Photograph by S. B. Barnard, \ A Characteristic Portrait. \Cape Town* 142 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. exercised over General Gordon. Everyone knows that Gordon wished Mr. Rhodes to go with him to Khartoum on the famous mission which had so tragic a termination, but I was not aware until I found it in this book how insistent Gordon had been to secure Mr. Rhodes's assistance in tne pacification of Basutoland. It was in the year 1882 that Gordon and Rhodes met. " Vindex" says that they were both deeply interested in the Basuto question. They used to take long walks together and discuss Imperial and other questions, with the result of vigorous argument between them. They became such close friends that when Rhodes was starting for Kimberley, Gordon pressed him hard to stay and work with him in Basutoland. Rhodes refused on the ground that he had already mapped out his life's work, which lay elsewhere. Gordon would take no denial for a long time, and when forced to give in at last, said, " There are very few men in the world to whom I would make such an offer, but of course you will have your own way." " You always contradict me," Gordon said to Rhodes, " you always think you are right and every one else wrong," a formula which Rhodes, no doubt, would have applied with equal justice to Gordon himself. The closeness of the tie which bound together the two men was natural enough. Both were idealists whose thoughts ran on the same lines in many things, the chief difference being not as to aims but as to the practical methods for realising them. This is well illustrated by*Rhodes's well- known observation when Gordon told him that he had refused a roomful of gold offered him by the Chinese Government as a reward for suppressing the Taeping rebellion. " I would have taken it," said Rhodes, " and as many roomfuls as they would have given me. It is of no use to have big ideas if you have not the cash to carry them out." That Rhodes had big ideas no person who reads this col lection of speeches will doubt. One of the earliest speeches in " Vindex's " collection was that which he delivered in July, 1883, on the Basutoland Annexation Bill. It was a veritable Confession of Faith, the declaration of political convictions from which Mr. Rhodes never varied. " I have my own views as to the future of South Africa, and I believe in an United States HIS SPEECHES. 143 of South Africa, but as a portion of the British Empire. I believe that confederated states in a colony under responsible government would each be practically an independent republic ; but I think we should have all the privileges of the tie with the Empire. Possibly there is not a very great divergence between myself and the honour- able member for Stellenbosch, excepting always the question of the flag." The honourable member for Stellenbosch was Mr. Hofmeyr, who was reported to have said that he was in favour of the United States of South Africa under its own flag. It is very interesting to see this difference on the flag crop- ping up as long ago as 1 883. Mr. Rhodes was always a fanatic on the subject of the British flag. Speaking at Bloemfontein in 1890, Mr. Rhodes is reported as having said that he felt admiration for the sentiment regarding the possession of a national flag, and he looked forward to equitable understandings which, while not sacrificing sentiment, would bring about a practical union in South Africa. What he meant by this is quite clear, and would have been clearer had " Vindex " reported his speech in full. Mr. Rhodes was in favour of allowing the republics to retain their own flags when they came into the Confederation, and he angrily reproved those who wished to take away the republican flags from South Africa. Devotion to his own flag enabled him to sympathise with the sentiment of the Dutch. At Kimberley, in 1890, he said that he deprecated any attempt to force a union of South Africa under the same flag. He said : — - " I know myself that I am not prepared to forfeit at any time my own flag. I repeat I am not prepared at any time to forfeit my own flag. If I forfeit my flag what have I left ? If you take away my flag you take away everything. Holding this view I cannot but feel the same respect for the neighbouring states where men have been born under republican institutions and with republican feelings." 144 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. Therein Mr. Rhodes laid his finger upon the great secret of his success — that which differentiated him from the ruck of the people by whom he was surrounded. He had not only imagination, but he had sympathy. It would be difficult to find any speeches so instinct with the spirit of true Colonial self-government, and the assertion of the fundamental principles which military Imperialism tramples under foot, than those which meet us on almost every page of this book. One of the best speeches which Mr. Rhodes ever delivered was that which he addressed to the Congress of the Afrikander Bond in 1891. We are told constantly that the Afrikander Bond is a treasonable association. But in 1891 Mr. Rhodes stood up to propose the toast of the Afrikander Bond. He had just returned from England, where he had received, as he said, " the highest consideration from the politicians of England," and Her Majesty had invited him to dine with her. Fresh from these tokens of confidence at Downing Street and at Windsor, he hastened to Africa to propose the toast of the Afrikander Bond, and to declare that he "felt most completely and entirely that the object and aspirations of the Afrikander Bond were in complete touch and concert with a fervent loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen." " I come here," said Mr. Rhodes, " because I wish to show that there is no antagonism between the aspirations of the people of this country and of their kindred in the mother country. But," Mr. Rhodes added significantly, " provided always that the Old Country recognises that the whole idea of the colonies and of the colonial people is that the principle of self-government must be preserved to the full, and that the capacity of the colony must be admitted to deal with every internal matter that may arise in this country. The principle must be recognised in the Old Country that the people born and bred in this colony, and descended from those who existed in this country many HIS SPEECHES. 145 generations ago, are much better capable of dealing with the various matters that arise than people who have to dictate some thousands of miles away. Now that is the people of the Afrikander Bond. I look upon that party as representing the people of that country." He declared that " the future rested with the Afrikander Bond. Your ideas are the same as mine." While always professing his full loyalty and devotion to the mother country, he asserted that self-government would give them everything they wanted. " Let us accept jointly the idea that the most complete internal self-government is what we are both aiming at. That self-government means that every question in connection with this country we shall decide, and we alone. The we are the white .men in South Africa — Dutch and English." Between the two Mr. Rhodes kept the balance even. Speaking at the Paarl about the same time, he declared that he hardly knew which to choose between, the Dutch and the English, as the dominant race in the world. " You have only got to read history to know that if ever there was a proud, rude man, it was an Englishman — the only man to cope with him was a Dutchman." The impression left upon the mind by the reading of these earlier speeches of Mr. Rhodes is that, while devoted to the British Empire and true to the principle of the Empire, he was nevertheless primarily a Cape Colonist. We have here nothing concerning the paramountcy of Downing Street, or even of the supremacy of the Empire. What he struggled for was the para- mountcy of Cape Colony. The Cape was to be the dominant power in South Africa. The Northern extension of Bechuana- land was to be made for the Cape, and the Cape was then, as 146 Photograph by] [E. H. Mills. Dr. F. Rutherfoord Harris. HIS SPEECHES. 147 it is now, and will probably always remain, the colony in which the majority of the people speak Dutch. No person ever rebuked more vehemently in advance the attempts of the military coercionists to discriminate against the Dutch in favour of the British. Mr. Rhodes, by all his antecedents, by force of instinct, strengthened by the deepest political conviction, would have been driven had he lived to come to the front and defend the Dutch of South Africa against the " loyalists " who clamour for disfranchisement and persecution of the Dutch as the condition of the settlement of South Africa. We had the same kind of thing in 1884, when, after the Warren expedition, it was reported that Sir Charles Warren had drawn up a scheme which contained a provision that no Dutchman need apply for land in the newly-acquired territory. Upon this Mr. Rhodes said : — " I think all would recognise that I am an Englishman, and one of my strongest feelings is loyalty to my own country. If the report of such a condition in the settlement by Sir Charles Warren is correct, that no man of Dutch descent is to have a farm, it would be better for the English colonists to retire. I remember, when a youngster, reading in my English history of the supremacy of my country and its annexations, and that there were two cardinal axioms — that the word of the nation when once pledged was never broken, and that when a man accepted the citizenship of the British Empire there was no distinction between races. It has been my misfortune in one year to meet with the breach of one and the proposed breach of the other. The result will be that when the troops are gone we shall have to deal with sullen feeling, discontent, and hostility. The proposed settlement of Bechuanaland is based on the exclusion of colonists of Dutch descent. I raise my voice in most solemn protest against such a course, and it 148 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. is the duty of every Englishman in the House to record his solemn protest against it. In conclu- sion, I wish to say that the breach of solemn pledges and the introduction of race distinctions must result in bringing calamity on this country ; and if such a policy is pursued it will endanger the whole of our social relationships with colonists of Dutch descent, and endanger the supremacy of Her Majesty in this country." No one could have denounced more vehemently than Mr. Rhodes the suggestion that a Crown Colony of any kind should be established under Downing Street in the heart of South Africa. " I have held," he said, "to one view. That is the government of South Africa by the people of South Africa whilst keeping the Imperial tie of self-defence." While he would not object to allow the Imperial Government a temporary responsibility during a period of transition, he declared — " I do object most distinctly to the formation of a separate British colony inHhe interior of South Africa on the Zambesi apart from the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope." If he felt that as far away as the Zambesi is, how much more strongly would he have felt it just across the Vaal and the Orange River ! Incidentally also note that Mr. Rhodes strongly supported the Dutch policy of dealing with the natives as opposed to the policy of Exeter Hall and the missionaries. He main- tained that the Dutch treated the natives very well. His own native policy, which is practically accepted to-day by nearly every white man in South Africa, was stated by him in 1888 as follows : — " Well, I have made up my mind that there must be class legislation, that there must be Pass HIS SPEECHES. 149 Laws and Peace Preservation Acts, and that we have got to treat natives, where they are in a state of barbarism, in a different way to ourselves. We are to be lords over them. These are my politics on native affairs, and these are the politics of South Africa. Treat the natives as a subject people as long as they continue in a state of barbarism and communal tenure ; be the lords over them, and let them be a subject race — and keep the liquor from them." Viewed in the light of these extracts, we can see what would have been the line which Mr. Rhodes would have taken in the immediate future of South Africa. First and foremost, Mr. Rhodes would have stood by the flag. He would never be the George Washington of a revolted South Africa — unless, of course, Downing Street should try to play the part of George III. Secondly, he would of necessity have become the centre round which would have gravitated all the forces making for self-government and colonial independence. He was the natural leader of the protest against that militarism which cost us the Transvaal in 1 880-81, and which will inevitably produce the same results if it is allowed to place South Africa under the rule of the soldier's jack-boot. Thirdly, Mr. Rhodes would have undertaken the championship of the Dutch against the dominant party which wished to put them under the harrow. Extracts give an imperfect idea of Mr. Rhodes's speeches. I quote therefore one speech in full. It was that which he delivered when he was at the zenith of his fame at the beginning of the year which was to close so disastrously with the Jameson Raid. The speech is that which he addressed to the shareholders of the Chartered Company on January i8th, 1895. It is also interesting as containing a very full descrip- tion of the condition of things in Rhodesia at that time. "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have to thank you for the reception which you have accorded to me, but I think that you naturally 150 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. desire that we should deal with the practical part of the Company's development in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, because you must remember that the English are a very practical people. They like expansion, but they like it in connection with practical business. I will not refer to the causes that led to our late war, but I may tell you very frankly that we either had to have that war or to leave the country. I do not blame the Matabele. Their system was a military system ; once a year they raided the surrounding people, and such a system was impossible for our develop- ment. Conclusions were tried, and they came to a successful issue so far as we were concerned. I might make one remark with respect to that war ; that to refer to the men who took part in it as political adventurers was a mistake. You can quite understand that, however bad times were, you would not risk your life unless there was something other than profit from the possible chance of obtaining a farm at the end of the war of the value now of «about ^50. Really, why the people volunteered so readily was that they had adopted this new country as their home, and they saw very clearly that unless they tried issues with the Matabele, they would have to leave the country. I think that is the best reply to the charge that the men who took a part in the war did it for the sake of loot and profit. " Now, in looking at this question, we have to consider what we possess, and I can tell you that we possess a very large piece of the world. If you will look at the map, let us consider what we have north of the Zambesi. We have now taken over the administration of the land north of the Zambesi save and except the Nyassaland Protectorate. We have also received sanction HIS SPEECHES. 151 for all our concessions there ; that is, the land and minerals north of the Zambesi belong to the Chartered Company, with one exception, the small piece termed the Nyassaland Protectorate. Even in that, however, we have considerable rights as to the minerals and land, in return for the property we took over from a Scotch com- pany called the Lakes Company. We have, however, been relieved from the cost of adminis- tration of the Nyassaland Protectorate. Her Majesty's Government and the British people have at last felt it their duty to pay for the administration of one of their own provinces, and I think we have a very fair reply to the Little Englanders, who are always charging us with increasing the responsibilities of Her Majesty's Government, and stating that the ' Charters,' when in difficulty, always appeal to the mother country. Our reply must be that the boot is on the other leg. For four years we have found the cost of administration of one of your own provinces, and we are proud to think that we have yearly paid into Her Majesty's Treasury a sum for the administration of one of our own provinces, because Governments were unable to face the House of Commons to ask them to contribute to their obligations. " Well, that is the position north of the Zambesi ; and I may say, in reference to that part of our territory, that there are very promising reports from it. It is a high plateau, fully mineralised, and every report shows that the high plateau is a part where Europeans can live. If we pass from that to the South, we first come to Matabeleland and Mashonaland. There we have had great difficulties in the past. We had a Charter, but not a country. We had first to go 152 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. in and occupy Mashonaland with the consent of the Mashonas, and then we had to deal with the Matabele. At the present moment there is a civilised government over the whole of that. We also possess the land and minerals, and from a sentimental point of view I will say this — that I visited the territory the other day and saw nearly all the chiefs of the Matabele, and I may say that they were all pleased, and naturally so. In the past they had always " walked delicately," because any one who got to any position in the country and became rich was generally "smelt out," and lost his life. You can understand that life was not very pleasant under such conditions. In so far as the bulk of the people were concerned they were not allowed to hold any cattle or possess anything of their own. Now they can hold cattle, and the leaders of the people know that they do not walk daily with the fear of death over them, We have now occupied the country, which I think we administer fairly, and in that territory also we possess the land and minerals. " With regard to the South, in the country termed the Bechuanaland Protectorate, we pos- sess all the mineral rights of Khamaland, and we have the negative right to the land and minerals as far south as Mafeking. What I mean by the negative right is, that from Mafeking throughout the whole Protectorate, since the grant of the Charter, no one has any right to obtain any concession from the natives except through the Chartered Company. We therefore possess the land, minerals, and territory from Mafeking to Tanganyika — that is, twelve hundred miles long and five hundred broad. I might say, with respect to that country, that I see no future difficulties in so far as risings of the natives are HIS SPEECHES. 153 concerned. We have satisfied the people throughout the whole of it, and we may say that we have now come to that point when we can deal, without the risk of war, with the peaceful development of the country. That is what we possess. " Now, you might very fairly ask what has it cost us. Your position is somewhat as follows :— You have a share capital of ,£2,000,000, and you have a debenture debt to-day of about ,£650,000 ; and I might point out to you that as against that debenture debt you have paid for the one hundred miles of railway in the Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, you have about fourteen hundred miles of telegraph, you have built magistrates' courts in the whole of your territory, you have civilised towns in five or six different parts, and the Beira Railway. Although you do not hold their debentures, you have the voting power, and the railway is completed. We might now fairly say, if you put aside the Mafeking Railway and the land you hold in the Crown Colony of Bechu- analand, as apart from the chartered territories, that your debenture debt can be regarded as about ,£350,000 ; because I do not think it is an unfair price to put in your assets in Bechuanaland at ,£300,000, for, since the railway was opened there, it has paid its working expenses and four per cent. Therefore, in looking at the matter from a purely commercial point of view, you might say, we possess a country with all the rights to it, in length twelve hundred miles and in breadth an average of five hundred, and we have a debt of about ,£300,000 or ,£350,000, because we have an asset apart from that country in the Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland of about ,£300,000. "The next question you would naturally ask L 2 154 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. would be, what is the appreciation of the people as to that country ? The only test you can take in a way is, apart from the very large sum put into mineral developments, what the people con- sider the value of the townships sold, because that is always the judgment of the individual. He buys a stand because he wishes to erect a store or building. You cannot term that the specula- tive action of syndicates. I may tell you that at the last stand sale in Bulawayo the purchases were made by people who have since erected stores and buildings with the intention of remaining and re- siding in the country. As you are aware, the sales there realised ,£53,000, and I received in connec- tion with this matter an interesting telegram last night A stand which fetched at our sale ,£160 was sold — I suppose yesterday or the day before, because we are now in complete communication by the telegraph — for ,£3,050. The value of the building on it is estimated at ,£1,000, so within six months, in the estimation of the purchaser, the stand has risen from ,£160 to ,£2,050, in so far as the ground value is concerned. That speaks more than words, and shows the confidence of the people in the country. "The next risk with a commercial company like ours would be the question of the cost of administration. You might very fairly say, ' We know that the future is all right. We feel that so huge a country, mineralised like that, must come out successfully ; but what is the cost of administration, what is the difference between revenue and expenditure ? ' That is the next question which business men would ask. In connection with that you will no doubt have examined the reports, but it is always very difficult to obtain a practical idea from a report. HIS SPEECHES. 155 respecting a question like this. I can, however, tell you from my knowledge about the position. The revenue now is about .£50,000 per annum from the country, and the expenditure is about .£70,000. You must, however, remember that 1 do not include in the revenue of £50,000 the sale of stands, because I call that capital account. I mean by revenue, what you receive monthly from stamps, licences, and the ordinary sources of revenue which every country possesses. I am therefore justified in thinking that we need feel no alarm as to the future about balancing our expenditure with our revenue, because I would point out to you, that if with no claim licences— because we are deriving few or none now — with no customs, and practically with no hut tax at present, you almost balance now, I think we may fairly say that we shall balance in the future, and earn a sum with which to pay interest on our debentures. I do not think that is an excessive proposition to make, and you must remember that this expenditure covers a force of over two hundred police. Two years ago, when I toM you we were balancing in Mashonaland, we had practically dismissed all our police, as we could not afford them, but the new position is that with an expenditure of £70,000 and a revenue of .£50,000, we are paying for two hundred police, and really we do not want more expenditure. We have magistrates in every town, mining commissioners, and a complete system of govern- ment. We have a Council, an Administrator, a Judge, and a Legal Adviser. I cannot therefore see that we want any more heavy expenditure, and that is why I have not asked for any increase of capital. " From a commercial point of view, the way I Photograph />y] \E. II. Mills Mr. Hays Hammond. HIS SPEECHES. 157 look at it is somewhat as follows : — We have a capital of ,£2,000,000 in shares, let that be our capital ; we have our debentures, as to half of which we have a liquid asset in the Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland. What future extra expenditure can there be ? There can be no more wars, for there are no more people to make the wars. As to public buildings, in each of our towns we have most excellent public buildings, quite equal to the ordinary buildings in Cape Colony ; I speak of Bulawayo, Salisbury, Umtali, and Victoria. As to telegraphs, every town in the country is connected with the telegraph except- ing Umtali. As to railway communication, we have given railway communication in the east from Beira to Chimoio, through the 'fly,' and one of the richest portions of the country is only seventy- five miles from the terminus. We have extended the Vryburg Railway to Mafeking — that is five hundred miles from Bulawayo. If the country warrants further railway communications the money can be found apart from the Charter. If the country does not warrant any further railway extensions, then we had better not build it. The people must be satisfied as we were in the past at Kimberley. For years we had to go six hundred miles by waggon to Kimberley, and then we went five hundred miles, and later four hundred miles by the same means, although the yearly exports were between ,£2,000,000 and ,£3,000,000. When Kimberley justified a rail- way, a railway was made, and so it will be in this case. We have maintained our position. We have a complete administration, and we have railway facilities which will allow batteries to be sent in. I do not see, therefore, where more public expenditure is required. The 158 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. extension of railways will be undertaken when the country warrants it, apart from the Charter. When, therefore, I came home, and was spoken to about the question of an increase of capital, I, after a careful consideration, thought it would be an unwise thing to submit to the share- holders. We are practically paying our way, and we shall keep our Chartered capital at ,£2,000,000 ; and I cannot see in the future any reason which would cause us to increase it. If the country is a failure, we had better not increase it ; and if the country is a success, it will not be wanted. " Now, we have dealt with the question of what we possess, what it has cost us, and our present financial position, and you might next very fairly say, What are the prospects ? Well, looking at that question, I can only say that I have been through the country, and from an agricultural point of view I know it is a place where white people are going to settle. It is good agricultural country. As to climate, it is asked by some whether it is not a fever country. It is nothing of the kind. It is a high healthy plateau, and I would as soon live there as in any part of South Africa. Towards the Portuguese territory and in some parts of the low country the climate is unhealthy, and the same applies to the country just on the Zambesi ; the high plateau, however, is perfectly healthy. You may therefore say that you have a country where white people can live and be born and brought up, and it is suitable for agriculture ; but of course the main point we must look to, in so far as a return to our shareholders is concerned, is the question of the mineralisation of the country. I have said once before that out of licences and HIS SPEECHES. 159 the usual sources of revenue for a Government you cannot expect to pay dividends. The people would get annoyed if you did ; they do not like to see licences spent in dividends — those are assets which are to pay for any public works and for good government. We must therefore look to our minerals to give us a return on our capital, which you must remember is ,£2,000,000. " In dealing with that question, I will ask, \Yhat have you got ? You possess a country about one thousand two hundred miles by five hundred which is mineralised, and as regards the efforts which have at present been made, you have in connection with the search for minerals forty thousand claims registered with the Government of the country. That means two thousand miles of mineralised quartz, and I would refer you to the report of Mr. Hammond, who went through the country with me, and who is the consulting en- gineer of the Goldfields of South Africa Company. He was highly pleased with what he saw. There was a suggestion made that the reefs were not true fissure veins ; did not go down. He pooh-poohed that idea. I would refer you to page 35 of the directors' report, where he alludes to that, and says : ' Veins of this class are universally noted for their permanency.' Then if you follow his remarks on the mineral position, you will find that he says : ' It would be an anomaly in the history of gold- mining if, upon the hundreds of miles of mineral- ised veins, valuable ore-shoots should not be developed as the result of future work.' He adds : ' There are, I think, substantial grounds to predict the opening up of shoots of ore from which an important mining industry will ultimately be developed.' Then he warns people about the mode of investing money in the search for minerals, 160 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. and says : ' With these admonitions, I confidently commend the country to the attention of mining capitalists.' That is the report of a cautious man who visited the country and reported on what he saw. " You must remember that in the past, in dealing with our reefs, we have not had men acquainted with mining. They were chiefly young fellows who went up and occupied the country, and who knew as little about mining as many of you here do. They had no means of ascertaining, because the mineralisation of that country is quartz, and not alluvial, and we could get in no batteries. Still, the past four years have proved that the whole country is mine- ralised from end to end, and in reference to the discoveries made I think I am justified in stating that such have been the reports of those who are connected with those discoveries, that nearly three-quarters of a million sterling has been subscribed lately for the development of them, not by puffing prospectuses, but privately by friends of those who have gone out and made reports on what they .have discovered. If I might address a word of warning to you, I would say we, as directors, are responsible to you for the Charter as to its capital. Do not go and discount possibilities as if they were proved results. I think, however, that with the facts which I have stated, you may be confident that in the future Ma'tabeleland and Mashonaland will be gold - producing countries, because it would be contrary to Nature to suppose that a country that is mineralised from end to end should not have payable shoots. With these words I will make no further remark as to the gold, save and except to tell you this, that if HIS SPEECHES. 161 one of you asks how you will get a return in connection with that gold, I may state that what I term the ' patent ' in the country — namely, the Company getting a share in the vendor scrip — has been practically accepted by the country. We have not had the slightest diffi- culty in settling with the various corporations who have obtained capital from the public. " The great objection to the idea was its newness. It had never been- tried before. It has now been tried and accepted, and for a very simple reason. The prospector has found that he is not eaten up by monthly licences while holding his claim ; the capitalist, when he goes to purchase, knows that the Charter has a certain interest, and pays accordingly ; and as to the public, who always find the capital for quartz mining, it is a matter of no importance to them whether Jones gets all the vendor scrip or whether Jones and the Government share it together. The public do not take such a personal interest in Jones that they require that he should have the whole of the scrip. They also know that if the Government receive half of it, it is held until the value of the mine is proved, whereas if the whole of it was handed over to Jones, he might part with it to a confiding public. When, therefore, you are considering this question commercially you will say, ' Well, we are dealing with a proposition of a capital of ,£2,000,000 ; we are dealing with a country nearly as big as Europe, and we know it is mineralised. The present tests must be fairly satisfactory, or else the friends of those who have gone out and found reefs would not have sub- scribed three-quarters of a million sterling for their development. We must always remember in connection with mining that it is very 162 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. speculative, as I told a friend of mine the other day — they are always bothering me about mines — and I said to one of my friends, a French financier, 'I will give you advice at last.' He was delighted, and asked what I would advise. I said, ' Either buy French Rentes or Consols.' Then he went away annoyed. What, however, I desire to put to you is, that when you go into a mining venture you go into a speculative venture ; but as a proposition with a capital of ,£2,000,000, deal- ing with a country almost as big as Europe, which is mineralised, and with that subscribed capital for its development — and as regards its administra- tion, the revenue paying for the expenditure— it is a fair business-like proposition. When you con- sider this comparatively — and that is the great secret in life — it represents in capital perhaps one Rand mine. As to the question whether the scrip proposal has been accepted, we have settled with all the chief corporations, and as minerals are found in that territory, you therefore know per- fectly well that in reference to the share capital you have an interest in everything that is dis- covered. I will not say anything more than that with regard to the mineral question, but I would repeat again : do not discount possibilities as if they were proved results. " Now, gentlemen, I think that on this occa- sion you cannot accuse me of not dealing with the commercial aspects of the country. I think you will admit that I have shown you the size of it, the cost of it, and the possibilities of it, and if there is any point I have missed, please tell me. We have to consider, because we are a Charter, and are connected with politics, the political position of the country, and I may say that that is most satisfactory. We had a good many HIS SPEECHES. 163 enemies before, and difficulties with the Portu- guese, with the Transvaal, and with the Matabele. As you know, the Matabele difficulty has dis- appeared ; they have incorporated themselves with us. The difficulties with the Portuguese are also over. We had different views as to where our boundaries were situated ; but now I may say that our relations with them are on the most friendly footing, and we must always remember, with reference to the Portuguese, that they were the original civilisers of Africa. They had the bad luck, if I may say so, to get only the coast, to be on the fringe, and never to have penetrated to the high healthy plateau at the back. Their power is not what it was ; but we must respect them, and we must remember that the man who founded the Portuguese Colonial Empire — that is, Henry the Navigator — was of our own blood. The other day, when we were at Delagoa Bay, they had trouble with the natives, and we offered — Dr. Jameson and I — to assist them, because the natives in rebellion were a portion of the tribe of Gungunhana, to whom we pay tribute, but the Portuguese declined our assistance, and one cannot help respecting their national pride. They would not take help from anyone, and we should do the same. They were very courteous and thanked us, but they declined our proffered assistance, although they knew that we could help them, because these natives who were troubling them were receiving tribute from us. In the same way they refused assistance from the Transvaal Government, and I believe from two foreign Powers. With national pride they are settling their difficulties themselves. It will be our object to work in perfect co-operation with the Portu- guese Government and officials. 164 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. " With regard to the Transvaal, our neigh- bour the President finds that he has quite enough to do in dealing with his own people. I have always felt that if I had been in President Kruger's position I should have looked upon the Chartered Territory as my reversion. He must have been exceedingly disappointed when we went in and occupied it ; but since then we have co-operated most heartily with him, and I look to no political difficulty from the Transvaal. We have received through- out the complete support of the Cape people, who, recognising that it was too great an under- taking for themselves to enter upon, were glad that we undertook it, and they look upon it as their Hinterland, as, remember, we shall pass from the position of chartered administration to self-government, when the country is occupied by white people — especially by Englishmen, because if Englishmen object to anything it is to being governed by a small oligarchy. They will govern themselves. We must therefore look to the future of Charterland — I speak of ten or twenty years hence — as self-government, and that self-government very possibly federal with the Cape Government. " Then when we think of the political position, we have also to consider the English people, and I must say we have received the very heartiest support from the English public, with a few exceptions, possibly from ignorance— (laughter) — and possibly from disappointment- Daughter) - and I think in many cases from an utter misconception. I remember whilst coming home, sitting down on board ship and reading this from the Daily Chronicle: — •' Not a single un- employed workman in England is likely to secure HIS SPEECHES. 165 a week's steady labour as a result of a forward policy in South Africa.' What is the reply to that ? I do not reply by a platform address about ' three acres and a cow ' — (laughter) — or with Socialistic statements as to ' those who have not, taking from those who have.' I make the practical reply that we have built 200 miles of railway, and that the rails have all been made in England and the locomotives also. We have constructed 1,300 miles of tele- graphs, and the poles and wires have all been made in England. Everything we wear has been imported from England. And can you tell me that not a single labourer or unemployed workman in England is likely to secure a week's steady labour as a result of that enterprise ? I can assure you it does them much more good than telling them about three acres and a cow, because nothing has ever come out of that yet. (Laughter.) And as to the Socialistic programme —well, you know the story of one of the Roth- schilds, I think, who listened to it all in the train, and then handed the gentleman who addressed him a sovereign as his share of the plunder. (Laughter.) But we have to deal with this question, and I hope I am not tiring you of it, because we have to study the feeling of the English people, and they are most practical. You must show that it is to their benefit that these expansions are made, because the man in the street, if he does not get a share, naturally says : ' And where do I come in ? ' (Laughter.) You must show them that there is a distinct advantage to them in these developments abroad. That is the reason why, when we made a constitution for this country, I submitted a provision that the duty on British goods should not exceed the 166 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. present Cape tariff. I should like you to listen to me on that, if I do not tire you. You must remember that your ' Little Englander ' says, and very fairly : ' What is the advantage of all these expansions ? What are the advantages of our Colonies ? As soon as we give them self- government, if we remonstrate with them as to a law they pass, they tell us they will haul down the flag ; and on receiving self-government, they imme- diately devise how they can keep our goods out, and make bad boots and shoes for themselves.' It is true that many of our Colonies have found out the folly of Protection, but they have created a bogey which they cannot allay, because the factories have been created, the workmen have come out there, and they are only kept going by the high duties ; and a poor Minister who tries to pass a low tariff knows perfectly well that he will have his windows broken by an infuriated mob. The only chance for a colony is to stop these ideas before they develop, and taking this new country of ours, I thought it would be a wise thing to put in the constitution that the tariff should not exceed the present Cape tariff, which is a revenue and not a protective tariff. (Cheers.) The proof of that is that we have not a single factory in the Cape Colony. I thought if we made that a part of our constitution in the interior, -we should stop the creation of vested factories, a most unfair treatment of British trade, and a most unjust thing to the people of a new country. You may not be surprised that that proposition was refused. It was refused because it was not under- stood. People thought that there was a proposition for a preferential system. I may tell you that all my letters of thanks came from the Protectionists, -and nothing from the Free Traders, though it was HIS SPEECHES. 167 really a Free Trade proposition. A proposition came from Home that I should put in the words ' That the duty on imported goods should not exceed the present Cape tariff.' I declined to do that because I thought that in the future, twenty- five or fifty years hence, you might deal with the United States as you would with a naughty child, saying, ' If you will keep on this system of the McKinley tariff, or an increase of it, we shall shut your goods out/ in the same way that you go to war, not because you are pleased with war, but because you are forced. That is why I wished to put the words ' British goods,' because actually England in the future might adopt this policy and yet have a clause in the constitution of one of her own colonies which prevented it. (Cheers.) Now who could object to this ? Certainly not the French or the German Ambassadors, because so long as England's policy is to make no difference, they come in under this clause, the policy of England being that there should be no preferential right. Any law passed by us giving a preferential right would be disallowed. But this clause would have assisted the German and French manufacturer, so long as England remains what it is, because they also would have shared in the privilege of the duty on imported goods, or British goods not exceeding 12 per cent. If you follow the idea, so long as England did not sanction a law making a difference, we had to make it the same to all. But this great gain was obtained, that supposing that the charter passed into self-government, and a wave of Protection came over the territory, and they pass, we will say, a duty of 50 per cent, on British goods, that would be disallowed, because it was contrary to the constitution. The only objection that has ever been made to this propo- M 168 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. sition is that it would have been law as long as it was no good, and when it was any good it would have been done away with. That shows a want of knowledge again. People think the people in the colonies are all for Protection. It is nothing of the kind. They are very sensible people, and they know that Protection means that everything you eat and wear costs you 50 per cent. more. But what does happen is that at times a wave comes over a country, of Pro- tection, and it is carried by a small majority. It then becomes law ; the factories are created and the human beings come out and they have to be fed, and therefore you cannot get rid of them. But in case of a wave coming in the country under a constitution as suggested, the Secretary of State would be justified in dis- allowing. He would say : ' There is a large minority against this law, and as it is against the constitution I disallow.' And look at the ramifi- cations of it. Of course if the gold is in the quantity in Matabeleland and Mashonaland that we think, that will become a valuable asset in Africa, and we know perfectly well there is going to be a Customs Union of Africa — leave out the question of republics and the questions of Govern- ment and the Flag ; but we know the practical thing will happen, that there will be a Customs Union in Africa. This clause being in our charter would have governed the rest of Africa, and there- fore you would have had preserved to British goods, Africa as one of your markets. (Cheers.) Take the comparison of this question, and I will show you what it means. You have sixty millions of your people in the United States. You created that Government ; that is your production, if I may call it so ; they have adopted this folly of Pro- HIS SPEECHES. 169 tection— they cannot get rid of it now. What is your trade with the United States — sixty millions of your own people ? I will tell you. Your exports are about ^40,000,000 per annum. Now, in Africa and Egypt we have only 600,000 whites with us, and I do not think the natives are very great con- sumers— but you are up to ^"20,000,000. I will take Southern Africa. You are doing about ^"15,000,000 with the Cape and Natal, almost entirely British goods, and about ^4,000,020 with Egypt, where you have a fair chance for your goods ; and you are doing ^20,000,000 with those two small dependencies, as against ^40,000,000 with another creation of yours which has shut your own goods out and only takes ^40,000,000 from you. If it had given a fair chance to your trade you would be doing £\ 50,000,000 with the United States, to your own advantage and to the advan- tage of the American people. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I can see very clearly that the whole of your politics lie in your trade, or should do so, because you are not like France, producing wine — you are not like the United States, a world by itself — you are a small province, doing nothing but making up the raw material into the manufactured article, and distributing over the world, and your great policy should be to keep the trade of the world, and therefore you have done a wise thing in remaining in Egypt and taking Uganda. You have to thank the present Prime Minister for that, and remember this, when it has to be written, that he has done that against probably the feelings of the whole of his party, which comprise the Little Englanders. He has taken Uganda and retained Egypt, and the retention of Egypt means the retention of an open market for your goods. (Hear, hear.) Why, the lesson is so M 2 170 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. easy ! When I came home to England the first time, I went up the Thames, and what did I find they were doing ? — for whom were they making ? They were making for the world. That was what they were doing in England ; and when I went into a factory there was not a man who was not working for the world. Your trade is the world, and your life is the world, and that is why you must deal with those questions of expansion and of retention of the world. (Hear, hear.) Of course, Cobdenism was a most beautiful theory, and it is right that you should look to the whole world ; but the human beings in the world will not have that. They will want to make their own things ; and if they find that England can make them best they put on these protective duties ; and if they keep on doing that they will beat you in the end. It is not ethical discussions about the House of Lords that you want, or about three acres and a cow. And you talk nonsense if you talk about doing away with a Second Chamber so that a wave of popular feeling could sweep away your Constitution. Brother Jonathan does not do that. (Laughter.) It may all end in strengthening the House of Lords. We all know that. When you come to the election, and when you go on your various election committees, do not give your entire attention to the ethical question of the House of Lords. When Jones or Smith at the ensuing election asks you for your support, tell them — for there is really nothing else before you in the election — ' We will have this clause put in about Matabeleland.' Everything comes from these little things. You do not know how it will spread, the basis of it being that your goods shall not be shut out from the markets of the world. That clause will develop, and will HIS SPEECHES. 171 spread from Matabeleland to Mashonaland, and then perhaps Australia and Canada will consider the question, and you will thus be retaining a market for your goods. And you have been actually offered this, and you have refused it. You will be acting foolishly if you do not in the forthcoming elections insist upon that clause being put in. Now, I hope you will not say I have departed from the commercial aspect and gone to a political speech ; but I can assure you of this— I think it will do you and your trade more good than anything I can conceive. Gentlemen, in all things it is the little questions that change the world. This charter came from an accidental thought, and all the great changes of the world come from little accidents. All the combinations and beautiful essays that are put forward so eagerly are unpractical enough, but this consti- tution is a more practical thing. I can assure you there is a very practical thing in it. We have been accused of being a speculative set of company-mongers, and nobody could see any great chance of our ultimate financial success ; but by your support we have carried it through. When the man in the street sneers at you, you can remind him that it was an undertaking he had not the courage to enter upon himself as one of the British people ; the Imperial Government would not touch it ; the Cape Government was too poor to do it. It has been done by you, and the enterprise has succeeded, and I do not think anybody would say they would like to see that portion of the world under another flag now. And it has been done, which the English people like, without expense to their exchequer - (laughter) — and we have had to combine this expansion with the commercial or else we should 172 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. not have succeeded. Don't be annoyed with me, gentlemen. Let us look at the facts. There was that development of East Africa based, if I might put it, on the suppression of the slave trade and the cultivation of the cocoanut-tree. (Laughter.) Well, I saw Sir William Mackinnon at the end, and it almost killed him. He got no support from the public. We are very practical people. Take my own case. Take that of the trans- continental telegraph. It will be of great assist- ance to the Chartered Company, because it will put our territories at the end of Tanganyika in touch with us, and yet the bulk of the public did hot help us. I think the public had really no grounds to subscribe. But I will take two corporations I am connected with. Well, one gave nothing, and with the other an indignant shareholder wrote to the Board to inquire who paid for the paper and envelopes of the circular. (Laughter.) Now, I mention this to show what an eminently practical people we are. Unless we had made this undertaking with its com- mercial difficulties, we should have failed, and that is the best reply to those who sneer at us and call us a set of company-mongers. (Cheers.) We have been fortunate in forming an imagina- tive conception, and succeeded, and really, if you look at it, within a period — well, I would say, it is hardly equal to the term allotted to an Oxford student. (Laughter.) Commercially, if you think it out, I think you will go away from this room — no, I don't think you will go away to sell your shares, for it is fair business. When you went into our Company you went into speculative mining ; it is certainly not Consols or French Rentes. There are no more claims for fresh money, and our two millions represent a very HIS SPEECHES. 173 large interest in all the gold that will be found practically between Mafeking and Tanganyika in a highly mineralised country — (cheers) — and, therefore, if you are satisfied with the commercial, I really think you might give a help in the political. I do hope in the ensuing election you will do your best to see my clause carried, because you will do by that a really practical thing, and take the very first practical step that has been done towards the promotion of the Union of the Empire." (Loud cheers.) It is impossible to attempt to summarise the whole of Mr. Rhodes's speeches here, but it is equally impossible to close this section without noticing in passing one of the most famous, and in some respects the most unfortunate of all his speeches, which he delivered immediately after the relief of Kimberley, on February igih, 1900. It was in this speech that Mr. Rhodes made use of the famous phrase so constantly quoted against him, in which he spoke of the British flag as a " commercial asset." This much misquoted passage occurs in a speech addressed to the shareholders of the De Beers Company. Mr. Rhodes had been using the resources of the De Beers shareholders without stint in the defence of Kimberley against the Boers. He was appealing to shareholders, many of whom, being French and Germans, regarded the whole British policy in South Africa with unconcealed detestation. His speech was primarily intended to reconcile them to an employment of the funds for political purposes to which they objected. He had also to deal with other shareholders, whose only concern was their dividends. This is quite clear from the opening passages of his speech. He said : — " Shareholders may be divided into two classes — those who are imaginative and those who are certainly unimaginative. To the latter class the fact of our connection with the Char- tered Company has been for many years past a great trial. Human beings are very interesting. 174 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS. There are those of the unimaginative type who pass their whole lives in filling money-bags, and when they are called upon, perhaps more hurriedly than they desire, to retire from this world, what they leave behind is often dissipated by their offspring on wine, women and horses. Of these purely unimaginative gentlemen, whose sole con- cern is the accumulation of wealth, I have a large number as my shareholders." It was to these unimaginative persons, especially to the foreign shareholders, that he addressed his vindication of the transformation of a purely commercial company unconnected with politics, into warriors fighting for the preservation of our homes and property. " I have to tell the shareholders in Europe," he said, "that we have for the last four months devoted the energies of our company to the defence of the town." After describing what had been done by the citizen soldiers of Kimberley, he concluded his speech by the following passage : — " Finally, I would submit to you this thought, that when we look back upon the troubles we have gone through, and especially all that has been suffered by the women and children, we have this satisfaction — that we have done our best to preserve that which is the best com- mercial asset in the world — the protection of Her Majesty's flag." When Mr. Rhodes came back from Kimberley, I had a talk with him upon this subject. He said that it was very ridiculous the way people had abused him for the passage about the flag. If they had considered the circumstances in which the speech was made, they would have seen the reason for it. HfS SPEECHES. 175 " People talked as if I were making a political speech, or speaking as a politician. I was not. 1 was addressing a meeting of the De Beers shareholders, half of whom were Frenchmen. Of course, the number of people present at the meeting was small, but 1 was addressing the French shareholders through the press. French feeling is very strong against England, and the French shareholders might naturally feel aggrieved. They had lost an enormous sum of money from the cessation of industry during the war. The part which the De Beers Company had taken in defending Kimberley was another point upon which, as shareholders, they might fairly take an exception. In order to parry their objection and to show to them that, after all, I was really looking after their business, I finished up with a declaration that I had been spending their money in defending what was, after all, the greatest commercial asset in the world, the pro- tection of the British flag. It was a perfectly true thing, and it seemed to me a very useful thing to say in the circumstances. I was addressing, not the world at large, but De Beers shareholders. I had my French shareholders in my eye all the time." 1 76 Mr. Rhodes's last Portrait. 177 PART III. THE CLOSING SCENE. MR. RHODES died at Muizenberg, a small cottage on the sea-coast near Cape Town, on March 26, 1902. The result of the post mortem examination showed that with the exception of the aneurism of the heart, which caused an immense distension of that organ, he was in a perfectly healthy state. The heart trouble had been with him from his youth. When he attained manhood it abated somewhat, but after his fortieth year it returned, and gradually increased until his death, which did not come to his release until after some weeks of very agonis- ing suffering. He was conscious to the very last, and attempted to transact business within a week of his decease. He was attended constantly by his old and faithful friend, Dr. Jameson, whose name was the last articulate word which escaped from his lips. All the deep-seated tenderness of his nature, which led Bramwell Booth to describe him as having a great human heart hungering for love, found expression in these last days whenever he spoke or thought of Dr. Jameson. The affec- tion which Mr. Rhodes entertained for the Doctor dated far back in the early days when they were at Kimberley together, and never varied through all the vicissitudes of his eventful career. At one time, when Dr. Jameson was ill and in prison, bearing the punishment for an enterprise the pre- 178 THE CLOSING SCENE. cipitation of which was due to incentives from a much higher than any African quarter, he was troubled by the maddening fear that Mr. Rhodes had not forgiven him for the upsetting of his apple-cart. But Mr. Rhodes was not a man who wore his heart upon his sleeve. He schooled himself to repress manifestations of affection, but an incident for which Lord Grey is my authority shows how unfounded were Dr. Jame- son's misgivings. If Mr. Rhodes loved anything in the world, he loved his house, and Groote Schuur was the nest which he had built for himself in the shadow of Table Mountain, which he had filled with all manner of historic and literary treasures. When the year 1896 — the year of the ill-fated Raid — was drawing to a close, Lord Grey, then Administrator of Rhodesia, received a tele- gram early in the morning to the effect that Groote Schuur had been burnt down with most of its contents. Knowing how intensely Mr. Rhodes was attached to his home, Lord Grey shrank from breaking the news to him until they were alone. He feared that Mr. Rhodes might lose his self-control. They rode out together that morning, and not until they were far out in the country did Lord Grey think of telling the evil tidings which arrived that morning. As they rode together Mr. Rhodes began talking of the misfortunes of the twelve months then drawing to a close. Nothing but ill-luck had attended him for the whole course ; he did not think that his luck could mend, and could only hope that the new year would dawn without any further disaster. Lord Grey said to him gently— " Well, Mr. Rhodes, I am very sorry, but I am afraid I must give you a rather ugly knock." Mr. Rhodes reined up his horse, and turning THE CLOSING SCEXE. 179 to his companion he exclaimed, his face livid, white and drawn with an agony of dread— " Good heavens ! Out with it, man has happened ? " What i8o THE CLOSING SCENE. " Well," said Lord Grey, " I am sorry to tell you that Groote Schuur was burnt down last night." The tense look of anguish disappeared from Rhodes's face. He heaved a great sigh, and exclaimed with inexpressible relief — " Oh, thank God, thank God ! I thought you were going to tell me that Dr. Jim was dead. The house is burnt down — well, what does that matter ? We can always rebuild the house, but if Dr. Jim had died I should never have got over it." Only those who knew what Groote Schuur was to Mr. Rhodes can understand the depth and fervour of a human attachment which enabled him to bear the loss of his house not merely with equanimity but absolute gratitude. It is a very striking illustration of the practical value of one of Mr. Rhodes's favourite sayings :— " Do the comparative. Always do the com- parative." By this he meant, whenever you are over- taken by a misfortune or plunged into dire tribulation, you can find consolation by reflecting how much worse things might have been, or how much greater had been the misery suffered by others. I well remember Mr. Rhodes telling me how he had frequently supported himself in the midst of the most trying crisis of his career, when everything seemed to be lost. He used to say— " When I was inclined to take too tragic a view of the consequences of apparently imminent disaster, I used to reflect what the old Roman Emperors must have felt when (as often happened) their legions were scattered, and they fled from a stricken field, knowing that they had lost the empire of the world. To THE CLOSING SCENE. 181 such men at such times it must have seemed as if their world was going to pieces around them. But after all," he said, " the sun rose next day, the river flowed between its banks, and the world went on very much the same despite it all. And, thinking of this, I used to go to bed and sleep like a child." A still more remarkable instance of the deliberate way in which he practised the maxim was also told me. When Mr. Rhodes came home after the Raid he fully expected to be sent to prison, and amused himself during the voyage by drawing up a scheme of reading which he hoped to carry out during the seclusion of the gaol ; but it was not until after his death that I heard from Lord Grey how he proposed to nerve himself for the ordeal of imprisonment. " Do the comparative ! " Mr. Rhodes said to Lord Grey one day when they were together in Rhodesia. " Always do the comparative ! You will find it a great comfort. For instance, if I had been sent to gaol after the Raid, I had fully made up my mind what I would do. I should have gone down to the Tower before I was locked up ; I should have gone to the cell in which poor old Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned before he was led out to be beheaded ; I should have gone to the cell and thought of all that Raleigh suffered in the long years in which he lay there. And then, afterwards, when I was in my comfortable cell in Holloway Gaol, I should have consoled myself every day by thinking, 'After all, you are not so badly off as poor Sir Walter Raleigh in that cell of his in the Tower.' ' On another occasion, when he had been made wretched by the attacks made upon him in the Cape Parliament for his share in the Raid, when The Lying-in-State. The Procession Passing the Memorial Column, Bulawayo. THE FUNERAL OF MR. RHODES. THE CLOSING SCENE. 183. it seemed as if he had lost everything for which he had striven, and had nothing to look forward to but punishment and disgrace, he burst into Lord Grey's room one morning and ex- claimed — " Do you know, Grey, I have just been think- ing that you have never been sufficiently grateful for having been born an Englishman. Just think for a moment," he went on, " what it is to have been born an Englishman in England. Think how many millions of men there are in this world to-day who have been born Chinese or Hindus or Kaffirs ; but you were not born any of these, you were born an Englishman. And that is not all. You are just over forty (which was about Rhodes's own age at that time), and you have a clean, healthy body. Now think of the odds there are against anyone having those three things — to be born an Englishman, to be over forty, and to have a clean, healthy body. Why, the chances are enormous against it, and yet you have all three. What enormous chances there are against you having drawn all these prizes in the lottery of life, and yet you never think of them." "I could have hugged the poor old chap," said Lord Grey, " for it was so evident that he had been doing the comparative by way of consoling himself, and reflecting that in the midst of all his misfortunes there were some things which no one could take away from him ; and then he would burst into my room to pour out his soul to me in that fashion." Mr. Rhodes was very much given to musing, and even talking to himself upon the most serious subjects. Mr. Rudd told me that in Mr. Rhodes's early days nothing delighted him more than, when the day's work was done, to get a friend or two into 1 84 THE CLOSING SCENE. his tent and discuss questions of philosophy and theology. Sir Charles Warren has told us how, when Rhodes was quite a young man, he and Warren had a long debate over the Thirty-nine Articles, and differed hopelessly upon the doctrine of predestination. His favourite author was said to have been Gibbon, but what served him as a pocket-Bible was the writings of Marcus Aurelius. As Gordon never went anywhere without his little pocket edition of Thomas a Kempis, so Rhodes never left behind him his pocket edition of Marcus Aurelius. His copy was dog-eared and scored with pencil marks, showing how constantly he had used it. But he never quite attained to the serene philosophy of the Imperial philosopher. He shrank from death, not so much from the fear of anything after death, but because it was the arrest of activity, the cessation of the strenuous life which he had always lived. He was ever a doer. Once an acquaintance had remarked to him, when he returned from London to South Africa — " I suppose you found London Society very lively?" To whom Mr. Rhodes replied— " When I have a big thing on hand I don't dine out. I do that, and nothing else." It was this feeling which led him to cling so passionately to life. From the day when his heart suddenly gave way, and he fell from his horse and shattered his shoulder, he felt that he lived under the sword of Damocles, and at any moment the hair which suspended it might break and all would be over. It was this overmastering passion of energetic vitality which prompted his despairing cry when he lay on his death-bed — " So much to do, so little done ! " THE CLOSING SCEXE. 185 One of the passages which he marked in the book which lay ever near his hand contained the reflections which Marcus Aurelius addressed to those who dreaded the approach of death :— You have been a citizen of the great world-city. Five years or fifty, what matters it ? To every man his due as law allots. Why then protest? No tyrant gives you your dismissal, no unjust judge, but nature, who gave you the admission. It is like the praetor discharging some player whom he has engaged — " But the five acts are not complete ; I have played but three." Good : life's drama, look you, is complete in three. The completeness is in his hands who first authorised your composition, and now your dissolution. Neither was your work. Serenely take your leave ; serene as he who gives you the discharge. ' After the siege of Kimberley, in 1900, Mr. Rhodes told me he thought he had fourteen years more to live ; and that time seemed to him far too short to accomplish all that he had in his mind to do. Few of his friends ventured to anticipate for him so long a lease of life. The result proved that their forebodings were only too well justified. Instead of fourteen years, he lived barely two. There is, however, something consoling in the heroism with which he risked and lost his life at the end. It is probable that if he had not returned to South Africa in the last year of his life he might have lived for several years. His medical advisers and his most intimate friends were aghast when he announced his determination to return to South Africa to give evidence in the case of Princess Radziwill. Mr. Rhodes, although unmarried, was singu- larly free from any scandal about women. As might be imagined, being a millionaire, a bachelor, and a man of charming personality, he was abso- 1 86 THE CLOSING SCEXE. 187 lutely hunted by many ladies ; but the pursuit seemed to inspire him with an almost amusing horror of ever finding- himself alone with them. Princess Radziwill was far the most brilliant, audacious, and highly placed of these huntresses, and Mr. Rhodes was correspondingly on his guard against "the old Princess," as he used to call her. But there is not a word of truth in the infamous suggestions that have been made concerning their relations. He regarded her as a thorough-paced intriguer, with whom he was determined that his name should never be associated. Had he not had so much regard for his reputation he might have been living at this hour. One of his friends, who knew the state of his health, implored him to meet her forged bills rather than expose his life to what, as the result proved, was a fatal danger. " What is ,£24,000 to you," said his friend, " compared with the risk avoided ? " " It's not the money," said Mr. Rhodes, " but no risk will prevent me clearing my character of any stain in connection with that woman." "You are sending him to his death," said Dr. Jameson, as he prepared to accompany his friend on the last voyage to the Cape. The passage was exceptionally rough. Mr. Rhodes was once thrown out of his berth on to the floor of his cabin. When he arrived in South Africa it was with the mark of death upon him. His evidence had to be taken at Groote Schuur ; but he never showed any sign of regret that he had responded to the summons of the Courts. It was his duty, and he did it, and did it, as the result proved, at the cost of his life. So it came to pass that he who had never 1 88 THE CLOSING SCENE. harmed a woman in his life met his death in clearing his name from the aspersions of a woman whom, out of sheer good-heartedness, he had befriended in time of need. Despite the difficulty of breathing caused by the pressure upon his lungs and the agonising pain from which he suffered, his mind was vigorous and his interest in all questions relating to South Africa unabated to the last. Nothing but his passionate will to live kept him alive. When at last he was compelled to admit that his end was approaching, he still clung to the hope that his life might be prolonged so as to enable him once more to return to England before he died. He wished to come home. A cabin was taken for him on the steamer, but when the hour came it was impossible to remove him from the room in which, propped up with pillows, he sat await- ing the end. Messages from the King and Queen and from friends all over the world were cabled to the sick-room at Muizenberg, and those loving messages of sympathy and affection helped to console him in the dark hours of anguish. During the whole of these terrible weeks there was only one occasion on which he spoke on those subjects which in the heyday of his youth were constantly present to his mind. On one occasion, after a horrible paroxysm of pain had convulsed him with agony, he was heard, when he regained his breath and the spasm had passed, to be hold- ing a strange colloquy with his Maker. The dying man was talking to God, and not merely talking to God, but himself assuming both parts of the dialogue. The attendant in the sick chamber instinctively recalled those chapters in the book of Job in which Job and his friends dis- cussed together the apparent injustice of the THE CLOSING SCEXE. 189 Governor of the world. It was strange to hear Mr. Rhodes stating first his case against the Almighty, and then in reply stating what he con- sidered his Maker's case against himself. But so the argument went on. " What have I done," he asked, " to be tor- tured thus ? If I must go hence, why should I be subjected to this insufferable pain ? " And then he answered his own question,, going over his own shortcomings and his own offences, to which he again in his own person replied ; and so the strange and awful colloquy went on, until at last the muttering ceased, and there was silence once more. Beyond this there is no record of what he thought or what he felt when he fared forth to make that pilgrimage which awaits us all through the valley of the shadow of death. He had far too intense vitality ever to tolerate the idea of extinction. " I'm not an atheist," he once said to me impatiently ; " not at all. But I don't believe in the idea about going to heaven and twanging a harp all day. No. I wish I did sometimes ; but I don't. That kind of aesthetical idea pleases you perhaps ; it does not please me. But I'm not an atheist." " I find I am human," he wrote on one occa- sion, " but should like to live after my death." And in his conversation he frequently referred to his returning to the earth to see how his ideas were prospering, and what was being done with the fortune which he had dedicated to the service of posterity. Some of his talk upon the subject of the after-life was very quaint, and almost child-like in its simplicity. His ideas, so far as he expressed them to me, always assumed 190 THE CLOSING SCENE. that he would be able to recognise and con- verse with those who had gone before, and that both he and they would have the keenest interest in the affairs of this planet. This planet, in some of his moods, seemed too small a sphere for his exhaustless energy. " The world," he said to me on one occasion, " is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered, and colonised. To think of these stars," he said, 41 that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could ; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far." Since Alexander died at Babylon, sighing for fresh worlds to conquer, has there ever been such a cry from the heart of mortal man ? When the end was imminent, his brother was brought to the bedside. He recognised him, and clasped his hand. Then releasing his grasp, the dying man stretched his feeble hand to the Doctor, and murmuring " Jameson ! " the greatest of Africanders was dead. After death his features regained that classic severity of outline which was so marked in the days before they had been disfigured by the malady to which he succumbed. After lying in state at Groote Schuur, the funeral service was held in the Cathedral at Cape Town, and then, in accordance with the provisions of his will, his remains were taken northward to the Matoppos, where, near the great African chief Umsilikatse, he was laid to rest in the mountain-top which he had named "The View of the World." Seldom has there been a more imposing and yet more simple procession to the tomb. For 192 THE CLOSING SCENE. 750 miles on that northward journey the progress of the funeral train was accompanied by all the outward and visible signs of mourning which as a rule are only to be witnessed on the burial days of kings. At every blockhouse which guarded the line the troops turned out to salute the silent dead to whose resistless energy was due the line over which they stood on guard. When Bulawayo was reached, the whole city was in mourning. But a few years before it had been the kraal of Lobengula, one of the last lairs of African savagery. Only the previous year a memorial service had been held there in honour of President McKinley, and now the citizens were summoned to a still more mournful service With an energy worthy of the founder of their State, a road was constructed from Bulawayo to the summit of the Matoppos. Along this, followed by the whole population, the body of Mr. Rhodes was drawn to his last resting-place. The coffin was lowered into the tomb, the mourners, white and black, filed past the grave, and then a huge block of granite, weighing over three tons, sealed the mouth of the sepulchre from all mortal eyes. There, on the Matoppos, lies the body of Cecil Rhodes ; but who can say what far regions of the earth have not felt, and will not hereafter feel, a thrill and inspiration of the mind \vhich for less than fifty years sojourned in that tabernacle of clay ? 193 INDEX. Africa, East, Company based on suppression of slave trade and cultivation of cocoa- nut, 172 Africa luture, 10 DC aominaiea oy r>ruisn gooas clause in K.noaesian constitution. Afrikander Bond : C. J. Rhodes a supporter of, 144 ; speech in defence cf, 144-5 America, North. See United States America, South, Republics of, to be controlled by Anglo-Saxons, 74 American scholarships, why given, 27 ; how to be awarded, 35 ; character of students at Oxford, 31, 35 Aristotle, influence of, on C. J. Rhodes, 84, 98 Athletics insisted on by C. J. Rhodes, 36 Australia, South, scholarships for, 32 ; Western, scholarships for, 32 Australasia, twenty-one scholarships for, 32 ; representation in Parliament desired for, 124-5 Baker, Herbert, on artistic sense of C. J. Rhodes, 16 Bechuanaland : C. J. Rhodes opposed to Rev. T. Mackenzie, 80, 145 : defends his policy in the Times, 1885, 138 ; proposal to exclude Dutch from, condemned, 147 ; Chartered Company's land in, 153 Beers. See De Beers Beit, Alfred, joint heir, 49, 108 ; portrait of, 65 Bermudas, three scholarships for, 32 Black, W. (i., on German veto on English in Heligoland, 36 Bond. See Afrikander Booth, General, interviews with C. J. Rhodes, 89 ; W. Bramwell, impressions, 91-3, 177 Boyd, Charles, portrait of, 123 : " C. B." letter in Spectator, 130 Btilawayo, park for, 7 ; railway to Westacre, 9 ; value of land in, 1895, 154 : funeral procession passing through, 182, 192 Cambridge, scholarships not to be tenable at, 108 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 131 Canada, six scholarships for, 32 Cape Colony, twelve scholarships for, 32 : the first Rhodes scholars from, 20 Cape Colony, C. J. Rhodes's desire to secure Bechuanaland for, 80, 138 ; devotion to its paramountcy, 145, 148 Chamberlain, Joseph, screened by C. J. Rhodes about Jameson Conspiracy, 107, 178 ; and devolution quoted by C. J. Rhodes, 124 ; screened by South African Commute.;, 130 Charter, the British South African, not thought of when subscription given to C. S. Parnell. 120 Chartered Company : Address to shareholders. 1895, 149-173 ; financial position in 1895, 153-162: the justification and necessity for, 171 Christ Church, Oxford, Bursar of, on ^300 scholarships, 30 Codicils to will of C. J. Rhodes, Dalham Hall, 45 ; German scholarships, 35 ; Lord Milner, 49 ; \V. T. Stead. 49 : Dr. Jameson, 49 Cole, Tennyson, portrait of C. J. Rhodes, 26 ; of Lord Milner, 57 Colonial Secretary heir to C. J. Rhodes in first will, 61 ; why dropped, 62 Colonial self-government defined by C. J. Rhodes ; practically independent Republics, 143 ; protected but not controlled by Downing Street, 145 Colonies, direct representation in Parliament advocated by C. J. Rhodes, 117, 124-5 '• suggested financial basis of representation, 125 ; accepted by Mr. Parnell, 126. See Federation Colonies, scholarships for, 23 : list of Colonies included, 32 : list cf Colonies omitted, 33 -, character of students from, 31 : first idea of founding, 105 Country landlords " the strength of England," 46 Crown Colony objected to by C. J. Rhodes, 144-9 Customs union of South Africa anticipated by C. J. Rhodes, 168 194 INDEX. Dalham Hall Estate, left to Colonel and Captain Rhodes, 45 Palston, Rhodes family property in, 117 Darwin, influence of, on C. J. Rhodes, 88, 95 De Beers Company, address to shareholders of, in 1900, 173-4 : resources of, used to defend Kimberley, 174-5 : shareholders unimaginative, 173 : and French, 175 Dutch goodwill essential to British Empire in South Africa, in, 113 ; must not be trampled on, 113 ; compared to Irish Nationalists by C. J. Rhodes, 122 ; loyalty to Empire of, 122, 144-8; native policy of, approved by C. J. Rhodes, 148; C. J. Rhodes hardly knew how to choose between Dutch and British, 145. See Afrikander Bond Edinburgh Medical School, 24 Egypt : C. J. Rhodes subscribes ,£5,000 to Liberal fund on understanding " no evacuation," 132 ; endangered by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Morley, 132, 133-4 : saved by Lord Roseberv, 132, 169 Empire, retention of unity of British, 23 ; furtherance of, 501 ; C. J. Rhodes opposes sever- ance of, 61, 62 ; disintegration hated, 135 ; its meaning to C. J. Rhodes, 140, 143 Encumbered estates, evil of, 46 English people first race in the world, 58 ; increase of their numbers desired, 58 ; do not know their greatness, 68 ; waste their energies on local matters, 68 : a conservative people, 124 ; a very practical people, like expansion for practical business, 150, 165 ; will govern themselves, 164 : eminently practical, 172 *' English-speaking Men, To all," Manifesto in REVIEW OF REVIEWS, 95-102 English-speaking peoples, union of, C. J. Rhodes on, 27, 59, 61, 66, 73, 76 Executors of last will, 49 Exeter Hall, C. J. Rhodes's first and last visit to, 82 ; opposed to its native policy, 148 Expansion, effect of, on number of English in the world, 58 ; British industry, 165 ; secure open markets, 166-171 Federation indispensable, 61, 73. 74, 118 ; C. J. Rhodes's devotion to, 118 : C. J. Rhodes's ideas on, 124 ; Mr. Parnell's assent to, 126 ; in South Africa, 143 Financial " patent" of C. J. Rhodes in Rhodesia, 50 per cent, on gold, 161 Flag, devotion of C. J. Rhodes to, 145 ; but would accept Stars and Stripes, 62, 102 ; sympathises with Kruger's devotion to Vierkleur, 143 Fort, Seymour, describes Inyanga, 9 Free Trade, C. J. Rhodes on, 66, 73, 76, 166-9