The heart swells with pride when we remember what has been done by
Englishmen, at different times and in different places, in the cause
of freedom and justice, when they could meet with no reward and had
nothing to gain. Such an act of justice on the part of the English
nation was done in 1881 when Gladstone gave back to the Transvaal the
independence which had been mistakenly taken. I would not say policy
had no part in the action of the wise old man. No doubt that keen
eagle-eye had fixed itself closely on the truth which all history
teaches that a colony of Teutonic folk cannot be kept permanently in
harmony and union with the Mother Country by any bond but that of
love, mutual sympathy and honor. The child may be reduced by force to
obedience; but time passes and the child becomes a youth; the youth may
be coerced; but the day comes when the youth becomes a man, and there
can be no coercion then. If the mother wishes to retain the affection
of the man, she must win it from the youth. This the wise old man saw;
but I believe that, over and above the wisdom, he saw the right, and
the action was no less heroic because it was wise; for other men see
truth who have not the courage to follow her, and accept present loss
for a gain which lies across the centuries.
We English are a fearless folk, and in the main I think we seek after
justice, but we have our faults. We are not a sympathetic or a quickly
comprehending people; we are slow and we are proud; we are shut in by a
certain