the whole population for political purposes, he could not pay so much
as £1 a head to the 80,000,000 inhabitants of the country. Further, the
bulk of American millionaires are American! They differ in no respect,
except in their possession of large wealth, in interest or affections,
from the shoemaker in the alley or the farmer at his plough. They are
American citizens; their fate is bound up with that of the land they
live in; their ambitions are American. If a great misfortune should
overtake America to-morrow there is no reason to suppose that the heart
of a Rockefeller or a Vanderbilt would not ache as that of the simplest
cowboy in the States. When they die, it is to American institutions
that they leave their munificent donations, and the colleges and public
institutions of America are endowed by them. The mass even of that
wealth they expend on themselves is expended in America, and, whether
they will or no, returns to the people of the country in many forms.
The millionaires of America are and remain Americans; and the J. Gould
who should expend his millions in stirring up war between the North and
South, or in urging England to attack and slay American citizens, would
be dealt with by his fellow-subjects, whether millionaires or paupers,
with expedition. The question whether the conditions which lead to such
vast accretions of fortune in the hands of private individuals is a
desirable one and of social benefit is an open one, and a fair field
for impartial discussion; but, whatever decision is arrived at with
regard to millionaires and private monopoly as they exist in Europe or
the United States, it has little or no bearing on the problem of South
Africa, which is totally distinct.
South Africa is a young country, and taken as a whole it is an arid,
barren country agriculturally. Our unrivalled climate, our sublime and
rugged natural scenery,