London for that political extension which was dearer to Rhodes than the
richest mines and the biggest dividends. In this he was greatly helped
by his consistent supporter, Sir Hercules Robinson, who held office in
Africa for many years, studied men and matters at first hand, and had a
juster estimate of Rhodes and his value to the Empire than the officials
in Whitehall. The method of proceeding was by chartered company, the old
Elizabethan method, which still has its value to-day, as it relieves the
home Government of the expense of developing new countries, yet reserves
to it the right to control policy and to enter into the harvest. The
Company was to build railways and telegraphs, encourage colonization and
spread trade; the Government was to escape from the diplomatic
difficulties which might arise with neighbours if it were acting under
its own name.
The third step was to make a way into the country and to start actual
work. Lobengula's consent was given conditionally: the first expedition
was to avoid his capital, Bulawayo, and to go by the south-east to
Mashonaland. The chief knew how difficult it might prove to hold in his
impis when, instead of a solitary Selous, some hundreds of Europeans
began to cross their hunting-grounds. And so it proved. Lobengula had to
pretend later that he had not consented to their passage, and the
expedition had to slip through the dangerous zone before they could be
recalled authoritatively. By May 1890 a column of nearly one thousand
men was ready to start from Khama's country; and in June their equipment
was approved by a British officer. On September 11, after a march of
four hundred miles through trackless country (some of it unknown even to
Selous, their guide), the British flag was hoisted on the site of the
modern town of Salisbury. It is a chapter of history well worth reading
in detail, but Rhodes himself could not be there: the heroes of the
march were Jameson and Selous. The other half of Rhodesia, Matabeleland,
was not added till a few years later; but British enterprise had now
found the way and overcome the worst difficulties. 'Occupation Day' is
still kept as the chief festival of the Colony.
Further extension was inevitable. The Matabele impis would not forgo
their old habit of raiding amongst the Mashonas. Jameson's complaints
received only partial satisfaction from Lobengula. He himself did not
want war, but he failed to control his men, and in September 1893 the
Chartered Company was driven to fight. They had on the spot about nine
hundred men and some machine-guns. Against these the Matabele with all
their bravery could effect little. In two engagements they threw away
their lives with reckless gallantry, and then they broke and fled.
Lobengula himself was never heard of again. His rearguard cut up a small
party of British who were too impetuous in pursuit, but by the end of
the year the country was at peace. In 1894 Matabeleland was added to the
territory of the Chartered Company, in 1895 the term 'Rhodesia' came
into use for postal purposes, and in 1897 it was officially adopted for
administrative purposes.
The jealousy of the Portuguese, who claimed the 'Hinterland' behind
their East African colony, though they had never occupied it, caused a
good deal of ill feeling, and very nearly led to hostilities both in
Africa and Europe. The Boers formed schemes for raiding the new lands
before they could be effectively occupied, and had to be headed off. The
Matabele impis continued for months in a state of excitement; and their
forays made it far too dangerous for Rhodes or for others to go up there
for some time. But Rhodes himself said that he had less trouble with
natives, with Dutch, and with Portuguese, than he had with compatriots
of his own, who claimed to have received concessions from native chiefs
and intrigued against him in London. But here his peculiar gifts came
out, his patience, his persuasive power, his readiness to pour out money
like water for a worthy end. Some he beat, others he bought; and in all
cases he maintained his position against his rivals. Robinson, Rudd,
Jameson, Selous, had all done their parts well, and Rhodes gave them
full credit and generous praise; but the mind and the will that planned
and carried out the whole movement, and added a province to the British
Empire, was unquestionably his own.
Rhodes was Prime Minister of Cape Colony from 1890 to 1895; and during
this time he was obliged to be more often at Cape Town. It was in 1891
that he first leased the property lying on the eastern slopes of Table
Mountain where he built 'Groote Schuur', the famous house which he
bequeathed to the service of the State. Here he gradually acquired 1,500
acres of land, laying them out with a sure eye to the beauty of the
surroundings, and to the pleasure of his fellow-citizens. Here he lived
from time to time, and received all kinds of men with boundless
hospitality. No one can fully understand him who does not read the
varying impressions of the friends and guests who sat with him on the
'stoep', under the trees in his garden, or high up on the mountain side,
where he had his favourite nooks. The visitors saw what they had eyes to
see. One would note his foibles, his blunt manner, his slovenly dress,
his want of skill at billiards, his fondness for special dishes or
drinks. Another would be impressed by his library with its teak
panelling, by the books which he read and the questions which he asked,
by his love for Gibbon and Plutarch, by his interest in Marcus Aurelius
and other writers on high themes. Others again tell us of his relations
to his fellow-men, how recklessly generous he was to young and old, to
British and Dutch, and how his generosity was abused: how his
acquaintances preyed upon him; how, for all that, he kept his true
friendships few in number and he held them sacred. In fact, loyalty to
friends meant more to Rhodes than loyalty to principles. His temper was
impatient, especially in the last years of physical pain; he often tried
to take short cuts to his ends, believing that his ends were worthy and
knowing that life was short. He made many mistakes, but he retrieved
them nobly. He was in some ways rough-hewn and unpolished, but he was a
great man.
It is impossible to put in a short compass the many important questions
with which he dealt. His policy towards the natives was moderate and
wise. He wished to educate them and then to trust them; to restrict the
sale of liquor among them and to open to them the nobler lessons of
civilization; to give them the vote when they were educated enough to
use it well, but not before; to apply to them too his motto of 'Equal
rights for every civilized man south of the Zambezi'. His policy towards
the Dutch was to establish identity of interest between the two nations
and so to secure friendly relations with them; to draw them into
co-operation in agriculture, in railways, in colonization, in export
trade, in imperial politics. He did his best to win over the Orange Free
State by a policy of common railways, and even to break down the sullen
opposition of the Transvaal. But the latter proved impossible. President
Kruger leant more and more upon Dutch counsellors from Holland; he
looked more and more to Delagoa Bay and turned his back upon Cape Town:
and the antagonism became more acute. In 1895 Mr. Chamberlain initiated
a new era at the Colonial Office. He was actively awake to British
interests in all parts of the globe; and President Kruger, who had tried
to check trade with Cape Town by stopping the Cape railway at his
frontier, and then by closing the 'Drifts' or fords over the Vaal, was
compelled to give way and to keep to the agreements made with the
Suzerain State.
A still more serious question was the treatment of the 'Uitlanders' or
alien European settlers in the Transvaal. Though the Boer rulers took an
increasingly large share of their earnings, they restricted more and
more the grant of the franchise. In taxation, in commerce, in education,
there was no prospect between the Vaal and the Limpopo of 'Equal rights
for all civilized men' or anything like it. In June 1894 the High
Commissioner frankly told Kruger that the Uitlanders had 'very real and
substantial grievances'; in 1895 they were no less substantial, and
agitation was rife in Johannesburg. On December 28, Jameson at the head
of an armed column left Pitsani on the borders and rode into the
Transvaal to support a rising against the Boer Government. The
Uitlanders were not expecting him; no rising took place, and Jameson's
small column was surrounded some miles west of Johannesburg,
outnumbered, and forced to surrender. The Jameson Raid, for which Rhodes
was generally held responsible, attracted all eyes in Europe as in
Africa. How President Kruger used his advantage against the Uitlanders,
among whom Col. Frank Rhodes was a leader, can be read in many books:
here we need only relate how the event affected the Premier of Cape
Colony. He resigned office at once and put himself at the disposal of
the Government. Despite his past record he was judged by the Dutch,
alike in the Cape and in the Transvaal, to have been the author of the
Raid, and all chance of his doing further service in reconciling the two
races was at an end. The beginning of 1895 saw him at the height of his
ambition. The end of it saw his power shattered beyond repair.
His behaviour in this crisis enables us to know the real man. For a few
days he kept aloof, unapproachable, overcome by the ruin of his work. He
made no attempt to conciliate opinion: in moments of bitterness he
scoffed at the 'unctuous rectitude' of certain politicians who were
improving the occasion. But he spoke frankly to those who had the right
to question him. He went to London in February and saw Mr. Chamberlain,
the Colonial Secretary, and his Directors. He admitted that he was at
fault. Believing that Kruger would always yield to a show of force, he
had been responsible for putting troops near the border to exercise
moral pressure. But neither then nor at any time had he given Jameson
orders to invade the Transvaal, or to precipitate an armed conflict,
which he believed to be unnecessary. Such was his consistent statement,
and he was ready to face, when the time should come, the Parliamentary
committees appointed by the British and South African Houses to report
on the Raid. Meanwhile he put all brooding away and looked round for
some practical work. Fortunately he found it in the most congenial
sphere. His colony of Rhodesia, to which he had gone straight from
London, was threatened with disaster from a great native outbreak. The
causes were various. Rinderpest had spoiled one of the chief native
industries, and superstition had invented foolish reasons for it; also
the rumours, which were spreading about the Raid, made the natives
believe that the British power was shaken. The Mashonas, as well as the
Matabele, took part in the revolt which began early in April 1896. To
meet it the colonists mustered their full strength, while General
Carrington was sent out from home with some regular troops. Several
engagements in difficult country followed: the enemies' forces were
quickly broken up, and by the end of July the time for negotiation was
come.
But the chiefs of the Matabele had retired into their fortresses in the
Matoppo hills and could not be reached. To send small columns to track
them down might mean needless loss of life: to keep the forces in the
field right through the winter was ruinous to the Company's finances.
Rhodes offered his own services as negotiator, and they were accepted.
The man who could carry his point with Jewish financiers and Dutch
politicians might hope to achieve his ends with the simpler native
chiefs. But it was a sore trial of patience. He moved his own tent two
miles away from the British troops to the foot of the hills, sent native
messengers to the chiefs, and waited. During this time he was not idle:
he put in a lot of riding and of miscellaneous reading: his mind was
actively employed in planning roads and dams for irrigation, in scheming
for the future greatness of the country. It was six weeks before a chief
responded. Gradually they began to drop in and to hold informal meetings
round the tent, putting questions, replying to Rhodes's jokes, relapsing
into fits of silence, oblivious as all savages are of the value of time.
He would spend hours day after day in this apparently futile way;
accustoming them to his presence, coaxing them into the right humour. At
last he persuaded them to meet him in a formal 'indaba', which must have
been a dramatic scene. Alone he stood facing them, boldly reproaching
them with their bad faith and cruel acts. They stated their grievances:
some were admitted: satisfaction was promised. In the end peace was
proclaimed and the delighted natives greeted him uproariously with the
title of Lamula 'm Kunzi (Separator of the Fighting Bulls). The
discussions were not over till the end of October, and it was a month
later ere Rhodes was able to leave the country and face the Committee in
London--a very different gathering in very different surroundings. His
work during these two months was perhaps the greatest of his life; and
that he should have been able to concentrate all his powers upon it so
soon after the shattering blow of the Raid is a great tribute to his
essential manliness and patriotism.
The two Committees, sitting in London and Cape Town, agreed to censure,
though in modified terms, Rhodes's conduct over the Raid; but he still
retained the respect of the bulk of his countrymen, and on his return
the citizens of Cape Town gave him an enthusiastic welcome. They and he
were looking ahead as well as behind: they felt that his services were
still needed for the establishing of a United South Africa under the
British flag. But in this respect his work was done. The Cape Dutch were
more and more influenced by their sentiment for the Transvaal, and
racial feeling ran high. Rhodes severed himself from all his old Dutch
colleagues and became more of a party leader. Meanwhile Kruger watched
the breach, assured himself of Dutch support, made no concessions to the
Uitlanders, repelled all overtures from Mr. Chamberlain, and steered
straight for war. Rhodes, despite his knowledge of the Dutch, made the
mistake of believing up to the last moment that Kruger would give way
and not fight; but, when the war broke out in 1899, he went up to
Kimberley to take his share of the work and the danger. The siege lasted
about four months, and Rhodes, though he failed to work harmoniously
with the military commandant, rendered many services to the town, thanks
to his wealth, influence, and knowledge of the place. When the town was
relieved in February 1900, he went to Rhodesia and spent many months
there. Though he was urged by his followers to return to politics, Cape
Town saw little of him; when he was not in the north, he was mostly at
his seaside cottage at Muizenberg, half-way between the capital and the
Cape of Good Hope. The heart complaint, from which he had suffered
intermittently all his life, had rapidly grown worse; his last year was
one of great suffering, and in March 1902 he breathed his last at
Muizenberg with Jameson and a few of his dearest friends around him. He
was buried in the place which he had himself chosen amid the Matoppo
hills. On a bare hill-top seven gigantic boulders keep guard round the
simple tombstone on which his name is engraved. After the English
service was over, the natives celebrated in their own fashion the
passing of the great chief who had already been enshrined in their
imagination.
At Kimberley, at Cape Town, in the Matoppos, his work was done before
the nineteenth century was finished, and he had earned his rest. The
complete union of the European races for which he laboured in Parliament
is yet to come. The vast wealth which he won in Kimberley is fulfilling
a noble purpose. By his will he founded scholarships at Oxford for
scholars from the Dominions and Colonies, from the United States and
from Germany--his faith in the Anglo-Saxon race being extended to our
Teutonic kinsmen. He regarded a common education and common ideals as
the surest cement of Empire. But above all else his name will be
preserved among his countrymen by the provinces which he added to the
British dominions. Kimberley and Cape Town have their monuments, their
memories of his many successes and his few failures: the Matoppos have
his grave. To us the peace and solitude of the hills where he lies may
seem to contrast strangely with the stirring activity of his life. But
solitude will not reign there always, if Rhodes's ideal is fulfilled. It
was here that he had stood with a friend, looking towards the vast
horizon northwards, and, in an often-quoted sentence, expressed his
dream for the future: 'Homes, more homes, that's what I work for!' So
long as our race produces such bold dreamers, such strenuous workers,
its future, in Africa and elsewhere, need occasion no doubts or fears.
INDEX
A
Aberdeen, 4th Earl of, 32, 51
Acton, Lord, 5, 272, 325
Adams, Professor J. C., 277
Addison, Joseph, 137, 326, 336
Afghanistan, 62, 103, 107
Afrikander Bond, 354
Agram, 251
Agricultural labourers, 79, 117
Aldworth, 171, 176, 345
Alexander III, Tsar, 266, 268, 271
Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 265-6
Alexandria, 127
Alfonso XII, King of Spain, 262-4
Alsace, 256, 345
Althorp, Lord (3rd Earl Spencer), 42, 43, 83
American Civil War, 121, 123-4
Ampthill, Lord, _v._ Odo Russell, 248, 264, 272, 273, 275
Angevin kings, 334, 337
Anglesey, Lord, 39
Annandale, 10-13, 16, 29
Appomattox, 124
Argyll, 8th Duke of, 86
Arnold, Matthew, 6, 8, 194, 321
Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 8, 24
Ashburton, 2nd Lord, 23
Atkin, Joseph, 235, 242-3
Auckland, N. Z., 226-7, 237-8, 242
B
Baden, 249, 256
Bagehot, Walter, 33
Baird-Smith, 104
Baluchs, 62-6
Bamford, Samuel, 175
Baring, Lady Harriet, 23
Barnack, 178
Barnato, Barney, 352
Barry, Sir Charles, 200
Basutoland, 355
Batum, 268
Bazaine, Marshal, 257
Bechuanaland, 357
de Beers Company, 352, 357
Behnes, Charles and Wm., 199
Beit, Alfred, 350, 358
Bentham, Jeremy, 2
Bergmann, Professor von, 298
Berlin, 248, 252-3, 263, 293;
Treaty of, 268
Bermuda, 58
Besant, Sir Walter, 89
Biarritz, 191
Bideford, 183
Bird, Robert, 98
Birmingham, 6, 126, 304, 311
Bishop's Stortford, 348
Bismarck, 252-9, 264, 273
Blackburn, 32
Blackie, Professor, 294
Blomfield, Bishop, 190
Bloomsbury, 313
Boehm, Sir J. E., 21
Bolivar, Simon, 60
Borrow, George, 6
Bright, Jacob, 111-13
Bright, John: America, 123;
Anti-Corn-Law League, 114-19;
education, 111-12;
family, 111-14, 126;
foreign policy, 122, 127;
Ireland, 121, 127;
oratorical style, 117, 119-20;
Parliament, 85, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125;
public meetings, 116, 117, 125;
Quakers, 111, 113, 115, 117, 122;
Reform, 113, 124-5;
other references, 25-6, 85, 278
Brindley, James, 120, 338
Brontë, Charlotte, 7
Brooke, Stopford, 162, 187, 310, 339, 342-5
Brookfield, Rev. W., 157
Brougham, Lord, 7, 40, 42
Brown, Ford Madox, 197, 307
Browning, E. B., 81
Browning, Robert, 5, 9, 140, 158, 165, 169, 170, 175, 250
Brunton, Sir Lauder, 345
Bryce, Viscount, 334, 343, 345
Bulgaria, 264-8
Burlington House (Royal Academy), 198, 200, 206, 217
Burne-Jones, Sir E., 197, 205, 209, 212, 217, 219, 304-8, 311, 319, 328
Burton, Richard, 4
Byron, Lord, 33, 60, 153
C
Cambridge, 153-4, 179, 190, 221
Cameron, Sir Hector, 288
Cameron, Julia, 172, 205
Campbell, Sir Colin (Lord Clyde), 69, 70, 105
Canning, Charles, Lord, 105, 122
Canning, George, 32, 35, 37, 38
Capri, 343
Carlisle, 10, 290
Carlyle, Jane Welsh, 14-19, 22, 25, 27
Carlyle, John, 14
Carlyle, Thomas: appearance, 19, 212;
books, chief, 11, 20, 22, 23, 25-7;
character, 16, 17, 29;
education, 12, 13;
family, 11, 15, 29;
friends, 4, 13, 18, 23, 30, 140, 163;
German literature, 16, 17;
homes, 6, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21;
lectures, 22;
literary style, 20, 29, 321, 324-5;
quoted opinions, 71, 164, 189, 302
Carnot, President, 300
Carrington, General, 364
Cashel, 34
Castelar, Emilio, 261
Castlereagh, Lord, 38
Cauteretz, 173
Celbridge, 55, 56
Cephalonia, 59
Chamberlain, Joseph, 6, 53, 362, 364, 366
Chartered Company, 359, 360, 364-5
Chartists, 61, 187-9
Chatham, 130, 144
Chelsea, 21, 163, 179
Chester, 191
Cheyne, Sir Watson, 297
Chili[=a]nw[=a]la, 69, 101
Christison, Sir Robert, 294
Clare election, 39, 49
Clarendon, Edw. Hyde, Earl of, 324
Clarendon, Geo. Villiers, Earl of, 7, 250
Clark, Sir Andrew, 345
Clovelly, 178
Cobden, Richard, 2;
and Bright, 114-19, 124, 127;
and Peel, 48, 49, 51;
and Shaftesbury, 84, 87
Coburg, Duchy of, 249, 253
Codrington, Rev. R., 235
Coleridge, Rev. Derwent, 178
Coleridge, Rev. Edward, 223
Coleridge, John, 222
Coleridge, S. T., 13, 29
Cook, Captain James, 220
Cook, John Douglas, 335
Cooper, Thomas, 189
Corn Laws, 47, 115-20
Coruña, 57
Craigenputtock, 18
Creighton, Bishop, 344
Crimean War, 121-3, 167, 251
Cromer, Earl of, 123, 272
Crotch, W. W., 136, 146
Crown Prince of Germany (Frederick III), 252, 258
Currency, Reform of, 36-7
D
Dabo, Battle of, 65
Dalhousie, Marquis of, 69, 70, 100, 101, 103
Dal[=i]p Singh, 271
Dalling, Lord, 45
Darmstadt, Court of, 255-7
Darwin, Charles, 2, 4, 5, 6, 152, 183, 277, 279, 291
Dawkins, Boyd, 328-30, 333-4
Delagoa Bay, 260, 362
Delane, John Thaddeus, 8, 123, 253
Delarey, General, 356
Delhi, 95, 99, 103-4
Derby, Edw. Stanley, 14th Earl of, 32, 42-4
Dickens, Charles: appearance, 132-3;
character, 131-3, 141, 146;
friends, 140;
influence, 130, 135, 147;
journalism, 132, 138;
novels, 132-9;
Poor Law, 146-7;
'purpose', 130, 135, 144-8, 185;
readings, 142-3;
satire, 137, 145, 239;
sensation, 141-2;
sentiment, 136;
travels, 136-8;
other references, 4, 82, 89
Dilke, Sir Charles, 6, 272
Disraeli, Benjamin: novels, 3, 34;
personal, 28, 53;
political, 32, 47, 50, 90, 121, 123-5, 128, 193
Döllinger, 257
Durham City, 117
E
East India Company, 68, 76, 94, 105
Edinburgh, 12-13, 18, 27, 120, 280-4, 293-6
Edwardes, Sir Herbert, 101, 103
Eldon, Lord, 34, 38
Elgin, Lord, 105
Elgin Marbles, 199, 210
Ellenborough, Lord, 62
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 19-20, 29, 30, 164
Epping Forest, 303
Erichsen, Sir J. E., 286
Et[=a]wa, 98, 100
Eton, 219, 221, 223, 232-4, 246, 349
Euston station, 206
Eversley, 180-3, 186-7, 191-2, 195
F
Factory Acts, 81-6, 135
Fairman, Mr., 270
Farnham, 58, 180
Farringford, 171-2
Faulkner, C. J., 307-8
Feniton, 222, 225
Ferdinand, Prince of Bulgaria, 266
Fiji, 240-3
FitzGerald, Edward, 6, 153-4, 164, 175, 204
Fitzgerald, William Vesey, 39
Florence, 201-3, 206, 309, 343
Fontevraud, 337
Forster, John, 131, 140, 142-3
Fox, George, 20
Franco-German War, 256, 294, 345
Frederick the Great, 26
Freeman, Edward A., 5, 325, 334-6, 341-3, 345
Froude, James Anthony, 5, 23, 28, 172, 325, 335
Fry, Elizabeth, 279
G
Gadshill, 143, 148
Gardiner, Professor S. R., 326
Garibaldi, 60, 172, 345
Garrett, Edmund, 353
Gaskell, Mrs., 163
Geikie, Professor, 183, 294
Genoa, 138
George III, 37
George IV, 37, 78
Gibbon, Edward, 14, 323, 328, 361
Giers, Monsieur de, 267-9, 274
Gladstone, W. E., 6, 265;
and Bright, 120, 123, 126-8;
and Green, 344-5;
and Morier, 258;
and Peel, 32, 47, 51-3;
and Shaftesbury, 90;
and Tennyson, 152, 154, 173;
and Watts, 208
Glasgow, 125, 285-7, 293
Godlee, Sir Rickman, 283, 295
Goethe, 19
Gordon, General, 4, 66, 70, 355
Gough, Viscount, 68, 69, 100
Graham, Sir James, 43, 85
Granville, Earl, 259, 275
Green, John Richard: books, 336-46;
church views, 329, 342;
conversation, 345;
education, 326-8;
essays, 336-7, 340;
friends, 187, 328-9, 334, 342, 345;
historical method, 336-42;
historical schemes, 333-4, 344;
parochial work, 331-3, 342;
travels, 342-3
Greenbank, 112
Greville, Charles, 44, 46
Grévy, President, 263
Grey, Charles, Earl, 41, 42
Grey, Sir George, 5, 220, 240
Griqualand, 350, 353
Groote Schuur, 361
H
Haddington, 15
Haileybury, 94
Hallam, Arthur, 154, 156-8, 161, 173
Hammersmith, 308, 319, 321
Hardinge, 1st Viscount, 68, 99
Hardwick, Philip, 207
Harrow, 33, 75, 247
Harte, Bret, 136
Haworth, Mr., 32
Helston, 179
Henley, W. E., 294
Henry II, 337
Herbert, Sidney, 51
Hilton, William, 200
Hodder River, 111
Hofmeyr, Jan, 354-5
Holland, 4th Baron, 201-2, 207
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 137
Hook, Dean, 178, 333