SIR HENRY BARKLY PAYS THE FIELDS A SECOND VISIT.—PROMISES THAT THE
FIELDS SHALL BE A CROWN COLONY WITH A LEGISLATURE OF ITS OWN.—LETTERS
PATENT PROCLAIMING GRIQUALAND WEST A CROWN COLONY.—HONORABLE RICHARD
SOUTHEY FIRST LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.—AN INCIPIENT REVOLUTION.—THE
COURT-HOUSE SURROUNDED BY AN ARMED BAND.—THE BLACK FLAG HOISTED.—THE
REVOLT RIPENED.—COLONEL CROSSMAN.—THE CHANGES IN THE LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.—RECALL OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
As before mentioned, the Cape legislature of 1872 broke faith with Sir
Henry Barkly, who was thereupon accused by his imperial masters of
having failed to keep the parliament in hand. The violation of pledges
and promises has been a prominent characteristic of the policies alike
of the Cape parliament and of the colonial office, and in both cases it
has been prolific of evil consequences.
Sir Henry Barkly, owing to the unstable and vacillating policy of the
Cape parliament, found himself on the horns of a dilemma. The imperial
government taunted him with having shown a want of diplomatic tact in
dealing with the colonial legislature, while the latter repudiated the
charge which Sir Henry Barkly brought against the legislative assembly,
_i.e._, that of having broken faith with him. Nay, the two honorable
houses went even further, they vowed and declared that they had never
done or said anything to warrant his sending to the secretary of state
for the colonies the dispatches that he had sent. Here was a gordian
knot for a governor to loose. What was he to do? He could neither report
upon the colonial secretary, nor tell the parliament what he thought of
the latter functionary’s action; he virtually exclaimed: “A plague upon
both your houses, I’ll go to the Fields again myself.” So he made up his
mind to order the government coachman to inspan the traveling wagons,
the panels of which, by the way, were ornamented with the royal arms
painted by a Cape artist, whose idea of the lion and the unicorn was
sublimely humorous—the lion having too much skull by half, and the horn
of the unicorn being as crooked as a ram’s, or a satyr’s. His excellency
told his executive, that it was as plain as the Cape flats that British
rule could not be administered in the diamond fields by commissioners
and law courts, and that he was about to proceed to the Fields in order
to see how the British flag was to be kept flying over the
diamond-digging community. But Sir Henry had been soundly abused by
press and public, both in the colony and Griqualand West. The idea then
prevailed at Capetown that the diggers would think no more of chopping
off a governor’s head than they would of decapitating a domestic fowl.
On the Fields there was universal dissatisfaction, the commissioners all
the while remaining with virtually “no work to do.” The holders of
claims at Klipdrift had had to pay surveyors’ expenses which they had
never calculated upon having to pay, and also to meet other demands
which they regarded as extortionate, if not almost fraudulent. There
were transfer dues, stamp duties and such like, to be enacted in the not
far distant future, and the aspect of affairs was not cheering. The Free
State was wrathful and indignant, and the Boers there were threatening
vengeance. The Dutch on the Fields complained loudly and bitterly of
having to pay taxes to British extortioners and being forced to submit
to law and order, and declared that the British embrace was too ursine a
hug for their comfort.
Under these circumstances Sir Henry Barkly did not feel quite sure that
his personal appearance on the Fields would not be made the occasion for
an outbreak. Still go he must, and in order to ascertain how far he was
risking his life he remained at a farm outside the camp on the first
night of his arrival. The next morning, long before the breakfast hour,
he saw scores of vehicles and horsemen coming over the hill leading to
the homestead. It was an anxious moment. But there was the ring of the
true British metal in the cheers of the horsemen as they neared the
farm, and Sir Henry was soon convinced that his second visit was
destined to prove even more acceptable to the Griqualanders than his
first had been. The gubernatorial equipage, with Sir Henry and his
adjutant, was soon on the move, and as the Fields bore in sight he could
see Bulfontein and Du Toit’s Pan in holiday dress. There was bunting
flying from every flag-post, and the margin of the mines was crowded
with people, white and black. He was cheered all the way from his entry
into the Fields until he reached his quarters in Kimberley; flags
floated over his head, and triumphal arches spanned the roadways. On the
day of his arrival he held a levee which was well attended, and he took
care to have it generally known that he would receive as many
deputations as liked to come to him to ventilate their grievances. Of
grievances there were enough and to spare, in fact there was nobody
without one, either real or imaginary. First and foremost of all was the
land grievance. Legitimate claimants and land jobbers jostled each other
without mercy and with scant courtesy. The diggers insisted that they
had not been and were not protected as it was alleged they had been told
they were to be. Diamond thieves, they asserted, were more pestilent
than ever, having grown bolder and more unscrupulous, and the digging
population suggested that if they had shown more regard for the
protection of their own property than loyalty to the government diamond
stealing would have been considerably diminished. The trading community
also manifested extreme dissatisfaction, owing to the manner in which
government contracts were given out, the belief prevailing amongst many
that a system of favoritism if not of jobbery was in existence. The
natural result of these real or alleged grievances was that the local
government was in decidedly bad odor with the population generally.
The neighboring states had complained that guns and gunpowder were
supplied to natives, and a deputation defending the system of supplying
the natives with guns and gunpowder waited upon his excellency, who said
that his attention had been called to the fact that more guns were
supplied to natives than had been entered at the customs, where the duty
was £1 per barrel, a fact which he could not understand. The deputation,
however, explained it by the open ports, where no custom-houses were
established, further asking Sir Henry to consider the number of small
vessels which visited these ports from the Natal and Cape ports. The
guns sold here were supplied to the dealers by the merchants, and the
former paid the duty, although a large portion of it was lost to the
government. The natives at that time came here more for the sake of
getting guns than for money, and the deputation urged a sufficient
amount of labor to work the diamondiferous soil could not be obtained if
the supplying of guns to natives were prohibited. It was further pointed
out to his excellency that the natives would even then continue to get
guns from runners (smugglers), and that natives in the possession of the
assegai, their national weapon, were more dangerous than when armed with
guns. After hearing all the evidence and going into the question fully,
Sir Henry Barkly decided that the gun trade must not be interfered with,
and this opinion Governor Southey afterward endorsed.[57]
Sir Henry Barkly promised that British title should be immediately given
to legitimate land claimants, that contracts for government supplies
should be called for by public tender, and that all real grievances
should be removed. Protection was promised to the diggers, and so his
excellency became very popular indeed, a banquet followed by a ball was
given to him at Kimberley on September 12th, 1872, and both were
completely successful. The late Dr. Robertson, formerly of Fauresmith,
O. F. S., filled the chair at the banquet and introduced Sir Henry
Barkly to his entertainers in admirable style. The doctor’s speech in
introducing the toast, “the health of Sir Henry Barkly, her Majesty’s
high commissioner in South Africa and governor of the Cape Colony,” was
couched in elegant and appropriate language, and his excellency’s reply
was received with enthusiastic applause. He told the assembled guests
that up to the time of his present visit he had had but a slight
conception of the importance of the diamond fields, and had found them
to be of such a character that he realized the fact that they could not
be governed by three commissioners. The wealth, intelligence and numbers
of this community must have something better in the shape of government.
To think of governing them from Capetown was out of the question, and as
he found they were entitled to a government of their own he would take
care that they should have it. The Fields should be a crown colony with
a lieutenant governor and a legislature on the same model and as liberal
as that of Natal, and this he would bring about as quickly as the
preliminaries could be arranged. The ball over, Sir Henry paid a visit
to Barkly where he held another levee, and there also a banquet was
given him. The streets were decorated with flags, and triumphal arches
which formed a complete roofing all through the main street. Here, also,
the gubernatorial promises gladdened the hearts of the populace,
especially those which referred to the land titles. At the banquet,
which was given in the main hall of the Barkly club, it was endeavored
to get a pledge from his excellency that Barkly should be the seat of
government, but the attempt was a vain one, his excellency contenting
himself by saying that they had the high court there and all the
government offices, and that he would not forget the old proverb: “Be
sure you are off with the old love before you are on with the new.” In a
very short time after this, however, the high court and the government
offices were removed to Kimberley, and the seat of government
established there.
On his excellency leaving the Fields to return home, he had additional
proof of the loyalty which animated the great bulk of the diamond field
people. He was escorted to Alexanderfontein by at least a thousand
persons, and he expressed his gratification at the reception he had met
with there, and gave it as his opinion that her Majesty had no more
loyal people in her empire than in the diamond fields of South Africa.
The special mission of Sir Henry Barkly to South Africa was to reform
the constitution of the Cape Colony by the introduction of responsible
government. That colony had become troublesome to the imperial
government, inasmuch as the old _régime_ parliament which had full
control over the government purse strings refused to pass the taxing
measures necessary for the administration of the affairs of the country,
and unfortunately for Sir Henry Barkly his executive was too much
divided for him to move with reasonable expectation of success. The
colonial secretary, Mr. Southey, was firmly opposed to the introduction
of the measure into the parliament then assembled, as the country had
never been consulted on the question, which he held ought not to be
forced. That honorable gentleman held to the doctrine as laid down by
John Stuart Mill, that before responsible government is introduced into
a country the people must ask for it, and when it was decided by a
majority to introduce it the colonial secretary entered his solemn
protest on the minutes on constitutional grounds. This was awkward, but
Sir Henry Barkly received imperial instructions that it must be
introduced into the parliament, and that he _must_ get it passed. Sir
Henry Barkly knew that if he should fail he would be recalled in
disgrace, and accordingly did introduce it in 1873 at an early session
and managed to force it through the legislature, but when he called upon
the Hon. Mr. Southey to take office, that gentleman flatly refused to do
so. He would not attempt to form a ministry, and he would not take
office either as premier or in any other capacity. It now became
necessary for his excellency to consider what should be done with the
Hon. Mr. Southey, and he was offered the lieutenant governorship of
Griqualand West with an adequate salary, and the recommendation to take
with him his long-tried confidential clerk in the colonial office, Mr.
John Blades Currey. Mr. Southey accepted the appointment, and the
inhabitants of Griqualand West, especially the old colonists residing on
the Fields, received the intimation with extreme satisfaction, for Mr.
Southey enjoyed the confidence of both East and West. On the lieutenant
governor’s arrival here, on January 9th, 1873, he was received with
manifestations of great joy. The people went out in great numbers to
welcome him at Alexanderfontein; triumphal arches were erected; bands of
music preceded the procession into the towns; a display of fireworks and
an illumination were amongst the tokens of rejoicing, and he was
entertained at a banquet in the Theatre Royal, which was crowded to
excess.
An executive was created consisting of four members, viz.: the
lieutenant governor, the secretary to government (Mr. Currey), the crown
prosecutor (Mr. J. C. Thompson), and the treasurer general (the late Mr.
R. W. H. Giddy). No constitution was proclaimed for some time after Mr.
Southey’s arrival, and the Fields were governed by the lieutenant
governor and his executive, legal enactments being made by means of
proclamations. One of Mr. Richard Southey’s first proclamations, issued
on Feb. 5th, 1873, almost immediately on his arrival, and which pleased
the diggers very much, was one to restrain the jumping of claims.
Previous to this, a claim in any one of the mines, which might be worth
thousands of pounds, if left by its owner unworked for three days, could
be legally seized by any man who could prove this neglect; but the
proclamation containing the letters patent declaring the colony of
Griqualand West a crown colony was not promulgated until the July 16th,
1873, when Klipdrift was rechristened Barkly and the “Colesberg Kopje”
Kimberley. The new names were given in honor of the then secretary of
state for the colonies, Lord Kimberley, and of Sir Henry Barkly. They
were created electoral divisions, the third consisting of the outlying
or agricultural districts, being grouped together under the name of Hay,
in honor of Lieut. Governor Hay, who was the first to unfurl the British
flag over the Diamond Fields. The chief town of the last-named division
was Griquatown, in which the Griqua chief Waterboer resided.
[Illustration:
THE VAAL RIVER DRIFT, NEAR BARKLY.
]
The constitution was, however, not received with anything like unanimous
approval. The boundaries fixed were disputed by the neighboring States,
and the enfranchisement and representation was by no means in accordance
with the promises made by Sir Henry Barkly, inasmuch as it was not
according to the Natal model. The legislative council was constituted on
the deadlock principle, consisting as it did of eight members, four
nominated by the general government and four elected by the voters, the
lieutenant governor being president and having the casting vote. The
governor had a power to veto in the first place, and the Queen in the
second. At first it was said that no one would consent to be put into
nomination for the four seats to be filled by the votes of the people.
However, when the time of the elections came round, the seats were hotly
contested. The council was first convened in 1873, but did not meet for
business until January, 1874, when the elective members were Messrs.
Green and Dr. Graham for Kimberley, Mr. Advocate Davison for Barkly, and
Mr. David Arnott, the agent for Waterboer, to represent the electoral
division of Hay. The first ordinance, viz. for the better regulation of
diggings and mines, was promulgated on the 30th of the month named. The
government and legislature for some time worked very well, but then a
lack of cordiality among the members of the government themselves in the
executive manifested itself, and there was as well no lack of
revolutionary agitators to stir up the people to rebel against the
government from the outside. Among the agitators were one or more
generally accepted as Fenians, and several foreigners; the former with a
hatred of British rule were bent on creating disturbances. They were
joined by men who, although owning themselves British subjects, had
party and personal ends to serve, dearer to them than their reverence
for the crown. Leagues were formed and meetings were held, where
sedition was loudly and plainly talked, mass meetings were convened on
the market place, and the governor roundly abused. The lieutenant
governor offered to receive deputations and to discuss matters, provided
that the deputations should be composed of men who were known to be in
the habit of conducting themselves in a becoming manner. But the
agitators wanted their followers to come in large bodies, and this the
lieutenant governor decided not to permit. The members of the league
assembled armed for drill, and assumed a most warlike and threatening
attitude. The lieutenant governor urged the necessity of the presence of
a small body of her Majesty’s troops, and pointed out that moral force,
the only force at his command, had no influence upon the men who, led by
a clever and excitable digger named Aylward, were plotting against law
and order. No attention whatever was paid to the suggestion of the
lieutenant governor by the executive of the Cape Colony. There were no
definite grievances brought forward by the men under arms, who were mere
puppets in the hands of the riotously inclined wire-pullers. There were
grievances, however, of a grave nature, and the non-fulfilment of
promises respecting the land titles was the greatest of all. It is only
right, however, to mention that the majority of the white population,
aliens as well as British subjects, were thoroughly satisfied with Mr.
Southey’s rule; and he had, during the time he was at the head of the
government, done all in his power to make the people happy and
prosperous, while the foundations of law and order had been so far as
possible “both well and truly laid.” The social state of the Fields was
excellent, and Government House was so thoroughly well-conducted that it
led society with a genial and assuring hand. Balls and parties, indoor
and outdoor pastimes and pleasures, afforded the recreation which the
busy population required, and life in the Fields was generally pleasant
and seemly.
Armed malcontents were now drilled in the public squares, and wherever
they thought their proceedings would be most exasperating to the
government and the loyal portion of the community.[58] This was kept up
during the early part of 1875. Arms were imported from all directions
and concealed in stores and licensed liquor shops, and in the month of
April of that year the mob were led into open rebellion, the occasion
chosen for the outbreak being the seizure of arms by the magistrate and
police of Kimberley, and the arrest of the man on whose premises they
were discovered. A body of armed men marched down to the magistrate’s
office and demanded the release of the prisoner, the court-house being
surrounded and an attack threatened should their demand be refused. A
black flag to be hoisted on the edge of the Kimberley mine was to be the
signal for the revolters to fire upon the court-house and government
offices. The Kimberley prison was to be leveled to the ground, when, as
the rebels calculated, the liberated prisoners would instantly swell
their ranks and help to overthrow the government. The lieutenant
governor refused to make any terms whatever with men under arms and
ordered them to give up their weapons to the government. This they
refused to do. The authorities were not, however, to be driven from the
position they had assumed. A number of loyal inhabitants volunteered to
assist the government, and the prison was guarded by these assisted by
some of the police. Greatly to their credit the Germans then came
forward almost to a man and joined the volunteers. Mr. James Anthony
Froude, “the eminent historian,” as he is called, had paid a visit to
South Africa at the instance of the Earl of Carnarvon, then secretary
for the Colonies, to report on the chances of federating the whole of
the Colonies and States under the British flag, and that gentleman, with
his characteristic mental twist, took a most distorted view of
everything he saw, and instead of supporting the lieutenant governor
disparaged him, and actually held a conference with the rebel leaders.
This conference did not take place in the presence of any of the
authorities, and the insurgents declared at the time that their course
of conduct had secured Mr. Froude’s[59] approval. This was before they
broke out in actual revolt. A quotation from Mr. Froude’s writings,
which appears in a book of which one of the most bitter opponents of the
government is the author, strengthens the belief that Mr. Froude
actually did encourage the rebels, whether intentionally or not. The
passage is as follows: “The English government in taking up Waterboer’s
cause, have distinctly broken a treaty which they renewed before in a
most solemn manner, and the colonial office, it is painfully evident to
me, has been duped by an ingenious conspiracy.”
The “ingenious conspiracy” was one of those flights of imagination in
which the eminent historian occasionally indulges with most mischievous
results to the colonies that he has visited and attempted to describe.
There was no such thing as an “ingenious conspiracy to delude the
colonial office,” as may be gathered from the facts before stated
respecting the action of Sir Philip Wodehouse in the matter of the wrong
done Waterboer by the Boers of the Free State. The chieftainship of
Andreas Waterboer, the father of Nicholas, was confirmed by the British
government before Nicholas was born, as is shown in the earlier portions
of these pages. This is wandering from the subject of the revolt, but
the necessity for this digression will be manifest to the reader.
The rebels had calculated that no magistrate would be found with
sufficient courage to sit on the bench and try the arrested prisoner
while the court-house was surrounded by men armed with guns and
revolvers ready to fire at a given signal. They were mistaken, however,
for the late Mr. Advocate Gray, then president magistrate of Du Toit’s
Pan, took his seat on the bench, and then the Fenian leader, sword in
hand, ordered the man appointed (one Albany Paddon[60]) to hoist the
flag, which was accordingly done. There was no firing, though one gun
was accidentally discharged. Some of the leaders began to reflect and
came forward and entered into bail bonds for the prisoner. The rebels
did not then, however, put down their arms. It was only after the high
commissioner had threatened to send troops that they consented to do so.
Colonel Crossman, who had been sent out as royal commissioner in Oct.
1875, to make inquiries and report, after taking evidence absolved the
government of all blame. Then when the mischief had been done troops
were sent up at an expense of £20,000, under the command of Sir Arthur
Cunningham. Beyond showing that the imperial government were determined
to uphold law and order, the troops did nothing but manœuvre in the
market place, encamp at Barkly and attend balls and banquets given in
their honor, as well as to fête the Diamond Fields horse, who had
shortly before so gallantly fought under Sir Arthur in the war on the
northeastern frontier, driving Kreli out of the country and bringing his
tribe into subjection. The real grievance—and one destined to produce
dire consequences upon the province—the delay in giving out titles and
settling the land, had as yet found no remedy. Not even the chief
Waterboer had been settled with, and Mankoroane, the chief of the
Bechuanas, harassed on all sides by the Boers, had called upon the
British government for protection, offering to make over his territory
and people to the queen, as Waterboer had done before him. He, like
Waterboer, had always been loyal to the British rule, and to use his own
words: “I have always been true to the queen, have protected her people
when they were in danger from the Boers, and now when my people are
being crushed out of existence by the Boers the queen ought to protect
me and my people.” The lieutenant governor was of the same opinion, and
he suggested to the high commissioner that in justice and in policy the
British government could not do better than annex Bechuanaland. His
excellency further pointed out that to leave this fine country open was
to pave the way for future troubles—which it has done. The high
commissioner encouraged the scheme. Mankoroane and his councillors with
a number of his people came down to Kimberley, if I recollect rightly,
at the very time of Mr. Froude’s visit, and long conferences then took
place between the chief and his advisers, and the lieutenant governor
and his, the old chief being ultimately given to understand that he and
his people and country were to be taken over, as Mr. Southey said, with
the knowledge and consent of the high commissioner. This was another of
the promises made only to be broken; and to prove beyond question that
all the troubles predicted have come about, it is only necessary to
allude to recent historical events culminating in Sir Charles Warren’s
expedition to Bechuanaland. Mr. Southey had from the time of his taking
office persistently requested the high commissioner to get the land
question settled, and had sent warning after warning that delay in
giving out the titles was fraught with the greatest possible danger. But
the high commissioner was in the hands of the secretary of the colonies
in the first place, and in the second his excellency had not mastered
the situation. Then those who fomented discontent and disturbance had
circulated, among other infamous slanders, that the lieutenant governor
and the secretary to government were men bent on land-jobbing in their
own interest and in the interest of their friends and political
adherents.
In the session of 1875 the high commissioner, despite his previously
issued reassuring proclamation to the effect that no private rights
should be disturbed, sent up a land ordinance drafted in Capetown, and
requested the lieutenant governor to introduce it to the legislative
council and get it passed into law. This the lieutenant governor
respectfully but firmly refused to do. By the draft ordinance a land
court was to be created, and a judge appointed to decide upon the claims
of every one, no matter whether his claims were disputed or not. Even
Waterboer himself, from whom the government had derived all their
territorial rights, was to be forced into court and pay the expenses
himself, to prove that his private properties, farms, etc., belonged to
him. The judge was, moreover, to have power to reduce the size of farms,
and in no case to permit one to be given out of more than 6,000 acres in
extent. The lieutenant governor held that by allowing this ordinance to
pass into the statute book the government would be abrogating its
especial function, which was to protect those who could produce
unimpeachable titles, whether obtained by grant, purchase or other
legitimate means. The cost of going to law to obtain them they, he said,
ought not to be compelled to incur. The law courts ought not, he
maintained, to be called upon to deal with any land claims excepting
such as were in dispute. The executive government could deal with the
undisputed claims, exchange British for existing titles, etc., thus
saving expenditure and delay, while the high court was quite sufficient
to deal with disputed claims.
The high commissioner paid no heed to the lieutenant governor’s
remonstrance, but came from Capetown to the diamond fields and
introduced the draft ordinance into the council himself, while
presiding, as he was empowered to do, when in the province. The
popularly elected members at first declared that they would not vote for
the measure; nor would they even take their seats; which course, had it
been adhered to by them, would have effectually prevented the measure
being carried, as no business could be transacted unless two of the
elected members were in their seats. The high commissioner, however, by
the free use of his powerful influence, led the elected members to alter
their determination, hinting that if they did not take their seats, a
proceeding equivalent to assisting in passing the ordinance, he would
dissolve the council, and every one saw that if the high commissioner
could not control the council the constitution under which it was
created would be abolished altogether. The members took their seats, and
the ordinance was forced through and became law. The land court was
established, and Mr. Advocate Stockenstrom, of the supreme court, who
was then practicing at the bar of the court of the eastern districts,
was appointed the judge.
Sir Henry Barkly, having forced his land bill through the council,
returned to Capetown, leaving Mr. R. Southey at the head of the
government.
The greatest possible disaffection toward the land court soon found
expression on all sides. The editor of one of the newspapers, _The
Diamond News_, criticised the decisions of the judge with great freedom,
and amongst other remarks said that: “Judge Stockenstrom appeared to be
performing his duties under instruction, and if he was not doing so he
was incompetent for the office.” The editor was summoned before the
court by Judge Stockenstrom, and was charged with contempt of court. He
so ably defended himself that the judge withdrew the charge in a
semi-apologetic manner, but that did not allay the dissatisfaction. The
advocate of Waterboer, on the ground that his client had been grossly
insulted by the judge, and could hope for nothing like justice in that
land court, retired, with his client from the court, and refused to
continue his case.
The final adjustment was intrusted to Major, now Gen. Sir Charles
Warren, the land court having been abolished and the judge withdrawn.
Mr. R. Southey, soon after the purchase of the farm Voornitzigt, which
was sold to government for £100,000, was recalled, and that was the last
of Lieut. Governor Southey in Griqualand West.
[Illustration]