Sir Henry de Villiers, were able to bring influence to bear, not only on British subjects of Dutch blood but on leading men in the two Republics. These men knew well the evils, the corruptions, the injustices of the Kruger régime; but they did not think war, which they knew would be, in fact, a civil war, was the remedy for the troubles affecting South Africa. Unfortunately, that section of colonial extremists who so clamorously did honour to Mr. Rhodes, turned upon the Schreiner ministry and did what they could to destroy the great influence for good which rested with him and the many loyal Dutchmen who supported him. Thus the best card was struck out of the hands of those who would fain have resisted President Kruger's pretensions to pose as the great defender of Dutch liberties in South Africa. The past is past. War, whether inevitable or not, came. Let us hope, at least, that that scourge will not much longer continue to afflict South Africa and to entail suffering upon the Empire. We have said something about the political and economical difficulties which the war will leave behind it. Even apart altogether from the jealousy of the two white races, there is the black problem, which Mr. Bryce has shown in his excellent book will have much to say to the question whether South Africa will ever become the home of a vast European population. But the problems of the immediate present are in all conscience sufficient for our own day, and all Englishmen are united as to the ends that lie immediately before them-first, South Africa at peace under the British flag; secondly, the creation (we are afraid it cannot come quickly) of an Africander selfgoverning nation, not unworthy of taking its place by the side of the other great dominions of the British Crown. No. CCCXCVI. will be published in April. VOL. CXCIII. NO. CCCXCV. U |