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magnificent Scotch firs, which throw their shade over the neighbouring wall, and over the grave where now lies all that remains of Charles Kingsley.

It has often been said that Kingsley's temper and frame of mind were those of the age of chivalry rather than of the nineteenth century. We think, on the contrary, that he was emphatically a man of his own time. To a good and earnest man, his own age-the age in which he has to work-is actually the age of chivalry; his own work makes it so; and Kingsley's work, in the minutest detail, belonged to the present. The vices he warred against, the science of which he was the popular exponent, were all things of the present. Whatever illustrations he might adopt from history, it was to the present that he applied them. Whether he wrote of the old wars between Roman and Teuton, or of the foul and courtly' harlotocracy' of France in the eighteenth century; of the old struggle between Pagan philosophy and Christianity, as in Hypatia,' or between tyranny and freedom, between superstition and religion, as in Westward Ho!' the present was as much before him as when he wrote of cleanliness and whitewash în Two Years Ago,' or of the abominations of tight-lacing and high heels, and the nasty mass of false hair' in Nausicaa.'

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He wrote of the present, and for the present; his writing, meant for present effect, was careless in the extreme. As it first flowed from his pen it went before the public, and so remains. Mrs. Kingsley seems to consider this rapidity a mark of his genius; in one sense it doubtless was so. His work came so directly from the heart, rather than from the head, that its effect on readers of the present time was almost magical. It stirred up many and vehement enemies, whose hostility he in great measure lived down; it kindled, on the other hand, much love and admiration, and won for him many friends, known or unknown, to whom the very name of Kingsley still sounds as the synonym of goodness and virtue. But work so hastily reeled off is seldom of a character to last; and we cannot think that Kingsley's will prove an exception. It is not merely that his writing is exceedingly careless, that there is hardly a page on which the critical eye may not detect some sin against grammatical rule or canon of taste; it is rather that most of what he wrote is in its very essence ephemeral. The present generation knows, admires, and reveres in him, not so much the popular writer, as the good man and the earnest teacher; fifty years hence he may be remembered only as the writer of a few volumes of manly and sympathetic sermons, or of two or three high-minded but old-fashioned novels.

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ART. VI.-1. Further Correspondence relative to the Affairs of South Africa. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command, February 1877.

2. The South African Conference. The Views of the Cape Ministry and their Supporters on Earl Carnarvon's South African Policy as set forth by their Speeches in the Cape Parliament. With an Introduction by an Old Colonist. London: 1876.

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HE January number of the Quarterly Review' contains an article on English Policy in South Africa,' intended to put the case of the Dutch population of the Cape of Good Hope before England as it appears to themselves and to the writer, to whom it certainly appears black enough. He adopts the opinion of Sir G. Clerk that the Dutch farmers have been alienated by our neglect and habitual disdain. From the past history of the Colony he extracts with industry and weaves together with skill all that can illustrate our blundering ignorance and prejudice. He criticises contemptuously the proceedings of the last Ministry-the annexation of the Basutos" land, the establishment of responsible government, and finally the appropriation of the Diamond Fields, which last he denounces as perhaps the most discreditable incident in British Colonial History'-a proceeding which taught our Dutch fellow-subjects to regard us as a people whom neither equity nor treaties could bind.' He overwhelms us with an unbroken succession of indictments, ancient and modern, embracing fifty years of error and injustice, and unvaried by a single gleam of sense or consideration. We are allowed to perceive that even Lord Carnarvon's well-known proposal of a South African Conference was, in form at least, a miscalculation, as it provoked an unnecessary resistance from the Colonial Parliament. This however was a concluding mistake. Here at length half a century of misgovernment came to an end, and a new era began. After thirty-eight pages of unflagging exposure the three last burst upon us like the rising of the sun. response from the people of the Colony was more appreciative [than that of the Parliament]. They asked for explanations, and Mr. Froude, who had gone out to represent the Imperial Government at the intended Conference, took upon himself to give these explanations. He was accused of trespassing, in doing so, upon official etiquette. He may have felt that to allow the gloss which had been put upon the proposal of a Conference to pass unchallenged would not only have been unfair to Lord Carnarvon, but would have seriously

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aggravated the existing difficulties. He may have thought also that it was indispensable to call out colonial opinion in some shape or other to guide Lord Carnarvon's action. The result at any rate was that the proposal of the Colonial Office received a general welcome. Addresses

of thanks were forwarded from the interior towns. The Dutch of the Western Province, little given to demonstrative forms of expression, showed in crowded meetings their satisfaction that an English Minister had at last remembered their existence. The suspicions of the leading politicians have since been removed, and there is now every prospect that the Colonial Office and the Cape Parliament will be able to work in harmony. The dispute with the Orange Free State has already been happily arranged. The Diamond Fields remain British Territory. The Free State receives a compensation' [of 90,0001.] with which the President has declared himself satisfied; and the news that the quarrel is arranged has given universal pleasure. Griqua Land West can now be annexed to the Colony, as Lord Kimberley originally intended. Natal, it is hoped, may soon be united to the Colony also, if we give assurances, as we are bound to do, that a force adequate to maintain peace shall, for the present, be maintained there; and the Confederation of the British Provinces will thus be an accomplished fact.'

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Venit, vidit, vicit. If Lord Carnarvon was not himself a perfect manipulator, he had at least a fine tact in the choice of a representative. Sometimes the world knows nothing of its greatest men.' But, here at least, the whole truth comes out; and impartial history records with pleasure, in the pages of our contemporary, how the well-meaning imprudence of the chief was retrieved by the rapid insight, the dexterous courage, and the quick adoption of responsibility of the subor dinate.

Having thus done justice to Mr. Froude, the reviewer proceeds. The Transvaal Republic,' he tells us, presents 'greater difficulties arising principally from a formidable native war, in which our influence has just sufficed to save the Boers from destruction, not without great peril to the lives of our colonists and our own character, if we are induced to make common cause with them. But

'To steer wisely through these conflicting dangers may be a delicate, but it is not really a difficult, task. The South African Dutch and English are an excellent people-a little vain perhaps, but not disposed to quarrel with Great Britain, if they are treated with consideration. They are well aware of the value of the connexion to them, and with a little patience, South Africa may be made one of the most attached, as it is already one of the most valuable, of all our colonial possessions. But we have made mistakes enough. Lord Carnarvon, we will hope, has turned the leaf and begun a new chapter.

'Of the soundness of his judgment, Lord Carnarvon has given admirable evidence in the selection of Sir Bartle Frere as the new

Governor of the Cape Colony. The moment is a critical one. The name of the person on whom the choice of the Colonial Office would fall has been looked for with more than usual interest. The wide experience of Sir Bartle Frere, his tried ability as an administrator, his high culture and still higher character, with the special distinction which he has already earned in connexion with African native races, combined at home to point to him as the fittest person for the office, if he could be prevailed upon to undertake it. The same instinct has led the Cape Colonists of all parties to the same conclusion, and for the last twelve months a unanimous wish has been expressed from every part of South Africa that Sir Bartle Frere might be Sir Henry Barkly's successor. So general a recognition of peculiar fitness is signally honourable to him, and is a happy augury for the success of his government.'

Viewed in the highly respectable aspect of a party statement, this glowing prospectus seems to us ill advised. If Lord Carnarvon were on the point of leaving office, a sunny picture of what he left behind him would detract from the credit of a following Secretary of State if he were successful, or enhance his discredit if he got into difficulties. But in the present case Lord Carnarvon will probably have to give effect to his own plans, and to stand the recoil of prophecy. If he should obtain the results which his ability, courage, and public spirit deserve, and which we unfeignedly desire for him in his own interest as well as that of the public-if Sir Bartle Frere's administration should correspond with the eulogy passed upon him—in which we heartily concur-this premature note of triumph will have discounted success. In the contrary contingency it will show the inability of the Secretary of State to follow up the success which Mr. Froude had achieved. In either case it would have been wiser to wait till facts spoke for themselves.

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The next observation is of a more general kind. An exposure of our country is only excusable when it is inevitable. An Englishman is scarcely called upon to construct a withering résumé of his country's iniquities for the last fifty years unless he has some object in view beyond historical exactitude. in the present case what objects remain to be accomplished? Difficulties (on the reviewer's showing) are overcome, grievances removed, malcontents satisfied; nothing is needed but common justice and a delicate touch-say another compensa'tion' of 90,000l. And how can these be wanting when the direction of affairs is in the hands of our present Secretary of State, and the execution in those of our coming Governor? What more have we to do than to congratulate Lord Carnarvon and Sir Bartle Frere and Mr. Froude, and the colonists and the country, and then to rest and be thankful'? It does not

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seem impossible-rather it seems highly politic-to let bygones be bygones, and to allow the flagrant misconduct of all preceding Governments to be silently effaced by the superior methods now about to be introduced. Suppose all that is past as bad as it is represented to be, yet in the critical moment of reconciliation, when the leaf is turned and the new chapter begun-what public motive remains for invective? Why should the most just of men give himself the pain of placing before Dutch and English a careful compilation of all the quarrels which have ever arisen between them, artistically arranged to the disadvantage of his own country, and conducting to the conclusion that if the Dutch have anything to hope from the honesty or justice of England, it is due, not to the established character of the nation, but to the happy accident that they are in the hands of a Secretary of State who has at last remembered their existence'? It makes matters worse that the charges against Great Britain are such that while it is impossible to sit down under them, it is equally impossible to answer them without an unpleasant examination into the habits of the Dutch settlers. It will make matters worse still if it should turn out that the most disgraceful of the imputations brought against British statesmen are not merely gratuitous but untenable.

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One more observation before plunging into the merits of this case. As between independent countries, it is, we believe, well understood that Governments treat only with each other. Of course an ambassador may properly accept hospitality from persons of all parties, and express his opinions in private. But if the Russian ambassador had, a month ago, starred it' at anti-Turkish meetings, and made speeches to his English audiences against the Ministerial policy, he would soon have ceased to reside in London. Now Colonies possessing responsible governments expect and their comparative weakness increases their right to expect-the same kind of dealing. They have a right to expect that the Parliament and Ministry which they have chosen to conduct their affairs shall, by the Government of the Mother Country, be taken to represent them; and that British Ministers-who can always make their sentiments fully known by publication in England, or by communication with the Colonial Government-shall not attempt to outflank or undercut that Government by direct appeals to the people of the Colony.

It is clear what mischief would follow if a Secretary of State thought himself at liberty to send out accredited agents to ally themselves with this or that Colonial party, and to prevail

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