266 The Future of South Africa t 10 ^ 10 - 



' He told us, too, of how the Duke of Connaught's chauffeur, hav- 

 ing been fined by the magistrates of Salisbury for exceeding the legal 

 speed limit in his motor, His Royal Highness had declared his de- 

 termination never to enter Salisbury again, with more stories of a 

 like high life kind. He had brought with him his wife, a Buenos Aires 

 heiress, whose wealth puts him above the necessities of his profession, 

 much to his fellow-doctors' disgust, who treat him as a quack ; but 

 he is a clever fellow, who claps his patients on the back and tells them 

 to ' buck up,' which they do. He talked about the Dingra assassination, 

 which seems to have at last convinced his Royal friends that there is 

 something wrong about the state of India. People talk about poltical 

 assassination as defeating its own end, but that is nonsense ; it is just 

 the shock needed to convince selfish rulers that selfishness has its 

 limits of imprudence. It is like that other fiction that England never 

 yields to threats. My experience is that when England has her face 

 well slapped she apologizes, not before. 



" 22nd Aug. — Hugh Wyndham, the younger, arrived last night. 

 He is settled now with his wife near Johannesburg, on a farm eight 

 hours' railway journey from the Natal frontier, where he breeds 

 thoroughbreds for racing. He is a rich man, as his father left each 

 of the younger sons £10,000 a year, and he intends going into the new 

 Cape Town Parliament. He gave me a more intelligent view of the 

 political position that I have yet had. He approves of the Transvaal 

 settlement made after the war, and thinks that in time Boer and Briton 

 will settle down amicably together, though the balance of power will 

 be with the Boer, whose vote on all questions will be given solidly, and 

 who moreover is an increasing population more than is the British. 

 On the negro question he does not think there is any danger of a re- 

 turn to legal slavery. Also it will be impossible to prevent the educa- 

 tion of the blacks, or their eventually obtaining the franchise. They 

 are rapidly increasing in numbers and in knowledge of their power. 

 He would like State education for them, so as to direct their intelli- 

 gence in a right direction. He is opposed to dividing the land into 

 white and black districts, as it would be impossible to enforce the 

 dividing lines. The whole question of the future is whether the white 

 man can be persuaded to do manual labor. If not, South Africa must 

 eventually fall to the blacks, but he thinks the pride of colour will be 

 sacrificed by the whites when they find they cannot live without white 

 labour. He also thinks that the independence of the Basutos and 

 Bechuanas will be respected. His ideas are far more humane than 

 I at all expected. 



" 2gth Aug. (Sunday). — I am spending a week-end at St. Giles' 

 with the Shaftesburys, a large and pleasant party with a number of 

 interesting people, George Wyndham amongst them, and we sat up 



