CAPE COLONY AND BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. 



85 



Treasurer-General, the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands and Public Works, and the Secretary of 

 Native Affairs. 



The area and population of the several prov- 

 inces were as follows at the close of 1880: 



The distribution of the population, according 

 to sex, in Cape Colony, inclusive of British 

 Caffraria and Basutoland, and in Natal, was as 

 follows in 1878 : 



The financial and commercial statistics for 

 1879 for Cape Colony and Natal were as fol- 

 lows : 



At the close of 1878, 663 miles of railway 

 were in operation in Cape Colony. 



The Cape settlements are bound to Great 

 Britain by looser ties of interest and senti- 

 ment than any of the other dependencies of the 

 empire. The bond has not been strengthened 

 by the cares and difficulties which they have 

 given to every English administration, and the 

 incessant loss of British blood and treasure in 

 unpopular Caffre wars which the connection 

 has entailed since the first annexation in 1812. 

 More than two thirds of the Queen's subjects 

 in South Africa are aliens in blood, language, 

 and customs, while the commercial and military 

 advantages of the connection bear no propor- 

 tion to the sacrifices it has cost. For these 

 reasons the home Government and the British 

 public have long desired to see the plan of 

 autonomous government and self-dependence 

 realized in these troublesome dependencies. 

 The complicated relations of the British Gov- 

 ernment with the Anglo-Saxon settlers, the 

 Afrikanders, and the native populations, which 

 under the management of ignorant military 

 commanders and crown officials involved the 

 commission of the numberless wrongs and 

 cruelties of the past, still stand in the way of 

 England's withdrawing her aid and authority 

 from the Cape. The fixed idea of an adminis- 

 trative theorist, adopted as a practical policy 

 for the consummation of this object, was one 

 of the chief causes which led to the last three 



* For the first six months of the year only. 



wars which have afflicted these ill-fated com- 

 munities. Lord Carnarvon, after the happy 

 effects of the confederation act in Canada be- 

 came apparent, conceived the idea of uniting 

 all the European settlements of South Africa 

 under a similar confederate government, to 

 which the virtual sovereignty should be trans- 

 ferred. This scheme was adopted as the tra- 

 ditional policy in Downing Street, and was 

 enthusiastically pursued by the Queen's repre- 

 sentatives at the Cape. The Transvaal was 

 annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone in April, 

 1877, in a way which the people of Great 

 Britain have only come to understand since 

 the rebellion of the Boers. The usurpation 

 was excused on the pretext that the people of 

 the republic were misgoverned by their own 

 authorities to such an extent that they hailed 

 British rule with thanksgiving. Zoolooland was 

 then invaded, with scarcely any pretext, for 

 the object of rendering the Boers content with 

 the annexation, and to remove a possible dan- 

 ger to the future confederation, and induce 

 Cape Colony to join it by crushing the only 

 organized and formidable native power in this 

 part of Africa. This disastrous war, which 

 cost 5,000,000 and thinned the ranks of Brit- 

 ish regiments, excited a strong repugnance in 

 Great Britain to any farther military opera- 

 tions in South Africa, although the entire re- 

 sponsibility for the Zooloo campaign lies at the 

 door of the Imperial Government. The people 

 of Cape Colony, who had possessed responsible 

 government since 1872, were given to under- 

 stand that for the future they must undertake 

 their own defenses. Thereupon the colonial 

 ministry under Mr. Sprigg instituted a course 

 of arbitrary policy entirely in the spirit of Sir 

 Bartle Frere's Zooloo stroke. 



The Basutos of Basutoland, a laborious, pas- 

 toral, and agricultural people, who were be- 

 coming rapidly civilized and Christianized, 

 populous and wealthy, had the custom of buy- 

 ing every man a gun. They never took their 

 fire-arms from the wall except on one or two 

 occasions, when they did valiant service for the 

 Queen, affording conspicuous assistance in the 

 late Zooloo war. With frightful rashness, a dis- 

 armament act was carried through the Legis- 

 lature, and the command went forth that the 

 Basutos should deliver up their guns. The 

 French Protestant missionaries who lived 

 among them protested against the injustice of 

 the demand. Sir Garnet Wolseley warned 

 the home Government of its impolicy and 

 danger. The Basutos regarded these weapons 

 as a badge of manhood and dignity. When 

 diamonds were discovered in West Griqua- 

 land, the Basutos were the first and principal 

 laborers; and each took home as his richest 

 reward a gun which he had purchased at an 

 exorbitant price. The command to give up 

 the weapons which they had been encouraged 

 to acquire, was regarded by every one as an 

 unmerited disgrace. Letsie, the principal chief, 

 and his people, who remained loyal throughout 



