Review of Retiexc), i/10/06. 



Character Sketch 



355 



many of the hard-bitten South Africans at the grave- 

 side had witnessed as the result of this man's energy, 

 this man's enterprise, this man's ideals ! For at 

 the graveside were many of the late Victorian re- 

 presentatives of the old Elizabethan adventurers 

 who had found their Spanish Main in Rhodesia and 

 the Rand, and who owed more to the man in the 

 open grave than to any other save to the man who 

 sleeps in the Matoppos. Through what exciting ad- 

 ventures, financial and military, have they not fol- 

 lowed him ! What battles were not fought for him ! 

 What conquests had he not inspired ! What devas- 

 tation had he not made, and what homesteads had 

 not gone up in fiery burnt-offerings at his bidding. 

 " Peace, perfect peace !" now at the grave maybe, 

 but in lifetime the rattle of the stamps in the Rand, 

 the roar of the bursting shell, the ring of the rifle, 

 and the sad moaning of the victims of the w^ar — 

 these sound louder than the silvern notes of the 

 tuneful choir, and from the shaded, flower-strewn 

 God's acre of Tewin we seem to see the vast sub- 

 continent which this man helped to win, and then, 

 Ix-ing misguided, helped to ruin. 



THE PARENTS OF RHODESIA. 



Cecil Rhodes was the man, Alfred Beit the wo- 

 man, in the political and financial marriage which 

 had as its children the Amalgamation of the Kim- 

 lierley Diamond Mines, the opening up of the 

 Rand, the conquest of Rhodesia, the Raid, and the 

 War. Rhodes was the father, Beit the mother, of 

 Rhodesia. And in good sooth Alfred Beit loved 

 Cecil Rhodes as Jonathan loved David, with a love 

 and a loyalty passing the love of woman. Beit was 

 essentially feminine in his -mental characteristics. 

 With his quick intuition he quickly conceived 

 Rhodes's ideals, and mothered them to their birth. 

 \or did he limit his labours to their gestation. After 

 he had brought them to birth, he continued to brood 

 o\er them with ceaseless anxiety. These schemes 

 were Rhodes's bairns ; he loved them more for their 

 sire than for themselves. It is impossible to dis- 

 sociate him frrim Mr. Rhodes, but it is as impossible 

 to condemn him for his complicity in Mr. Rhodes's 

 errors more strongly than we would censure the wife 

 who for good or for ill, for better or for worse, casts 

 in her lot with her husband. 



BEIT COMPARED TO RHODES. 



By this time everybody, even the most prejudiced, 

 realises the fact that Cecil Rhodes was a great 

 man, of lofty ideas and of immense public spirit. 

 He had initiative, energy, courage, originality, and 

 a passionate devotion to the country which gave him 

 birth. People are only now beginning to realise 

 that Alfred Beit wms nlso a great man. His ideas, 

 adopted from Rhodes in the first place, were not less 

 sincerely held or faithfully served. He was superior 

 to Rhodes in many things ; in the quickness of his 

 intuition, in the marvellousness of his memory, in 

 his keen appreciation of men, in his financial genius. 



He was not inferior to him in courage, in resolution, 

 and in the passionate devotion of his patriotism. 

 This was the more remarkable because the country 

 to which he was so devoted was not his own Father- 

 land, but Rhodes's. With him it was as it was with 

 Ruth in the Scriptures, when she forsook the land 

 of Moab and cast in her_ lot with the people of 

 Xaomi, her mother-in-law. " Intreat me not to leave 

 thee, or to return from following after thee: for 

 whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodg- 

 est, I will lodge: ihv people shall be my people, 

 and thy God my God." 



If the conrmanding figure of the Colossus obscured 

 somewhat the slighter figure of his partner, Beit 

 loved to have it so. ' His greatest joy was to sacrifice 

 himself to serve Rhodes. As Mr. Garrett well say? 

 in the Westminster Gazette: — 



He gave by stealth, nor rose a new-made knight. 

 He worked for Eng-land, to be dubbed " Herr Beit." 

 Tlie friend he loved, he served through good and ill; 

 The man struck down, he served the memory still : 

 Nor. toiling, asked more recompense of fame 

 Than to be coupled with anotlier's name. 

 Thus, in despite of that hard Scripture which 

 Shuts up the poor man's heaven against the rich. 

 Devotion learned from Dives to be true, 

 -A.nd Britons to be patriots from a Jew: 

 A monument which envy cannot shake. 

 Which millions never made, nor can unmake. 



HIS DEVOTION TO MR. RHODES. 



It is an interesting but somewhat unprofitable 

 speculation as to what would have been the career of 

 Alfred Beit if Cecil Rhodes had never crossed his 

 path. He might never have achieved such wealth, 

 but. on the other hand, he certainly would not have 

 been involved in such dread responsibilities. If he 

 h.';(l been able to exercise more influence over Mr. 

 Ivhodes there would probably never have been a 

 Jameson Raid and certainly never have been the 

 war. But while Alfred Beit saw clearly enough the 

 folly of some things, he was too absolutely devoted 

 to Mr. Rhodes to venture to persist in his ojjposition 

 after he had stated his objections and had been de- 

 finitely overruled. No wdfe could more implicitly 

 bow to her husband's authoritv than did Mr. Beit to 

 the dictum of Mr. Rhodes. -\nd when he had once 

 given in to his master's opinion he was as enthu 

 siastic as if he were working out his own pet idea. 

 Xay, he was more enthusiastic. For the fact that 

 a particular riolicy was ^!r. Rhodes's policy endeared 

 it to him far more than if it had been his own. 



THE RHODESIAX CULT. 



.-Vfter Mr. Rhotles died Mr. Beit cherished his 

 mr-mnr\-, and faithfully endeavoured to do as 

 Rhodes would have done had he lived. But the 

 sovereigntv of the dead hand is never the same thing 

 a^ that of the living. And Mr. Beit in the matter 

 of the disposal of his property fell even shorter of 

 Mr. Rhodes's standard after Mr. Rhodes's death 

 than he did during Mr. Rhodes's life. 



Mr. Beit's will, which bequeaths in round figures a 

 couple of millions sterling to public pur[)Oses, has 

 extorted ])raise even from those who disliked the 



