Cape Government, the condemned of the South Africa Committee, the self-acknowledged briber, and the gentleman who affirms that every man has his price; neither, I say, would he have made such a character as this-first a member of the Privy Council of her late Majesty, and next of that of the present Monarch, which, so far as I know, he is still, in spite of the disgraceful record against him. Nor would a man of the true imperial stamp have found posts abroad for Mr. Newton and Sir Graham Bower, guilty, like Mr. Rhodes himself, of a grave dereliction of duty in not communicating to the High Commissioner the information about the projected buccaneering expedition which had come to his knowledge.1 A Janius Brutus would have sacrificed guilty individuals for the empire, and not the empire for them, which last has all along been the policy of our Brummagem Imperialists. He would have done what was right to his own, and this would have enabled him to morally compel the Boers to do right alike to strangers and to their own.2 For he who does not right himself has no power to compel others to do it. Right is the foundation of might. The Brummagem Imperialist has now found this to be the case. He thought that with the whole force of the British Empire behind him he would be able to make anything prevail, whether right or wrong. He has found his mistake. Not with the whole force of a million empires can either he or any other man make wrong the winning side. The dice with which they play are loaded in such a fashion as to baffle them eternally, and the Empire whose power they have pledged in a bad cause is lost to them for ever. It is the old, old story of material power breaking down, because the hearts of those who wield it have with injustice become corrupt. "Belshazzar's grave is made, The Mede is at his gate, The Persian on his throne!" 1 Second Report from the Select Committee on British South Africa, p. xvi. 2 "I have promised that that inquiry should be full and searching. Now, into what are we to inquire? In my opinion there are three matters, as to which we want more information. The first is as to Dr. Jameson's invasion and all the circumstances attending it. Secondly, as to the proceedings connected with the agitation in Johannesburg. And the third is as to the administration and responsibility of the Chartered Company."-Mr. Chamberlain in the Commons, Feb. 13, 1896. How has he kept his promise? Dare he keep it? The responsibility of the Chartered Company is the reponsibility of the British Government. If we choose to delegate sovereign power, we are answerable for the conduct of our delegates. . . . By the manner in which we deal with this question we shall be judged, not only as a government but as a nation."-Sir William Harcourt in the Commons, Feb. 11, 1896. They are being judged, by God as well as by men, and by that judgment their empire is being taken away from them. The responsibility of Liberals (surely nominal ones) for the manner in which this matter was dealt with is affirmed in the WESTMINSTER REVIEW for September last, page 258. As our baffled supporters of Brummagem Imperialism are by this time uncomfortably unaware, while it is perfectly true that a murderer cannot be under a bond towards the victim he has destroyed, it is also equally true that when sacred rights and vital interests are at stake, whatever life-long obligations he may have placed himself under with respect to that victim remain binding until he has destroyed him; unless, of course, the unfortunate object of his malice consents to release him from them. Sooner or later he must face his obligations if he finds himself unable to get rid of their object. And if he kills that object he must face his punishment like any other criminal. He cannot always skulk behind battleships and white cliffs. He cannot play the part of the ostrich as long as he pleases. Presently he will be compelled to lift up his head and look at the bloody mess into which his unprincipled conduct has brought him. If he is wise he will do so now. Better do first and with a good grace what must be done at last with a bad one. Imitating Alva will not destroy the Bond. It will only bring on the heads of those who seek to imitate him a failure as colossal as that which he brought upon himself. The British Government has been trying by force of arms for over two years to destroy the Boer nation and the Boer Government. Up to the present it has not succeeded. Those of us who believe the right of the smallest nation to independence is equal to that of the greatest, trust that it never will succeed. For this the friends and supporters of it denounce us as traitors. They stigmatise us as enemies of our country. They tell us that we are unworthy of the protection of our country's laws, and that our turpitude ought to be made a ground for depriving us of every opportunity of expressing our convictions either in the press or on the platform. All this we are willing to bear cheerfully, trusting that time will justify us when it condemns those who have brought shame and disaster on their country by giving encouragement and support to bad men in a bad cause. Not for the sake of the Boers, but for the sake of a principle wider than them, have we taken the line of opposition to aggressive Imperialism for which its supporters condemn us. Nay, we have taken that line as much for the sake of the lasting welfare of our own country as for that of other countries. We believe the true friends of their country are those who would save it from the dominion of men who are hurrying it on to ruin by committing it to the dreadful course which they have adopted for themselves; not from patriotic motives; not from any desire to benefit the whole community; not from love or regard for the children of the future, on whose backs they are now heaping such heavy burdens; but simply and solely from personal ambition and the desire of material gain, to be obtained at the price of any amount of blood that is to be shed, never by themselves, but ever by the husbands, fathers, and brothers of a deluded people which they have cleverly managed by means of flattery and deceit to bring under their fatal spell. This is our belief. Whether it is founded on fact will be shown in the sequel. By the verdict of events we are prepared to stand or fall; with conscience clear; with hand unstained by gain; with heart uncorrupted by ambition. Already we see, or think we see, the good fairy Truth touching with her wand the victims of treachery and deceit. Already we see, or think we see, the demon of malice and confusion weakening in his influence and nearing his fall from power. The present war is the outcome of the attempt on the part of the British Government to release itself from its obligations towards the Boer Government, which it undertook in 1884, when the London Convention, drafted by Lord Derby on behalf of the Gladstonian Ministry, was mutually agreed to by the two contracting parties. Every article of that instrument is binding to-day on the two Governments. Every article will remain binding until one or both of them cease to exist, or until both mutually consent to a change. The British Government thinks, or tries to make itself think, that the bond in question can be blotted out with blood or thrust on one side by paper annexations and ineffectual occupations. This bond, as Mr. Chamberlain well knows to his cost, clearly defines and limits the Boer independence which he sought to overthrow by the combined influence of threats and displays of armed force.1 Possibly he hoped that without actually coming to blows, he would be able, in spite of the London Convention, to rule over the internal concerns of the Transvaal. I will give him credit for this, seeing that, as a matter of fact, he did not actually strike the first blow, though he certainly did everything that was needed to convince his miniature adversary that he fully meant to strike it if he failed to have everything his own way. For a most masterful person he was, and is, and will be, until his utter failure is clearly demonstrated to the whole world; but he was not masterful enough to intimidate President Kruger. In that simple peasant he found a will stronger than his own. Nor is the Boer President the only character of this kind in the world. When he is gone, the same heroic people will find another to carry on his work, and maintain their rights and his own against all that the bankrupt forces of Brummagem Imperialism can do. This will involve the downfall of Captain Kidd in South Africa. Nor will the overthrow of the pirate power be limited to that part of the world. It will be just as real and unmistakable in this country. The arch-pirate and conspirator himself, together with all his friends and supporters, will go into political exile for an indefinite period. 1 For evidence of this see pages 493 to 496 of the WESTMINSTER REVIEW for November, 1901. A great reaction will take place. The people will turn round upon their deceivers. They will curse those they have blessed. They will bless those they have cursed. For such is the nature of the British people. The one unpardonable sin in their eyes is failure. Be as unprincipled and bloody as you like, provided that you be successful, and they will honour and follow you; but show yourself before them as a complete failure, and they will cast you from them without pity and without regret. Truly a noble people! They are worthy of their idols. Their idols are worthy of them. Not one spark of affection in their corrupt hearts have they for right, for truth, for purity, or for freedom as ideals. Nothing but material gain has any attraction for them now, and for this they will sacrifice everything else without in the end gaining even it.1 In all the countings of chickens before they are hatched; that is to say, in all the speeches that deal with the settlement of South Africa, I have never yet seen any mention of the Gladstonian Convention of 1884. It is equally ignored by Liberals, Conservatives, Liberal-Unionists, and those double-dyed traitors to Liberal principles who call themselves Liberal Imperialists. They scheme their sordid schemes and dream their ambitious dreams on the comforting assumption that it is dead, buried, and done with. I will tell you why. It is because they are afraid of facing the obligations to which they well know the late Mr. Gladstone bound them. I really believe they would rather lose South Africa than manfully take up the burden of duties which in it they are bound to do. But let them not deceive themselves. They are not going to get off in this way. Their Government has its duties towards the Boer Government. The latter has its duties towards their Government. These duties cannot, and they shall not, be shirked on either side. There is compensation to be paid for all the innocent blood shed, and the happy child life destroyed, by the ghouls who have forced this conflict on, and persisted in it when the granting of honourable terms which could have been accepted by a brave foe would have brought it to a close. There is also compensation to be paid for the burnt homesteads and the looted property; each side being equally bound to pay for its own damages. If any reader doubts the reality of the obligations which the two Governments are under to mutually carry out the provisions of the Gladstonian Convention, let him listen to the official interpretation of it which Lord Derby sent to the Boer Government on February 15, 1884: "By the omission of those Articles of the Convention of Pretoria (1881) 1 That such is at present their character is proved by their indifference to the wholesale destruction of the Boer children in the "refuge" camps. Ministers of religion faithfully reflect public feeling, or the want of it, in regard to this matter. Good old England! She burns the child's home over its head, imprisons it in a murder camp, and then stands idly by while it dies. Good old England! Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian! But wait! the avenging angel has drawn his sword. which assigned to her Majesty and to the British Resident certain specific powers and functions connected with the internal government and the foreign relations of the Transvaal State, your Government will be left free to govern the country without interference, and to conduct its diplomatic intercourse and shape its foreign policy, subject only to the requirement embodied in the fourth Article of the new draft, that any treaty with any foreign State shall not have effect without the approval of the Queen."1 Here is a true form of self-government guaranteed to the Boers under the existing treaty. This surely is what Liberals like Mr. Morley and Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman are now proposing to offer when they talk of self-government for the "annexed" territories. But would it not be simpler to say frankly, We will honourably abide by the Gladstonian settlement? What hinders them from saying this? Is it pride? Must, then, pride bar the path of honour? Under this arrangement, which cannot be affected by the ineffectual occupations and paper annexations of British forces, the British Government is bound to leave the Boer Government free to govern Boer territory, without interference, so long as the terms of the Convention are complied with. In other words, it is bound to withdraw every British soldier from Boer territory, and this must be done prior to any further arrangements between the two Governments. The Convention must be fulfilled first, and then arrangements may be made for compensating the surviving victims of Jingo criminality. Great Britain cannot restore to the Boers the thousands of women and children whose deaths she has brought about by violating the usages of civilised warfare, in burning homesteads and imprisoning non-combatants; but she can do for the relatives of her own victims what she failed to compel the Chartered Company to do for the relatives of those who fell in the fight with its buccaneering agent at Krugersdorp. In a word, she can pay damages for her own barbarity. Having to do this will do her good, her conscience, or what is miscalled such, being only reachable through her pocket. Then, of course, there is the restoration of the thousands of prisoners in Ceylon and elsewhere to the land of their fathers.2 That restoration will have to be made, and it is at her own expense that the violator of the usages of civilised warfare will have to make it. Clearly she is in for a terrible indemnity, and richly does she deserve to pay it. Let us trust that it will be a never-forgotten lesson to her, and that the painful and shameful remembrance of it will cause her to never again clamour for a criminal and needless war on a handful of brave farmers, when they stand in the path of her cupidity and rebuke proud corruption by their simpler manners and purer lives. 1 Parliamentary Paper C. 9507, p. 8. The Convention can be seen in Appendix B. of the popular edition of The Transvaal from Within. 2 All of them. Not merely those traitors who take the oath of servitude to the violators of their rights and the destroyers of their kindred. |
