Book Description

Excerpt from British Rule in South Africa: A Collection of Official Documents and Other Correspondence Suggesting the Adoption of a Policy Which Shall Ensure the Peace and Progress of the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic The circumstances connected with the British occupation of the Cape of Good Hope are in some degree peculiar, and it has been perhaps unavoidable that the measures adopted by successive Governors have represented rather a series of shifts and compromises than any well-matured and definite policy on the part of Great Britain. It is, at any rate, very certain that, during the last thirty years, some most serious blunders have been committed, and that we are now suffer ing the evil effect of the vacillating and inconsistent policy which has been applied to the settlement of our domestic troubles, and of our difficulties with the Border Tribes. It is only very lately indeed that we have received the gracious assurance that the theories and traditions of the Colonial Office will no longer be adhered to in spite of remonstrances from those whose local knowledge, political experience, and unblemished reputation for loyal attachment to the Crown, may fairly be deemed titles to respect and consideration. This gratifying change in our relations with the Depart ment, which is practically our only Court of Appeal, may not unfairly be attributed to the light thrown upon the real bearing of colonial questions by such writers as Mr. Merivale, Mr. Money, whose work upon Java is a valuable manual of government, and Mr. Arthur Helps, who has drawn most striking lessons for our future guid ance from the history of the Spanish Colonies of South America. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.