§ 4. THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF SOUTH AFRICA

The establishment of self-government in the colonies of Canada and Australia and the union of these colonies under well-organized federal systems, are the most conspicuous examples of the improved colonial policy of Great Britain. These results have been accomplished by the gradual recognition of the just demands of the subject population; and while often. delayed by serious controversies, they have been attained for the most part without an appeal to arms.

But when we turn to the British policy in South Africa we have before us a darker picture. It has been said that the transition from Canada and Australia to South Africa is a "transition from regions of peace to those of war." In the former cases, progress has been made through paths of rational diplomacy and comparative tranquillity; in the latter case political liberty has been achieved only through fields of sanguinary conflict. We see here examples of that arbitrary commercial spirit which marked the British colonial policy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We see here the persistent oppression of a subject population by a ruling class. We also see here destructive wars carried on for the appropriation of lands belonging to other peoples. And worst of all we see here the destruction of two independent nationalities at the point of the sword. It may be claimed by the partisans of this policy that such a course of severe discipline has been necessary to bring the people of South Africa into that state of prosperity and freedom which they have finally reached.

The first problem which was presented to the

English government when it took possession of Cape Colony was similar to that which it was called upon to solve with the conquest of Canada—that is, to rule a body of foreign subjects.

The Cape had already been in the possession of the Dutch for more than one hundred and fifty years, when the English fleet in 1806 captured the territory as affording a convenient way-station on the route to India, and obtained a legal title to it in 1815. At this time the white population consisted of about 20,000 Dutch farmers, with an admixture of Huguenots who had fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This simple people had made little progress in industry; their life had been a barely successful struggle against poverty and the savage attacks of Kaffirs and Hottentots.

After many efforts the British government succeeded in 1820 in inducing a body of 4,000 English colonists to settle in South Africa; but on account of their prejudice against the Dutch, they were permitted to locate in a separate district east of Boer settlement at Cape Town. The two opposing colonies now presented a condition somewhat similar to that of the early French and English settlements in Canada. But the conciliatory policy which had been adopted with reference to the conquered French colonies in Canada was not applied to the conquered Dutch colonists in South Africa.

With little regard for the convenience or rights of the Dutch people, which formed by far the largest part of the population, the English language was made the sole official language of the whole colony. Besides this, the interests of British commerce seemed to require a change in the value of the existing currency;

and the value of the Dutch paper dollar, which had been current in the colony as equivalent to four English shillings, was now reduced to the value of eighteen pence-this step being taken against the angry protests of all the Dutch people.

But the most serious grievances of the Boers against the English rule grew out of one of the great philanthropic movements of modern times, that is the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the abolition of the institution of slavery itself throughout the British dominions in 1834. It has been said that in this matter "England did the right thing in the most indiscreet way possible." The Boer farmers in 1834, no less than some American planters in 1860, looked upon slavery as a divine institution, and as involving the vested rights of property. But the chief objection that the Boers urged against the abolition policy was not so much the loss of their slaves as the forfeiture of their property rights. The English government seemed willing to assume the moral duty, but not the financial burdens of emancipation.

That the government might not be exposed to the serious charge of confiscation, it was decided to pay to the owners about one-half of the value of their slave property, as estimated by government officials -with the provision that this compensation should not be paid in money, but in government stocks.

That the English government, however, did not free itself entirely from the charge of confiscation is evident from the provision of the law that every person who claimed compensation must present himself in person at the Colonial Office in London with documentary proofs of his right of ownership-a thing practically to throw upon a poverty-stricken people the

farmer to make a long journey to London to prove a claim to his property, was evidently impracticable. For him to furnish written documents that he was the legal owner of every slave in his possession, was evidently impossible. The effect of these provisions was practically to throw upon a poverty-stricken people the entire financial burden of a philanthropic act of which Great Britain expected to receive the sole credit.

$ 5. THE "GREAT TREK" AND THE NEW BOER RE

PUBLICS

As the Boers had not the strength to resist these laws, their only alternative was to flee from them, Before the emigrants left Cape Colony they issued a statement which may well be called their Declaration of Independence, containing among their list of grievances these words: "We despair of saving the colony from the evils which threaten it. . . . We complain of the severe loss by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws which have been made respecting them. . . . We are resolved that wherever we go we shall uphold the just principles of liberty; but whilst we take care that no one is brought by us into the condition of slavery, we shall establish such regulations as may suppress crime and preserve the proper relations between master and servant. . . We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in the future."

At this time the administration of South Africa was in the hands of Sir Benjamin D'Urban, one of the most able of English officials, who was not in entire

sympathy with the summary methods adopted by the British government. His testimony as to the character of the Boers, at the time of the great exodus, is worthy of notice. He expressed his conviction that the Dutch farmers who were leaving the colony were "a brave, patient, industrious, orderly and religious. people, the cultivators, the defenders and the taxcontributors of the country."

The attitude of the British government toward the Boers after their exodus from Cape Colony may be indicated in a few words. The "Great Trek" began in 1836. The fugitives first moved north across the Orange River, then east to Natal on the eastern coast of South Africa. This country was supposed to be beyond the English jurisdiction. Here they established a government of their own, with a president and volksraad, or general assembly, and in 1839 proclaimed the "Republic of Natalia."

But the peaceful possession of Natal did not continue. Besides being compelled to resist the bloody assaults of the Zulu tribes, they were also obliged to submit again to the aggressive policy of the British government. Acting on the theory that the Boers. were still British subjects and finding the country profitable for English settlers, the government in 1843 declared Natal to be a British province and annexed it to Cape Colony.

With the failure of this first attempt to found an independent state, the Boers moved inland and formed new settlements in the territory between the Orange river and its principle tributary, the Vaal-a land to which the English government had as yet made no claim. Here again they set up a government of their own, consisting of a president elected for four years,