CHAPTER III
CAPE COLONY, 1830-1860
Cape The difficulty of arranging the diverse and varied doings of Colony. a wor id-embracing empire under the formulae of any particular theory is especially illustrated by the case of South Africa. It has been seen that, taking the Empire at large, the period in question was one of achievement. Mistakes were doubtless made ; practice lagged behind theory, and theory itself was but half-understood. But, if we compare the position of the Colonies in i860 with their position in 1830, we are struck with the progress. How comes it that South Africa alone appears to some extent an exception? that here British Colonial policy seems always attended by failure; that even, when the measure was right, it was taken at the wrong time, and that a heritage of future trouble was laid up, the final outcome of which puzzles even now the shrewdest of political prophets. In one sense it is, of course, possible to exaggerate the importance of such failure. As years went on, there was in the Colony great moral and material development, and it was no slight triumph that, amongst a population so different in origin and tradition, representative government should have been peacefully introduced, and have worked on the whole so quietly and well. Nevertheless, it is the dark side of the shield which must mainly detain us. The great source of trouble has been already mentioned. Public opinion at home,—meaning by public opinion the opinion of the few people who took interest in the subject,—and colonial public opinion were at hopeless issue on the question of the treatment of the natives. The fixed idea of English public men was that the constant practice of the Dutch colonists was to enslave and tyrannise over the natives. In accordance with this view, Lord Goderich directed that Dutch farmers should not be allowed to settle
in the new frontier districts. It was in vain that Governor 336