ked that unless he accepted my direction, it would most likely be
refused by other officers arriving at Cape Town. He agreed to do as I
wished, on condition that I put my commands in writing, and this I did at
once. The noble fellow arrived in India in the nick of time, as did the
forces which had previously left South Africa. Sir Colin Campbell was
enabled, being so strengthened, to complete his expedition for the relief
of Lucknow.

'I caused a steamer to cruise out from Cape Town, to intercept other
troopships and send them on to China. While I was thus steadily
forwarding relief to India, I learned that Canning, the Governor-General,
was still hopeful of avoiding grave trouble. At that I was anxious lest,
after all, I had misjudged the situation and the demands upon myself to
meet it. Next, I had full tidings from India, and I knew that my efforts,
twice over, would have been useful. India was in the balance.'

Sir George had to keep the peace in turbulent Kaffraria with a mere
remnant of soldiers. The colonists, anxious to assist the relief of
India, took sentry-go at Cape Town in place of the regulars. It was all a
knitting of the Empire; the uniting of its strands by blood and bone and
sentiment; that federation, based on race and the human qualities, which
had budded and bloomed in Sir George Grey's mind.

'For instance,' he wrote from Cape Town, 'there is not one of the
gentlemen in this part of the country who will now, in his turn, abandon
his bed, to sleep for the night in the guard-house, and to walk his beat
as sentry, who will not think that he has made some sacrifice for Her
Majesty's honour and for the safety of even a distant part of the Empire,
and who will not henceforth regard any persons that assail the interests
of the Queen, or her possessions, very much in the light of personal
antagonists. In fact, all here now feel that they are useful members of a
great body corporate, in which they have their personal interest, which
arises from having made some sacrifices to promote the common good of the
whole. Such a feeling, pervading the Empire, must immeasurably increase
its strength, unity, and stability.'

Sir George sent his own carriage horses to India, there to be yoked to
smoking guns, and went afoot in Cape Town. The maintenance of peace,
among the pugnacious chiefs of South Africa, depended mainly upon his
personal influence with them. He borrowed horses and rode round among
those chiefs, bi