its guides
and rulers a Solon or a Lycurgus, but it has to-day, among the
men guiding its destiny, men of brave and earnest spirit, who are
seeking manfully and profoundly to deal with the great problems
before them in a wide spirit of humanity and justice. And we do
again repeat that the strong sympathy of all earnest and
thoughtful minds, not only in Africa, but in England, should be
with them."

If one compares the gold fields of the Witwatersrand with those of other
countries, it is certain that the former can claim to be the best
governed mining area in the world. This is the almost unanimous verdict
of people who have had a lengthy experience of the gold fields of
California, Australia, and Klondyke.

As far as South Africa is concerned, it is only necessary to instance
the diamond fields of Griqualand West when they were directly
administered by the British Government. They then afforded a continual
spectacle of rebellion, rioting, and indescribable uncertainty of, and
danger to, life and property.

In Appendix B. are certain extracts from the evidence of eye witnesses
as to the chaos which characterised the condition of the diamond fields
when under British rule--a condition which differs from that of the
Witwatersrand gold fields as night from day. Reference will be made
later on to the administration of the gold fields of the South African
Republic. For the present it is necessary to glance at certain forces
which had been developed on the diamond fields of the Cape Colony, and
which have introduced a new factor of overwhelming importance into the
South African situation.

[Sidenote: Capitalism.]

The development of British policy in South Africa had hitherto been
influenced at different times, and in a greater or less degree, by the
spirit of Jingoism, and by that zeal for Annexation which is so
characteristic of the trading instincts of the race. It was, however, a
policy that had been conducted in other respects on continuous lines,
and it might be justified by the argument that it was necessary in the
interests of the Empire. But Capitalism was the new factor which was
about to play such an important _role_ in the history of South Africa.
The natural differences in men find their highest expression in the
varieties of influence which one man exercises over another; this
influence can either be of a religious, moral, political, or purely
material nature. Material in