shadows are already falling athwart the immediate outlook. The
strong and solid feeling among the whites in the past against giving any
political rights to the blacks however civilised they might be is not so
strong or as solid as it was. The number is growing of those among the
ruling race who feel that the right of representation should here also
follow the burden of taxation, but while there are many who think thus,
those who try to think the matter out in all its bearings soon come to
apprehend the possibility that where once political equality has been
granted social equality may follow, and this apprehension makes the
thinking man pause to think again before he commits himself to a
definite and settled opinion.

Taking the civilisation of to-day to mean an ordered and advanced state
of society in which all men are equally bound and entitled to share the
burdens and privileges of the whole political and social life according
to their individual limitations we ask whether the African Natives are
capable of acquiring this civilisation, and whether, if it be proved
that their capacity for progress is equal to that of the Europeans, the
demand for full racial equality that must inevitably follow can in
fairness be denied. This I take to be the crux of the Native Question in
South Africa.

Before we attempt to answer this question it is necessary to find out,
if we can, in what ways the African differs from the European; for if it
be found that there are radical and inherent differences between the two
races of a kind that seem certain to remain unaltered by new influences
and changed environment then the whites will feel justified in denying
equality where nature herself has made it impossible, whereas if the
existing difference be proved to be only outwardly acquired and not
inwardly heritable then the coming demand for equality will stand
supported by natural right which may not be ignored. The question, then,
before us is this. Is the African Native equal to the European in mental
and moral capacity or is he not? We must have an answer to this
question, for we cannot assign to the Native his proper place in the
general scheme of our civilisation till we know exactly what manner of
man he is.

We of to-day are rightly proud of our freedom from the sour
superstitions and religious animosities of the past, but these
hindrances to progress and general happiness were only dispelled by the
light of scientific thought