been driven, almost like a ship-wrecked
creature to cling, with the helpless crew around me, during those years
to this strong rock of principle, and having found it to be political
and social salvation in a time of need, I cannot refrain, now in my old
age, from embracing every opportunity I may have of warning my fellow
countrymen of the danger there is in departing from these principles.

My hope for the future of South Africa, granting its continuance as a
portion of our Colonial Empire, is in the resurrection of these great
principles from this present tribulation, and their recognition by our
rulers, politicians, editors, writers, and people at large as the
expression of essential Justice and Morality.

France possesses, equally with ourselves, a record of these principles
in its famous "Declaration of the Rights of Man," born also in a period
of great national tribulation. That document is in principle identical
with our own great Charter. But France has only possessed it a little
more than a century, whereas our own Charter dates back many centuries;
hence the character of our people has been in a great measure formed
upon its principles, and they have been made sensitive to any grave or
continued violation of them. In France, earnest and sometimes almost
despairing appeals are now made to these fundamental principles
expressed in their own great Charter by a minority of men who continue
to see straight and clearly through the clouds of contending factions in
the midst of which they live; but for a large portion of the nation they
are a dead letter, even if they have ever been intelligently understood.

How far has South Africa been governed on these principles? I boldly
affirm that on the whole, since the beginning of the last century, it is
these principles of British Government and Law, so far as they have been
enforced, which have saved that colony from anarchy and confusion, and
its native populations from bondage or annihilation. But they have not
been sufficiently strongly enforced. They have not been brought to bear
upon those Englishmen, traders, speculators, company-makers, and others
whose interests may have been in opposition to these principles.

A Swiss missionary who has lived a great part of his life in South
Africa, writes to me:--"The whole of South Africa is to blame in its
treatment of the natives. Take the British merchant, the Boer and Dutch
official, the German colonist, the French and