al bearings of South African native
life, what the tree is to its branches; it has grown through long, long
ages amid a people slow to forget old traditions, and equally slow to
receive new ideas; dependent on it are all the native's customs, all his
keen ideas of right and justice; in it lies embodied his history of the
past, and from it springs his hope for the future. Surely even the most
uncompromising of those marching under the banner of civilisation
must hesitate before they condemn this deep-rooted system to instant
uprootal.[*] The various influences of the white man have eaten into the
native system as rust into iron, and their action will never cease till
all be destroyed. The bulwarks of barbarism, its minor customs and minor
laws, are gone, or exist only in name; but its two great principles,
polygamy and chieftainship, yet flourish and are strong. Time will undo
his work, and find for these also a place among forgotten things. And it
is the undoubted duty of us English, who absorb people and territories
in the high name of civilisation, to be true to our principles and our
aim, and aid the great destroyer by any and every safe and justifiable
means. But between the legitimate means and the rash, miscalculating
uprootal of customs and principles, which are not the less venerable and
good in their way because they do not accord with our own present ideas,
there is a great gulf fixed. Such an uprootal might precipitate an
outburst of the very evils it aims at destroying.

[*] I do not wish the remarks in this paper, which was
written some years ago, to be taken as representing my
present views on the Natal native question, formed after a
longer and more intimate acquaintance with its
peculiarities, for which I beg to refer the reader to the
chapter on Natal.--Author.

What the ultimate effect of our policy will be, when the leaven has
leavened the whole, when the floodgates are lifted, and this vast native
population (which, contrary to all ordinary precedent, does _not_
melt away before the sun of the white man's power) is let loose in its
indolent thousands, unrestrained, save by the bonds of civilised law,
who can presume to say? But this is not for present consideration.
Subject to due precautions, the path of progress must of necessity be
followed, and the results of such following left in the balancing hands
of Fate and the future.

End of the Project Gutenberg E