of their religious sentiments; they express the love they bear to our Lord and Saviour, and their desire to walk in His steps.  All this is very beautiful, and, if true, is the greatest comfort ever given us concerning the native races.  I will take that document as a promise for the future that they will act upon these principles, that they are Christians, and that they will act on Christian principles, and respect the rights of the natives.  That is perhaps the most generous view to take of the matter; but, nevertheless, we shall be inclined to doubt until we see that they have put these principles into practice.

“Let me come to the laws of the Transvaal.  It is a fundamental law of that State that there can be no equality either in Church or in State between white and coloured men.  No native is allowed to hold land in the Transvaal with such a fundamental law.  It is nothing more than a necessary transition to the conclusion that the coloured people should be contemned as being of an inferior order, and only fit for slavery.  That is a necessary transition, and it is for Englishmen to protest against it, and to say that all men, of whatever creed, or race, or colour, are equal in Church and State, and in the sight of God, and to assert the principle of Civil and Religious Liberty whenever they have the opportunity.  I have my fears at times of the consequences of democratic action; but I shall never feel afraid of appealing to the British democracy on a question of Civil and Religious liberty.  That strikes a chord that is very deep and dear to every Briton everywhere.  They believe,—­and their history shows that they act upon the belief,—­that the greatest blessing here below that can be given to intellectual and moral beings is the gift of Civil and Religious liberty.  Sensible of the responsibility we have assumed, we appeal to the British public, and I have no doubt what the answer will be.  It will be that by God’s blessing, and so far as in us lies, Civil and Religious liberty shall prevail among all the tribes of South Africa, to the end that they may become civilized nations, vying with us in the exercise of the gifts that God has bestowed upon us.”

Sir Henry Barkly, who had held the office of Governor of the Cape Colony, and of High Commissioner for a number of years, said:—­

“Apart from other considerations, it is essential in the interests of civilization and of commerce that the route to the interior of the Dark Continent should be kept in our hands.  It has been through the stations planted by our missionaries all along it, as far as Matabeleland, that the influence of the Gospel has been spread among the natives, and that the way has been made safe and easy for the traveller and the trader.  Can we suppose that these stations can be maintained if we suffer the road to fall within the limits of the Transvaal?  We need not recall our melancholy experience of the past in this region.  I would rather refer to the case of the Paris Evangelical Society, whose missionaries were refused leave only a short time ago to teach or preach to the Basuto-speaking population within the Transvaal territory.”