“But those” he goes on to say, “who on that fateful evening watched the hull of the Pretoria slowly dipping below the western horizon felt that if, as seemed only too probable, dismemberment of the British Empire in South Africa were sooner or later to follow, the fault did not lie with the colonists.”

The mother country had, he asserts, sacrificed the interests of her loyal sons abroad to those which were at that moment pre-occupying her at home, and appearing to her in such dimensions as to blot out the larger view which later events gradually forced upon her vision.  The words above quoted are strong, perhaps too strong, but if we are true lovers of our country and race and of our fellow creatures everywhere, we shall not shrink from any such warnings, though their wording may seem exaggerated.  For we have a debt to pay back to South Africa; and if we cannot resume our solemn responsibilities towards her and her millions of native peoples, in a chastened, a wiser and a more determined spirit than that which for some time has prevailed, it would be better to relinquish them altogether.  But we are beginning to understand the lesson written for our learning in this solemn page of contemporary history which is to-day laid open before our eyes and before those of the whole world.

I have recorded some few of the many testimonies in favour of Sir Bartle Frere, because he,—­a man beloved and respected by many of us,—­was the subject of a hastily formed judgment which continues in a measure even to this day, to obscure the memory of his worth.

A friend writes:  “his letters are admirable as showing his statesmanlike and humane view of things, and his courage and patience under exasperating conditions.  He returned to England under a cloud, and died of a broken heart.”

Mr. Mackenzie, writing of his own departure from England in 1884 to return to South Africa, says:—­

“The farewell which affected me most was that of Sir Bartle Frere, who was then stretched on what turned out to be his death-bed.  He was very ill, and not seeing people, but was so gratified that what he had proposed in 1878 as to Bechuanaland should be carried out in 1884, that Lady Frere asked me to call and see him before I sailed.

“The countenance of this eminent officer was now thin, his voice was weaker; but light was still in his eye and the mind quite unclouded.  ’Here I am, Mackenzie, between living and dying, waiting the will of God.’

‘I expressed my hope for his recovery.’

’We won’t talk about me.  I wanted to see you.  I feel I can give you advice, for I am an old servant of the Queen.  I have no fear of your success now on the side of Government.  Sir Hercules Robinson, having selected you, will uphold you with a full support.  The rest will depend on your own character and firmness and tact.  I am quite sure you will succeed.  Your difficulties will be at the beginning.  But you will get them to believe in you—­the farmers as well as the natives.  They will soon see you are their friend.  Now remember this:  get good men round you; get, if possible, godly men as your officers.  What has been done in India has been accomplished by hard-working, loyal-hearted men, working willingly under chiefs to whom they were attached.  Get the right stamp of men round you and the future is yours.’