Our forefathers had become owners of slaves chiefly imported in English ships and sold to us by Englishmen.  The British Government decided to abolish slavery.  We had no objection to this, provided we received adequate compensation.[4] Our slaves had been valued by British officials at three millions, but of the twenty millions voted by the Imperial Government for compensation, only one and a quarter millions was destined for South Africa; and this sum was payable in London.  It was impossible for us to go there, so we were forced to sell our rights to middlemen and agents for a mere song; and many of our people were so overwhelmed by the difficulties placed in their way that they took no steps whatever to receive their share of the compensation.

Greyheads and widows who had lived in ease and comfort went down poverty-stricken to the grave, and gradually the hard fact was borne in upon us that there was no such thing as Justice for us in England.

[Sidenote:  Slavery at the Cape.]

Froude, the English historian, hits the right nail on the head when he says:—­

     [5] “Slavery at the Cape had been rather domestic than predial; the
     scandals of the West India plantations were unknown among them.

Because the Dutch are a deliberate and slow people, not given to enthusiasm for new ideas, they fell into disgrace with us, where they have ever since remained.  The unfavourable impression of them became a tradition of the English Press, and, unfortunately, of the Colonial Office.  We had treated them unfairly as well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured.”

[Sidenote:  The Glenelg policy.]

[6] But this was not all.  When the English obtained possession of the Cape Colony by convention, the Fish River formed the eastern boundary.  The Kaffirs raided the Colony from time to time, but especially in 1834, when they murdered, plundered, and outraged the helpless Colonists in an awful and almost indescribable manner.  The Governor was ultimately prevailed upon to free the strip of territory beyond the Fish River from the raids of the Kaffirs, and this was done by the aid of the Boers.  But Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, reversed this policy and restored the whole territory to the natives.  He maligned the Boers in even more forcible terms than the emissaries of the London Missionary Society, and openly favoured the Kaffirs, placing them on a higher pedestal than the Boers.  The latter had succeeded in rescuing their cattle from the Kaffirs, but were forced to look on passively while the very same cattle, with the owner’s brand marks plainly visible, were sold by public auction to defray the cost of the commando.  It was useless to hope for justice from Englishmen.  There was no security for life and property under the flag of a Government which openly elected to uphold Wrong.  The high-minded descendants of the proudest and most stubborn peoples of Europe had to bend the knee before a Government which united a commercial policy of crying injustice with a veneer of simulated philanthropy.