BOOKS.

A LIFE OF MR. RHODES.* AFTER the many dull and serious books that have been written about Mr. Rhodes and South Africa, it is delightful to find one at least that can make one laugh. Whether "Imperialist" meant his appreciation of Mr. Rhodes to be humorous is, perhaps, an open question, but as to the result there can be no doubt. The fervent, nay, breathless, anxiety which he displays to tuck away a complimentary or adoring epithet, even in the most impossible places, is so naive, so artless, that it is im- possible not to be amused. One seems to see the writer revising the proofs, and finding on ,every page a chance to get in another little bit of eulogy. Such phrases as

• Cecil Rhodes: a Biography and Appreciation. By Imperialist. With Personal Reminiscences by Dr. Jameson. London: Obspmtn and Hail. "enlightened patriotism," " great statesman," "far-seeing and sleepless patriotism," "father and friend" [i.e., of the natives], "powerful imagination and intellect of a man of great ideas," jostle each other throughout the book. Judged truly and fairly, the Raid seems "an insignificant accident" or an " error " which, when compared with the rest of Mr. Rhodes's achievements, becomes " microscopic, and may be treated as invisible." The blaze of glory which surrounds Mr. Rhodes spreads abroad over his colleagues and their doings. Mr. Beit's support of Mr. Rhodes's financial operations becomes "public-spirited and powerful," and the Chartered Company " the greatest company of our own or any time in She matter of oolonisation and development, the famous Chartered Company of South Africa." In truth, we rise from reading this biography with a sense that Mr. Rhodes is like the Heavy Dragoon in Mr. Gilbert's opera, an equal mixture of— .

" Tupper and Tennyson, Daniel Defoe,

Anthony Trollope and M. Guizot,"

so well are dreamy imagination, plain common-sense, and high statecraft blended and combined in his nature. In his personality, too, Mr. Rhodes is made to seem exactly like Mr. Gilbert's bean-ideal. We have— "The genius of Bismarck designing a plan,"

and if not-

" The grace of an Odalesque on a divan," at any rate there is "the massive strength, impervious to ordinary emotions, of some old Roman Emperor, born to command the nations, and careless of the opinion, whether praise or blame, of the world of lesser men he dominated," and " the dreamy grey eyes" that "flash blue." In a word, Mr. Rhodes appears in the biography not what Lamb called Coleridge, " a slightly damaged Archangel," but an absolutely perfect and complete Archangel, with every feather in order and the effects of the "insignificant accident" he once met with now quite " invisible."

We would gladly pursue this pleasant side of the South African question, and quote " Imperialist's " touching picture of the youthful Rhodes sitting in the sun without an umbrella on an upturned bucket sorting diamonds aided by some of those faithful blacks to whom he has always been a father and a friend, or tell how Mr. Rhodes went all the way to Constantinople to get an Angora goat from his Imperial Highness the Sultan. The goat could not go to Rhodesia without a special firman, but not all the eunuchs and minions of the Palace could atop Mr. Rhodes when once his mind was fixed, and the firman was granted. We cannot, however, stop any longer over these pleasant side-lights on Mr. Rhodes's character, nor even notice the account of Mr. Rhodes in the native compound at Kimberley making the Kaffirs dive for shillings on Sunday afternoons. We must proceed to the dull and decorous task of seriously considering what Mr. Rhodes's political achievement has been in South Africa. In South Africa there are three great problems. The first is the problem of how to unite the men of English and Dutch origin into a friendly and homogeneous community. The second is the native problem,—the problem of governing the huge native population wisely and well, of making them useful workers on the one hand, and of preventing revolt on the other. The third problem is perhaps the greatest problem of all, the problem of uniting South Africa into a great Federal Dominion, after the manner of Canada. Mr. Rhodes has had dealings on a great scale with all these problems. His life as a statesman may, indeed, be said to have been occupied entirely in dealing with them. What has been the result P If we look at the matter fairly and squarely, and without prejudice on one side or the other, it must, we fear, be confessed that he has made an appalling muddle of each one of them. Mr. Rhodes's biographer, of course, denies this, and implies that Mr. Rhodes has made enormous advances towards the solution of every one of these problems. The only way of deciding which is the true view is to appeal to the facts. Take the Dutch and English question first.. What was the feeling between the two races a few years ago. One of amity. What it is now we all know. In every man's mind is the dread, if not the expectation, of civil war. That this condition of things is due to Mr. Rhodes's action cannot • possibly be denied. But granted that, it is idle to say that before 1895 Mr. Rhodes did a great deal to

conciliate the Dutch. We must judge-faets as they are now not as they might have been. Take next the native problem.

Look at Mr. Rhodes's handling of it as a whole, and especially. where he had a free hand,—i.e., in Rhodesia. life, or rather, the Company under his management, instituted a system of forced labour which, in Mr. Mackenzie's opinion, is in many. ways more cruel and injurious than slavery. That was not a

very wise step towards a solution of the native problem.

Next, he and the Company conquered and disarmed the natives so ineffectively during the Matabele war, and handled them

so badly after it, that there arose in their territory one of

the most formidable native risings ever seen in South Africa,—a rising in which it is said more white non•

combatants were killed than even in the Indian. Mutiny. That does not look like a successful handling of the native

problem. We come next to the problem of Federation. Who will venture to say that Federation is not now far more difficult and far more remote than it was when Mr. Rhodes, first became Premier ? In truth, if the tree is known by the names it is given, then Mr. Rhodes is a great and far-seeing and successful Imperialist. If the tree, on the other hand, is known by its fruit, then Mr. Rhodes is one of the greatest enemies the Empire has ever had. No enemy can be greater to an Empire than the man who muddles and fails.

We cannot leave " Imperialist's " book without noticing the frank admission made by Dr. Jameson in the first of the two chapters which he has contributed to the book. In

regard to Mr. Rhodes's policy as to the Matabele War, he• writes:— "Observe, too, Mr. Rhodes left the decision to the man on the spot, myself, who might be supposed to be the best judge of the conditions. This is Mr. Rhodes's way. It is a pleasure to work with a man of his immense ability, and it doubles the pleasure when you find that, in the execution of his plans, he leaves all to. you ; although no doubt in the last instance of the Transvaal business he has Buffered for this system, still in the long run the system pays."

This is very interesting in view of the declaration that Mr..

Rhodes did not authorise the Raid. We must not leave. " Imperialist's " book without giving a specimen of his style.

Here is an incidental criticism of Mrs. Schreiner's book :—

" The fact is Mrs. Schreiner knows nothing whatever, from personal enquiry, about the state of things in Mashonaland or Matabeleland. She has never been in the country at all. She has never been, I believe, much farther North than Kimberley, many hundreds of miles from the country of which she writes. No doubt she may believe what she writes ; but the basis of her terrible indictment of Mr. Rhodes and the Chartered Company is simply irresponsible hearsay. Whether it be a moral outrage or not to recklessly manufacture an indictment from such materials I leave it to the sense of fairplay in the English people to judge. It is well, however, that they should know that even after the occupation of Mashonaland by Mr. Rhodes and his Company, Olive Schreiner remained a personal friend and a fervent admirer of Mr. Rhodes. Students of human nature might be inclined to conjecture that her present attitude was to some extent the result of disappointment. On other grounds it is hard to explain."

One last word on " Imperialist's " book. To our mind, it is a very foolish and injudicious attempt to defend Mr. Rhodes by using the language of adoration and indiscriminate eulogy. But though we feel constrained to say this, we must also express our firm belief in the complete sincerity and genuine- ness of conviction shown by the writer. " Imperialist " has got a very feeble and faulty idol, and worships him in a way which will do him far more harm than good ; but for all that, " Imperialist's " religion is real and not assumed.