Under all the circumstances we are very glad that the
pro- posed inquiry failed, for it was in essence a blow directed against Mr. Chamberlain personally,—an attempt to use Mr. Rhodes's offences to crush not the real culprit, but the man who, at the worst, took up too lenient an attitude towards those offences. Personally, we should greatly like to see Mr. Rhodes's connection with our public life probed to the bottom, but it must be a full and free inquiry, conducted in no partisan spirit, and not limited to the epoch which suits one party in the State. Mr. Rhodes, we hold, has done grievous injury to our public life, and we desire to see four matters fully inquired into—(1) his dealings with the Irish party and his gigantic subscription to the Parnellites ; (2) his connection with, and influence on, the Colonial Office during the years from 1892 to 1895, especially in view of the settlement after the Matabele War and the appointment of Lord Rosmead ; (3) his action in regard to what Sir William Harcourt so ably termed the engineering of com- plicity in the case of Lord Rosmead and of the Colonial Office ; (4) the political and financial transactions previous to the original grant of the charter. Such an inquiry would be free of all party taint. We hold that Mr. Chamberlain was in error in sparing Mr. Rhodes, but the fault was not one which in any way justifies the outrageous attacks on Mr. Chamberlain's personal honour and good name.
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