LORD RIPON AND MR. RHODES. T HE Government appear to be
right enough so far in its action in South Africa. The friends of the Chartered Company of South Africa made on Tuesday an immense fuss over an announcement that the Colonial Office intended to control the terms of peace with Loben- gula ; but what else did they expect her Majesty's Govern- ment to do ? If Lord Ripon had interfered in the actual conduct of the war, or had refused any application for assistance, he would no doubt have been liable to severe censure for indiscretion or incapacity. The people on the spot alone can judge of necessary operations against a foe whom they alone understand, and Englishmen in danger of massacre must be supported by their Government, even if they are hanged afterwards for bringing that danger on themselves. But as yet the Colonial Office has not failed on either of these two points. It ex- pressly denies—if we assume the statement of Wednesday in Renter's despatch to be semi-official--that it has in- terfered in the conduct of military operations, and it has forwarded all the assistance, especially in material, demanded. by those responsible on the spot. The muni- tions and means of transport are going to the front by wholesale, soldiers have been allowed to volunteer from the regular regiments into the Police, and the regiments themselves will follow the moment they are required. At present they would be only an embarrassment, the colon- ists preferring, as they once did in North America, to fight savages after their own fashion. We can see no error committed yet, and as to the claim to authority, it is of the very essence of our constitutional policy. Even the East India Company, which was in many respects a really sovereign power, making laws, for example, against treason, never claimed. after 1784 to make war or peace unchecked by any Ministry ; and at the present day, when distance has been annihilated, such a pretension is wholly inadmissible. It is barred by the general policy of the State, as well as by the clearest words in the very charter from which the South Africa Company derives its powers. If it were not so, Mr. Rhodes might.some fine morning decide to turn the Portuguese out of Africa, execute his purpose, as he could do without much trouble, and bring the whole fabric of European peace, now a most artificial structure, tumbling in heaps about our ears. That the present Government may use its powers unwisely is possible enough, for it is absorbed in the effort to secure voters enough to pass an impossible Bill, and has no time to con- sider, much less carry out, a complete scheme of policy for South Africa ; but that it is bound to use its powers to the best of its judgment we have no doubt whatever. We do not see ourselves why, if the Matabele are defeated, they should not be made to " trek " across the Zambesi, for they are as much intruders as ourselves, and the presence of a fighting caste will make cheap and peaceful government in the new province very difficult, every im- provement being hampered by the fear of insurrection ; but if her Majesty's Government think expulsion cruel, their clear duty is to say so, and act on their conviction, leaving approval or rebuke to Parliament when it reviews their proceedings. They have no power under the charter, and no right either by precedent or in abstract morality, to leave the matter to Mr. Rhodes, whose duty is to think of the interests of his Company, and not of the general in- terests of the Empire. Unscrupulous and high-handed as be is, he is a stronger and abler man than Lord Ripon, and probably understands what is good for South Africa a great deal better ; but what has that to do with the matter ? The obligation of the Government to watch over the Empire is not abrogated either by Mr. Rhodes's capacity or Lord Ripon's want of it; and the responsibility and the power cannot be dissevered. If Parliament disapproves Lord Ripon's ultimate action, let it turn him and the Government out; but to argue that a delegated and limited authority is, on the ground of capacity, to super- sede the central authority, is to introduce anarchy. We might as well put Ireland under a separate Parliament as leave Mr. Rhodes irresponsible dictator in South Africa. Supposing even we take the extreme though possible view, that the Matabele have no more rights than pirates—and no doubt their action for seventy years has been strictly piratical—the central Government must still decide how pirates had best be treated. We should not allow an Admiral to blind all the pirates he caught ; and Mr. Rhodes must either quit the Empire or submit to its general system.
The question would, in truth, never be raised but for the grand evil of the momentary situation—the deep distrust and disgust which the present Government has inspired. Nobody believes that it will act in South Africa or any- where else in obedience to its own inspiration as to what is wise and just, but in obedience to some group or other which is ill-informed, full of fanaticism, and essential to the passing of the Home-rule Bill. If, as is perfectly possible, the Irish or the Scotch support Mr. Rhodes, then Lobengula will be forced to "trek;" if the Temper- ance men insist that Lobengula is irresponsible because he drinks champagne all day, then the Matabele will be left in Mashonaland, to the disgust of Mr. Rhodes. It is not Lord Ripon's weakness which is dreaded, for he at least would be amenable to the general opinion of the Cabinet, and his resignation would make no difference ; but the general weakness of the Government, real or sup- posed, in yielding to little bodies of opinionated sectaries. They have votes ; they may turn elections ; if affronted, they may abstain, and then the Home-rule Bill will be lost ; and the Government, whatever their duty, will never face that chance. That is the way people think, and it is for that reason—to be rid of the fantastic action and reaction of the groups upon a pliable Government— that opinion is ready to support Mr. Rhodes, even against the most imperative traditions of good Imperial policy. That state of opinion is a grave misfortune for the Empire, but the Government have brought it on themselves. Who is to believe that they really care to defend Englishmen, when they are ready to hand over Ulster to deadly and avowed enemies ? Or who can feel confidence that they will insist on peaceful order in a Colony, when they leave County Clare to be governed by a secret society intent on maintaining a secret code of agrarian law ? There is no backbone in the Government, and can be none, because on a dozen great subjects it is pledged to be as pliable as cane. We do not ourselves believe in the least that as regards Colonial policy the Government of itself means any mischief, or is even seriously opposed to ex- pansion, which, so far as we can see, goes on under all Governments alike at a terrible rate, as if in obedience to some destiny far stronger than any statesmen. We are always getting territories bigger than our own land, and we never make any adequate extra provision for defend- ing them. If circumstances favoured, and the step were "popular," this Government would take Madagascar—the last big territorial prize left in the world—just as readily as Lord Salisbury's Government would, and. with just as few precautions for the future. But we do believe that it is bound hand and foot to the groups, and afraid to use its own judgment, lest in so doing it should lose in the House, or not gain at the Election, a parcel of votes which Might affect the majority, and so wreck the Home- rule Bill. And as that is the situation, we are not sur- prised at a distrust so deep and bitter that it blinds men to the clearest considerations of common-sense and states- manlike policy. Lord Ripon, for anything we know, may make the ultimate treaty with Lobengula, if there is to be one, a very foolish performance ; but if he did not assert the claim of the Imperial Government to regu- late and control that Treaty, he would be something like a madman. What is a supreme Government for, if when the hour for doing something arrives, it is compelled to con- fess that it cannot control its own subordinate agency. Be it remembered, it is not a free Colony which is settling affairs by force within its own borders, though even in that case—which occurred in New Zealand—the Imperial Minister gave orders, but one of our own Chartered Com- panies seated here in London, and as rightly to be held responsible and to be controlled as if it were a corporation with municipal duties alone. Mr. Rhodes, as we have said, may be a far abler man than Lord Ripon, but we lose all patience with the publicists who are arguing that for that reason the Imperial Government has on a question of peace or war, or of the disposal of a conquered province, no responsibility.
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