Sir Henry Loch has resigned, and Sir Hercules Robinson has
been appointed in his stead, as Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa. It is said that the appointment has been made to please Mr. Rhodes. Possibly ; but it will please no one else, or at any rate no one who carefully considers the principles on which such appointments ought to be given. Sir Hercules Robinson was, no doubt, an excellent Governor of the Cape five years ago, and is a man of high character and capacity. As we have shown elsewhere, he has, however, since his return disqualified himself from taking the Cape appointment. He is, according to the Westminster Gazette, chairman of the London Board of the De Beers Company, a director of the Standard Bank of South Africa, and a large shareholder in the Chartered Com- pany. There is, of course, nothing in the least wrong in such commercial pursuits ; and a man engaged in them might make an excellent Governor of Newfoundland or Jamaica. The possession of these large interests in South African companies should, however, preclude his being sent to the Cape. We very much hope that the matter will be raised, and strongly raised, in Parliament. It would be most unfortunate if the action of the Colonial Office were to go without protest. We trust, however, that before any such protest can be made, Sir Hercules Robinson will have him- self seen the impropriety of accepting the post for which he is designated.
