A RHODES MYTH

By SIR FRANCIS WYLIE *

" to each of the present States and territories of the United States of North America." At that date there were forty-five States in the Union and five territories. The total, therefore, of scholarships left to the United States was one hundred, as against sixty left to the British Empire, and fifteen to Germany. One hundred to America, and only sixty to the Empire—and that under' the will of the greatest of-Imperialists! It was surprising, this disproportion—almost shock- ing. it has given rise, indeed, at one time or another to much " to each of the present States and territories of the United States of North America." At that date there were forty-five States in the Union and five territories. The total, therefore, of scholarships left to the United States was one hundred, as against sixty left to the British Empire, and fifteen to Germany. One hundred to America, and only sixty to the Empire—and that under' the will of the greatest of-Imperialists! It was surprising, this disproportion—almost shock- ing. it has given rise, indeed, at one time or another to much discussion. Attempts have- been made to explain it away. In particular, it has been suggested, in all seriousness, that Rhodes' solicitor, Bourchier Hawksley, and Rhodes himself were under the impression that the number of the American States was still, as at the close of the eighteenth century, thirteen. This story has appeared- in different- books at different times.. It is still being re- peated.. It is time it was buried. So far as I know, the first time it appeared was in Sir James McDonald's Life of Rhodes, pub-

lished in 1927. McDonald says there (p. 28c):

" Somewhat unfortunately, when drawing up the will, Mr. Hawksley, the London lawyer, is said to have given the number of the American States as thirteen [italics McDonald's]. Two scholars were therefore allotted to each before it was discovered that, as the States then totalled forty-nine [actually there were forty-five States and four Territories], the American Rhodes Scholars would out- number all others."

While in form McDonald might seem to be giving this merely as an

"on A," the words " somewhat unfortunately " as good as commit him to belief in it ; for what was unfortunate was not the "on dit," but Hawksley's epresumed) ignorance.

Next comes Mrs. Millin, who, in her Rhodes, published in 5933, says (p. 33o):

"When Rhodes assigned his scholarships . . . he believed there were still only the original thirteen States in the Union of America. Nor did his man of business in South Africa, nor the solicitor of the Chartered Company, who drew up his will, know better."

The legend grows. What was put forward by McDonald as not

much more thadan "on dit," to which he only by implication sub- scribed, has become, in Mrs. Millin, a bald statement of fact. And this time not Hawksley only, but Rhodes too, and Sir Lewis Michell, one of Rhodes' trustees (it is he that Mrs. Millin means by " Rhodes' business man' in' South Africa "), are credited with this remarkable belief.

* Sir Francis Wylie was Oxford Secretary to the Rhodes Trustees from 1903 to 1931. Rhodes' friend, the American engineer, Hays Hammond, is the next-

to hand the story on—in his autobiography published in 1935. He takes it from Mrs. Millin (" as Sarah Gertrude Millin says "), but does not question its truth. Nor does Lockhart, who quotes the story in his short Life of Rhodes.

And then McDonald once more. In Heritage, published as re- cently as 1943, he writes (p. 109): " Rhodes appropriated two scholarships to each of the American

• States ; and, as has often been told, his lawyer in London, under a misapprehension, gave the number of States as the original thirteen, `and for this reason there is a larger proportion of American students than Rhodes had foreseen."

This time McDonald comes out frankly as accepting the story. The " it is said " of the life has hardened in " Heritage " to " as has often been told " ; and•the two ring quite differently.

Now, in order to dispose of this mischievous legend, it is not necessary to rely on its inherent absurdity. There is first-hand evidence that Rhodes, so far from being under the " misapprehension " with which he and• Hawksley have been charged, did, in fact, know quite well what he was doing when he assigned one hundred scholar- ships to the United States. Here is the evidence. On August 25th, 1901, seven months before he died, Rhodes wrote a letter, still in .the possession of the Rhodes trustees, to Earl Grey, who was to be one of his trustees under the will, beginning as follows :

" You will find "under the disposition of my will there will be

a yearly balance. For the scholarships will not absorb more than £60,000 a year."

Of this letter Grey? at _ Rhodes' request, sent a copy to Lord Milner in Stuth Africa—he having recently accepted Rhodes' invita- tion to be one of his trustees. This copy is among the Milner papers

in New College (Oxford) Library. Here, then, is a definite figure, £60,00o, given by Rhodes, in instructions to his trustees as repre- senting the maximum they might be called upon to find annually for the scholarships.

How did he arrive at it? By doing a little arilmetic apparently. There Were, first, sixty " Colonial " scholarships, at £300 a year, absorbing £18,000. Then there were one hundred American scholarships, also at L300 a year. These would need L30,000 ;

£48,000 in all. Lastly, there were fifteen German scholarships. These - were to be of the value of £250 a year, and would mean a further annual expenditure of £3,750, bringing the total to £55,750. Now, allowing for office and othe4 incidental expenses, L60,000 is just about the sum, in round figures, at which Rhodes, doing his arith- metic, might be expected to arrive. But if, as we are invited by McDonald and Mrs. Millin to believe, Rhodes and Hawksley had supposed the number of " States and Territories," to which they • were allotting two scholarships each, to be thirteen instead of fifty, the total annual cost of the scholarships would have been, not £51,750, but £29,550 ; and that is a figure which makes Rhodes' calculation of £60,000 as ridiculous as £51,750 makes' it reasonable.

This letter from Rhodes to two of his trustees has not been brought into the discussion before, except in a recent article, by the present writer, in a magazine (The American Oxonian), published quarterly by Rhodes Scholars in America. It makes such short work of the " thirteen original States " myth that it deserves a wider' publicity. Indeed, it does more than merely shatter that myth : it answers the question so often asked—did Rhodes mean the U.SA. to have so many scholarships? And the answer is—he did. Nor need that surprise anyone who has in mind Rhodes' life-long and passionate desire for the reunion of the English-speaking world, which Stead called " his great idea "—a desire which already found clear, if somewhat crude, expression in the Will (the first of the seven he at one time or another made) which Rhodes drew up in 1877, when barely twenty-five and still an undergraduate at Oxford ; who is aware, further, of the influence which Stead had with Rhodes in the years between 1890 and isioo (E. T. Cook, in a letter to Milner, speaks of Rhodes' Will as " a mixture, I imagine, of C. J. R. and W. T. S."); and who recalls that in 1899 the population of the United States was seventy-six million, as compared with a total population of something between fifteen and sixteen million for Canada, Austra- lasia, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the British West Indies taken together.