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CECIL JOHN RHODES (1853-1902)
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See also:CECIL See also: He saw one of the healthiest countries in the See also:world barely occupied . He knew the agricultural possibilities of Natal . He knew its See also:mineral See also:wealth . The effect of the combined influences on his mind, in the circumstances in which he found himself, was profound . The See also:idea took passionate See also:possession of him that the See also:fine country through which he moved ought to be secured for occupation by the British See also:race, and that no See also:power but See also:Great See also:Britain should be allowed to dominate in the See also:administration of See also:South Africa . When he brought his self-imposed See also:pilgrimage to an end, he had found an object to which he proposed to devote his life . It was nothing less than the governance of the world by the British race . A will exists written in Mr Rhodes's own See also:handwriting a couple of years later, when he was still only twenty-two, in which he states his reasons for accepting the aggrandizement and service of the British See also:empire as his highest ideal of See also:practical achievement . It ends with a single See also:bequest of everything of which he might See also:die possessed, for the furtherance of this great purpose . Fiveand-twenty years later his final will carried out, with some difference of detail, the same intention . The See also:share which he allotted to himself in the See also:general See also:scheme was the See also:extension of the See also:area of British See also:settlement in Africa, but he did not See also:attempt to address himself immediately to public See also:work . He returned, in accordance with his first resolve, to Oxford, where he matriculated at See also:Oriel . In 1873 his health again failed, and he was sent back to South Africa under what was practically a See also:death See also:sentence . Years afterwards he saw the entry of his own See also:case in the See also:diary of the eminent physician whom he consulted, with a See also:note, " Not six months to live,” South Africa again restored him to health . Three years later he was back at Oxford, and from 1876 to 1878 he kept his terms . During this See also:period he spent the .See also:Long Vacation each year in South Africa, where his large See also:financial interests were daily increasing in importance . He was a member of the Cape See also:ministry when, after a further See also:lapse of years, he kept his last See also:term and took his degree . He did not read hard at Oxford, and was more than once remonstrated with in the earlier terms for non-attendance at lectures . But he passed his See also:examinations; and though he was never a student in the university sense of the term, he was to the end of his life a keen devourer of books . He kept always a See also:special liking for certain , classic authors . See also:Aristotle was the See also:guide whom as a lad he followed in seeking the " highest object " on which to exercise the " highest activity of the soul." See also:Marcus Aurelius was his See also:constant See also:companion . There exists at See also:Grote Schuur a copy of the Meditations deeply scored with Mr Rhodes's marks . During this Oxford time, and on to 1881, Mr Rhodes was occupied with the amalgamation of the larger number of the See also:diamond mines of Kimberley with the De Beers See also:Company, an operation which established his position as a practical financier and gave him an important connexion and following in the business world . To many admirers who shared his ideas on public questions his connexion with the financial world and his practical success were a stumbling-See also:block . It was often wished for him that he had " kept himself clear of all that." But this was not his own view . His ideals were See also:political and practical . To him the making of See also:money was a necessary preliminary to their realization, and he was proud of his practical ability in this direction . He was personally a See also:man of most See also:simple tastes . His immense See also:fortune was spent in the See also:execution of his ideals, and it has been justly said of him that he taught the world a new See also:chapter of the See also:romance of wealth . In 188x Mr Rhodes entered public life as a member of the Cape See also:assembly . It was the year of the See also:Majuba settlement . South Africa was convulsed with questions which had arisen between the British and the Dutch, and leaders of Dutch See also:opinion at the Cape ventured to speak openly of the formation of a See also:United States of South Africa under its own See also:flag . The British party needed a rallying-ground, and Mr Rhodes took his stand on a policy of See also:local See also:union combined with the consolidation and expansion of Imperial interests . He offered to Dutch and British alike the ideal of a South See also:African Federation governing itself within the empire, and extending, by its See also:gradual absorption of native territories, th'e range of Imperial administration . Local self-See also:government was, in his opinion, the only enduring basis on which the unity of the empire could be built, and throughout his life he was as keen a defender of local rights as he was of Imperial unity . There was a period somewhat later in his career when this attitude on his part gave rise to a See also:good See also:deal of misapprehension, and his advocacy of the elimination of See also:direct Imperial interference in local affairs caused him to be viewed in .certain quarters with suspicion as a Separatist and Independent . Those who were inclined to take this view were greatly strengthened in their suspicions by the fact that at a See also:critical moment in the struggle for See also:Home See also:Rule in See also:Ireland Mr Rhodes contributed £xo,000 to the funds of the Separatist party . The subsequent publication of his See also:correspondence on the subject with Mr See also:Parnell, who was at that time leading the Home Rule party, demonstrated, however, the essential fact that, whatever might have been the See also:secret intentions of the extreme Irish Home Rulers, Mr Rhodes's contribution was made strictly subject to the retention of the Irish members at See also:Westminster . He remained of the opinion that the Home Rule See also:movement, wisely treated, would have had a consolidating and not a disruptive effect upon the organization of the empire . In South Africa the See also:influence which he acquired over the local See also:independents and over the Dutch See also:vote was subsequently an important See also:factor in enabling him to carry out the scheme of See also:northern expansion which he had at See also:heart, and which he had fully See also:developed in his own mind at Oxford in 1878 . In 1881 the See also:Bechuana territory was a sort of no man's See also:land through which ran the See also:trade routes to the north . It was evident that any power which commanded the trade routes would command the unknown northern territory beyond . The Pretoria See also:Convention of 1881 limited the westward extension of the Transvaal to a See also:line See also:east of the trade routes . Nevertheless, the reconstituted See also:republic showed itself anxious to encroach by irregular overflow into native territories, and Mr Rhodes feared to see the extension of the British colonies permanently blocked by Dutch occupation . One of his first acts as a member of the Cape assembly was to urge the See also:appointment of a delimitation See also:commission . He served in See also:person on the commission, and obtained from the See also:chief Mankoroane, who claimed about See also:half of Bechuanaland, a formal cession of his territories to the British government of the Cape . The Cape government refused to accept the offer . In February1884 a second convention signed in See also:London again defined the western frontier of the Transvaal, Bechuanaland being left outside the republic .
With the consent of Great Britain, See also:Germany had occupied, almost at the same time, the territory on the See also:Atlantic See also:coast now known as See also:German South-See also:West Africa
.
In See also:August 1884 Mr Rhodes was appointed See also:resident See also:deputy See also:commissioner in Bechuanaland, where, notwithstanding the conventions to the contrary, Boers had ousted the natives from considerable areas and set up the so-called republics of See also:Goshen and Stellaland
.
An old Dutchman who knew the value of the position said privately to Mr Rhodes, " This is the See also: The See also:score on this occasion was to Mr Rhodes, and the entrance to the interior was secured . But the z2nd parallel was far See also:short of the limits to which Mr Rhodes hoped to see British influence extend, and he feared lest Germany and the Transvaal might yet join hands in the native territory beyond, and See also:bar his farther progress towards the north . The See also:discovery of See also:gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, by adding to the wealth. and importance of the Transvaal, gave substance to this fear . The territory to the north of the z2nd parallel was at that time under the domination of Lobengula, chief of the See also:Matabele, a native potentate celebrated alike for his ability and for the despotic See also:character of his rule . There were rumours of Dutch and German emissaries at the See also:kraal of Lobengula, engaged in persuading that chief to cede certain portions of his territory . See also:Portugal. also was putting forward shadowy claims to the country . It was in these circumstances that Mr Rhodes conceived the idea of forming a British Chartered Company, which should occupy the territory for trading and See also:mining purposes as far as the See also:Zambezi, and bring the whole under the See also:protection of Great Britain . The idea took shape in 1887, in which year Mr Rhodes's first emissaries were sent to Lobengula . The See also:charter of the British South Africa Company was granted in See also:October 1889 . Between the two See also:dates his conception of the possibilities to be achieved by the Company had See also:expanded . Mr Rhodes no longer limited the See also:sphere of his operations to the Zambezi, but, See also:crossing the See also:river at the back of the Portuguese settlements at its mouth, he obtained per-See also:mission to extend the territories of the Chartered Company to the southern end of See also:Lake See also:Tanganyika, including within the sphere of its operations the British settlements already made in Nyasaland . He hoped to go farther still, and to create a connected See also:chain of British possessions through the See also:continent which might eventually justify the description," Africa British from the Cape to See also:Cairo." The treaty negotiated between Great Britain and Germany in 1890 extended the German sphere of influence from the East Coast to the frontier of the See also:Congo Free See also:State, and defeated this See also:hope . 
But Mr Rhodes did not wholly renounce the idea
.
In 1892, when the question of the retention or See also:abandonment of See also:Uganda hung in the See also:balance at home, he threw all the See also:weight of his influence into the See also:scale of retention, and undertook at his own See also:personal expense to connect
that territory by See also:telegraph with British possessions in the south
.
In the following year, 1893, it was found inevitable to fight the Matabele, and a See also:war, prosecuted with a success that is perhaps unique of its See also:kind, placed the country entirely in British hands
.
The territory thus added to the British empire covered an extent of 450,000 square miles, of which large portions consist of healthy uplands suitable for See also: He also during this period carried through some important reforms in native policy . He had the courage to restrict the See also:franchise, introducing an educational test and limiting the exercise of voting power to men enjoying an income equal to a labourer's wage—thus abolishing, without making any distinction of See also:colour, the abuses of what was known as the " blanket " vote . But his native policy was far from being one of simple restriction . He liked the natives; he employed them by thousands in the mining See also:industry, he kept native servants habitually about his person he seemed to understand their peculiarities and was singularly successful in dealing with them . The first See also:canon of his native policy was that liquor should be kept from them; the second, that they should be encotiraged to labour, and guaranteed the full possession of their earnings; the third, that they should be educated in the practical arts of See also:peace . He appreciated the full importance of raising their territorial See also:condition from one of tribal to individual See also:tenure; and while he protested against the absurdity of permitting the uncivilized Kaffir to vote on questions of highly civilized white policy, he believed in applying to the native for his own native affairs the principle of self-government . Of these views some received practical embodiment in the much-disputed See also:act known as the Glen See also:Grey Act of 1894 . In this connexion it may also be noted that he was one of the warmest and most convinced supporters of See also:Lovedale, the very successful missionary institution for the education of natives in South Africa . The position of benevolent despot has obvious drawbacks . In Mr Rhodes's case the dependence which the populations of Cape Colony were led to See also:place on him had its reaction on the public in a demoralizing loss of self-reliance, and for himself it must be admitted that the effect on the character of a man already much disposed to habits of See also:absolutism in thought and See also:action was the See also:reverse of beneficial . Mr Rhodes See also:felt himself to be See also:fat stronger than any man in his own surroundings; he knew himself to be' actuated by disinterested motives in the aims which' he most earnestly desired to reach . He was profoundly impressed by' a sense of the shortness of life, and he so far abused his power as' to become intolerant of any sort of control or opposition . The inevitable result followed, that though Mr Rhodes did much of great and good work during the' six years of his supreme power, he entirely failed during that period to surround himself, as he might have' done, by a ircie of able men See also:fit to comprehend and to carry on the workto which his own best efforts were directed: To work with him was practically impossible for those who were not willing to accept without demur the yoke of dogmatic authority He had a few devoted personal See also:friends, who appreciated his aims and were inspired by his example; but he was lacking in regard for individuals, and a great part of his daily life was spent in the company of satellites and See also:instruments, whom he used with cynical unconcern for the furtherance of his ends . In 1896 the brilliant period of his premiership was brought to an end by the incident which became famous under the name of the , See also:Jameson See also:Raid . The circumstances which led to the Raid belong properly to the See also:history of the Transvaal . It is enough to say briefly here that the large See also:alien population which had been attracted to the Transvaal by the phenomenal wealth of the See also:Johannesburg goldfields, conceiving themselves to have See also:reason to revolt against the authority of the Transvaal government, resolved towards the end of 1895 to have recourse to arms in See also:order to obtain certain reforms . Mr Rhodes, as a large mine-owner, was theoretically a member of the mining population . In this capacity he was asked to give his countenance to the movement . But as prime minister of a British colony he was evidently placed in a ' false position from the 'moment in which he became cognizant of a secret attempt to overturn a neighbouring government by force of arms . He did more than become cognizant . The subsequent finding of a Cape See also:committee, which he accepted as accurate, was to the effect that " in his capacity as controller of the three great See also:joint-stock companies, the British South Africa Company, the De Beers Consolidated Mines, and the Gold Fields of South Africa, he directed and controlled the See also:combination 'which rendered such a proceeding' as the Jameson Raid possible." He gave money, arms and influence to the movement; and as the time fixed for the outbreak of the revolution approached, he allowed Dr Jameson, who was then See also:administrator of the British South Africa Company in Rhodesia, to move' an armed force of some 500 men upon the frontier . Here Mr Rhodes's participation in the movement came to an end .. It became abundantly, clear from subsequent inquiry that he was not personally responsible for what followed . A See also:cipher correspondence, seized and published by the Boers, left the civilized world in no doubt as to Mr Rhodes's share in the previous preparation, and he was for a time believed to be responsible for the Raid itself .
Subsequent inquiries held by committees of the Cape See also:parliament and of the British See also:House of 'See also:Commons acquitted him entirely of responsibility for Dr Jarneson's final movement, but both committees found that he had acted in a manner which was inconsistent with his See also:duty as prime minister of the Cape and managing director of the British South Africa Company
.
He displayed, in the circumstances, characteristic qualities of See also:pluck and' candour
.
He made no concealment of his own share in the See also:catastrophe; he took full responsibility for what had been done in his name by subordinates, and he accepted all the consequences which ensued
.
He resigned his premier-See also:ship of the Cape (See also:January 1896); and, recognizing that his presence was no longer useful in the colony, he turned his See also:attention to Rhodesia
.
His See also:design was to live in that country, and to give all the stimulus of his own presence and encouragement to the development of its resources
.
The Matabele See also:rebellion of See also: Word was circulated among the natives that he had come alone and undefended to hear their See also:side of the case . A See also:council was held by them in the very depths of the hills, where no armed force could See also:touch them . He was invited to attend it . It was a case of staking his life on trust . He displayed no hesitation, but mounted and rode unarmed with the messenger . Three friends rode with him . The confidence was justified . They met the assembled chiefs at the place appointed . The native grievances were laid before Mr Rhodes . At the end of a long discussion Mr Rhodes, having made and exacted such concessions as he thought fit, asked the question, " Now, for the future is it peace or is it war?" And the chiefs, laying down their sticks as a See also:symbol of surrendered arms, declared, " We give you one word: it is peace." The See also:scene, as described by one of the See also:eye-witnesses, was very striking . Mr Rhodes, See also:riding away, characterized it simply as " one of the scenes which make life See also:worth living." His life was See also:drawing towards its end . He had still a few years, which he devoted with success to the development of the country which See also:bore his name . The railway was brought to See also:Bulawayo, and arrangements were made for carrying the line on in sections as far as the south end of Lake Tanganyika, a construction which was part of his pet scheme for connecting the Cape by a British line of communication with Cairo . He also concluded arrangements for carrying a telegraphic land line through to See also:Egypt, and had the See also:satisfaction of seeing the mineral development of the country fairly started . But the federal union of South Africa, to which he had always worked as the secure basis of the extension of British rule in the southern half of the continent, was not for him to see . The South African War broke out in 1899 . Mr Rhodes took his part at Kimberley in sustaining the hardships of a See also:siege; but his health was broken, and though he lived to see victory practically assured to British arms, peace had not been concluded when, on the 26th of March 1902, he died at Muizenberg, near Cape See also:Town . His life's work did not end actually with his death . He left behind him a will in which he dedicated his fortunes, as he had dedicated himself, exclusively to the public service . He left the bulk of his vast wealth for the purpose of See also:founding scholarships at Oxford of the value each of £300 a year, to be held by students from every important British colony, and from every state and Territory of the United States of See also:America . The sum so bequeathed was very large; but it was not for the munificence of the See also:legacy that the will was received with See also:acclamation throughout the civilized world: it was for the striking manifestation of faith which it embodied in the principles that make for the enlightenment and peace and union of man-kind, and for the fine constancy of Mr Rhodes's conviction that the unity of the British Empire, which he had been proud to serve, was among the greatest of organized forces uniting for universal good . The will was See also:drawn up some years before his death . A See also:codicil, signed during the last days of his life, gave See also:evidence of some enlargement of his views as to the association of races necessary in order to secure the peace of the world, and added to the See also:original scheme a certain number of See also:scholar-See also:ships to be held at the disposal of German students . The publication of the will silenced Mr Rjodes's detractors and converted many of his critics . It set a See also:seal which could not be mistaken upon his completed life . The revulsion of sentiment towards him was complete, and his name passed at once in the public estimation to the place which it is probably destined to take in history, as one which his countrymen are proud to See also:count among the great makers of the British Empire . See the Life by See also:Sir See also:Lewis See also:Michell (2 vols., London, 1910); consult also Sir T . E See also:Fuller, Cecil John Rhodes: A Monograph and a See also:Reminiscence (London, 1910), and " Vindex, Cecil Rhodes: His Political Life and Speeches (London, 1900) . (F . L . |
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