Short Studies on Great Subjects (Volume 3) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LEAVES FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL. In the summer of 1874 I paid a visit to South Africa. Having leisure on my hands, I wished to use it to study the working of an English colony. I had been interested in the exertions of Miss Rye to carry the waifs and strays of our swarming population of children to countries where their chances in after life would be more favourable than here, and I desired to ascertain how far the colonial authorities would be willing to assist in carrying out a systematic emigration of such children on a larger scale. My attention had been drawn especially to South Africa, through what is known as the Langabalele disturbance in Natal, in which two large native tribes had been destroyed. The head of one of them, Langabalele himself, had been tried and condemned by Kafir law, the Governor presiding in the capacity of supreme chief. The proceeding appeared to have been arbitrary and violent, and I desired to know the truth about it. I resolved at the same time to extend my tour to the neighbouring republics. Between these republics and the Imperial Government a quarrel had arisen in consequence of the British occupation of the lately discovered Diamond Fields, which had previously formed part of the territory of the Orange Free State. The dispute had interested me from the contradictory statements which I had read about it I wished to learn the history of the transaction from disinterested parties upon the spot, and to learn especially how far the annexation had been approved by colonial opinion. The following pages contain extracts from the journal which I carried with me. A few light sketches of the society and the scenery of a country in which England is beginning to be interested, may serve as a relief to the serious subjects with which this volume i...