The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12
VI.

In q concluding chapter Mr.. Bryce points out
that the progress of South Africa and tho pc
culiar form which its problems have taken are
the resultant of three causes. One of these is
the character which nature has impressed upon
the country. OF this the author has spoken at
length in an early chapter. and shown how the
high interior plateau, with its healthful and
bracing climate, determined the main limo of Eu-
ropean advance, and secured the predominance.
not of the race which first discovered the coun.
try (the Portuguese) but of tho race which ap-
preached it, far later In time. from its best side.
1t is also in this physical character that one
must seek the explanation OF the remarka-
bly, slow progress of the country in wealth
and population. South Africa began to be occu-
pied by white men earlier than any part of the
American continent. Even the first Dutch set
Element was but little posterior to those English
settlements in North America which have
grown into a nation of rs. 600. 900 of people, and
the first English settlements in Australia. 1t is
the unhealthfulness of the east coast and the
dryness of the rest of the country that are main
ly accountable for this tardy growth. a growth
which might have been still more tardy but for
the political causes that drove the Beers into
the far interior.
The two other causes that have ruled the for
tunes and shaped the development of South
the races that inhabit it, and the character of
the Government which has sought from afar
10 COnLrOl the RELATIONS Oh UnObe RACES. EuRllbu
all the colonies of Great Britain none has given
ies m ns has es sontE A Il %S'h MR. Gis Bryee f ENDS a tno
reason in the circumstance that South Africa
has had two sets of race questions to deal
and the English. 1t is this latter set of CUES;
OF oioF South sna' African nnts '0% annals. Why v h have they
proved so troublesome. and why are they 80
troublesome today Because, the author
| anawerS. thew involve Bentiment. and thus. ike
questions of religion, touch the deepest springs
Of emotion. IL nacS questions, , %of fcnUens sP1rhiinE
stock from fully understanding and, there,
1 %afes Sus difis%it Tor met men E pS' Mcrs s sossihcr;
govern their divisions are just and fair to both;
Some mischicyious influence is also attributed
once fair. Of a friendly fusion between the
Dutch and the English. races that seemed
eminently at to be fused; The British sh N
fortunate time. Had Il happened thirty
years earlier. NO ditioul.ies would have
gun to affect English opinion or the British Gov.
steam had given quicker and more frequent
ocean communication. Britain and the colony
thought and wished, and the errors that alien,
ated the Beers might never have been com,
% onisS of M shc f hSsrs 's snd h iRs Essl IL 'h far '% %oFc
than the jealousy OF two races. What has taken
place is a collision Of two types OF civilization
the other to the seventeenth. His isolation. not
only in q distant corner of the Southern hemi.
sphere but IN the great wide; bare veln nr, oyer Yer
Boor fast bound In the ideas and habits OF = past
age, and he shrinks from tho contact OF inc
keen. restless. modern man. with new arts Of
gain and new forms of pleasure, Just asa lnri.
tan farmer of ~Cromwell's day might shrink
were no brought to life and forged to plunge
into the current OF modern London. Had
the Beers been OF English stock. but subject,
ed to the same conditions, as those which Kept
hind the Cape, they would even then have re,
sisted the new ways of tho new rulers; but, bcinG
of one race with those rulers. tho trouble would
soon have been oyer; 1t is the fact that the old
Cape settlers had u language Of their own ana q
sense of blood, kinship to hold them togethertha'
has, enabled tho Dutch element TO- remain ~ CO.
of their own patriotism which iSnot Dl'ch, loi
they care nothing for the traditions OF Holland
Ii Is observed, fnaliy, that the local position
of the Beers, considered as half-nonlhdic ilhabl
tants OF a wide interior, gave a peculiar cnarne
ter to that struggle bet Ccn the mother country
and the ~colonists which has several lines ariseI
in British history. They were so few am, g
teen colonies OF the North American coast il
1870, that it was useless for them TO rebel anf
fight for independence, as those colonies hhn
the French OF Lower Canada, rooted IN TN
soil as aRricpltnrists. Hence a middle GSurs'
itself. That middle course was whoiesal'
} emigration. They renowned not only the
political allegiance but even the very lan'
where they had dwelt, seeking the protection o
the desert, as other cmiGrants before them MAJ
I sought that OF the ocean. Thus, again an!
more completely isolated since 1880, nc emi
grant Beers, aud especially those of the Trans
Vaal, have been able to retain Their OLD ways 10
sixty, years longer. ana have grown more anu
. English OF The Cape Colony. where English sen
, timent was qulckcned by these events. nave &c