The record-union., 1897-07-15

he armed a body Of men to make war
at peace; that he did so to aid and
further an insurrection in that State
against established and lawful author
ity. That his acts embarrassed both
the Home and the Colonial Govern
ments, and that these acts occasioned
an unparalleled breach of International
comfy; that he used his high office
and his powers to deceive the Govern
ment of the Colonies, the Chartered
Company and the English High Com
missioner
The commission finds that only two of
the directorate of the Chartered Com
pany who We're examined were cogni-
zant of what was going on-Belt and
Mcguire; that the officers of the Home
Office We're blameless. having no guilty
knowledge, and not having promoted
! or condoned the offense. But Sir Gra-
| ham Bower, the English High Commits
sioner to the Cape, is severely censured
III dNNIAiA4llS " IHCtlhE COIIQcilbAeAt
| communications from Rhodes. OF
course, when the testimony of Rhodes
and Jameson is recalled, it is realized
that by this it is meant that Rhodes
would have told Bower all about the
contemplated raid had he received him
in a confidential relation. But suppose
Bower had done so, he would have been
bound by the reposed confidence;
| though it is true he could then have
prevented the raid, and that Rhodes
would doubtless have withdrawn jane
son from it, if Bower had protested and
ordered. Yet it would seem that the
High Commissioner was right in refus-
| ing to receive any but openly official
| communications from anyone under
question.
A minority report of the Parliament
airy Commission finds all that the ma
| jority do and more. 1t is more severe
| in condemnation, and names other of
the Chartered Company directorate as
having guilty knowledge. 1t is added
that the whole murderous scheme was
| devised to enable certain greedy men
kto grasp more wealth, precisely as has
| been held by the American press
meaning the Rand mines, of course
| that Rhodes and Belt deserve severe
punishment, Notwithstanding they may
have imagined hazily that they We're
proceeding in line with what was sup
posed to be the policy of the English
Empire. to place the British flag over
fevery possible foot of soil on Gods
green earth.
The majority report advises that no
further inquiry be prosecuted concern
ing the doings of the Chartered Com
pany. This will be held to be a lame
conclusion. But as it is likely that the
company will be shorn of much of its
power anyhow, and as it is now under a
reformed administration. perhaps no
good would result from exposing its
former rottenness. The questions re
naming are, "Wiu Rhodes be pun
ished?" Will anybody be punished?'
We doubt it. Rhodes will be disgraced
by Act of Parliament, but beyond that
nothing win be done. The blood spilled
in the CORY canyon twenty miles from
Johannesburg will go unavenged; the
lives lost in that nlurderous raid cannot
be restored.
But if this report is adopted, as we
believe it will be- it will stand high to
the credit of England. It will restore
her largely to the esteem and confidence
of other civilized peoples, from which
the belief that she commanded and Sc
cretly aided the raid had dethroned her
If adopted. 1T win lift the character OF
English legislators and statesmen
higher. and viii make the old country
the more respected for the doing or
Justice. But if Parliament approves
the report it seems to US that such ap-
proyaI will irrevocably commit the Eng
lish Government to indemnity in favor
of the Beers For while it is true that
the report exculpates the Home ONCE
and finds that the raid was piratical in
character. mere freebooting, wholly
wrong. still il was made with the Eng
| lish flag flying. by officers commissioned
! by an English company under an Eng
Hsh charter. It would therefore seem
| that in equity England will be bound
| TO recompense the Boer Government for
its expenses in resisting the raid, and
for the lives lost among the Beers, be-
cause by the treaty with the South Af-
rican Republic England is bound to
nrotect it from assaults by any of her
people. and from armed invasion by
bodies of men coming out of British ter
rftory.
We shall never believe that the Cape
officers and Chartered Companies did
| not know just what was going on, and
| that they did not know an invasion was
| contemplated precisely as developed
S,7ch we think, win be the judgment
of impartial history when it is written
| i'm the calm of the future concerning
this most remarkable affair, one that
| is of prime interest TO the whole civil
ized world. since it involves such
weighty and important principles con-
! eerning the rights of independent peo-
uIes and of justice among the nations.
| The $500 books and pamphlets, anu
| ~ ,,,oSe of Ms presented by Mr.. G. L.
Huntington to the library of the Uni