clergy, and for the building of churches, &c., they give us their views respecting the means to be adopted for the improvement of the coloured population, in the following terms:-"With a view to extend the benefits of this provision to the coloured inhabitants of the colony in general, we recommend that, in all instances in which applications may be made by any number of families of Hottentots, Bosjesmen, or Malays, or of any other class of coloured people settled within the colony, or on application being made by clergymen or missionaries on their behalf, for assistance to be afforded to them in acquiring the means of instruction and religious communion, a reserve should be made of land in the parish in which they propose to settle or reside, and a distinct allotment should be attached as glebe, for the support of a clergyman or teacher; that a proportionate salary be assigned to such person, and that five hundred pounds be appropriated from the revenues of the colony for the erection of a plain church and school, to which they might contribute whatever it may be within their own power to afford, in aid of the establishment."

What particularly pleases me in the above extract is not the purpose of extending the privilege of a provision of this nature to the natives in their present condition, for in their present circumstances it would be a nullity to them, but the indication which it affords that the Commissioners must have recommended to his Majesty's government such a change in their condition as would put it into their power to avail themselves of such a provision. In their present condition, the natives have no choice as to the place of their abode; they are entirely in the hands of the colonists and the local authorities of the colony, and are liable to be ap

prehended as vagabonds if they are found without a written pass. Even in the English district of Albany, under the authority of an English magistrate, they are, according to the most recent letters I have had from that part of the colony, seized by that officer's orders, and disposed of by him among his friends, as if they were so many slaves he had purchased by the investment of his personal property*.

*The following extract of a letter (dated September, 1827) from an English emigrant in Albany, and the forcible commentary upon it, which have just been furnished to me by my worthy friend the Rev John Campbell, exhibit an apt illustration of the state of things still existing in that part of the colony :

"Mr.

still retains his propensity for strong drink. It has reduced him to one of the meanest situations a European can hold in this place. He is an understrapper in the police-his business is to take into custody all stray Hottentots, for which he is allowed nine-pence per head-and to take criminals to and from government works. This office is in about the same repute as hangman in England." [The following is Mr. Campbell's Commentary.]

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Stray Hottentot means a Hottentot who chuses to go on a visit to a friend, a few or more miles from his own residence without a pass, or written permission so to do. Yet Hottentots are declared to be free by the Cape government-like the French who invaded Holland, professedly to deliver them from the thraldom of the stadholder, and to put them in possession of perfect liberty. But while they were always proclaiming to the Dutch that they were a free nation, they were reducing them to poverty, forcing their young men into the French army, and thus depriving them of their national existence. What would an Englishman in Chelsea think of a foreign power which had seized the reins of government, and proclaimed the population to be free, yet he found he durst not visit a friend at Hammersmith without a pass from a justice of peace, or expose himself to capture, imprisonment, whipping, and then to hard labour for four or five years, for a small pittance, while his wife and children were starving at home? This is the liberty England gives to Hottentots in their own country.-J. C."

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CHAPTER XVII.

Further Remarks on the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry.— Want of sympathy in the Local Magistracy for the Coloured Races, and their constant temptations under the existing system to oppress them.-Necessity for conferring an equality of civil privileges on the Aborigines, in order that the contemptuous feelings of the privileged classes towards them may be overcome.-Remarks on the theories of a diversity of origin in races of men of different colours.-Curious concurrence in similar opinions among European Colonists and Slave-holders.Comparison between the Britons in Cæsar's time, and the natives of South Africa in ours.-The natural love of freedom not less strong in the Bushman than the Briton.-Examples.Remark of Africaner.-Character and Condition of the Bechuana Refugees now in the Colony.-Easy and equitable plan of procuring free labourers from the native tribes.-Oppression has not improved the Hottentots-let us now try Justice.-The restoration of their just rights to the Aborigines will elevate all classes of the inhabitants, and put an end to the disorders on the Northern frontier.-Concluding Remarks on this subject.

THE remarks we have made in the preceding chapter upon the provisions which his Majesty's commissioners propose to be made for the religious instruction of the natives, are equally applicable to the suggestions contained in another passage now before us, with this difference, that it generalizes the principle on which we supposed their recommendation to have proceeded, and leads us to infer that they have recommended to the government at home, that the same civil rights should

be extended to the coloured population in every part of the colony. "However distant the hope may be of effecting the concentration of these scattered colonists, we cannot help urging the appointment of a person invested with magisterial authority; and by whose influence some change may be effected in their lawless habits, and some protection and encouragement afforded to the coloured races who have sought it, and are not unwilling to become permanent occupiers of land, or to settle in villages, and thence to enter into service for short periods."

Merely to change the barbarous name of a field-cornet into that of a justice of the peace, might be agreeable enough to the ear of an Englishman; but that might easily be done without effecting any change in the condition of the natives. All the care which could be employed to select men to fill such an office, (in that part of the country in which they would be called to reside,) who might be supposed to have less sympathy with the farmers than the local authorities now in those districts, will afford no security against oppression while the present system is allowed to remain.

From the personal intercourse I have had with his Majesty's Commissioners, and from the opinion I have formed of their characters and good feelings towards the coloured population, I feel confident that they would never have recommended that such a provision as has been mentioned should be made for the religious instruction of the natives, except on the supposition that their present chains would be broken, and that they would, in future, be allowed to choose for themselves the places at which they might desire to reside.

In the circumstances in which the natives are placed,

it must be evident to every one, who has paid attention to what has been said of them in these volumes, that such a recommendation, on any other principle than that which we have stated, would induce a suspicion as to the object of the Commissioners in framing it, which, I am happy to say, receives no countenance from their published reports, and is at perfect variance with all I have seen of them when I had the honour of their acquaintance at the Cape of Good Hope *.

As matters stood at the Cape some years ago, it was quite sufficient to exclude a man from office, and from all chance of preferment, if it was known that he did not sympathize with the farmers, and had any particular leaning toward the natives; and whatever change for the better may have since taken place in the administration of the Cape government, I believe it would be difficult to find one man in ten who would accept of such an appointment, who would not speedily learn to sympathize with the colonists in all their feelings, and become the apologist of all their measures.

While, in the following extracts, we are furnished with an illustration of the opinion we have advanced as to the small chance of any advantage to the natives which such an appointment might afford, it directs us to one of those evils in our colonial system, which has long tended to retard their improvement, and the improvement of the colony itself.

"In later periods, military officers, retired on the

* In speaking of his Majesty's Commissioners, I wish it to be understood that I speak of J. T. Bigge, Esq., and Major Colebrooke. W. Blair, Esq., whose name is also attached to several of the reports, did not arrive in the colony till I was on the eve of leaving it to return to England..