It is not intended here, of course, to trace, step by step the development of Native policy from the issue of the Instruction here quoted to the introduction of responsible government in 1893, and on to the establishment of the Union of South Africa. It will suffice, perhaps, to observe that the key-note thereof has, all along, been to govern these people in accordance with principles inherited from, and followed by, their race from time immemorial. It has been a cardinal feature of this policy "to make haste slowly," on the ground that a change, not spontaneously desired by the majority of the people, is detrimental to their interests. Moreover, it is productive of unrest if forced on by a government pledged to administer the affairs of its own race on lines radically and obviously different. Consequently, in the endeavour to maintain what every humane man will agree is a laudable practice, Natal, by steadily marking time in the interests of the people, and in order to fulfil what, after all, is the greatest function of government, viz. to endeavour to promote the happiness and contentment of all her subjects, has laid herself open to the charge of _doing nothing_. If what she has done for the Natives in the way of prohibiting cherished habits and customs of untold antiquity; abrogating laws of various kinds long familiar to the people; urging them to hasten to educate themselves and their children in accordance with European, that is, foreign standards; persuading them to forsake their own creeds to adopt one or other of the numerous forms of Christianity--if these be the only evidences of action, then it would seem Natal has not a great deal to advance. But, if there be other standards by which a government that presides over the destinies of a lower race may be judged, if any merit attach to a government which, while it does not actively repress legitimate aspirations, reasonably assists the people, whilst penalizing practices such as witchcraft, putting to death without trial and marrying off girls without their consent, and ordains "that there shall not be in the eye of the law any distinction or disqualification whatever, founded on mere distinction of colour, origin, language, or creed, but that the protection of the law, in letter and in substance, shall be extended impartially to all alike," also "that slavery in any shape or under any modification is absolutely unlawful"; if, we say, there be any merit in these things, then the policy of Natal in the past, if it appears to have been somewhat wanting in energy, has at least been friendly; if it has not caused the people to 'progress' with leaps and bounds, it has at least recognized that _natura non facit saltum_ is as true to-day as it was in the time of Aristotle, and as it will be ten thousand years hence; if it has not sought to impress the European character in all its complexity on a race fashioned in moulds vastly different to those