"The present system of Cetywayo is no real choice of the nation. It is simply a reign of terror, such as has before now been imposed on some of the most civilized nations of the world. The people themselves are everything that could be desired as the unimproved material of a very fine race. They seem to have all the capacities for forming a really happy and civilized community, where law, order, and right shall prevail, instead of the present despotism of a ruthless savage. [Sidenote: _Three courses before us._] "I can imagine but three ways of their being so improved:— "1st. They might, living alongside a civilized community, gradually imbibe civilized ideas and habits. "But for this it is necessary that their civilized neighbours should be able to live in security, which, as I have already said, seems to me hopeless, unless the military organization and power of Cetywayo be broken down. "2nd. There are the means of improvement which may follow conquest and the breaking down of Cetywayo's military system; and this seems to me the only reasonable mode of doing our duty by these people. In the cases of Abyssinia and Ashantee we were compelled by circumstances to retire after conquest, and wash our hands of all further responsibility for the future of those countries; but there is no such necessity in the case of Zululand—there is nothing to prevent our taking up and easily carrying the burden of the duty laid upon us to protect and civilize it. "There is yet a third plan, which I have seen advocated by high authority. "The Zulus are, it is truly said, a nation of fine national characteristics. They have qualities which might enable them to become the regenerators and the foremost in civilization of all the nations in South Africa. "So far I can agree with those who hold the opinions I refer to, but not in their further belief that Cetywayo is the Attila of the Zulus, and that if we only let him alone he will develop into a Charlemagne or an Alfred. "How far this process might be rendered tolerable to the present civilized inhabitants of Natal and the Transvaal, I will not stop to inquire. It is quite possible that Zulus, overrunning their now civilized neighbours, might in due time imbibe some of their civilization, settle down, and become civilized themselves, absorbing through their captives and subjects the germs of a better system of national existence. "I may doubt the probability of such a result, but I will not contest its possibility, and will only say that I am quite sure the countrymen of the present settlers in Natal and the Transvaal will never leave the colonists there to be made the subjects of any such experiment. "I can, as I started by saying, see no alternative compatible with our duty but effectually to subdue the Zulus, and govern them as other South African races subject to the British Crown are governed.