South Africa and the Boer-British War, Volume I: Comprising a History of South Africa and its people, including the war of 1899 and 1900Halstead, Murat
History
South Africa and the Boer-British War, Volume I: Comprising a History of South Africa and its people, including the war of 1899 and 1900
Halstead, Murat
South African War, 1899-1902
"beneficent, worthy of a great ruler, honorable to himself and
advantageous to her people." Speaking at Sydney, New South Wales, in
1891, Sir George Grey referred to this matter, and declared that "one
person in the Empire held that I was right, and that person was the
Queen."
[Sidenote: Advancement During Grey's Governorship]
Back he went to South Africa amid general rejoicings at the Cape, but
with the refusal of the new Government at home to take any steps
whatever in the direction of federation. But, as if to expressly mark
the Queen's sympathy with Grey's Imperial ideas, Prince Alfred was sent
out in 1860 to make a tour of South Africa, and to evoke, as he did,
the same sentiments of loyalty as were aroused by the visit of the
Prince of Wales to Canada at about the same time. Cape Colony, Natal
and the Orange Free State were visited with due ceremony by the
Governor and the Prince, and at Bloemfontein one of the arches of
welcome contained the significant motto: "Loyal, though discarded."
During the succeeding year Sir George Grey finally left the Cape to
take up the Governorship of New Zealand, at a critical period in its
troubles with the Maoris, and at a time when the Duke of Newcastle,
Colonial Secretary, had given him to understand that the
Governor-Generalship of Canada and ultimately of India were open to him
after leaving South Africa. But duty seemed to require him in New
Zealand, and thither he went to live for years as Governor, for other
years as Prime Minister, and for a still longer period as a private
citizen. During the eight years in which he had ruled Cape Colony he
had inaugurated representative institutions and established schools,
libraries, hospitals, public works, roads and railways. The Cape Town
and Wellington Railway, the first line in the Colony, was his
enterprise. The great ostrich-farming industry of the future was
started by him. Above all, he won the affection and respect of the
most varied types of native races, and the after voluntary submission
of Moshesh, the Basuto, to British authority may be largely traced to
the friendly feeling inspired by a visit which Grey paid to the rocky
heights of Thaba Bosigo. In his greatest aim he had failed, and in
later days he became eccentric and erratic in his views; but none the
less does South Africa owe much to the life and memory of Sir George
Grey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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