First and foremost of all English leaders in South Africa, and ranking higher in practical power and developed policy than any British Governor or ruler in its history, is Mr. Cecil John Rhodes. He has been in the Parliament of Cape Colony since 1880, and was for a short time, in 1884, Treasurer in the Scanlen Ministry. He held no other official post until he became Chairman of the British South Africa Company in 1889, and Premier of the Colony in 1890. Of the other Prime Ministers of the Cape Sir Thomas Upington was a clever Irish Roman Catholic lawyer, a brilliant speaker and strong Imperialist, who became Attorney-General in 1878, after he had only been a couple of years in the Colony. Six years later he was Premier. Sir John Gordon Sprigg is an Englishman by birth and a politician of acknowledged personal probity. He is, however, described by a well-known writer on Colonial affairs[3] as a political opportunist who has changed his opinions upon various subjects, and who generally believes in being in accord with the majority wherever an opening may occur. This opinion arises somewhat from the fact that his policy of recent years has been in accord with that of Rhodes--up to 1895--and was very conciliatory toward the Dutch majority, while his own views were known to be strongly British. [Sidenote: Sir James Sivewright] Sir James Sivewright has not been Premier of the Colony, but was the pioneer head and front of its telegraph system--a native of Scotland and a graduate of Aberdeen--and was a member of the first Rhodes Ministry and the third Sprigg Ministry. One other politician must be mentioned--the Hon. John Xavier Merriman. A native of England, a son of Bishop Merriman of Grahamstown, a graduate of Oxford, and an early Tory and loyalist of strong views and enthusiastic adherence to Rhodes; he has developed into a Radical and a follower of Schreiner and the Afrikander Bund. It has been a remarkable change, presents a curious combination of racial inconsistencies, and has made him intensely unpopular amongst the Progressive, or Rhodes' party of recent years, as well as amongst the English element of the troubled present. He has been a member of the Scanlen Ministry, the first Rhodes Ministry, and belongs to the present Schreiner Government. [3] _Problems of Greater Britain_. By Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bart., M.P. London, 1890. [Sidenote: The Parties of To-day]