The Romance of a Pro-Consul: Being the Personal Life and Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B.Milne, James
History
The Romance of a Pro-Consul: Being the Personal Life and Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B.
Milne, James
Grey, George, Sir, 1812-1898
Taught by bitter experience at home, Anglo-Saxons struck out fresh lines,
in the fresh lands where, thanks to the discoveries of adventurous
rovers, they could find asylum. The humanities in them got scope; they
carried tolerance and liberty ever with them. Take the Puritans who
founded New England! Was there ever such a noble band? Again, take the
Quakers or the English and Irish Roman Catholics! In some cases, when
there was persecution on the Continent of Europe, these British emigrants
attracted to them what was persecuted. South Africa was founded in
oppression, independently of us as it happened, since the forefathers of
the Boers were largely French Huguenots.
It was not enough, that the Anglo-Saxon should rush from starvation and
persecution, to a freer home across the seas. No sooner had he found it,
than the old oppression might again be clanking its chains at his heels.
The stern Mother more than once stretched out her hand to coerce her
freer children, forcing them ever to take new ground, and be, so to
speak, clear of her clutches. The instance of America occurred during
this second stage in the weft and woof of tribulation which was at the
root of our growth. The same with the Boers of South Africa, who, by
harsh regulations, were forced inland, thus opening up new territory. It
had all worked with the precision and force of a Nasmyth hammer.
Naturally, a time would arrive when the liberty and freedom of the Saxon,
gone over sea, should react upon the Old World. Sir George held it proven
that the inspiration of the New World had, in real measure, been the
emancipation of the Old. Very many of the inventions of the nineteenth
century, which were the threads of modern progress, were to have their
origin in the New World. She would heap coals of fire on the head of the
Old.
How, to help this girdling of the whole world with beneficent influences,
through the medium of the Anglo-Saxon? Sir George turned him on his Mount
Pisgah, first in New Zealand, later in South Africa. He had been looking
at the scored, furrowed, violent past. It had worked out its meaning, nor
was there doubt as to the bearing of that message upon the future.
At Pisgah's highest peak the sun shone, only there were mists, which it
did not pierce, in the valleys below. Just, it caught one wisp of the
vapour, and twirled it about in the wind. The errant thing flung into a
sign--Federation of the English-speaking People; and was gone.
Sir George Grey dipped for a Grand Pacific Isles Protectorate, and a red
noose from Downing Street strangled it. He dipped for a Federated South
Africa, and the red noose caught himself. That is, he was recalled from
his Cape Governor-ship on account of his projects. Ah, that he had been
permitted to go on with them! All the gold of the Randt would not have
weighed in the scales like that.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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