DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Lord Milner's Work in South Africa" (From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902) by W. Basil Worsfold. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

DOWNING STREET AND THE MAN ON THE SPOT The failure of British administration in South Africa during the nineteenth century forms a blemish upon the record of the Victorian era that is at first sight difficult to understand. If success could be won in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in India and in Egypt, why failure in South Africa? For failure it was. A century of wars, missionary effort, British expansion, industrial development, of lofty administrative ideals and great men sacrificed, had left the two European races with political ambitions so antagonistic, and social differences so bitter, that nothing less than the combined military resources of the colonies and the mother-country sufficed to compel the Dutch to recognise the British principle of "equal rights for all white men south of the Zambesi." Among the many contributory causes of failure that can be distinguished, the two most prominent are the nationality difficulty and the native question. But these are problems of administration that have been solved elsewhere: the former in Canada and the latter in India. Or, to turn to agencies of a different order, is the cause of failure to be found in a grudging nature-the existence of physical conditions that made it difficult for the white man, or for the white and coloured man together, to wring a livelihood from the soil? The answer is that the like material disadvantages have been conquered in Australia, India, and in Egypt, by Anglo-Saxon energy. We might apply the Socratic method throughout, traversing the entire range of our distinguishable causes; but in every case the inquiry would reveal success in some other portion of the Anglo-Saxon domain to darken failure in South Africa.

Excerpt from Lord Milner and South Africa A word of introduction is due from me with regard to the scope of this work and its relation to the title it bears. When this volume was first announced to the public the provisional title I adopted was Lord Milner and His Work.' Though there has been no departure from the original plan which I designed, it has seemed better for several reasons to modify the description. In the first place, I found that there was a widespread expectation amongst Lord Milner's friends and my own that I proposed to write a biography of the High Commissioner. A remonstrance soon reached me from a very distinguished friend Of Lord Milner's with whom I have the honour Of some slight acquaintance, in which the writer expressed his astonishment that I, 'with my Old fashioned Tory principles, ' should contemplate such a latter day vulgarity as that Of writing the biography of a man still living whose work was still unaccomplished, or, even worse, that I should meditate the grosser offence Of pen-and-inking a laboured appreciation or character-sketch Of a friend. I was able to reassure my correspondent by the sincere avowal that he could not detest more than myself the new-fangled fashion of contemporary eulogy or censure. In this connec tion I may be allowed to say that there will be found in these pages no panegyric of my own which exceeds the limits of approbation one man may express to another in his presence without shuddering himself or causing his unhappy victim to Shudder; nor has the Object of my labours been. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.