| Rhodes | Cecil John | | | Of Groote Schuur, near Cape Town, came from a stock which records some two hundred years old state to have belonged to the yeoman class. The first of Mr Rhodes' ancestors who can be traced with any certainty was a man of some substance flourishing at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He acquired an estate in Bloomsbury, where he had considerable flocks. By the time Cecil Rhodes' grandfather appeared on the scene the family had already attained to a prosperous position. Samuel Rhodes, great-grandfather of the great Englishman whose death has left so serious a void, founded two county families in the persons of his sons Thomas and William. William Rhodes was succeeded in his estate by his son, the Reverend Francis William Rhodes, Vicar of Bishop's Stortford, Herts, and Cecil John Rhodes was born at the Vicarage on July 5, 1853, within a couple of years of the time when the Transvaal State was accorded its full independence under the Sand River Convention, and a few months after the British Govt, decided to abandon the sovereignty of the OFS For eight years he attended the Bishop's Stortford Grammar School, pursuing his studies with that diligence and dogged determination which was one of his most striking characteristics, and, in spite of some physical weakness, taking part in field sports. He left school at the end of 1869, and shortly afterwards developed a serious lung affection, which was responsible for Mr Rhodes taking a long sea trip to South Africa. On Sep 1, 1870, three years after the discovery of the first diamond, which led to the opening up of the Diamond Fields, in the subsequent exploitation of which he was destined to play such an important part, he landed at Durban, Natal, and joined his eldest brother Herbert, who was a cotton planter in the southern part of the Colony. Here, thanks to the favourable climatic influences, before many months had passed he was restored to health and vigour. Having tired of the prosaic life of cotton planting, the elder brother in 1871 went to the Diamond Fields, where he engaged in the more exciting occupation of diamond digging, and a few months later Cecil Rhodes journeyed to Kimberley for the purpose of seeking his fortune in the same industry. The brothers worked a claim between them for a time, when, in 1874, Herbert left the Diamond Fields on a hunting and exploring expedition in the interior, in the course of which he met with an untimely and terrible death, near the Shire River, through the burning of his hut during the night. Between the years 1873 and 1881 Mr Rhodes was very successful on the diamond diggings, and it was during that period that he laid the foundation of the great wealth he subsequently acquired and so liberally spent for the purpose of promoting and carrying out those schemes of Imperial expansion which have made his name a household word even to the most distant parts of the Empire. But Mr Rhodes was more than a diamond digger. With one eye on his work and the other on his books he managed to complete that education which had been begun at Bishop's Stortford, and from 1873 to 1881 he put in a portion of each year at Oriel College, Oxon, where he graduated BA and MA, and where he became acquainted with Mr Rochfort Maguire , who subsequently became associated with his political and commercial enterprises. At the same time he stored up that intimate knowledge of Colonial polities and foothold in South Africa—an ambition foreshadowing a possible German-Boer alliance—stirred the Colonial Office into activity. The Protectorate was authorised at the time when the London Convention of 1884 had been granted to the Transvaal, and mainly at the instance of Mr Rhodes; but it was almost too late. Mr Kruger boldly annexed Montsoia's country. The Imperial Government, however, refused to recognise this action, the boundaries of the Republic having been fixed by the new Convention, and demanded the withdrawal of the proclamation. To strengthen the demand Sir Charles Warren's troops were moved northwards, and Mr Kruger was immediately brought to his bearings. He came to Fourteen Streams to discuss matters with Sir Charles Warren and Mr Rhodes. Mr Rhodes' share in clearing the Boers out of Bechuanaland directed attention to his expansion scheme, and the ideas which influenced his conduct in this affair were set forth in one of his speeches at the time. He said, "Do you think that if the Transvaal had Bechuanaland it would be allowed to keep it? Would not Bismarck have some quarrel with the Transvaal, and without resources (financial collapse in Pretoria was then imminent), without men, what could they do? Germany would come across from her settlement at Angra Pequefia. There would be some excuse to pick a quarrel— some question of brandy, or guns, or something— and then Germany would stretch from Angra Pequena to Delagoa Bay. I was never more satisfied with my own views than when I saw the development of the policy of Germany. What was the bar in Germany's way? Bechuanaland. What was the use to her of a few sand heaps at Angra Pequefia? And what was the use of the arid deserts between Angra Pequena and the interior with this English and Colonial bar between her and the Transvaal? If we were to stop at Griqualand West, the ambitious objects of Germany would be attained." Bechuanaland was, in fact, the key to the question of British supremacy in South Africa, and Mr Kruger having been defeated in his endeavours to extend the borders of his Republic, and Germany's ambition for empire in Africa having been curtailed, the road was opened for the northern expansion, which had for years been Mr Rhodes' high ideal. In pursuing his policy he did not lose sight of the fact that he could only be successful by having the cooperation of the Dutch in Cape Colony, and by cultivating good political relations with the Transvaal; but although the Bond was all-powerful, he resolutely refused to work in subservience to it. He never for a moment turned aside from his plan of extending the Empire to the north, and of establishing a United South Africa under the British flag; but this could only be done by welding the two white races together, by sinking all differences, so that the native question might be dealt with independently of the friction between Dutch and British, and on uniform principles throughout the States of South Africa. The part Mr Rhodes played in check-mating Kruger's designs in Bechuanaland was his first conspicuous service to the Empire; it was the first of a long series of splendid successes in a direction which continued without intermission down to that date at the end of 1895, when his direct power for usefulness was checked by the fact that he associated himself with the movement for the relief of the Uitlanders, which resulted in failure. Mr Rhodes first attained Cabinet rank on March 20, 1884, when he joined Sir Thomas Scanlan's Ministry as Treasurer of the Cape Colony. This Cabinet, however, only lasted until May 12 of the same year. On July 17, 1890, he became Premier and Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works. He relinquished that portfolio on Sep 23, 1890, but retained the Premiership until May 3, 1898, when he formed his second Ministry without portfolio. This lasted until Jan 12, 1896, when the raid made his resignation necessary. The success which attended Mr Rhodes' efforts to bar the ambition of Mr Kruger to draw a cordon across the British advance to the northwards spurred him to continue in the path he had marked out for himself, and strengthened his resolve to keep open the road for the Empire. It was not only the Dutch he had to fear; Germany had shown that, given a favourable opportunity, she would swoop down upon Mashonaland and Matabeleland. At that time the mineral resources of these countries were not suspected. The desire of the ultra-Colonial party at Berlin to possess themselves of this territory was largely due to those ulterior motives Mr Rhodes so clearly foreshadowed in the speech already quoted. All the time he was bending his energies to acquire money he was thinking of the main purposes for which he desired it, and maturing his schemes for bringing those purp | Unknown |
