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the man.

That word "obey" is a mistake, and should be expunged from the marriage service. The more harmony there is in ideas and in feeling, between a man and a woman, whom law has tied together for life, the better. But let that harmony in future be produced by love, forbearance, mutual concession, and above all, by agreeing to differ on points where early training, or inherent mental bias, renders all hope of agreement in thought impossible. If this were the basis upon which the relationship between the sexes rested, we should have less unhappy marriages, less unhappy men and women, and a happier world. To accomplish this, women must fight, and men must help them.

The spectacle of the wholesale enslavement of the black women of Natal cannot but make one wish that female suffrage were in vogue, at least in that colony, for had women a hand in making the laws, I feel sure that they would sympathise with their black sisterhood, and compel the legislature to free the Kaffir females from the trammels in which they are at present bound, hand and foot. My confidence on this point is inspired by the fact that it is Zulu women who are in bondage, not Englishwomen. One of the worst outgrowths of the unhappy inequality between men and women in civilised countries, is the unnatural want of sympathy between woman and woman which it breeds. If women were more independent of men they would not be put so much into competition, the one against the other, and less jealousy and insincerity would subsist between them. One of the grandest men of our day-George R. Sims, states the case thus—

"Here suffering finds a ready friend to answer its appeal ;
Here every woman has a heart for women's woe to feel;

Here people meet to guard the rights of nigger and of Turk,
Here shop girls slave twelve hours a day, and die from over-work."

Anyhow, the removal of the disgraceful crime of polygamy in
Natal is urgently called for.

CHAPTER LVI.

THE MISSIONARIES.

"AS TRUE AS THE GOSPEL-AS FALSE AS MANKIND."

'Free to meet and mingle-to rise by our individual worth, without any consideration of caste or colour."-Harriet Beecher Stowe.

"Wherever that dusky youth was, he sought comfort in the society of females. Their fair and tender bosoms knew how to feel pity for the poor African, and the darkness of Gumbo's complexion was no more repulsive to them than Othello's to Desdemona. I believe Europe has never been so squeamish in regard to Africa, as a certain other respected Quarter. Nay, some Africans-witness the Chevalier de St. Georges, for instance-have been notorious favourites with the fair sex."— "The Virginians"-W. M. Thackeray.

ANOTHER important factor in the native question, is that of the dealings of the missionaries with the natives. For the missionaries as a body, I have the greatest respect, and the warmest regard for their self-denying labours, their earnest zeal in a cause which, with all its drawbacks, must ever be a good one. That some missionaries are self-seekers, who use the gospel as a cloak, under which they can not only carry on more successfully a system of imposition and spoliation, but also lead lives of utter immorality, and debasing sensuality, I know to be too true. The scandals connected with the Moravian Station at Caledon are alone sufficient to prove this. But these are the exceptions which go to prove the rule, and I have no sympathy with the vulgar cant which would stigmatise the missionaries as being a set of designing humbugs, who grow fat abroad on the funds subscribed for evangelical purposes, by the devout at home.

Moreover, the much maligned missionaries, and the much maligned Boers, have been the pioneers of civilisation in South

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Africa, and all honour is due to the one set of men as to the other, on this score alone.

The dealings of the Boers with the natives differ from the dealings of the missionaries in this, that while the policy adopted by the former is far too practical, and far too much an embodiment of the law of expediency, that adopted by the latter is far too unpractical, and based too often upon theories rather than upon common-sense. The missionaries, as a rule, are eminently irrational men. Their enthusiasm for a cause carries them vehemently along paths which culminate in dangerous precipices. In justification for their peculiar methods of dealing with the Kaffirs, they point to scriptural injunctions. Strange to say, the Boers do precisely the same. The extreme measures of coercion and cruelty upon which the Boers act, they regard as being the duty of the Christian towards the heathen, in the land which he has gone in unto to possess it. The missionaries base the doctrines which they preach of equality, on the well-worn biblical texts, that God is no respector of persons, and that all men are equal in the sight of the Almighty.

The god-fearing, just, principled, and at the same time practical colonist, would desire to steer a middle course between these two extremes. The colonial clergy in many instances endorse this position. The fact remains, however, and a very significant fact it is, that the colonist will always prefer a raw Kaffir to a so-called Christianised native. The Christian Kaffir is too often not only an impudent, and immoral, but also an indolent, disaffected, and even dangerous fellow. He robs, drinks, lies, and swears, none of which faults are to be found in those of his brothers or cousins, who are raw Kaffirs. There can be no doubt that the Kaffir in his state of pristine ignorance is a purer, better, and in every way more moral man, than he afterwards becomes under European influence, missionary or otherwise. The sober truth is, that the colonists view the professing Christian Kaffir with very careful eyes. It is a sorry thing to say, but it is too true.

Ask a colonist-"Are the Kaffirs honest?" "Yes," he will reply, "until they come under the ban of the missionary, and

then they are the blackest villains going." There is manifest unfairness and injustice here, for the fact is clear, that the contact with civilisation makes the Kaffirs dishonest. It is not all the fault of the missionaries, although I fear that habits of indolence and insubordination among the natives are by no means mitigated by the teaching of the missionaries. Despite the Peace Society and the Aborigines Protection Society, I have the authority of seventy colonial clergymen, for saying that our principles of forbearance and indulgence in dealing with the Kaffirs are evident failures. They interpret both qualities as significations of fear. The Cape war of 1847 proved how treacherous and untrustworthy is the Kaffir character. All attempts to ensure the fidelity of Ugqika were useless. It is our duty to educate the Kaffir in a measure, but we must exercise tact and discretion in this matter, and be careful not to move too quickly. We must not cast pearls before swine, nor waste our energies in futile efforts to civilise heathendom, and awaken to find we have done more harm than good. Energetic philanthropists, with more zeal than common-sense, often have to sorrowfully confess that the foregoing has been the result of their labours.

It ought not to be forgotten that our very presence among the heathen is in itself a medium by which countless benefits are bestowed upon them. And yet it seems to be considered that it is incumbent upon us to force them up to our level nolens volens. Many persons who expect Englishmen to act thus, are leaving thousands of their own flesh and blood in disgrace, ignorance, and misery, at home. Much of the generous self-denying labour bestowed upon the African would be far more usefully expended, if directed to relieving and elevating home savages. I believe that the most illiterate Englishman, the most debased inhabitant of the midland counties, is capable of being reformed in ten years, and brought up to a very much higher standard of excellence than would result as the product of many generations of Kaffir culture.*

* This view was insisted upon at some length in a paper which it was my privilege to read, before the Liberal Social Union, at the rooms of the Society of British Artists, Pall Mall, on October 26, 1882, entitled "The Dangerous Classes". In

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Sir Samuel Baker, in speaking of the negro, uses words that are in a measure applicable to the Kaffir. "His mind promises in fruit, but does not ripen; while his body grows, he does not advance in intellect. The puppy three months old is superior in intellect to a child of the same age; but the mind of the child expands, while that of the dog has reached its limit."

Of course there are exceptions to this axiom. Several Kaffirs, notably the late Tyiosoga, have become not only intelligent and accomplished, but also polished gentlemen. But in every instance these surprising specimens have died young, proving, seemingly, that the brain is overstrained, and the body is too weak to stand the stress. And, for argument's sake, shall we admit the possibility of their ultimate culture? Note the results. The Kaffirs of the Tyiosoga type, supposing them to become very numerous, would be ambitious to enter into union with women of English descent. The age is far too mercenary, I fear, to allow us to believe that no Saxon girls saving those of no position would contract alliances with Kaffirs. It may seem to us that none but derelicts would disgrace themselves by bonds of this nature, but we know to the contrary. Tyiosoga's wife was the beautiful and gifted daughter of a Scotch divine. Now, apart from all so-called sentimental prejudices anent this matter, and supposing we could dismiss from our minds all dignity of feeling and self-respect, still we have the opinion of all psychological and physiological anthropologists to tell us that such "crosses" result in degeneration. However well some European nations may amalgamate, a close community between the black and white races has never been fraught with good results. What did Lord Carnarvon say the other day? "The creation of a black colony means decrepitude and slow decay." What is the use of endeavouring to equalise inequalities? It is absurd to start on the basis of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity". To teach such doctrines and princi

this essay I endeavoured to lay bare the many ill effects which are resulting from the terrible condition of the residuum classes of society. I am glad to find that the more potent efforts in the same direction of such men as George R. Sims, Sir Richard Cross, and Lord Salisbury are at length bearing fruit. But I still believe, as I then said, that State-aided emigration on a scientific basis is the only satisfactory cure for the evil.