themselves to requests for more land and education, and, in response to questions, almost invariably insisting that they are content to leave their affairs confidently in the hands of Government.
The educated leaders, on the other hand, converse freely, their views as a rule taking the shape most favourable to the small class in which their education has placed them. They advocate an open franchise for all, free and compulsory education, abolition of the tribal system, which is regarded as retrogressive, and, generally speaking, their aim is equality with the white race. They cannot be said to represent the masses whose ranks they have left. They stand in a grade by themselves, needing all the help and encouragement possible to enable them to live up to the standard they have reached. They are the object of most undeserving attacks from many who dislike to see a native cleanly and well attired, and are compelled to a persistent struggle to maintain the respectable position they have made for themselves and are entitled to.
Their loudest and most emphatic complaints are directed against the restrictions imposed upon their fellows of similar standing everywhere, except in the Cape Colony, where they experience singular privileges, such as the franchise and absolute freedom to purchase and occupy land. These complaints are not unnatural, and are the outpourings of men who have been roused to mental culture and better habits.
Regarded from a general standpoint, the mass of South African natives can only be described as still far backward. They have, it is true, come on a little in late years as education has spread, and they have acquired tastes which necessitated their going out to labour under European direction. Contact with civilization has given them new ideas, which are gradually finding their way into kraal life. The same contact has brought them into touch with the lower order of Europeans, and led to the acquisition of refined vices. Regrettable though this be, it was inseparable from the
