CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 498, 12 August 1857, Page 4

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

SIS GEOBGE GEEY'S SPEECH.

(From the Sydney Herald.)

The speech of Sir George Grey to the Cape Parliament almost vies in length with the inauguration address of an American President. It is evident the time is approaching when the chief of a state will become its historian, when his official addresses will be a record of all the changes and projects, the errors and passions, of the country subject to his control. It is gratifying to observe that the exports of the Cape have risen in two years from £666,000 to £1,240,000. The produce in wool is also doubled. During the last year to a revenue of £300,000. £87,000 has been added; and this not from fresh taxation, but solely from the increase of commerce. Sir George Grey purposes to employ the surplus in immigration, and partly in public works.- We are rather astonished to find that it is expected to construct 200 miles of railroad for less than a million and a quarter. This however, is an-estimate beforehand, and we all know what that is. The land, we presume, will cost nothing, and probably the engineering difficulties are few.

To persons at a distance the most interesting part of the Governor's speech is his narrative of the Kaffir war. At the close of the last war itappears that the Kaffirs received a sort of Constitution, which placed them under the control of their own chiefs. This was followed by a system of despotism, which induced the Kaffir people to cry to the British Government against their rulers, but they were pointed then to their Kaffir Constitution! This legalised the practice of the chiefs in every vice, and prostrated the people beneath their feet. The British Government found themselves in this dilemma —either they: must withdraw their power from the native chieftains, and thus violate the Constitution, or by giving to them their moral support become partners in their crimes. It appears that Sir George Grey resolved to terminate this subservience to regal savages, and for this this purpose he established European Magistrates in British Kaffraia, withdrew the administration of justice from the Kaffir chiefs, prevented their exacting fees and fines, and commuted their official income by a pension ? The effect of this change was the decline of, the authority of the chiefs, who, however, were resolved not to part with the seals. They formed a combination, and were sanctioned by the appearance of a prophet among them, whose^ oracles were inspired, by the paramquiit chief. I The African Dr. Cunimiugs revived ancient predictions, which promised to. the black race a good time coming, including the resurrection of their ancestors from the dead, and the extirpation of the whites! The prophet to make a clean sweep instructed the people to destroy all their property, excepting their horses, arms, and ammunition. They seem to have recommended the destruction of their crops and cattle for much the same reason that an ancient waixior exhorted his soldiers to burn their ships. Thus the profound policy which has excited the admiration of ages has its counterpart among savages! The chiefs were anxious to provoke the war that they might become the leaders of the people. But Sir George Grey states that he acted, in his civil capacity as if the war were unlikely and unexpected, and in his military office as if it were at hand. In his opinion, the policy of the Kaffir chiefs must change the habits of the people,—their cattle being destroyed they must have recourse to agriculture. All. the people have not fallen into the plans of their chiefs. Many were unwilling to destroy their cattle; thus the Kaffir nation was divided into two parts, the believers and unbelievers. Those attached to the Government and the missions preserved their property; but the followers of the prophet sacrificed, theirs. . The believers, however, saw famine approaching. It appears the prophet fixed the 18th February for the interposition of heaven, to come in the shape of a hurricane. The whites were to be swept from the earth, and cattle of improved breed were to rise from the ground. The ancestors of Kaffirs were to reapp ; a-, and, what was as much to the point, the present generation to be restored to youth and " endowed with beauty"—we presume with darker skins and whiter teeth, and wider nostrils. Meanwhile, the followers of the prophet killed thensurviving stock, and destroyed the remainder of their subsistance. To guard against the expected hurricane, they re-thatched their houses, and then shut themselves up, expecting the catastrophe.

The hurricane came not, nor the cattle, nor the resurrection. Former owners of immense herds had not a single head left. . The colony was invaded by these bands of starving mendicants ; of course great crimes were committed, and some of the chiefs had to earn bread by road-making, in the pay of the British. The unbelieving Kaffirs were in high prosperity, having both cattle and crops. The power of the chiefs is destroyed. The Kaffirs are hiring themselves as labourers to the whites, and a way is opened for the occupation of their country by new colonization.

Such are the facts we have extracted from the rather wordy narrative of the Governor of the Cape,—an example of that jumble of Christianity and heathenism which is not unfreguent among such tribes. The effect, however, is to place the natives of Kaffraria entirely in the power of the British. They are obliged to scat-

ter themselves to obtain subsistence. The better class betake themselves to labour, the more ruthless and ungovernable to robbery. Sir George Grey looks upon the consequence of this extraordinary superstition with hope, and believes that by dissolving the adverse influence of the chiefs and prophets, there is better prospect of introducing civilization among the Jiamr race. , . The Kaffirs as a people are by no means despicable. We recollect some years ago seeing a Kaffir chief connected with one of the missionary societies, whose form and countenance would have given him a high rank among the varieties of the human family. With the grace and ease of the savage chieftain he had acquired the tastes of civilization, and embraced with uncommon ardour the profession of Christianity. None but a people possessing great passions would have been the subjects of a cheat like that we have described so sublime in its promises, although to them so miserable in its effects. Sir George Grey has_ shown considerable administrative ability in the various colonies committed to his care, he has become quite an adept in the matters of savage life. At South Australia, among the blacks of their continent; at New_ Zealand, among a much higher, although originally a much fiercer race; and it may be hoped in his present position he may forward the civilization of those nations made known to us by the late discoveries of Livingston. The progress of the Cape colony is gratifying as one of the chief resting places between Australia and Europe. The" immense pastures of Southern Africa are now yielding a respectable export in our great staple, wool. There is an historical connection between this country and the Cape in pastoral pursuits. More than half a century ago when the sheep of this colony bore nothing but hair, a few European sheep from the flock of a settler at the Cape were brought by the Captain of a vessel, and being mixed with the Indian breed afforded the first clue to that enormous wealth which has drawn upon this country the eyes of all manufacturing nations.