Show r 5 THE DEATH OF CECIL RHODES For some days past the announcc men ot the death of Cecil Rhodes has been expected that announcement has now come Ills the event of the year In South Africa where It will have an effect that will make for peaCe it Is likely to influence In his death what he so strenuously fought for in his life He was the great opponent of Paul Kruger The latter contended for an Isolated oligarchy for the Boers unyielding un-yielding defiant and bitterly antlBri tlsh Rhodes stood for Imperial Britain Bri-tain and the dominion of the empire throughout South Africa Indeed his magnificent Idea was for an Imperial establishment that should at the same time be a federation for local autonomy but for an Imperial rule It Is said that he thought the first great step was homerule for Ireland and to that cause he contrlbuated 10000 In 1SSS to the Parnell fund With the principle prin-ciple of homerule conceded for Ireland j I Ire-land ho hoped to have the same Idea extended to other portions of the British I Bri-tish possessions each unit to have a certain representation in a great Imperial Im-perial Parliament to be formed which should leave local matters alone everywhere every-where and legislate only for the general gen-eral Interests of the Empire as such With him South AfrIca was to forman form-an Important link in the great chain of commonwealths that linked together to-gether were to encircle the globe To the end ofmaklncr South Africa thoroughly thor-oughly British he devoted his energies ener-gies his magnificent fortune and the resources of the mighty companies with which he was connected It Is a wonderful won-derful tribute to the magnetic force oC the man that he was able to win the consent of DeBeers and the other diamond dia-mond kings to tho use of their substance sub-stance In the forwarding of these Wide reaching chemes He had the complete com-plete confidence of these men Indeed hew S the king among them and his wealth rivaled theirs It t was his brain that conceived grand project of combining tho different diamond ml nlng companles In one great company and it was his magnetic personality and trgmpndous energy that brought the neCcsztpItalto Interest Itself It-self and Dubln > the money From that moment His fortune became one of the great ones of the parth He quickly quick-ly 1 began to take an interest and a guiding l hand In politics ho was known as a consolldatlonlst he held that South Africa must be wholly British that no opposing rule must stand In the way He made what was held by the whites to be shameful peace With the Matcbcles but time has shown that he was right he tore stalled Kruger In Mashonaland and shut him out from the north by theor ganization ior Rhodesia His greal mistake was his encouragement of the Jameson raid but for his connection with that he would have stood better both in London and In South Africa and the energies of himself and his associates i together with the unfettered unfet-tered power of the British Government Govern-ment could have warded oft the Boer war or at least have made It of com paiatlvely trilling Importance It Is a signal illustration of the tremendous consequences of a single falsa Htcp But ae time passes he will become a heroic figure In the beginning of South Africa as the prime embodiment of the grand Idea l of unity and the power to bc derived from It that will In time make of South Africa one of the great commonwealths the world In that day Cecil Rhodosa work will be recog nised as that of a magnlficent mindfully mind-fully exercised to the one brilliant purpose pur-pose of founding the baals on which a great people will have been organized to play a great purl among the nations |