of her Ministers has reason to remember, is capable of expressing her convictions with emphasis and pungency. On the present occasion Lord Derby had a very stiff time of it. Her Majesty protested against the dismissal of a Governor whose sole offence was his loyalty to the Empire. It was a monstrous and unprecedented thing that a representative of the Crown who had succeeded in accomplishing everything given him to do should be cashiered because he proposed to do more than any one had believed to be possible. What the Queen actually said is not on record. But Mr. Greville's account of what Lord Derby told him when the long interview was over gives us a sufficient hint as to the nature of the Queen's remonstrances. "The great services which Sir George had rendered, especially in the late trying crisis in Imperial affairs,

had disposed her strongly in his favour, and it was with feelings of repugnance that she contemplated his removal" Sir George Grey in his final despatch probably expressed much the same thing as was uttered by the Queen when he wrote: "If Her Majesty's possessions and Her Majesty's subjects are saved from threatening dangers, and Ministers gratefully acknowledge this, whilst the Empire receives no hurt, is it a fitting return that the only reward he should receive should be the highest punishment which it is in the power of Her Majesty's Ministers to inflict?"

Lord Derby, however, was obdurate. Ministers in full Cabinet had decided Sir George must go, and he must insist. Of course when a Minister insists the Sovereign has no alternative but to submit if she is not prepared to receive his resignation. Sorely against her will, and vigorously expressing her repugnance to the unjust act,

Her Majesty gave way. But as Lord Derby travelled back to town he was gloomy and reserved. When they parted at the station Lord Derby said, "I am afraid that we have done a bad thing to-day in recalling Sir George Grey from the Cape." Bad day's work it was; but Downing Street, exultant, lost no time in recalling Sir George, in order, as it was expressly declared, that they might more effectually retrace the steps which he had taken towards federation.

When the news of the summary dismissal of Sir George became known in the Colony which he had governed with such brilliant success for five years, "the tidings staggered and excited the country from one end to the other." Blacks and whites, English and Dutch, alike bewailed the arbitrary removal of the ablest Governor the

Colony had ever seen. Petitions were signed everywhere praying for his restoration. The petition of the Fingoes to the Great Queen Victoria declared :

"To day our hearts weep; they are dead because of this. We say, Has our Queen forsaken us or not? Having deprived us of our father, we are now orphans indeed.' No, our Great Queen, don't throw us away. Regard our prayer and send back our chief, that he may again come and live with us, and comfort us by taking away our crying."

The same kind of thing was said, in more restrained English fashion, by every one in the Colony. But the despatch of the Colonial Office was decisive. Sir George Grey broke up his establishment and sailed for England.

And then it was that a strange thing happened. For even while Sir George Grey was penning his final despatch on July 30th, 1859, the whole scene had changed. Lord Derby's Government, defeated in the Commons, had ceased to exist. After much consultation and intriguing, Lord Palmerston was installed as Prime Minister The Colonial Office was entrusted to the Duke of Newcastle. Then it was that Her

Majesty, seeing her opportunity, seized it with right hearty goodwill. When the Duke received the seals of office the Queen urged him at once to cancel the orders issued by his predecessor for the recall of Sir George Grey. The Queen was urgent and insistent. The Duke was personally favourable to Sir George, whom he had originally appointed Governor. Hence it was his first official act to write to Cape Town, August 5th, re-appointing Sir George Grey to the Governorship.

Sir George, however, was by this time on the sea. It was not until he reached England that he heard the news of his re-appointment. It was later still that he had the supreme gratification of hearing that this act was due to the direct personal intervention of Her Majesty. Not in vain had the poor Fingoes expressed their confidence in "our great Queen Victoria." Even before their petition reached her hands she had anticipated their wish and restored to South Africa the Governor of the Queen.

Now Sir George Grey was re-appointed, but not even the utmost influence of the Queen and the Prince Consort could induce the hidebound Little Englanders of that day to permit him to crown his good work in South Africa by achieving the Federation for which we are now praying in vain. To all his representations the Cabinet was obdurate; the condition of his re-appointment was the abandonment of the cause of Federation. Only the Queen was for it. Oh, if Her Majesty could but have had her way! Alas! it was forbidden, and through a long and dolorous way we have had to tread as the result of the popular folly of those days.

There is no question as to the attitude of the Queen in this case, for all the facts are on record. Who can say how many blunders she may have averted of which the world hears nothing, and will hear nothing? It was the greatest of chances that we ever heard of this. Sir George Grey, being now an old and privileged person, has told the story himself. Even if exception may be taken to it in detail, there is no question as to the substantial accuracy of the leading features of this remarkable narrative. The broad facts are these. Downing Street, representing the officials and politicians chosen by the vote of the people, did all that could be done to hamper and at last to cashier one of the ablest and most brilliant Colonial Governors, in order that it might be free to fling away our Imperial heritage in South Africa. But while Downing Street was playing this game of treason to the Empire, the Monarch was counteracting, so far as personal influence could go, the fatal policy of disruption and dismemberment. It was her praise which sustained the daring pro-consul in his administration of peaceful union, and it was her will, emphatically expressed at the fortunate moment, that succeeded in reversing the decision of the Colonial Office and in reappointing in August a Colonial Governor cashiered in July. History, with this narrative before it, will not have much difficulty in deciding whether it was the Sovereign, or the politicians elected by the constituencies, who deserved best of the Empire.

When Sir George Grey came to London, he had ample opportunity of learning who had been the friends of the Empire and who its foes from the personages themselves. Mr. Rees says:

"Sir George Grey was received with great cordiality and kindness both by the Queen and Prince Albert. The Prince informed him of Her Majesty's approval of the measures taken by him, and the policy of confederation which he had pursued, expressing without hesitation her opinion that the plans proposed were beneficent, worthy of a great ruler, honourable to herself, and advantageous to her people.

Before his departure to resume the duties of his Governorship, Sir George had opportunities of seeing and conversing with the Prince Consort. In Albert the Good he found an earnest sympathy both with the colonies and colonists, and he was beyond measure pleased to be told by the Prince that, in his opinion, if a nation ceased to take a real interest in every part of its dominions, and to do all the good it could on the outskirts of its power, it would be like a tree which had ceased to grow-the time of decay would have commenced. He perfectly agreed with Sir George's views as to opening up new country. He said that he and the Queen had read all that Sir George had written on the subject, and that it was greatly to the Queen's regret that she had been led to consent to his recall, and that she had done much to get that decision reversed."

Sir George Grey himself, speaking at Sydney in New South Wales in 1891, gave on his own personal authority further and more important detail as to the sentiment o

the Queen :

"When I was a representative of the Queen in Africa, I had arranged a federation of the different States there, all having agreed to come into it except one; but the plan was regarded with disfavour both by the Ministry and the Opposition of the day in Engalnd, and the consequence was that I was summarily dismissed. One person in the Empire held that I was right in the action taken, and that person was the Queen. Upon her representation I was reinstated. Her Majesty, together with the Prince Consort, held that it was necessary to preserve to the Empire an opening for the poor and the adventurous, and experience had shown that the Queen better represented the feelings of the British people on that question than did the Ministers of the day. The Queen held, rightly, that the energies of the British race should spread the Empire as instinct moved them, so long as no wrong was done to other people."

George Grey. I need
Suffice it to say that

But this is a study of the Queen, not a Character Sketch of Sir not pursue further the story of his unique and romantic career. South Africa rose enthusiastically to welcome him back, and the Chief Moroka expressed the sentiments of all in tendering his "warmest thanks to Her Majesty Queen Victoria for being an eye to the blind in sending" back Sir George Grey to the Cape. "An eye to the blind" she had been indeed, but not even that Royal Eye could make Downing Street perceive the advantages of Federation.

As if still further to emphasise the Royal favour, Prince Alfred was sent to make a tour through South Africa. He was hailed everywhere with enthusiasm. The chants of welcome raised by the Kaffirs declared, "We have seen the child of heaven! We have seen the son of our Queen!" The Chief Sandilli and his councillors were invited to visit the Euryalus, where at sunrise they found Prince Alfred swabbing down the deck barefooted. They watched with amazement, and then retiring they dictated an address to the captain. The closing passages may well be quoted here:

Up to this time we had not ceased to be amazed at the wonderful things we have witnessed, and which are beyond our comprehension. But one thing we understand, the reason of England's greatness, when the son of her great Queen becomes subject to a subject that he may learn wisdom; when the sons of England's chiefs and nobles leave the homes and wealth of their fathers, and with their young Prince endure hardships and sufferings in order that they may be wise, and become a defence to their country. When we behold these things, we see why the English are a great and mighty nation.

"What we have now learnt shall be transmitted to our wondering countrymen, and handed down to our children, who will be wiser than their fathers, and your mighty Queen shall be their sovereign and ours in all time coming."

VII.--WHY THE EMPIRE SURVIVES.

No generalisations, however eloquent, could convey so vividly as the story of Sir George Grey's relations to the Queen and the Colonial Office the value of the Monarch to the Empire over which she reigns. No one can pretend that the Queen strayed a hair's breadth from her constitutional duty in the support which she extended to the brave and patriotic statesmen who saved South Africa and who did not a little to save India. The Queen gave him a pocket chronometer with an inscription after Prince Alfred left the Colony, and sent him a letter in which his Sovereign thanked her subject in words that are more precious than the Order of the Garter. The Queen, after thanking Sir George for his kindness to her child, went on to say:

She trusts that the effect produced on the nation and people in general will be as lasting and beneficial as it must have been on Prince Alfred to have witnessed the manner in which Sir George Grey devotes his whole time and energy to promote the happiness and welfare of his fellow-creatures.'

For a tenth part of such a tribute the bravest knights of Elizabeth would have flung their lives away. The praises of Victoria are not less sweet, nor is their recipient less to be envied than those who sunned themselves in the favour of Good Queen Bess. But there was nothing here that conflicted with the loyal abiding by the counsels of her Ministers. Blind leaders of the blind those Ministers were, and that she knew

right well before they floundered into the ditch of Majuba Hill. But suppressing herself, she acquiesced, as in constitutional duty bound, in their foolish way. Only where it was well within her right, when opportunity offered, she cheered with gracious and sympathetic words those who were fighting the good fight for England and the Empire.

When we contemplate the spectacle offered of that steady and silent ministry of grace, of succour, and of strong consolation to the Knights of St. George, we cease to

(From an engraving by F. C. Lewis after F. Winterhalter.)

marvel at the inspiration that sustained them amidst merciless official discouragement. They fought, they strove, they conquered because they knew that their Sovereign Lady the Queen knew and appreciated the loyalty with which they served the country. Ministers too often represented nothing but a faction. The Queen was the personification of the genius of England.

In "Pilgrim's Progress" few episodes are more familiar than that which describes the secret of the fire that could not be extinguished: