Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/297

 1920 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 289 the difference between discontent and acquiescence. Exorbitant and confusing rates and a bad system of collection caused constant trouble in the former, whereas, in the latter, a considerable revenue was raised with little opposition. Of North Carolina, assuredly not the abode of a law-abiding community, we are told : ' In spite of the discord that was stirred up by the many mistakes of royal policy, the people of North Carolina made no protest during the colonial period against the principle of paying a quit-rent, but accepted this feudal due as a customary charge.' Nor was the case different in South Carolina. It is rash to differ from Mr. Andrews ; but, when he says that the quit-rent ' had probably more actual influence in bringing about independence than had some of the widely heralded political and constitutional doctrines of the pre-revolu- tionary period ', we can only say that the evidence here collected hardly seems to justify this statement. Be this as it may, the subject of the quit-rent in America was well entitled to a monograph ; and no one could have treated it with more good sense and discretion, as well as learning, than Mr. Bond. Especially interesting is the account of the auditor-general, William Blathwayt, whom readers of Christopher Jeaffre- son's letters and of Lord Bellomont's dispatches have learnt to distrust, but who is here represented in a very favourable light as a singularly efficient public servant. Equally useful is the account of his successor, Horatio Walpole. H. E. Egerton. The Rise of South Africa, a History of the Origin of South African Coloniza- tion and of its Devdo'pment towards the East from the Earliest Times to 1857. By G. E. Cory. Vol. iii. (London : Longmans, 1919.) The third volume of Professor Cory's very valuable history of the rise of South Africa ^ deals mainly with the Kaffir war of 1835 and its aftermath, culminating in Lord Glenelg's famous dispatch of December 26, which set light to a flame that did not cease burning till the settlement of 1902, and the subsequent union of South Africa ; if, indeed, it has wholly ceased, even now. The conclusions reached by Mr. Cory are those already familiar ; but, assuredly, they have never before been based on such a background of well-digested and well-marshalled authority. In more than one instance the author has been able to interview survivors of the events narrated ; whilst, throughout, the best evidence available is dispassionately put forward. Undoubtedly the author's extreme modera- tion renders more impressive the judgement at which he arrives. Consider the consequences to Great Britain of the great trek ; and then note the language of Sir Benjamin D'Urban to the lieutenant-governor regarding Pieter Retief, the most important leader of the trekkers : If I am not mistaken this gentleman, Mr. Retief, is the same whom, in the later end of 1835, I appointed a Field- Commandant, for his active and judicious conduct at a period of difficulty and danger ; and, if so, he is one who has always, I believe, maintained an excellent character. Indeed, so favourably had he been represented to me by Colonel Somerset and others, that, wishing to give him a mark of my good opinion, and to do him honour, when in 1836 I caused a military post to be estabUshed under the Winterberg I named it Retief. VOL. XXXV. — NO. CXXXVIII. U
 * See ante, xxv. 621 ; xxix. 410.