Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/128

 io8 History of the Cape Colony. [1878 in the mail steamer, and arrived in Capetown on the 7th of April. He had been absent from the seat of government between seven and eight months. Mr. Molteno had proposed to summon parliament to meet on the '21st of March, but the new ministry natur- ally needed more time to prepare the bills to be laid before it, and the session was only opened on the 10th of May. Throughout the country the liveliest interest was taken in the approaching struggle between the old and new ministries, some people maintaining that respon- sible government was a farce if an imperial officer, not accountable in any way to parliament or the ministry, was to have control of all colonial forces, while others held that a debt of gratitude was due to the governor for calling upon the general and the regular troops to protect the 'colony m the condition of unpre- paredness in which it was when the disturbances occurred. Apart too from the actual points at issue, people were interested in the coming struggle because upon the decision of the parliament would rest whether the eminent and highly talented governor remained in South Africa or not. Nearly every one felt that the colony ranked higher among the British dependencies by having such a man as its head, and many believed that it would be a mistake to do anything that would cause his removal. Then too all the people of the eastern border, who naturally favoured the new ministry, and all the advocates of immediate confederation, who regarded Mr. Molteno as an obstacle in their way, lost sight of the constitutional question at issue, and allowed it to sink into insignificance in view of what to them was of much greater importance, the triumph of their own ideas. By them the meeting of parliament was anxiously awaited. In the governor's opening speech there was no allusion to the subject that occupied all minds, which of course would have been out of place in it. It foreshadowed the