Excerpt from The Life and Times of Sir John Charles Molteno K. C. M. G., First Premier of Cape Colony, Vol. 1: Comprising a History of Representative Institutions and Responsible Government at the Cape and of Lord Carnarvon's Confederation Policy and of Sir Bartle Frere's High Commissionership of South Africa There is also an Imperial side to the services which these men have rendered. They have vindicated British liberty and self-government, they have adapted and administered British constitutional principles in countries whose circum stances didar in every other respect from Great Britain. They have made possible the freedom and progress which are now to be found wherever Englishmen have settled throughout the world indeed, the self-reliance and power of self-government which these men exhibited in common with those of a similar character in the other colonies have made possible the existence and coherence of the vast Empire which we see to-day. Its varied and world-wide series of States could not be governed from a central ofice in Downing Street. Only by the automatic action of self-government in each part could the varied problems which arise be dealt with successfully. With this specialisation of function in the difierent parts of the Empire, there has gone the higher integration comprised in the sentiment of a common origin and a common purpose; as the formal bonds have been released so have the sentimental bonds increased in strength. Ether is said to possess in one direction the most perfect elasticity and fluidity imaginable, and in another the properties of a rigid solid. Of a similar character must be the properties of the bond which unites the different parts of the Empire. Perfect freedom for self-government in the members - the resistance of adamant to aggression against the whole. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.