Ladysmith Was No More Than Any Other
Strategic Position, But Kimberley Was Unique, The Centre Of The
Richest Tract Of Ground For Its Size In The Whole World.
Its loss
would have been a heavy blow to the British cause, and an enormous
encouragement to the Boers.
On October 12th, several hours after the expiration of Kruger's
ultimatum, Cecil Rhodes threw himself into Kimberley. This
remarkable man, who stood for the future of South Africa as clearly
as the Dopper Boer stood for its past, had, both in features and in
character, some traits which may, without extravagance, be called
Napoleonic. The restless energy, the fertility of resource, the
attention to detail, the wide sweep of mind, the power of terse
comment - all these recall the great emperor. So did the simplicity
of private life in the midst of excessive wealth. And so finally
did a want of scruple where an ambition was to be furthered, shown,
for example, in that enormous donation to the Irish party by which
he made a bid for their parliamentary support, and in the story of
the Jameson raid. A certain cynicism of mind and a grim humour
complete the parallel. But Rhodes was a Napoleon of peace. The
consolidation of South Africa under the freest and most progressive
form of government was the large object on which he had expended
his energies and his fortune but the development of the country in
every conceivable respect, from the building of a railway to the
importation of a pedigree bull, engaged his unremitting attention.
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