-Caveat Lector-
On reading this biography of Cecil Rhodes by John Flint it is
hard to imagine Rhodes as the grand mastermind of the "triumph
of the Anglo-Saxon race". No doubt he believed in the idea and
no doubt that he proposed forming a secret society to bring the
idea to fruition, but he didn't have enough influence outside
of Africa to be the head of such a scheme. It is very likely,
however, that other persons of similar sentiment found Rhodes'
enthusiasm quite useful.
Cecil Rhodes
by John Flint
Hutchinson & Co.
London 1976
Copyright 1974 by John Flint
(Born in Canada, John Flint was brought up in England and received
his education at Cambridge University and the University of
London. He returned to Canada as professor of history at Dalhousie
University in Nova Scotia. Since then he has also been a visiting
professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a
visiting scholar at Stanford University. Professor Flint, British
adviser to the Federal Government of Nigeria from 1964 to 1965, has
travelled extensively in Africa and published several works on
African history. Currently he is editing Volume Five of the Cambridge
History of Africa. -- from the inside back cover)
excerpt from Chapter Two: Diamonds and Oxford
pp 29-33
By June of 1877 this unremarkable young man had come to his
conclusions about the meaning of life. He agreed with Winwood Reade that
God could not be known, that God was not a personality shaped in man's
image, but that an unknowable God existed, with His Divine Purpose evident,
if not comprehensible, in Darwin's revelation of evolution. Like Reade,
Rhodes regarded human history, which with most people of his time he
looked upoon as almost a synonym for progress, as a final stage of evolution.
In history God's purpose was likewise evident; as species struggled in the
natural world so that the fittest might survive, so in human history the
"races" of man struggled for supremacy, and it was surely evident that of
all the races the "Anglo-Saxon" was the finest and noblest specimen,
destined to triumph. For the individual, therefore, the task was to
harmonize his own purpose and meaning in life with this divine order. The
triumph of the "Anglo-Saxon race" could only be achieved through the
expansion of the British Empire. To this goal Rhodes must dedicate his life.
On June 2, 1877, Rhodes experienced something like a religious
revelation. On that day he was to be inducted into the Masonic Order, but
he did not regard the Freemasons with any solemnity or awe, joining them
for much the same reasons he had joined other exclusive clubs. On the
day of his induction he could "wonder that a large body of men can devote
themselves to what at times appear the most ridiculous and absurd rites
without an object and without an end," and immediately afterwards he
scandalized his fellow Masons by describing the secret ceremony at a
public dinner. Nevertheless, later in the day he sat pondering the signi-
ficance of what he would be doing, and thinking of God, Race and Empire.
Then the "idea gleaming and dancing before one's eyes like a will-of-the-
wisp at last frames itself into a plan." Rhodes began to write his
"Confession of Faith."
Rhodes' biographers have hitherto paid little serious attention to
this document. It has nowhere been reproduced in full, for to do so
would undermine the force of a eulogistic account of Rhodes' life -- the
document is of low interllectual content and even less literary merit --
and a writer critical of Rhodes would fear to lose his audience thereby.
Where is has been quoted in part, the literary style and punctuation have
been "improved," crude and at times offensive sections excised, and one
author (Felix Gross) commits the unpardonable sin of placing a tidied-up
version within quotation marks as the report of a conversation between
Rhodes and his associates held in Kimberley. Curiously, no biographer of
Rhodes has succeeded in dating the document, except generally to the year
1877, after the Russo-Turkish War broke out in April (Rhodes made reference
to that event). Yet we know that Rhodes was inducted to the Masonic Order
on June 2, and the second paragraph of the Confession begins: "On the
present day I become a member in the Masonic Order."
Rhodes took great care in the composition of the Confession. Two
manuscripts exist. The first is a draft in his own hand, with much crossing
out, insertion of words, rewriting of phrases and the like. The second is
simply an exact fair copy of the first, written in another hand but amended
slightly here and there in Rhodes' handwriting. Presumable this second
copy was written up by a clerk, probably at Kimberley in the summer of 1877.
Internal evidence shows that the copy must have been made before September
19, 1877.
The text of the Confession of Faith is reprinted in full as an
appendix, with no attempt to correct spelling and punctuation. The reader
will see that it begins with Rhodes' assertion that for him "the chief
good in life" is "to render myself useful to my country." This service
is then defined in terms of a racial pride and ambition: the numerical and
territorial expansion of the "Anglo-Saxons" serves not only that "race,"
but all mankind, even the "despicable specimens" brought under English
influence. Once England absorbs "the greater part of the world," wars will
cease and history become fulfilled. He then comments on the Jesuits and
asserts that his coming induction into Freemasonry suggested to him the
"plan" -- a secret society to support the British Empire, recover the
United States of Anerica, and weld the Anglo-Saxons into one empire. The
American Revolution, Rhodes contends, was a loss for the Americans because
they sank into a corrupt form of government and had to populate their
country with "low class Irish and German emigrants," and for the Anglo-
Saxons it was a loss to the Empire of the thousands of emigrants who settled
in the United States -- a somewhat contradictory and confused assertion.
But the point is that America must be recovered, and that every acre of
territory which can be seized in the world must be taken. "Africa is still
lying ready for us and it is our duty to take it... more territory simply
means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most
honorable race the world possesses." Then follows, written almost in the
style of the cheap novelettes of the day, the elaboration of the plan for
a secret society, composed, like the Jesuit order, of dedicated fanatics,
supported by men of wealth, attracting and even educating men of talent
without means, placing its members in all the colonial legislatures,
feeding and acquiring ownership of newspapers ("for the press rules the
mind of the people"), working all the time secretly for the consolidation
and expansion of the British Empire and the recovery of the United States.
In the second, fair, copy an additional paragraph was added:
"For fear that death might cut me off before the time for attempting its
development I leave my worldly goods in trust to S. G. Shippard [the
attorney general of Griqualand West] and Secretary for the Colonies [sic]
at the time of my death to try to form such a Society with such an
object."
If Rhodes had composed his Confession of Faith at the age of
twelve in Bishop Stortford, or even at seventeen en route to South Africa,
it might be passed off as an immature and childish effusion, such as the
attempts at youthful poetry or philosophy that many of us would blush to
see if we had not thrown them away long since. But Rhodes was not a child
in 1877, he was twenty-four years old, the age at which men marry and
rear children, buy homes, settle into careers, or write Ph.D. theses. And
the more Rhodes reconsidered his Confession, the more enamored of it he
became. As already indicated, he had it copied in fair draft, and added the
informal will provision, probably at Kimberley in the long vacation of
1877. On September 19, 1877, he made a more elaborate will, placed it in
a sealed envelope, and deposited it with an attorney in Kimberley to be
handed to Shippard in the event of his death. The will appointed Shippard
and Lord Carnarvon or whoever should be Secretary of State for the
Colonies, as his executors who should administer his entire estate in
trust
to and for the establishment, promotion and development of a
Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be the
extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting
of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom and colonization
by British subjects of all land wherein the means of livelihood
are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially
the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of
Africa, the Holy Land, the valley of the Euphrates, the Islands
of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the islands of
the Pacific not heretofore ppossessed by Great Britain, the whole
of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the
ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral
part of the British Empire, the consolidation of the whole Empire,
the inauguration of a system of Colonial Representation in the
Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed
members of the Empire, and finally the foundations of so great a
power as to hereafter render wars impossible and promote the best
interests of humanity.
Fortunately Lord Carnarvon was not informed of the task set him, or he
might have blenched at the prospect.
The will of 1877 was far from the end of the matter. For the rest
of his life Rhodes cherished the Confession, and meditated upon what he
regarded as the inspired brilliance of his concept of the secret society.
When he grew to trust a man and liked him, he would reveal "the idea" to
him, and expect the man's life to be changed forthwith. His subsequent
wills for long merely reiterated the absurd scheme, until they were
refined by wiser advisors into the Rhodes Scholarships. In 1891, when
Rhodes was at the height of his power, he struck up a close friendship
with the influential editor and publisher W. T. Stead. Responding to
Stead's request for Rhodes' views on life and politics, Rhodes sent him the
Confession of Faith, commenting, "You will see that I have not altered
much as to my feelings."
excerpt from Chapter Five: The Critical Years
pp 92-93
There is a curious and intriguing postscript to the story of the
De Beers amalgamation. The death of Pickering [Rhodes' secretary, to whom
he had willed "my worldly wealth" in 1882, considering him trustworthy
enough to carry out the conditions of the 1877 will --GF] in 1886 had left
Rhodes without an heir to carry out his "dream." On June 27, 1888, Rhodes
made a new will, in much the same quick and simple style ass the earlier
one in favor of Pickering; it was written on De Beers notepaper:
This is my last will -- and all other wills I have made are hereby
revoked. I leave equally among my brothers and sisters two
thousand De Beers and the balance of my property to Lord
Rothschild.
C. J. Rhodes
Clearly Lord Rothschild's means needed no strengthening by bequests
from Rhodes, nor was this will simply a testament to the role Rothschild
had played in securing Rhodes' triumph at Kimberley. For in a covering
letter to Rothschild, the world's greatest financier was instructed,
somewhat brusquely and sketchily, to use the money to establish the
beloved society of the Imperial elect -- "take Constitution Jesuits if
obtainable and insert 'English Empire' for 'Roman Catholic Religion.'"
In what spirit Lord Rothschild accepted his task we do not know, but
accept it he did. Rothschild's name appeared in Rhodes' subsequent wills,
and it is probable that his influence helped later to transform the mad
scheme for a secret society into that which was to set up the Rhodes
Scholarships.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The author clearly dismisses the idea that trustees of Rhodes'
will, such as Lord Rothschild and, later, Sir Alfred Milner,
would have anything to do with his "mad scheme" but he faithfully
reports Rhodes' obsession and since he is unable to document any
objection the trustees had to carrying out the terms of the wills
we can make up our own minds concerning the intent of Rothschild,
Milner et. al.
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