1.) TWO LECTURES ON SOUTH AFRICA (1880) & 2.) OCEANA or England and her colonies (1886)

1.) TWO LECTURES ON SOUTH AFRICA

First edition, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1880.

Publisher's brown cloth binding with gilt titles on front panel.

85pp + 24pp (publisher's catalogue at rear).

Internally clean with no inscriptions. Cloth faded on the top half of spine.

'Mr. Froude visited Africa in 1874, and appears to have had a kind of semi-official mission from Lord Carnarvon, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to inquire into the alleged grievances of the Orange Free State concerning the acquisition of the diamond fields by the British, and other South African matters. He does not seem to have carried much weight with the colonists of either British or Dutch descent in spite of his pronounced sympathy with the Dutch Republics and their friends. In fact, after holding meetings all over the colony, advocating confederation, he proposed a resolution condemning Lord Carnarvon as well as himself. He appears to have criticised and censured everything and everybody who had any connection with South African affairs, and is particularly insistent on the subject of the worthlessness of Natal to the British Empire. He considered that the misgovernment of South Africa was the result of the ignorance of those who, while ruling the country, took no pains to learn how to govern a country 6000 miles distant, and he maintained that the misfortunes which had occurred were not the result of the individual policy of any particular political party. Mr. Froude is incorrect in many of his statements, and more particularly so in his account of the "martyrs of Slaughter Neck," of which incident he gives an entirely new version, alleging it to be the result of the second annexation of the Cape, as "we said we should go away when the war was finally over." He expressed a wish and a hope that the country would be restored to the Boers, "who," he stated, "respond more readily than most men to kindness and justice." - Mendelssohn Vol. I, page 578

2.) OCEANA OR ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES

First edition, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1886.

Publisher's original blue cloth binding with vignette on front panel and titles on spine.

xi + 396pp. Illustrated with 8 plates (all present).

Contents clean with a newspaper clipping laid down on the front endpaper that was taken from the Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 1886. The author of the article has a grievance against Froude for misrepresenting him in his book.

Binding good although the hinges are cracked.

Two chapters are dedicated to the author's observations in South Africa, which include comments on: The Abolition of the Slave Trade, The Great Trek, The Orange River Treaty, Discovery of Diamonds and the Diamond Fields, British Policy at Kimberley, Annexation of the Transvaal, War with the Dutch, Expedition of Sir Charles Warren and the Bechuanaland Field Force.