He had come to the post by adroit management of a miscellaneous community, comprising British, Dutch, and Kaffirs.

He was personally incorruptible, and he played the game according to the rules.

He would have called himself, and so far as his opportunities admitted, he was, a constitutional statesman, justly proud of the position to which his own qualities had raised him, and extremely jealous of interference Downing Street.

He had no responsibility, he was never tired of explaining, for the acquisition of the Diamond Fields, and he left the Colonial Office to settle that matter with President Brand.

Local politics were his business.