ABSTRACT
The policy won Grey and Russell much unpopularity. When Palmerston turned out the Government in February 1852 with his 'tit for tat for John Russell' on the Militia Bill, Adderley was waiting with a motion of censure and was confident of victory.3 Yet, wrong as Grey may have been in details, on the main issue he was in the right. The civilization of the native tribes, and the welding of the two races into one society, turned out to be more difficult by far than he anticipated. He and his principal agent in South Africa, Sir Harry Smith, too readily assumed that the Kaffrarian chiefs would willingly submit to the limitation of their authority, and that their tribes would prefer peace and
'good government' according to Western notions to their traditional ways ofliving; nor did they penetrate the natives' minds and realize the depth and passion of their attachment to their lands. But what was the main issue? It was whether or no the acceptance of Imperial responsibility and the assertion of Imperial control in Kaffraria had been a mistake from the beginning. A complete reversal of policy might not be possible, but it was very generally believed by the critics of the Ministry that responsibility ought to be transferred to the colonists of the Cape.
