CHAPTER III.—HIS CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. Rhodes was not a great letter-writer. A few of his friends, such as Mr. Rudd, his partner in his early days, have a copious collection of letters from Mr. Rhodes, but few public men were ever so sparing in their correspondence. Of his published letters there are two series which cannot be omitted from any attempt to represent the Rhodesian ideas. The first is the Parnell correspondence of 1888, and the other the Schnadhorst correspondence of 1891. These are the only two occasions on which Mr. Rhodes took a direct hand in Imperial politics outside his own particular sphere. In both he operated in the same way, namely, by using his wealth to put a premium upon certain policies or offer a reward for the repudiation of certain heresies. It is unnecessary here to go minutely into the genesis of the famous donation to the Irish National funds. It is well, however, to remember that, like almost every other colonist, Mr. Rhodes was a Home Ruler long before the adoption of Home Rule as the official creed of the Liberal Party. From 1882–84 Mr. Rhodes seems to have dallied with the idea of standing for a seat in Parliament, nominally as member of the Conservative Party, but really as member for South Africa. The idea had gained sufficient substance for Sir Charles Warren to write to Mr. Rhodes’s brother (March 4th, 1884), saying, “Your brother has great mental power for organising, and will be a most valuable addition to the Conservative ranks.”
In 1885, when Mr. Gladstone had taken the plunge for Home Rule, Mr Rhodes seriously contemplated standing for Parliament as Liberal candidate for the constituency in which the Dalston property of his family was situated. On looking at the matter more closely, however, he found that Parliamentary attendance would be too great a tax upon his time. It would be impossible for him to alternate between Westminster and South Africa, as in the old days he divided his life between Kimberley and Oriel College. He returned to Africa, but continued to follow with the keenest interest the course of Imperial politics.
