SHAP. Xx] MILITARY AND NAVAL DEFENCE 1261
was quite irrelevant. After the grant of responsible govern-
ment these powers, like every other power, required to be
exercised on the principles of ministerial responsibility.
The Governor had therefore no inherent right to place the
local forces under the control of the Imperial forces, and no
exception can be taken to the constitutional position occupied
by Mr. Merriman on the principle laid down by Sir J. Molteno.
The accusation that commissions were issued in the Governor’s
name is met by the statement that the matters done were
matters of routine which were not normally submitted at all
to the Governor. The question on that point really raises
the problem of what matters are matters of routine and
what matters are too considerable to be treated in this way,
and in any case different opinions may legitimately be held.
On the other hand, it must fairly be said for Sir Bartle
Frere that his position was a difficult one, for as High Com-
missioner he had a general responsibility for relations with
native tribes in South Africa, which he could not share with
his ministers however gladly he might welcome their advice,
and however willingly he might normally accept it.
His opinions were therefore entitled to serious considera-
tion by his Ministry, and the fact that the country upheld
Sir Gordon Sprigg must be placed to his credit in considering
the question of the rights and the wrongs in the matter.
But it must at once be said that Sir Bartle Frere, both in
this and in other matters, was clearly too much inclined to
think that, as Governor, he was entitled to make free use
of the Imperial troops independently of the wishes of his
ministers ; on this point he was repeatedly told by the
Imperial Government that the Imperial forces were in the
Cape merely for the purposes of defending an Imperial trade
route, and that it was not intended that the Cape should be
defended either from internal risings or from the attacks of
external tribes by the Imperial forces.
In the case of the war in South Africa from 1899 to 1902
the Colonial forces assisted readily the Imperial troops, and
both in Natal and in the Cape of Good Hope the local
troops were placed fully under the control of the Imperial
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