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Publications & Reports

Bleek revisits the High Church party's Bishop Gray and Dean Douglas, who desire a return to the ritualism of the Romish tradition (its liturgical practices). Gray's fixation on Rome indirectly recognises papal primacy (as "an authoritative expositor of truth"), constituting a sort of denominational betrayal for certain Protestants. As the common expression implies, truth can be arrived at through other less disruptive means. The Cape Standard and Mail (founded 1866) exists to oppose demands for Responsible Government and enforce the metropole's top-down status quo. Bleek disagrees with a contemporary at the Standard's use of New Zealand as a counter-argument, given that General Duncan Cameron's poor performance arose from contradictory Imperial instructions and the exclusion of their responsible government from managing native affairs. "Anti-Responsible Government" is despotically indifferent and jeopardises the colonists' well-being while denying them agency in vital affairs. Such a system can even disregard the wisdom of Governors, who offer no allegiance to the colonial parliament. The metropole is profoundly ignorant of "South African affairs" and, in their "omnipotence", will cause some costly irreversible mischief. The Imperial Government forced the incorporation of British Kaffraria to eliminate a cost burden, and even with a Responsible Government in New Zealand, the Executive Government or its military officials mismanaged or interfered with native affairs. New Zealand, therefore, replaced the disavowed ministry. Constitutional government fails because it has too many working parts. Which form of government carries more risk, Anti-Responsible or Representative Government? In contradicting itself, the Standard proves Bleek's argument.

Printed newsprint glued on paper

06/02/1866

Two cut out columns of newsprint text, positioned vertically parallel, pasted onto a plus-sized A4 unlined sheet with visible warping. No title was subsequently handwritten onto the mount/paper backing.