BISHOP COLENSO BLESSING THE ZULUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5478, 7 June 1879, Page 7

BISHOP COLENSO BLESSING THE ZULUS.

On the fast'day appointed by the authorities in South Africa (March 17), Bishop Colenao, whose views in favour of the Zulus were well-knowD, preached a sermon which caused extraordinary indignation at Hatal. His text was from the Prophet Mieah :—"An'i what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to wulk humbly with thy God?" He said that he would not prostituto his sacrsel office by preiching peace wheu there was noue; by hiding the ain3 they were bound to confess, and telling them of faults which were not the real burdens which were weighing them down. He would not dare to provoke the Most High God with such cowardly delinquency in duty, such base hypocrisy. He warned them that if they had come there merely in the terms of the official proclamation, to ask that " God in His mercy may prevent any serious .disasters from coming upon us, and for success to our arms against the common enemy," their worship would be a profane and impious mockery. Had we done justly in the past? What coloniet doubted the cause of the war ? The annexation of the Transvaal, where the Knglish went by stealth in the night and deprived the Boers of their rights. Did not the Secretary of State declare in the House of Lords, on April 23, 1877, that as to the supposed annexation of the Transvaal the language of the Special Commissioner had b?en greatly exaggerated, when the territory had already been auuexed'by an authority which he himself had is-ned previously? The Nemesis of that act was the Zulu difficulty. At great length the Bishop pointed out how for the last 14 years, in hie opinion, we had not done justly or loved mercy. "Did we not immediately we crossed the border lay upon the Zulus tho terrible scourge of war ? Had w.j not already killed 5000 human beings and plundered 10,000 head of cattle ! Truly we had lost many precious lives, but were th ire no relatives inourning their dead in Zul.ilmil ? Had we not heard the wail which had gone up in all parts of the land for those who had bravely and nobly died in repelling the invader and fighting for their king aud fatherland 1 Should we slay 10,000 more to avenge the losses of Isandula ! Alas, that an English statesman could fiod no nobler word than to speak of wiping out a stain. Was it really meant that tho stain on our name was to be wiped out with the blood of a brave aud loyal people ?" The Bjshop then went on to. say that the Zulu King had, as was well known, sued at our hands for peace. It might be from other motives that he had done so, but for his own part ho trusted and believed that the King was sincere in his expressious of grief and regret for the war. He seemed to have said, "This war is all a dreadful mistake—a horrible nightmare. Is it possible that I am fighting with my English father, with whom 1 have lived all along in unbroken Iriendly intercourse ? I have no wish whatever to do so. My young

men did wrong in crossing at Drift. I ordered them not to cross ; and when I struck I struck in self-defence, and, as before, in my own aud my father's time, so ever since that bloody day, the Zulus have never invaded Natal. Aa Englishmen, speak the word, that no more blood be shed; let the war be brought to an end, and give only such terms as I and my people can accept." We were bound to meet the Zulu King on the way when he came with a prayer for peace, to propose from our higher and stronger position such terms as it would be within his power to accept ; and having dons this, to leave the rest to God. fteiterating in. his peroration the substance of his whole sermon, the Bishop said:—"lf after this solemn day we will not do this—we, our kings, and princee, and prophets, and priests—will not do what the Lord requires of us, will not do justly and love mercy, and walk humbly with our God ; if we will go on killing and plundering those who have never seriously harmed us, or threatened to harm us, until we made war upon them—treating his message of peaco with contempt and neglect, even with ridicule, ascribing it falsely to the promptings of men in our midst, judging unfairly, and misrepresenting the Zulu King, both in the colony and in words sent to England — if we will do these things, then indeed there will be reason to fear that some further great calamity may yet fall on us, and perhaps overwhelm us—by the assegai, famine, or pestilence." Some correspondence has taken place between the Lord High Commissioner and Bishop Colenso as to an assertion of the latter that Cetewayo built no military kraal at all. Sir Bartle Frore points out a number of facts known to Bishop Colenso, but iijnored by him, and sajs, " How, with facts forming the staple of Sir T. Shepetone's letter before you, you can rely on a single expression to prore that Cetowayo's intentiona are not hostile, I am at a loss to conceive." The Bishop re affirms his conviction that the kraal as to which the discussion arose was built without any hostile intent.