D1.8.23: [Untitled]

D1.8.23: [Untitled]

Newspaper Clippings

Bleek reflects on the death of the statesman, John Fairbairn, and that of his son-in-law, Frederick Watermeyer, several months prior. He laments the loss of men of 'eminent usefulness' to the Cape Colony. Frederick Watermeyer was troubled by Fairbairn's sizeable debts and worked frantically to lessen them, as Fairbairn had been ill for some time before dying. To a lesser extent, he comments on the desire of those in the Eastern Province to relocate Parliament to Graham's Town, which members in the Western Province fiercely oppose. He pivots from matters of death, political succession, and policy to the polarising Law of Inheritance debate, seeking to appease the Germanophone West and Anglophone East.

Printed newsprint glued on paper

30 March 1865

Two cut-out columns of printed newsprint mounted on foolscap folio (warped).

John Fairbairn (death of), Cape periodical press (founded by Fairbairn), Frederick Watermeyer (an Eastern Professor of Law), Mr Advocate Cole (a Graham's Town lawyer), Mr Denyssen (elevated to the bench), Ludwig von Maltitz (of the Midland District), Barry and Nephews (a great colonial firm), Mr Stein (Barry's possible replacement), parliament (moving it to Graham's Town), Mr Reitz (a more popular replacement for Barry), Transkeian Territory (Wodehouse's' policy concerning it), British Kaffraria (its destiny is central to inter-party debate)

Pressed clippings of Victorian current affairs opinion pieces by Wilhelm Bleek. Published in Het Volksblad on Thursday, March 30th, 1865. Bleek arguably champions meritocracy over aristocracy, but occasionally commends accomplished public figures who also incidentally descend from an 'illustrious' (to use his parlance) pedigree. 'Mr Advocate Cole' refers to Alfred Whaley Cole.

Van de Sandt de Villiers & Co.