The Strange Death of the Liberal Empire: Lord Selborne in South Africa

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of history at Brock
University and the author of The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides
Won and The Military in the Niagara Peninsula.

This book sets out to examine “British imperial policy towards South
Africa during the critical period from 1905 to 1910.” The author
focuses on the high commissionership of William Walde-grave Palmer,
second Earl of Selborne, in order to understand the “‘imperial
mind’ which formulated this policy.”

The book begins with an examination of different interpretations of
imperialism. In discussing British imperialism in the late 19th century,
Torrance identifies two principal traditions:

the “multicausal-peripheral” tradition and the
“radical-metropolitan” one. He argues that after the Liberal Party
gained control of Britain’s government in 1906, Selborne saw the
Liberals “as a greater threat to imperial interests [in South Africa]
than the Afrikaners.” As Britain’s High Commissioner in South
Africa, Selborne strove for unity of the colonies in the hope of ending
metropolitan interference there, but how much influence he exerted on
the decisionmakers remains debatable.

Torrance concludes that Selborne’s policies fit into neither the
metropolitan nor the peripheral categories, but were instead
“cosmopolitan.” His thoughtfully argued book is based on extensive
archival research and will be of particular interest to students of
modern British and South African history.