many hands. Your subsidiary press idea can be discussed without risk, but the inner circle
behind would never be many, perhaps three or four.”(6)
About the same time, Rhodes revealed to Stead his plans to establish the British South
Africa Company and asked him who in England could best help him get the necessary
charter. Stead recommended Albert Grey, the future Earl Grey, who had been an intimate
friend of Stead's since 1873 and had been a member of the Milner-Toynbee group in
1880-1884. As a result, Grey became one of the original directors of the British South
Africa Company and took the first steps which eventually brought him into the select
circle of Rhodes's secret society.
This society took another step forward during Rhodes's visit to England in February
1890. The evidence for this is to be found in the Journals of Lord Esher (at that time R.
B. Brett), who had obviously been let in on the plan by Stead. Under date of 3 February
1890, we read in these Journals: "Cecil Rhodes arrived last night from South Africa. I
was at Stead's today when he called. I left them together. Tonight I saw Stead again.
Rhodes had talked for three hours of all his great schemes.... Rhodes is a splendid
enthusiast. But he looks upon men as 'machines.' This is not very penetrating." Twelve
days after this, on 15 February, at Lord Rothschild's country house, Brett wrote in his
journaclass="underline" 'Came here last night. Cecil Rhodes, Arthur Balfour, Harcourts, Albert Grey,
Alfred Lyttelton. A long talk with Rhodes today. He has vast ideas. Imperial notions. He
seems disinterested. But he is very ruse and, I suspect, quite unscrupulous as to the means
he employs.”(7)
The secret society, after so much preliminary talk, took form in 1891, the same year in
which Rhodes drew up his fourth will and made Stead as well as Lord Rothschild the
trustee of his fortune. It is perfectly clear from the evidence that he expected Rothschild
to handle the financial investments associated with the trust, while Stead was to have full
charge of the methods by which the funds were used. About the same time, in February
1891, Stead and Rhodes had another long discussion about the secret society. First they
discussed their goals and agreed that, if necessary in order to achieve Anglo-American
unity, Britain should join the United States. Then they discussed the organization of the
secret society and divided it into two circles: an inner circle, "The Society of the Elect",
and an outer circle to include "The Association of Helpers" and The Review of Reviews
(Stead's magazine, founded 1890). Rhodes said that he had already revealed the plan for
"The Society of the Elect" to Rothschild and "little Johnston." By "little Johnston" he meant Harry H. Johnston (Sir Harry after 1896), African explorer and administrator, who
had laid the basis for the British claims to Nyasaland, Kenya, and Uganda. Johnston was,
according to Sir Frederick Whyte, the biographer of Stead, virtually unknown in England
before Stead published his portrait as the frontispiece to the first issue of The Review of
Reviews in 1890.(8) This was undoubtedly done on behalf of Rhodes. Continuing their
discussion of the membership of "The Society of the Elect," Stead asked permission to
bring in Milner and Brett. Rhodes agreed, so they telegraphed at once to Brett, who
arrived in two hours. They then drew up the following"ideal arrangement' for the society:
1. General of the Society: Rhodes
2. Junta of Three:
Stead
Brett
Milner
3. Circle of Initiates:
Cardinal Manning
General Booth
Bramwell Booth
"Little" Johnston
Albert Grey
Arthur Balfour
4. The Association of Helpers
5. A College,
under Professor Seeley, to be established to train
people in the English-speaking idea."
Within the next few weeks Stead had another talk with Rhodes and a talk with Milner,
who was "filled with admiration" for the scheme, according to Stead's notes as published
by Sir Frederick Whyte.
The "ideal arrangement" for the secret society, as drawn up in 1891, never came into
effect in all its details. The organization as drawn on paper reflected the romantic and
melodramatic ideas of Cecil Rhodes and Stead, and doubtless they envisioned formal
initiations, oaths, secret signs of recognition, etc. Once Milner and Brett were made
initiates, the atmosphere changed. To them secret signs or oaths were so much claptrap
and neither necessary nor desirable, for the initiates knew each other intimately and had
implicit trust in each other without the necessity of signs or oaths. Thus the melodrama
envisioned by Rhodes was watered down without in any way reducing the seriousness
with which the initiates determined to use their own personal influence and Rhodes's
wealth and power to achieve the consolidation of the British Empire, which they shared
as an ideal with Rhodes.
With the elimination of signs, oaths, and formal initiations, the criteria for
membership in "The Society of the Elect" became knowledge of the secret society and
readiness to cooperate with the other initiates toward their common goal. The distinction
between the initiates and The Association of Helpers rested on the fact that while
members of both circles were willing to cooperate with one another in order to achieve
their common goal, the initiates knew of the secret society, while the"helpers" probably
did not. This distinction rapidly became of little significance, for the members of The
Association of Helpers would have been very stupid if they had not realized that they
were members of a secret group working in cooperation with other members of the same
group. Moreover, the Circle of Initiates became in time of less importance because as
time passed the members of this select circle died, were alienated, or became less
immediately concerned with the project. As a result, the secret society came to be
represented almost completely by The Association of Helpers—that is, by the group with
which Milner was most directly concerned. And within this Association of Helpers there
appeared in time gradations of intimacy, the more select ones participating in numerous
areas of the society's activity and the more peripheral associated with fewer and less vital
areas. Nevertheless, it is clear that "The Society of the Elect" continued to exist, and it undoubtedly recruited additional members now and then from The Association of
Helpers. It is a very difficult task to decide who is and who is not a member of the society
as a whole, and it is even more difficult to decide if a particular member is an initiate or a
helper. Accordingly, the last distinction will not usually be made in this study. Before we
abandon it completely, however, an effort should be made to name the initiates, in the
earlier period at least.
Of the persons so far named, we can be certain that six were initiates. These were
Rhodes, Lord Rothschild, Johnston, Stead, Brett, and Milner. Of these, Rothschild was
largely indifferent and participated in the work of the group only casually. Of the others,
Johnston received from £10,000 to £17,000 a year from Rhodes for several years after
1889, during which period he was trying to eliminate the influence of slave-traders and
the Portuguese from Nyasaland. About 1894 he became alienated from Rhodes because
of Johnston's refusal to cooperate with him in an attack on the Portuguese in Manikaland.