THEWHITEINVADERS
although the British government could set general lines of policy, dismiss
obstructive officials, and impose overriding-laws, the colonial authorities
inexorably had a wide latitude of action. They could, for example, refrain
from effectivelyenforcing London's dictates.
Until the first elected legislative body was created in 1853, senior offi-
cials responsible to the British government dominated the government of
the Cape Colony. Indeed, until 1825 the governor himself possessed auto-
cratic powers. The governors of this period were military officers drawn
from the landed aristocracy. Lieutenant-General SirJohn Cradock (1811-
14) was the younger son of the Earl of Cadogan. His successor, Lieutenant-
General Lord Charles Somerset (1814-26),
second son of the Duke of
Beaufort, drew an annual salary of £10,000 and spent £28,000 of public
money on his country residence at Newlands, thereby consuming an inor-
dinate proportion of the local revenue. Both men were deeply conservative
Tories. Unlike their Dutch predecessors, they identified with the substan-
tial IocalIandowners-e-the
wine and grain farmers of the southwestern
part of the colony-and
accepted with little question the structure of
society that they inherited from the Dutch.f-'