His life's work did not end actually with his death. He left behind him a will in which he left the bulk of his vast wealth for the purpose of founding scholarships at Oxford of the value each of £300 a year, to be held by students from every important British colony, and from every State and Territory of the United States of America. The sum so bequeathed was very large; but it was not for the munificence of the legacy that the will was re ceived with acclamation throughout the civilized world : it was for the striking manifestation of faith which it embodied in the principles that make for the enlightenment and peace and union of mankind, and for the fine constancy of Rhodes's conviction that the British Empire, which he had been proud to serve, was among the greatest of organized forces uniting for universal good. A codicil, signed during the last days of his life, gave evidence of some enlargement of •his views as to the association of races necessary in order to secure the peace of the world, and added a certain number of scholarships to be held at the disposal of German students.
The publication of the will silenced Mr. Rhodes's detractors and converted many of his critics. It set a seal upon his completed life, and his name passed at once to the place which it is probably destined to take in history, as one of the makers of the British Empire.
See the Life by Sir Lewis Michell (2 vols., London, 191o) ; Sir T. E. Fuller, Cecil John Rhodes: A Monograph and a Reminiscence (London, 19io), "Vindex," Cecil Rhodes: His Political Life and Speeches (Lon don, 19oo) ; R. Jourdan, Cecil Rhodes's Private Life (1911) ; also: "Imperialist," Cecil Rhodes, with a chapter by Sir L. Starr Jameson (1897) ; E. T. Cook, Rights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War (1902) ; Sir Charles Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain (189o) ; Scholtz & Hornbeck, Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarships (1907) ; A. F. B. Williams, Life of Rhodes (1921) ; T. G. McDonald, Life of Rhodes (1927). (F. L. L.; X.)