the annexation. The value of Aylward's testimony would not be fairly
appreciated without some explanation.

Sir Bartle Frere describes him (and quotes Scotland Yard authorities
who knew him well) as one of the party who murdered the policeman at
Manchester, and one of the worst and most active of the dynamiting
Irishmen--a professional agitator, who boasted of his purpose to
promote the Transvaal rebellion. Major Le Caron, too, stated on oath
before the Parnell Commission that money was sent by the Irish Rebel
Societies, through Aylward, to stir up the Transvaal rebellion. This
is what Aylward says:

All South Africa was for the moment at rest, with the exception of
the district of Utrecht, where an old-standing grievance with
Cetewayo was the cause of some little alarm and excitement (_i.e._,
Cetewayo's threatened invasion). Still, the Transvaal was disturbed
throughout its whole extent by the expectation of some pending
change--a change coming from the outside, which had been invited by
an active, discontented party, chiefly foreigners, dwellers in towns,
non-producers, place-hunters, deserters, refugees, land-speculators,
'development-men,' and pests of Transvaal society generally, who
openly preached resistance to the law, refusal to pay taxes, and
contempt of the natural and guaranteed owners of the country in
which they lived, in the distinctly expressed hope that foreign
intervention would fill the country with British gold, and conduce
to their own material prosperity. The Boers, spread over a country
larger than France, were stunned into stupor by the demonstrative
loudness of the party of discontent. In some districts they (the
Boers) were poor, and could not readily pay the taxes imposed upon
them by the wars and railway projects of the Government. Their
Volksraad was in Session, but its every action was paralyzed by the
gloom of impending dissolution.

The Republic owed £215,000, which it had no immediate means of
paying. Its creditors were clamorous; whilst the Executive, turn to
which side it would, found itself confronted by threats, reproaches,
accusations of slavery and cruelty based upon hearsay, and which,
like the annexation that steadily approached, could not be met,
because neither of them had yet assumed the evidenced consistency of
actual fact. There was no public opinion to support the Government or
to save the Republic. The Boers lived far apart from each other,
whilst the annexationists and the party of disorder dwelt, in compact
communities, in towns and mining villages. Into the midst of this
confusion--into the capital of this bewildered State--entered Sir
Theophilus Shepstone and his staff. He had not come to seize the
country--he had come as 'an adviser, as a helper, and as a friend';
but his advent was a blight--an incubus which rendered additionally
powerless the unfortunate President and his Council. The coming of
Sir Theophilus Shepstone was, to the minds of nearly all, but too
clearly the forerunner of change. In the face of this additional
whet to the anticipations of the party of disturbance, something
that has been described as anarchy prevailed. Everyone waited; all
fell into a state of expectation; no one attempted to save the State,
or repel the danger. At the same time, there was no anarchy in the
proper sense of the word. Justice sat on her seat; criminals were
arrested and brought to trial; actions at law were heard and
determined; and in no one place, save the goldfields, was authority,
even for a moment, defied. There the law vindicated itself without
having used violence or shed one drop of blood. Not one single
public outrage, not one unpunished crime, marked this period of
suspense, which is described by partizan writers as a time of
chaos and anarchy.

Peace was granted to Secocoeni, and the quietness and gloom of the
country became even more profound.

Now, had a commission, royal or joint, been opened in Pretoria to
inquire into the truth of the allegations made against the
Government, history might perhaps be able to record that judgment,
followed by justice, had overtaken the Transvaal. No commission was
opened. There was a banquet and a ball. The suspense increased in
intensity. Understrappers, and agents of the discontented faction,
filled the country with rumours of impending annexation, and
sometimes of impending conquest. The Boers, the inhabitants of the
country, asked day after day what was the mission of the English
Commissioner. They visited him in hundreds; but he knew the wonderful
advantage to be gathered from the heightening of the mystery, and the
intensifying of the excitement. He listened to everyone; but he
maintained a gloomy and impassive silence, neither checking the
aspirations of the annexationists, nor dissipating the forebodings of
the farmers.

News arrived that troops were marching towards, and massing on,
Theophilus sought not to alleviate the anxieties of the Government,
nor to quell the now rising alarm amongst the people; he simply sat
still and listened, watching the writhings and stragglings of the
doomed Volksraad, and awaiting a favourable moment to end its
existence.

At length someone determined to ask: 'Was it not possible to avert
this annexation which loomed before every mind, brooding like a
shadow upon the country?' He went to Sir Theophilus; he asked his
question; and at length the oracle spoke. Without moving a muscle of
his wonderfully impassive countenance, without even raising his eyes
to look at the interlocutor, Sir Theophilus calmly murmured: 'It is
too late!--too late!' And so, without the authorization of the home
Government, without the consent of her Majesty's High Commissioner,
without the concurrence of the Volksraad, against the will of
thirty-nine-fortieths of the people, and in defiance of the protest
of their Executive, as Mr. Anthony Trollope puts it, Sir Theophilus
said: 'Then and from thenceforth the Transvaal shall be British
property!' So he put up the Queen's flag.

Now, it is impossible to conceive anything more admirable for its
discretion, more wisely calculated as to the moment of its
occurrence, or more suavely and yet firmly done than this act. There
was not a blow struck, not a shot fired; and the first impulse of
nearly every person in the country, whether in principle opposed to
annexation or not, was to congratulate Sir Theophilus Shepstone on
the skill, tact, and good fortune with which he had put an end to the
excessive anxiety, the mental strain, the fears, hopes, and
expectations by which the whole country was paralyzed. Whether the
annexation be now held to be right or wrong, its execution, so far as
regards the act itself, was an unparalleled triumph of tact, modesty,
and firmness.

It was not discovered at the moment, and it never entered into any
man's mind to consider, that it was the presence in Pretoria of Sir
Theophilus himself that had created the anxiety, and caused the
paralysis; and that it was his arts and presence that had tightened
and strung up into quivering intensity the mind of the country. He
had broken the spell; he had introduced certainty in place of
uncertainty; and he was congratulated, and very properly so, for the
manner in which he had brought to a conclusion his hazardous mission.

Sir Theophilus Shepstone's despatches record his negotiations with
President Burgers, and the arrangement which allowed him to make a
formal protest against the annexation, so as to satisfy his
Irreconcilables, whilst he in reality not only assented to the
measure, but even assisted the completion of it, and discussed the
details with Shepstone, who in turn had revised President Burgers'
'protest.'

On April 3, 1877, Shepstone had written to Frere:

Mr. Burgers, who had been all along, as far as his conversation and
professions to me went, in full accord with me, had suddenly taken
alarm; he made impossible proposals, all of which involved infinite
delay, and, of course, dangerous agitation. As far as I am concerned,
leave the country, civil war would at once take place, as the natives
would consider it the sunshine in which they could make hay in the
Transvaal; the goldfields are in a state of rebellion against the
Transvaal Government, and they are kept from overt acts only by my
warnings and entreaties.

And eight days later he wrote to Mr. Robert Herbert enclosing his
letter under 'flying seal' to Frere:

There will be a protest against my act of annexation issued by the
Government, but they will at the same time call upon the people to
submit quietly, pending the issue; you need not be disquieted by such
action, because it is taken merely to save appearances, and the
members of the Government from the violence of a faction that seems
for years to have held Pretoria in terror when any act of the
Government displeased it.

You will better understand this when I tell you privately that the
President has from the first fully acquiesced in the necessity for
the change, and that most of the members of the Government have
expressed themselves anxious for it; but none of them have had the
courage openly to express their opinions, so I have had to act
apparently against them; and this I have felt bound to do, knowing
the state and danger of the country, and that three-fourths of the
people will be thankful for the change when once it is made.

Yesterday morning Mr. Burgers came to me to arrange how the matter
should be done. I read to him the draft of my Proclamation, and he
proposed the alteration of two words only, to which I agreed. He
brought to me a number of conditions which he wished me to insert,
which I have accepted, and have embodied in my Proclamation. He told
me that he could not help issuing a protest, to keep the noisy
portion of the people quiet--and you will see grounds for this
precaution when I tell you that there are only half a dozen native
constables to represent the power of the State in Pretoria, and a
considerable number of the Boers in the neighbourhood are of the
lowest and most ignorant class. Mr. Burgers read me, too, the draft
of his protest, and asked me if I saw any objection to it, or thought
it too strong. I said that it appeared to me to pledge the people to
resist by-and-by; to which he replied that it was to tide over the
difficulty of the moment, seeing that my support, the troops, were a
fortnight's march distant, and that by the time the answer to the
protest came, all desire of opposition would have died out. I
therefore did not persuade him from his protest.

You will see, when the proclamation reaches you, that I have taken
high ground. Nothing but annexation will or can save the State, and
nothing else can save South Africa from the direst consequences. All
the thinking and intelligent people know this, and will be thankful
to be delivered from the thraldom of petty factions, by which they
are perpetually kept in a state of excitement and unrest, because the
Government, and everything connected with it, is a thorough sham.

This arrangement with President Burgers was a most improper
compromise on both sides. Moreover, Shepstone received the protests
of the Executive Council and of the Volksraad before he issued his
proclamation. He had plenty of evidence to show that even if his
action was approved by the majority, the Boers were sufficiently
divided to demand some delay. He knew that the members of the
Government and of the Raad would not face the responsibility of
relinquishing the State's independence, although he received
private assurances and entreaties encouraging him to act. He had
representations and deputations from the Boers themselves,
sufficient in weight and number to warrant his belief that a large
proportion of the people desired annexation. He should not have
allowed the 'hedging' that was practised at his expense. The Boer
leaders were 'between the devil and the deep sea.' There can be no
doubt whatever that they dearly loved and prized their independence,
and would have fought even then for it had they been in a position
to preserve and profit by it; but they were not. They dared neither
ask for relief at the price of annexation, nor reject the proffered
relief at the price of continuing the hopeless struggle. So they
compromised. They took the relief, they accepted pay of the new
Government, and entered a protest, so as to put themselves right
with the records and stand well with untamed ones of the party.

The Act of Annexation is so generally condemned by the friends and
sympathizers of the Boers, and is so persistently quoted by them as
the cause of the Boer War, that it is only right to show clearly what
the opinion was at that time; and if it be deemed that overmuch space
is given to this matter, the answer is, that it is quoted now as the
crime which gave rise to the present hatred and mistrust of England,
and it is all-important that the truth should be clear.

This is what Mr. J.F. Celliers, the patriotic editor of the Boer
newspaper, _De Volksstem_, wrote in reviewing the work of the special
session of the Volksraad, convened to deal with the questions of Lord
Carnarvon's Federation Bill, and the rescuing of the country from
ruin and chaos:--'During the session we have repeatedly had occasion
to comment on the doings of the Raad. These comments have not been
favourable, and we regret to say that we have found in the closing
scenes of our Legislature no reason to alter our opinions.' Then
follows a scathing account of the 'work done,' in which occur such
references as:--'With the exception of a couple of members,
no one had the sense or manliness to go into the question of
confederation'; and 'The most surprising feature of the whole
affair was this--that most of the speakers seemed not to have the
faintest conception of the desperate condition in which the country
stood....' And again, under date of March 28: 'About three months
ago we said we would prefer confederation under the British flag if
the state of anarchy then threatening were to continue. We know that
a good and stable Government is better than anarchy any day.'

It is noteworthy that the writer of the above is the same Mr.
Celliers who, two years later, was put in gaol by Colonel Lanyon on a
charge of sedition, because he attacked the Administration for its
failure to keep the promises made at the time of annexation.

Three thousand out of eight thousand voters actually signed petitions
in favour of annexation. In the Raad, President Burgers openly
reproached members for proclaiming in public, and for improper
reasons, views diametrically opposed to those privately expressed on
the confederation and annexation questions; and refused to consult
with three out of four members appointed as a deputation to confer
with him on these subjects, because they had not paid their taxes,
and had so helped by example, not less than by the actual offence, to
cause the ruin of the country and the loss of independence. And on
March 3 President Burgers read an address to the Raad, in which the
following words occur:

'I would rather be a policeman under a strong Government than the
President of such a State. It is you--you members of the Raad and the
Boers--who have lost the country, who have sold your independence for
a _soupe_ (a drink). You have ill-treated the natives, you have shot
them down, you have sold them into slavery, and now you have to pay
the penalty.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'We should delude ourselves by entertaining the hope that matters
would mend by-and-by. It would only be self-deceit. I tell you
openly, matters are as bad as they ever can be; they cannot be worse.
These are bitter truths, and people may perhaps turn their backs on
me; but then I shall have the consolation of having done my duty.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'It is said here this or that man must be released from taxes,
because the Kaffirs have driven them off their farms, and occupy the
latter. By this you proclaim to the world that the strongest man is
master here, that the right of the strongest obtains here.' [Mr.
Mare: 'This is not true.'] 'Then it is not true what the honourable
member, Mr. Breytenbach, has told us about the state of the Lydenburg
district; then it is not true either what another member has said
about the farms in Zoutpansberg, which are occupied by Kaffirs.
Neither is it true, then, what I saw with my own eyes at Lydenburg,
where the burghers had been driven off their farms by the Kaffirs,
and where Johannes was ploughing and sowing on the land of a burgher.
These are facts, and they show that the strongest man is the master
here. The fourth point which we have to take into account affects our
relations with our English neighbours. It is asked, What have they
got to do with our position? I tell you, as much as we have to do
with that of our Kaffir neighbours. As little as we can allow
barbarities among the Kaffirs on our borders, as little can they
allow that in a state on their borders anarchy and rebellion should
prevail.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'Do you know what has recently happened in Turkey? Because no
civilized government was carried on there, the Great Powers
interfered and said, "Thus far, and no further." And if this is done
to an empire, will a little republic be excused when it misbehaves?

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'Complain to other Powers, and seek justice there? Yes, thank God!
justice is still to be found, even for the most insignificant; but it
is precisely the justice which will convict us. If we want justice,
we must be in a position to ask it with unsullied hands.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'Whence has arisen that urgency to make an appeal for interference
elsewhere? Has that appeal been made only by enemies of the State? Oh
no, gentlemen; it has arisen from real grievances. Our people have
degenerated from their former position; they have become demoralised;
they are not what they ought to be.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

'To-day a bill for £1,100 was laid before me for signature; but I
would sooner have cut off my right hand than sign that paper, for I
have not the slightest ground to expect that when that bill becomes
due there will be a penny to pay it with.'

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

The President added, and his statements remained uncontradicted:

The principal thing which had brought them to their present position
was that to which they would not give attention. It was not this or
that thing which impeded their way, but they themselves stopped the
way; and if they asked him what prevented the people from remaining
obstruction, owing to the inherent incapacity and weakness of the
people. But whence this weakness? Was it because they were deformed?
because they were worse than other people? because they were too few
and too insignificant to occupy the country? Those arguments did not
weigh with him. They were not true; he did not consider them of any
importance. The people were as good as any other people, but they
were completely demoralized; they had lost faith in God, reliance
upon themselves, or trust in each other. Hence he believed they were
inherently weak.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

He did not believe that a new constitution would save them; for as
little as the old constitution had brought them to ruin, so little
would a new constitution bring them salvation.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

The Great Powers, with all their greatness, all their thousands of
soldiers, would fall as quickly as this State had fallen, and even
more quickly, if their citizens were to do what the citizens of this
State had done; if the citizens of England had behaved towards the
Crown as the burghers of this State had behaved to their Government,
England would never have stood as long as she had, not even as long
as this State had stood. This State owed obligations to other
countries; they knew that the fire which had nearly consumed this
State would, if felt by them, very soon consume them also.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

In several of the cities of Holland there were people who had
subscribed for only one debenture, because they thought men of their
own blood were living in South Africa. What was the consequence? The
interest up to July last had been paid; in January of this year
£2,250 was due for interest, and there was not a penny to meet it.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

To take up arms and fight was nonsense; to draw the sword would be to
draw the sword against God, for it was God's judgment that the State
was in the condition it was to-day; and it was their duty to inquire
whether they should immerse in blood the thousands of innocent
inhabitants of this country, and if so, what for? For an idea--for
something they had in their heads, but not in their hearts; for an
independence which was not prized. Let them make the best of the
situation, and get the best terms they possibly could; let them agree
to join their hands to those of their brethren in the south, and then
from the Cape to the Zambesi there would be one great people. Yes,
there was something grand in that--grander even than their idea of a
Republic--something which ministered to their national feeling. And
would this be so miserable? Yes; this would be miserable for those
who would not be under the law, for the rebel and revolutionist, but
welfare and prosperity for the men of law and order.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

They must not underrate their real and many difficulties. He could
point to the south-western border, the Zulu, the goldfields, and
other questions, and show them that it was their duty to come to an
arrangement with the British Government, and to do so in a bold and
manly manner. An hon. member on Saturday last had spoken with a
fervent patriotism; but he had failed to appreciate the reference,
because it amounted to this--that they must shut their eyes to
everything, so as to keep their independence.

President Burgers, who left the Transvaal broken-hearted, more by the
cruel and mean intriguing and dissensions among, and disloyalty of,
his own people, which made the annexation possible, than by the Act
itself, when dying left a statement of the case. It is too long to
reproduce in its entirety. He shows how the English faction worked
for annexation, and how the Dopper party, headed by Kruger, allied
themselves with the former in intrigue against the Government,
thwarting all effort at reform and organization, and encouraging the
refusal to pay taxes. He states plainly that this course was pursued
by Kruger in order to oust him from power, and secure the Presidency
for himself. He shows how he opposed 'that other element which had
formerly worked in secret, viz., British interference, which got a
strong support from the Boers themselves, and one of their chief
leaders, P. Kruger, who had betrayed me, after promising me his and
his party's support.' He gives the final scene as follows:

The Volksraad had gone away, having done nothing but harm. The
members of the Executive had gone home, as if all were safe, and I
sat with a half-new Cabinet and part of an old one, half discharged.
Yet I made one attempt more, and drafted a letter to Shepstone,
intimating that I would oppose the annexation by force of arms, etc.;
and showed this to two members of the Executive. The response to my
appeal, however, was so weak (one of them being in league with the
English) that I had to abandon the project, and try to prepare for
the worst. When, therefore, Shepstone's announcement came--that he
could wait no longer, that he had given us time enough to reform, and
that he must issue his proclamation--I could do no more than advise a
protest, and an appeal to foreign powers. This having been agreed to
by my Government, I met Shepstone in presence of the Executive, and
what could be saved for the country, such as its language, its
legislature, the position of its officials, etc., was arranged.
Before issuing his proclamation, Shepstone desired to see copies of
both mine and the Government protest. This I promised, on condition
he showed me his proclamation before publication: to which he agreed.
To one clause I greatly objected, and protested--namely, the threat
of confiscation of property for disobeying the proclamation. I
pointed out that this was barbarous, and would be punishing a man's
innocent family for his actions. The clause was omitted. This is
the origin of the lie that I helped Shepstone in drawing up this
proclamation. In justice to Shepstone, I must say that I would not
consider an officer of my Government to have acted faithfully if he
had not done what Shepstone did; and if the act was wrong (which
undoubtedly it was), not he, but his Government, is to blame for it.

Messrs. Kruger and Jorissen left within a month to protest in England
against the annexation.

Sir T. Shepstone wrote (May 9): 'Mr. Paul Kruger and his colleague,
Dr. Jorissen, D.D., the Commission to Europe, leave to-day. I do not
think that either of them wishes the Act of Annexation to be
cancelled; Dr. Jorissen certainly does not.' And Mr. J.D. Barry,
Recorder of Kimberley, wrote to Frere (May 15): 'The delegates, Paul
Kruger and Dr. Jorissen, left Pretoria on the 8th, and even they do
not seem to have much faith in their mission. Dr. Jorissen thinks
that the reversal of Sir Theophilus's Act would not only be
impossible, but a great injury to the country.'

It is not necessary to seek hostile testimony to establish the fact
that the Boers as a whole acquiesced in the annexation; the
foregoing quotation from Aylward's book supplies all that is
needed--unintentionally, perhaps. The Zulu menace, which Aylward so
lightly dismisses, was a very serious matter; the danger a very real
one. It has frequently been asserted by the Boers and their friends
that the Zulu trouble was fomented by a section of the Natal people,
and that Sir Theophilus Shepstone himself, if he did not openly
encourage the Zulu King in his threats and encroachments on the
Transvaal, at any rate refrained from using his unique influence and
power with the Zulus in the direction of peace, and that he made a
none too scrupulous use of the Zulu question when he forced the
annexation of the Transvaal. It is stated that, in the first place,
there was no real danger, and in the next place, if there were, such
was Sir Theophilus's power with the Zulus that he could have averted
it; and in support of the first point, and in demolition of Sir T.
Shepstone's pro-annexation arguments, the following extract from the
latter's despatches is quoted by Aylward and others:

EXTRACT FROM DESPATCH, DATED UTRECHT, TRANSVAAL, JANUARY 29, 1878.

_Sir T. Shepstone to Sir H. Bulwer_.

Par. 12. 'Although this question has existed for many years, and the
settlement of it has been long postponed, yet on no former occasion
has it assumed so serious an aspect, or included so wide an area of
territory; never before has there existed any bar to the farmers
occupying their farms after an absence more or less temporary, caused
by a temporary and local scare. Practically, the line of occupied
farms has not been heretofore affected by the dispute about the
beaconed boundary, but now the prohibition to these has become
absolute by Zulu claims and action. Ruin is staring the farmers in
the face, and their position is, _for the time, worse under Her
Majesty's Government than ever it was under the Republic_.'

Had Sir T. Shepstone's power been as great as represented, it is fair
to suppose that it would have been exerted, and would have prevailed
in support of his own administration; but it seems clear that he
could do nothing; and as to the reality of the danger, nothing could
better establish that than the unpleasant admissions in the foregoing
extract and the initial disasters in the Zulu War a year later. The
Boers' protective power was not lessened by the annexation--quite
otherwise. It was supplemented by British money, arms, and soldiers,
and the prestige of the British flag, and yet things happened as
above described. What would they have been under the old conditions?

The day before he issued the proclamation Sir T. Shepstone sent a
messenger to Cetewayo, telling him that the Transvaal would be under
British sovereignty, and warning him against aggression in that
direction. Cetewayo replied: 'I thank my father Somtseu (Shepstone)
for his message. I am glad that he has sent it, because the Dutch
have tired me out, and I intended to fight with them once, only once,
and to drive them over the Vaal. Kabana, you see my impis are
gathered. It was to fight the Dutch I called them together. Now I
will send them back to their houses.' (C. 1883, p. 19.)

Colonel A.W. Durnford; R.E., in a memorandum of July 5, 1877, wrote:

About this time (April 10) Cetewayo had massed his forces in three
corps on the borders, and would undoubtedly have swept the Transvaal,
country not been taken over by the English. In my opinion, he would
have cleared the country to Pretoria.

'I am convinced,' wrote Sir A. Cunynghame, June 12, from Pretoria,
'that had this country not been annexed, it would have been ravaged
by the native tribes. Forty square miles of country had been overrun
by natives, and every house burned, just before the annexation.' And
he wrote again, July 6: 'Every day convinces me that unless this
country had been annexed it would have been a prey to plunder and
rapine from the natives on its border, joined by Secocoeni, Mapok,
and other tribes in the Transvaal. Feeling the influence of the
British Government, they are now tranquil.'

So much for the reality of the danger. As to the causes of it and the
alleged responsibility of Natal, Sir Bartle Frere, in a letter to
General Ponsonby, made the following remarks:

The fact is, that while the Boer Republic was a rival and
semi-hostile power, it was a Natal weakness rather to pet the Zulus
as one might a tame wolf, who only devoured one's neighbour's sheep.
We always remonstrated, but rather feebly; and now that both flocks
belong to us, we are rather embarrassed in stopping the wolf's
ravages.

Sir B. Frere realized fully the dangers, and gave his testimony as to
Boer opinion. On December 15, 1877, he wrote, concerning his policy
towards the Zulus:

My great anxiety is, of course, to avoid collision, and I am
satisfied that the only chance I have of keeping clear of it is to
show that I do not fear it. The Boers are, of course, in a state of
great apprehension, and I have ordered those of the two frontier
districts of Utrecht and Wakkerstroom to hold themselves in
readiness, should I find it necessary to call upon them for active
service.

Sir T. Shepstone also wrote, concerning the reality of the danger,
under date December 25:

The Boers are still flying, and I think by this time there must be a
belt of more than a hundred miles long and thirty broad, in which,
with three insignificant exceptions, there is nothing but absolute
desolation. This will give your Excellency some idea of the mischief
which Cetewayo's conduct has caused.

And again (April 30, 1878):

I find that Secocoeni acts as a kind of lieutenant to Cetewayo. He
received directions from the Zulu King, and these directions are by
Secocoeni issued to the various Basuto tribes in the Transvaal.

Sir T. Shepstone rushed the annexation. He plucked the fruit that
would have fallen. He himself has said that he might have waited
until the Zulus actually made their threatened murderous raid. That
might have been Macchiavelian statecraft, but it would not have been
humanity; and there was nothing in the attitude of the Boer leaders
at the time of the annexation which foreshadowed the fierce and
determined opposition which afterwards developed. The fact seems to
be that the people of the Transvaal were either in favour of the
annexation, or were overpowered and dazed by the hopelessness of the
Republic's outlook; and they passively assented to the action of Sir
Theophilus Shepstone and his twenty-five policemen. The Boers were
quite unable to pay the taxes necessary to self-government and the
prosecution of the Kaffir wars. The Treasury was empty--save for the
much-quoted 12s. 6d. The Government £1 bluebacks were selling at 1s.
Civil servants' salaries were months in arrear. The President
himself--the excitable, unstable, visionary, but truly enlightened
and patriotic Burgers--had not only drawn no salary, but had expended
his private fortune, and incurred a very heavy liability, in the
prosecution of the unsuccessful Secocoeni war. No amount of _ex post
facto_ evidence as to the supposed feelings and opinions of the Boers
can alter a single one of the very serious facts which, taken
together, seemed to Sir Theophilus to justify the annexation. But it
all comes down to this: If the passive acquiescence in the annexation
coincided strangely with the Republic's failure to defeat its enemies
and pay its debts, it is no whit less odd that Lord Carnarvon's
anxiety for the Republic's safety synchronized with his attempt to
confederate South Africa.

The real mistakes of the British Government began _after_ the
annexation. The failure to fulfil promises; the deviation from old
ways of government; the appointment of unsuitable officials, who did
not understand the people or their language; the neglect to convene
the Volksraad or to hold fresh elections, as definitely promised;
the establishment of personal rule by military men, who treated the
Boers with harshness and contempt, and would make no allowance for
their simple, old-fashioned ways, their deep-seated prejudices, and,
if you like, their stupid opposition to modern ideas: these things
and others caused great dissatisfaction, and gave ample material for
the nucleus of irreconcilables to work with.

During the occupation period Mr. Kruger took office under the British
Government, as also did Dr. Jorissen and Chief Justice (then Judge)
Kotzé, and indeed all the officials who had protested against the
annexation, except Mr. Piet Joubert, who declined to do so, and who,
if actions be the test and not words, was the only honest protestant.
Mr. Kruger retained his office for some time after he had concerned
himself in the Repeal agitation, but finally resigned his post on
being refused an increased remuneration, for which he had repeatedly
applied. There can be but little doubt that had this inducement been
forthcoming, he would have remained a loyal British subject.

The effect of the annexation was to start the wells of plenty
bubbling--with British gold. The country's debts were paid. Secocoeni
and Cetewayo would be dealt with, and the responsibility for all
things was on other and broader shoulders. With the revival of trade,
and the removal of responsibilities and burdens, came time to think
and to talk. The wave of the magician's wand looked so very simple
that the price began to seem heavy. The eaten bread was forgotten.
The dangers and difficulties that were past were of small account now
that they _were_ past; and so the men who had remained passive, and
recorded formal protests when they should have resisted, and taken
steps to show that they were in earnest, began their Repeal
agitation. All the benefits which the Boers hoped from the annexation
had now been reaped. Their pressing needs were relieved. Their debts
had been paid; their trade and credit restored; their enemies were
being dealt with. Repeal would rob them of none of these; they would,
in fact, eat their cake and still have it. The Zulu question had been
taken up, and could not now be left by the Imperial Government to
settle itself. The debts discharged for them and the outlays incurred
might, it is true, be charged to them. They could not be repaid, of
course, for the same reason that you cannot get blood from stone;
and the amount would, therefore, be a National Debt, which was
exactly what they had been trying for years to incur, and the
condition of their credit had made it impossible to do.

The causes of discontent before given were serious, but the failure
to fulfil promises was not deliberate. Circumstances combined to
prevent Sir Bartle Frere from visiting the Transvaal, as intended and
promised. Native wars (Gaika and Galeka), disagreements between the
Colonial and Imperial authorities, the obstructions and eventual
dismissal of the Molteno-Merriman Ministry--the first under
Responsible Government--Natal and Diamond-fields affairs, and, above
all, the Zulu War, all combined to prevent Sir Bartle Frere from
fulfilling his obligations to settle Transvaal matters.

In the meantime two deputations had been sent to England,
representing the Boers' case against annexation. The active party
among the Boers, _i.e._, the Voortrekker party, the most anti-British
and Republican, though small in itself, had now succeeded in
completely dominating the rest of the Boers, and galvanizing them
into something like national life and cohesion again--a result
achieved partly by earnest persuasion, but largely also by a kind of
terrorism.

Sir Bartle Frere, who managed at last to visit the Transvaal, in
April, 1879, had evidence of this on his journey up, and in a
despatch to Sir M. Hicks Beach from Standerton on the 6th of that
month he wrote:

I was particularly impressed by the replies of a very fine specimen
of a Boer of the old school. He had been six weeks in an English
prison, daily expecting execution as a rebel, and had been wounded by
all the enemies against whom his countrymen had fought--English,
Zulus, Basutos, Griquas, and Bushmen.

'But,' he said, 'that was in the days of my youth and inexperience.
Had I known then what I know now, I would never have fought against
the English, and I will never fight them again. Old as I am, I would
now gladly turn out against the Zulus, and take fifty friends of my
own, who would follow me anywhere; but I dare not leave my home till
assured it will not be destroyed and my property carried off in my
absence, by the men who call me "rebel" because I will not join them
against the Government. My wife, brought up like a civilized woman in
the Cape Colony, has had five times in her life to run from the house
and sleep in the veld when attacked by Zulus and Basutos. One of our
twelve sons was assegaied in sight of our house, within the last ten
it was surrounded by Basutos, my wife had to fly in the night by
herself, leading one child and carrying another on her back. She
walked nearly fifty miles through the Lion Veld, seeing three lions
on the way, before she reached a place of safety. It is not likely
that we should forget such things, nor wish them to recur; but how
can I leave her on my farm and go to Zululand, when the malcontent
leaders threaten me that if I go they will burn my house and drive
off all my stock? Assure me that we are not to be deserted by the
English Government, and left to the mercy of these malcontent
adventurers, and I and my people will gladly turn out to assist
Colonel Wood.'

_I find that this idea that the English Government will give up the
Transvaal, as it formerly did the Orange Free State, has been
industriously propagated, and has taken a great hold on the minds of
the well-disposed Boers, and is, I believe, one main cause of
reluctance to support the Government actively_.

_They argue that what has been done before may be done again, and
they have no feeling of assurance that if they stand by the English
Government to-day they will not be left to bear the brunt of the
malcontents' vengeance when a Republic is established_.

And again on the 9th, from Heidelberg:

_The idea that we should somehow be compelled or induced to abandon
the country had taken great hold on the minds of some of the more
intelligent men that I met_. It has been seduously written up by a
portion of the South African press, English as well as Dutch. I
marked its effect particularly on men who said they had come from the
old Colony since the annexation, but would never have done so had
they believed that English rule would be withdrawn, and the country
left to its former state of anarchy....

_But there is great practical difficulty in conveying to the mass of