PROCEEDINGS FOR 1900 XLVII 
corrupted, any decision which seemed adverse to the dominant race 
being overruled by the legislative action of the Raad. In addition to 
these grievances should be mentioned the determination of the Boers 
to keep the subject races permanently in a state of serfdom or worse. 
Was it to be endured that a country, having some kind of dependence 
on the British Crown, should be permitted to treat British subjects as 
little better than outlaws, offering them privileges which were generally 
fictitious, gradually withdrawing those which they had offered; and 
that their cruelty to the aborigines should be allowed and virtually 
sanctioned ? It has been said that South Africa was not created by the 
British ; but neither was it created by the Boers; and, whatever claim 
of ownership may be constituted in either case by possession, it cannot 
be held to annihilate the natural rights of those who form the vast 
majority of the population, and whose ancestors have possessed the ter- 
ritory for centuries. In the long run, indeed, it will be decided that the 
country must be in the hands of those who are able and willing to govern 
it well, and he will be a bold man who will say the Boers have done this, 
and a very sanguine man who will cherish the hope that they would ever 
do so in the future. 
On these points, it may be said, there is essential agreement among 
all who have cared to study the merits of the case. So far as I am aware, 
there is only one plea entered in favour of the Boer government and in 
condemnation of the action of the British government in proclaiming 
war. They were too precipitate, it is said: if they had only gone on 
negotiating for a longer period, they might have come to an agreement 
with the government of the Transvaal, and so the war might have been 
averted. According to others, indeed, they delayed too long, and put off 
their preparations to such an extent that the Boers were able to complete 
the preparations they were making to resist the British demands and 
power. It is obvious that one or other of these objections must fall to 
the ground ; and the latter being an objection not to the war, but to 
the manner or time of its inception and conduct, may be set aside. Was 
there any probability, then, let us ask, of the Transvaal government 
being induced, by the representations of Great Britain, to grant proper 
concessions to their English-speaking population? The answer to this 
question is really very simple. The leading men of the Transvaal had 
long determined to throw off every irace and semblance of British govern- 
ment, and for many years they had been making preparations, on an 
immense scale, to resist any attempt on the part of Great Britain to 
enforce their resolution to gain something like freedom for their people. 
They were resolved—so some of them declared openly, and there was a 
