176 SOUTH AFRICA. 



of 1884 is to be maintained as the groundwork 

 of British paramountcy in South Africa, it should 

 be made apparent that the position is one of right, 

 and not as that of a mere claim to be disputed, 

 evaded, and frittered away by the Transvaal 

 Government as being a concession on its part, 

 enforced under protest, and therefore to be ignored 

 at will whenever the opportunity for doing so may 

 seem propitious. Until the position above alluded 

 to has been defined specifically, and thus removed 

 from the field of controversy, the elements of strife 

 between the Imperial Government and the Trans- 

 vaal will continue to smoulder, and unrest possibly, 

 or rather probably, culminate in hostilities. But 

 without prophesying, it is certain that if the Trans- 

 vaal Government continues to play fast and loose 

 with the Uitlanders' demand for an amelioration 

 of their grievances, and to impose upon them the 

 contemptible position of its mean Gibeonites to 

 hew its wood and draw its water to order, so long 

 will the peace of South Africa be dangerously 

 jeopardised, and a minimum development of its 

 resources, which are mainly mineral, will naturally 

 result 



Taking all things into consideration, I think the 



