24 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



Britisli arms mainly by brute force would have 

 IDermanently and hopelessly alienated it from 

 Great Britain ; Parliamentary government in a 

 country where the Dutch control the Parliament 

 would have become impossible, and without Par- 

 liamentary government, Cape Colony would be 

 ungovernable. The actual magnanimity of the 

 peace with the Boers concluded by Mr. Gladstone's 

 Ministry after two humiliating military reverses 

 suffered by the arms under their control became 

 plainly apparent to the just and sensible mind of 

 the Dutch Cape Colonist, atoned for much of past 

 grievance, and demonstrated the total absence in 

 the English mind of any hostility or unfriendli- 

 ness to the Dutch race. Concord between Dutch 

 and English in the colony from that moment 

 became possible, and that concord the government 

 of Mr. Rhodes inaugurated, and has since to all 

 appearance hrmly riveted. On the other hand, 

 the peace thus concluded with the Transvaal 

 carried with it some grave disadvantages. The re- 

 erection of the South African Republic contributed 

 another powerful factor to the forces of disunion 

 iu South Africa ; the Boers of the Transvaal, 

 Avanting altogether the common-sense of their 

 kinsmen in the colony, have since the war been 

 inflated with an overAveening pride, foolishly 

 eager to seek quarrels and sustain disputes with 

 the English poAver, and will continue, possibly for 

 generations, to be a formidable obstacle to either 

 political or commercial federation in South Africa. 

 Moreover, the generosity of the surrender of the 



