722 



TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC. 



TURKEY. 



these circumstances the commissioner, on April 

 9th, declared his intention to proclaim, provi- 

 sionally, the authority of the Queen over the 

 territory. The president, Mr. Burgers, issued a 

 formal protest against such proceedings, but 

 intimated that he would, on behalf of his gov- 

 ernment, submit provisionally, while a deputa- 

 tion proceeded to England and America for 

 the purpose of defending the rights of the peo- 

 ple, and endeavoring to arrive at a peaceable 

 solution of the matter. On April 12th, the proc- 

 lamation of annexation was formally made. 

 It began with a reference to the " Sand River 

 Convention," which recognized the Transvaal 

 as an independent state precisely a quarter of 

 a century ago. The language of that instru- 

 ment was very explicit ; it guaranteed on the 

 part of the British Government to the emigrant 

 farmers north of the Vaal " the right to man- 

 age their own affairs, and to govern them selves 

 according to their own laws, without any in- 

 terference on the part of the British Govern- 

 ment." But this arrangement, according to 

 SirT. Shepstone's reasoning, was founded upon 

 certain well-understood though unexpressed 

 conditions. The chief of these was that the 

 new state should be able to maintain order and 

 to control its native neighbors. But order had 

 been imperfectly secured ; the government 

 failed to protect many of the white subjects, 

 who were forced to make terms with the na- 

 tive chiefs and to pay them blackmail. Panics 

 were frequent, both in the north, where Seco- 

 coeni's victory had disorganized the communi- 

 ty, and in the south, where the Zulu king was 

 threatening invasion. Loss of confidence had 

 produced commercial ruin and state bank- 

 ruptcy. The white inhabitants, though so 

 vastly outnumbered by the blacks, had been 

 divided into factions, and the approach of the 

 presidential election, " so far from allaying 

 the general anxiety or from inspiring hope in 

 the future, is looked forward to by all parties as 

 most likely to result in civil war, with its at- 

 tendant anarchy and bloodshed." The temp- 

 tations to which the natives were subjected 

 by this spectacle of weakness had been in- 

 creased by the war, in which the Boers suf- 

 fered defeat in 1876, "thus at once shaking 

 the prestige of the whites in South Africa, and 

 placing every European community in peril." 

 These were the reasons advanced by Sir T. 

 Shepstone to justify the interference of the 

 British Government with the independence 

 conceded to the Boers by the Sand River Con- 

 vention. The proclamation noted still further 

 "how strongly a large proportion of the in- 

 habitants of the Transvaal view the urgency 

 and imminence of the circumstances by which 

 they are surrounded, the state being unable to 

 devise any means by which the country is to 

 be saved from ruin." The territory, therefore, 

 of the South African Republic was declared to 

 be subject to the British Crown. The discon- 

 tented were warned not to attempt resistance. 

 Provision was made for the continuance of ex- 



isting administrative and judicial arrangements, 

 and a separate government was guaranteed to 

 the Transvaal. 



The change of government was effected with- 

 out any disturbance. On May 4th, a command 

 of British troops arrived in Pretoria and were 

 cordially received by the population. Among 

 the people the annexation met with but very 

 little opposition. On the natives the effect of 

 the annexation was also good. When it became 

 known to them that the country had passed 

 under British rule, they laid down their arms, 

 and sent messages of friendship to Sir T. Shep- 

 stone. 



. TURKEY, an empire in Eastern Europe, 

 Western Asia, and Northern Africa. Reign- 

 ing sovereign, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II., born 

 September 22, 1842; succeeded his elder broth- 

 er, Sultan Murad V., August 31, 1876. The 

 heir-presumptive to the throne is Mehemet 

 Reshad Effendi, the brother of the present Sul- 

 tan, born November 3, 1844. (For an account 

 of the dependencies of Turkey see EGYPT, MON- 



TENEGBO, ROUMANIA, and SEEVIA.) 



The area and population of the Turkish Em- 

 pire were as follows, according to the reports 

 of the Statistical Department of the Turkish 

 Ministry of Public Instruction : 



An interesting account of the finances of 

 Turkey, and of the causes which contribute to 

 their present condition, is given in a work en- 

 titled "Stambul und das moderne Turken- 

 thum " (Leipsic, 1877). It says : " It is probably 

 without a parallel in the annals of history that 

 a state which, 25 years ago, did not have a pub- 

 lic debt, should contract within 20 years, 

 in the midst of peace, and in possession of the 

 most fertile and richest lands, a debt of 5-6,- 

 000,000,000 francs, and then declare itself bank- 

 rupt. But there was also a conjunction of 

 events which has no parallel in history : an 

 avaricious monarch, a government whose mem- 

 bers did not even know the first principles of 

 political economy, a large number of pashas 

 over head and ears in debt, and all these indi- 



