intricate that they could only be solved by the
sword.

It may be remembered that in 1854 Sir George Grey, the then Governor
of the Cape, applied himself to the puzzle. He started with the best
hopes. He saw before him a vista of labour, of argument, of
contradiction, but the tangles, he believed, could eventually be
smoothed out. In the anxiety to avoid trouble and responsibility,
and possibly in an amiable desire to conciliate the parties at home,
the Imperial Government had conceded territories and alienated
subjects without having made an effort to discover the wishes of the
people, or to try a free form of government suited to South Africa.
He was in favour of a Federal Union wherein the separate Colonies
and States, each with its local government and legislature, should
be combined under one general representative legislature, led by a
responsible Ministry, specially charged with the duty of providing
for common defence. This plan of Federal Union seemed to appeal to
the Burghers of the Orange Free State, for the Volksraad decided
that "a union of alliance with the Cape Colony, either on the plan
of federation or otherwise, is desirable." Sir George Grey was not
permitted to pursue his policy, for the British Government decided
against the resumption of British sovereignty over the Orange Free
State. The same forward and backward movement, the same sort of
political _chase et croise_, was again carried on from 1876 and 1877
to 1881. It was decided that a Federal Union should be created
between such African Colonies as were willing to join. To further
this scheme Sir Bartle Frere, after a long and arduous career in
India, was appointed Governor and High Commissioner by Lord
Carnarvon, the then Colonial Secretary. But Sir Bartle was too late.
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who had been sent out to the Transvaal on
Special Commission to confer with the President on the question of
Confederation, had already annexed the Transvaal. The reasons for
the annexation were many and excellent. Firstly, the Transvaal
Republic, vulgarly speaking, was out at elbows. It was bankrupt,
helpless, languishing. The sorry sum of 12s. 6d. represented the
entire wealth of the Treasury. The Zulu chief Cetchwayo was waiting
to "eat up" the Boers, and the Boers were unceasing in their efforts
to encroach on Zulu territory. But the deplorable state of affairs
is better described by quoting Sir T. Shepstone's letter on the
subject.

"It was pa