ody ought to know, but does not--it is not an
English, but a Dutch Colony, and the Boers have never been disposed to
render to English sovereignty more than a passive obedience. The chief
facts in their recent history are but too easily recalled. When the
Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the people at first
submitted quietly; but the new Commissioner aroused first their fears,
and then their anger, by various encroachments which were regarded as
invasions of their rights. The Boers took up arms, English troops were
despatched from the Cape to suppress the rising, and these troops were
beaten at Lang's Neck. General Colley, who then commanded the forces at
Natal, hastened forward with more troops in the hope of retrieving this
disaster, but was himself beaten at Ingogo. He then, without waiting for
the reinforcements which were on their way to him, took up a new
position, was attacked by the Boers, and defeated in the memorable
disaster at Majuba Hill. Mr. Gladstone forthwith surrendered everything,
and since that time the Boers have been, as a matter of course, more and
more antagonistic to the English power. 'They came to Africa,' says
Baron Huebner, 'in 1652, with the intention of remaining there, and they
do remain there. The future and Africa belong to them, unless they are
expelled by a stronger power, the blacks or the English. They accept the
struggle with the blacks, and they avoid all contact with the English.'
Mr. Froude takes now, as he has always taken, a very strong view of our
own responsibility for all the difficulties which have arisen with the
Boers. We have, he says with some bitterness, 'treated them unfairly as
well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured.' The
story is long, and it has been treated more than once, and we believe
with strict fairness and impartiality, in these pages. Mr. Froude
himself does not deny, that the effect of the surrender after Majuba
Hill 'was to diminish infallibly the influence of England in South
Africa, and to elate and encourage the growing party whose hope was and
is to see it vanish altogether.' The work was not half done. We insisted
upon a new Treaty, which was immediately broken by the Boers. Mr. Froude
once more recommends us to 'leave the Cape alone'--not to get out of it,
but to allow the Boers to manage their affairs in their own way. 'Our
interferences,' he tells us, 'have been dictated by the highest motives;
but experi