urts should be independent
of the Executive from the beginning, and both languages be official.
A million pounds of compensation would be paid to the burghers--a most
remarkable example of a war indemnity being paid by the victors. Loans
were promised to the farmers to restart them in business, and a pledge
was made that farms should not be taxed. The Kaffirs were not to have
the franchise, but were to have the protection of law. Such were the
generous terms offered by the British Government. Public opinion at
home, strongly supported by that of the colonies, and especially of
the army, felt that the extreme step had been taken in the direction of
conciliation, and that to do more would seem not to offer peace, but
to implore it. Unfortunately, however, the one thing which the British
could not offer was the one thing which the Boers would insist upon
having, and the leniency of the proposals in all other directions may
have suggested weakness to their minds. On March 15th an answer was
returned by General Botha to the effect that nothing short of total
independence would satisfy them, and the negotiations were accordingly
broken off.

There was a disposition, however, upon the Boer side to renew them, and
upon May 10th General Botha applied to Lord Kitchener for permission to
cable to President Kruger, and to take his advice as to the making
of peace. The stern old man at The Hague was still, however, in an
unbending mood. His reply was to the effect that there were great hopes
of a successful issue of the war, and that he had taken steps to make
proper provision for the Boer prisoners and for the refugee women. These
steps, and very efficient ones too, were to leave them entirely to the
generosity of that Government which he was so fond of reviling.

On the same day upon which Botha applied for leave to use the British
cable, a letter was written by Reitz, State Secretary of the Transvaal,
to Steyn, in which the desperate condition of the Boers was clearly
set forth. This document explained that the burghers were continually
surrendering, that the ammunition was nearly exhausted, the food running
low, and the nation in danger of extinction. 'The time has come to take
the final step,' said the Secretary of State. Steyn wrote back a reply
in which, like his brother president, he showed a dour resolution to
continue the struggle, prompted by a fatalist conviction that some
outside interference would reverse the result o