e in the present state of demoralization.

So, in 1877, the annexation was effected. The Transvaal Republic was
taken under the sovereignty of Queen Victoria.

By a treaty drawn up in 1881, it was declared to be a self-governing,
although not an independent State. In all its foreign relations it was
subject to the Suzerainty of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In other
words, it was a vassal State.

{181}

In that one word Suzerain there lurked the germ of a great war. In a
revision of the terms of agreement made by the British, in 1884, this
word, which was to play such an important part was omitted; whether by
accident or design cannot be said. But the Executive Council of the
Republic saw their opportunity, and claimed that the omission of the
word was virtually a relinquishment of the claim, and an admission that
the South African Republic was an independent and sovereign State.

Lord Derby, Minister of Foreign Affairs, replied that no such
significance could be attached to the omission in the amended treaty;
that the word Suzerain was not employed simply because it was vague and
indefinite in its meaning; whereas, the rights claimed by the British
were not vague, but precise and definite. These distinctly forbade the
South African Republic from concluding any treaty with a foreign power.
And as such power _was_ vested in the Queen, as a matter of course it
followed that the South African {182} Republic was _not a sovereign and
independent State_.

While this diplomatic controversy was proceeding, other and less formal
agencies were at work. The Transvaal, rich in resources beyond all
expectation, was being developed by British capital, without which
nothing could have been done. The _Uitlanders_, (or "Outlanders"), as
these English-born men were called, complained that, instead of
cooperating with them in this labor, which must result in the common
good, everything possible was done to embarrass and paralyze their
efforts. Chief among the long list of grievances was the claim that,
while they were the principal taxpayers, they were denied
representation, and that as they furnished the capital for all the
financial enterprises, it was but fair that they should have the
franchise which was stubbornly withheld from them.

Out of these conditions came the "Jameson Raid," the most discreditable
incident in the whole South African story; an incident which cast a
cloud of suspicion over {183} the entire Britis