finish which leave the least rancour. Remember Lee's noble
words: 'We are a Christian people. We have fought this fight as long and
as well as we knew how. We have been defeated. For us, as a Christian
people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the
situation.' That is how a brave man accepts the judgment of the God of
battles. So it may at last be with the Boers. These prison camps and
concentration camps have at least brought them, men and women, in
contact with our people. Perhaps the memories left behind will not be
entirely bitter. Providence works in strange ways, and possibly the
seeds of reconciliation, may be planted even there.

As to the immediate future it is probable that the Transvaal, with the
rush of immigrants which prosperity will bring, will soon be, next to
Natal, the most British of the South African States. With Natal British,
Rhodesia British, the Transvaal British, the Cape half and half, and
only the Orange River Colony Dutch, the British would be assured of a
majority in a parliament of United South Africa. It would be well to
allow Natal to absorb the Vryheid district of the Transvaal.

It has occurred to me--a suggestion which I put forward with all
diffidence--that it would be a wise and practicable step to form a Boer
Reservation in the northern districts of the Transvaal (Watersberg and
Zoutpansberg). Let them live there as Basutos live in Basutoland, or
Indians in Indian territory, or the inhabitants of a protected state in
India. Guarantee them, as long as they remain peaceable under the
British flag, complete protection from the invasion of the miner or the
prospector. Let them live their own lives in their own way, with some
simple form of home rule of their own. The irreconcilable men who could
never rub shoulders with the British could find a home there, and the
British colonies would be all the stronger for the placing in quarantine
of those who might infect their neighbours with their own bitterness.
Such a State could not be a serious source of danger, since we could
control all the avenues by which arms could reach it. I am aware that
the Watersberg and the Zoutpansberg are not very desirable places of
residence, but the thing is voluntary and no man would need to go there
unless he wished. Without some such plan the Empire will have no
safety-valve in South Africa.

I cannot conclude this short review of the South African question
without some allusion to th