known; which placed diamonds in such
conditions that the greatest living authority, who had undertaken a
huge journey to report on the occurrence, could only say, in the face
of a successful wash-up, 'Well, there _may_ be diamonds here, but all
I can say is they've no right to be'; the something which many, many
centuries ago prompted the old Roman to write, 'Ex Africa semper
aliquid novi affert,' and which is in the mind of the South African
to-day when he says, 'The impossible is always happening in Africa.'

There is this to be said for the Gladstone Ministry in 1881: that,
having decided on a policy of scuttle and abandonment, they did it
thoroughly, as though they enjoyed it. A feeble vote-catching
provision, with no security attached, was inserted in the Pretoria
Convention relative to the treatment of natives, but no thought or
care was given to the unfortunate British subject who happened to be
a white man, and to have fought for his Queen and country.{05} The
abandonment was complete, without scruple, without shame. It has been
written that 'the care and forethought which would be lavished on a
favourite horse or dog on changing masters were denied to British
subjects by the British Government.' The intensity and bitterness of
the resentment, the wrath and hatred--so much deeper because so
impotent--at the betrayal and desertion have left their traces on
South African feeling; and the opinion of the might and honour of
England, as it may be gleaned in many parts of the Colonies as well
as everywhere in the Republics, would be an unpleasant revelation to
those who live in undisturbed portions of the Empire, comfortable in
the belief that to be a British subject carries the old-time magic of
'Civis Romanus sum.'

The Transvaal State, as it was now to be called, was re-established,
having had its trade restored, its enemies crushed--for Secocoeni and
Cetewayo were both defeated and broken--and its debts paid or
consolidated in the form of a debt to England, repayable when
possible. For some time not even the interest on this debt was paid.

Numbers of British subjects left the country in disgust and despair.
Ruined in pocket and broken in spirit, they took what little they
could realize of their once considerable possessions, and left the
country where they could no longer live and enjoy the rights of free
men. For some years the life of a Britisher among the Boers was far
from happy. It is not surprising--ind