these gentlemen were thus satisfactorily arranging matters with
Lord Carnarvon, Sir T. Shepstone was making a tour round the country
which resembled a triumphal progress more than anything else. He was
everywhere greeted with enthusiasm by all classes of the community,
Boers, English, and natives, and numerous addresses were presented to
him couched in the warmest language, not only by Englishmen but also by
Boers.

It is very difficult to reconcile the enthusiasm of a great number
of the inhabitants of the Transvaal for English rule, and the quite
acquiescence of the remainder, at this time, with the decidedly
antagonistic attitude assumed later on. It appears to me, however, that
there are several reasons that go far towards accounting for it. The
Transvaal, when we annexed it, was in the position of a man with a knife
at his throat, who is suddenly rescued by some one stronger than he, on
certain conditions which at the time he gladly accepts, but afterwards,
when the danger is passed, wishes to repudiate. In the same way the
inhabitants of the South African Republic, were in the time of need very
thankful for our aid, but after a while, when the recollection of their
difficulties had grown faint, when their debts had been paid and their
enemies defeated, they began to think that they would like to get rid of
us again, and start fresh on their own account, with a clean sheet. What
fostered agitation more than anything else, however, was the perfect
impunity in which it was allowed to be carried on. Had only a little
firmness and decision been shown in the first instance there would
have been no further trouble. We might have been obliged to confiscate
half-a-dozen farms, and perhaps imprison as many free burghers for a
few months, and there it would have ended. Neither Boers or natives
understand our namby-pamby way of playing at government; they put it
down to fear. What they want, and what they expect, is to be governed
with a just but a firm hand. Thus when the Boers found that they could
agitate with impunity, they naturally enough continued to agitate.
Anybody who knows them will understand that it was very pleasant to them
to find themselves in possession of that delightful thing, a grievance,
and, instead of stopping quietly at home on their farms, to feel obliged
to proceed, full of importance and long words, to a distant meeting,
there to spout and listen to the spouting of others. It is so much
easier to ta