would have overrun the country and turned out the
Boers, who, after they had been delivered from their enemies by the
English, proclaimed "a war of independence" in December, 1880. The
Majuba disaster, 27th of February, 1881, in which the English had
92 killed, 134 wounded, and 59 prisoners, is of course mentioned by
the delegates. An English army twelve thousand strong was
advancing; but though the Queen's speech referred to the fact of
the annexation, Mr. Gladstone, who in his Midlothian campaign, had
protested against it, agreed to the 1881 Convention in which the
independence of the Transvaal under England's suzerainty was
recognised.

"The Boer nation," the Boer delegates say in their Memorandum,
"could not bring themselves to accept the Convention; from all
parts of the country protests arose against the Suzerainty clause."
I admit willingly that the Boers did not abide by the Convention.
In 1884, speaking in the House of Lords,--Lord Derby said: "The
attitude of the Boers might constitute a _casus belli_ but as the
Government were not in the mood for war, and the position of the
English resident in Pretoria was anomalous," he assented to the
Convention of 27th February, 1884, "by which," say the Boer
delegates, "the suzerainty over the Transvaal was abolished, and
the South African Republic's complete independence acknowledged."
This is their contention, now for the facts."

I then adverted to the events of which the XVth. and XVIth. chapters of
_La Politique Boer_ give a summary. The Jameson raid is, of course, the
mainstay of the delegates' argument. After showing what this is really
worth, and also discussing the arbitration question, I concluded as
follows:

"The Memorandum shirks all the questions; documents are not
referred to; there is nothing in it but assertions, which are to be
accepted without discussion. It ends by mixing up what relates to
the organisation and adminstration of the two Republics. But the
adminstration of the Orange Free State and the adminstration of the
South African Republic were quite different things. By following
Krueger's policy Mr. Steyn has been guilty of a crime as well as a
great political blunder. Had he remained neutral the English army
would have been compelled to establish the basis of its operations
much farth