s strong against it.

For many months the Boers persevered. They again sent Kruger and Joubert
to England; they held huge mass meetings; they poured out prayers to the
high commissioner to give back their independence; they sent memorial
after memorial to the secretary of state. In the autumn of 1879 Sir Garnet
Wolseley assumed the administration of the Transvaal, and issued a
proclamation setting forth the will and determination of the government of
the Queen that this Transvaal territory should be, and should continue to
be for ever, an integral part of her dominions in South Africa. In the
closing days of 1879 the secretary of state, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who
had succeeded Carnarvon (Jan. 1878), received from the same eminent
soldier a comprehensive despatch, warning him that the meetings of protest
against annexation, attended by thousands of armed men in angry mood,
would be likely to end in a serious explosion. While putting all sides of
the question before his government, Sir Garnet inserted one paragraph of
momentous import. "The Transvaal," he said, "is rich in minerals; gold has
already been found in quantities, and there can be little doubt that
larger and still more valuable goldfields will sooner or later be
discovered. Any such discovery would soon bring a large British population
here. The time must eventually arrive when the Boers will be in a small
minority, as the country is very sparsely peopled, and would it not
therefore be a very near-sighted policy to recede now from the position we
have taken up here, simply because for some years to come, the retention
of 2000 or 3000 troops may be necessary to reconsolidate our power?"(11)
This pregnant and far-sighted warning seems to have been little considered
by English statesmen of either party at this critical time or afterwards,
though it proved a vital element in any far-sighted decision.

On March 9--the day, as it happened, on which the intention to dissolve
parliament was made public--Sir Garnet telegraphed for a renewed expression
of the determination of the government to retain the country, and he
received the assurance that he sought. The Vaal river, he told the Boers,
would flow backwards through the Drakensberg sooner than the British would
be withdrawn from the Transvaal. The picturesque figure did not soften the
Boer heart. (M12) This was the final share of the conservative cabinet in
the unfortunate enterprise on which they had allowed the