eoples of Europe had to bend the knee before a Government which united
a commercial policy of crying injustice with a veneer of simulated
philanthropy.

[Sidenote: The Dutch language.]

But it was not only in regard to the Natives that the Boers were
oppressed and their rights violated. When the Cape was transferred to
England in 1806, their language was guaranteed to the Dutch inhabitants.
This guarantee was, however, soon to meet the same fate as the treaties
and conventions which were concluded by England with our people at later
periods.

The violator of treaties fulfilled its obligation by decreeing in 1825
that all documents were for the future to be written in English.
Petitions in the language of the country and complaints about bitter
grievances were not even acknowledged. The Boers were excluded from the
juries because their knowledge of English was too faulty, and their
causes and actions had to be determined by Englishmen, with whom they
had nothing in common.

[Sidenote: The Great Trek.]

After twenty years' experience of British administration it had become
abundantly clear to the Boers that there was no prospect of peace and
prosperity before them, for their elementary rights had been violated,
and they could only expect oppression. They were without adequate
guarantees of protection, and their position had become intolerable in
the Cape Colony.

They decided to sell home, farm, and all that remained over from the
depredations of the Kaffirs, and to trek away from British rule. The
Colony was at this time bounded on the north by the Orange River.

[Sidenote: Legality of the Trek.]

[7] At first, Lieutenant-Governor
Stockenstrom was consulted; but he was of opinion that there was no law
which could prevent the Boers from leaving the Colony and settling
elsewhere. Even if such a statute existed, it would be tyrannical, as
well as impossible, to enforce it.

The Cape Attorney-General, Mr. Oliphant, expressed the same opinion,
adding that it was clear that the emigrants were determined to go into
another country, and not to consider themselves British subjects any
longer. The same thing was happening daily in the emigration from
England to North America, and the British Government was and would
remain powerless to stop the evil.

The territory to the north of the Orange River and to the east of the
Drakensberg lay outside the sphere of British influence or authority,
and was, as far as was then