e completed_, and then only when it affected the interests of Great
Britain or Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa.

[Sidenote: Status of the Republic.]

It was this Article 4 which gave an appearance of truth (and an
appearance only) to Lord Derby's declaration in the House of Lords that
although he had omitted the term of suzerainty, the substance thereof
remained. It would have been more correct to have said that owing to the
lapse of suzerainty the South African Republic no longer fell under the
head of a semi-suzerain State, but that it had become a free,
independent, sovereign international State, the sovereignty of which was
only limited by the restriction contained in Article 4 of the
Convention. Sovereignty need not of necessity be absolute. Belgium is a
sovereign international State, although it is bound to observe a
condition of permanent neutrality. The South African Republic falls
undoubtedly under this category of States, the sovereignty of which is
limited in one or other defined direction. But the fact of its
sovereignty is nevertheless irrefutable. It will be pointed out later
how this position, which is undoubtedly the correct one, has been
consistently upheld by the Government of the South African Republic, but
it is necessary now to revert to the historical development.

CAPITALISTIC JINGOISM.

FIRST PERIOD.

[Sidenote: The gold fields.]

In 1886 gold was discovered in great quantities and in different parts
of the South African Republic, and with that discovery our people
entered upon a new phase of their history. The South African Republic
was to develope within a few years from a condition of great poverty
into a rich and prosperous State, a country calculated in every respect
to awaken and inflame the greed of the Capitalistic speculator. Within a
few years the South African Republic was ranked among the first
gold-producing countries of the world. The bare veldt of hitherto was
overspread with large townships inhabited by a speculative and bustling
class brought together from all corners of the earth. The Boers, who had
hitherto followed pastoral and hunting pursuits, were now called upon to
fulfil one of the most difficult tasks in the world, namely, the
management of a complicated administration, and the government of a
large digging population, which had sprung up suddenly under the most
extraordinary circumstances. And how have they acquitted themselves of
the task? We q