adstone's Government was unwilling to fulfil its
pledges in reference to South Africa, and that in consequence the native
inhabitants would not receive the support they had been led to expect,
considerable indignation was felt amongst the friends of the
aborigines. The demand which they made seems to have been moderate. The
Transvaal, which before the war, had been reckoned, for its protection,
a portion of the British dominions, was now made simply a State under
British Suzerainty, with a debt to England of about a quarter of a
million (in lieu of the English outlay during the three years of its
annexation), and a covenant for the protection of the 800,000 natives in
the State, and the Zulu, Bechuana, and Swazi tribes upon its borders.
The English sympathisers with these natives simply asked that the
covenant should be adhered to. There was little chance of the debt being
paid, and that they were willing to forego; but they maintained that
honour and humanity demanded that the Boers should not be allowed to
treat their agreement with us as so much waste paper.

"The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for the Colonies received
the Transvaal delegates graciously, but the doors of the Mansion House
were shut against them. Its occupant at that time would neither receive
them into his house nor bid them God-speed. He had made a careful study
of the South African question, and he felt no doubt that this deputation
represented a body of European settlers who were depriving the natives
of their land, slaying their men, and enslaving their women and
children. He desired to extend the hospitality of the Mansion House to
visitors from all countries, and to all creeds and political parties;
but the line must be drawn somewhere, and he would draw it at the Boers.
The boldness of his action on this occasion startled some even of his
friends. He was, of course, attacked by that portion of the press which
supported the Government. On the other hand, he had numerous
sympathisers. Approving letters and telegrams came from many quarters,
one telegram coming from the 'Loyalists of Kimberley' with 'hearty
congratulations.' As for his opponents, he was not in the least moved by
anything they said. He held it to be impossible for any respectable
person who knew the Boers to support them. This was no doubt strong
language, but it was not stronger than that of Moffat and Livingstone;
not a whit stronger either than that used by W.E. Fors