recrimination. The present position is that burgher
forces are assembled in very large numbers in immediate proximity
to the frontiers of Natal, while the British troops occupy
certain defensive positions well within those borders. The
question is whether the burgher forces will invade British
territory, thus closing the door to any possibility of a pacific
solution. I cannot believe that the South African Republic will
take such aggressive action, or that Your Honour would
countenance such a course, which there is nothing to justify.
Prolonged negotiations have hitherto failed to bring about a
satisfactory understanding, and no doubt such understanding is
more difficult than ever to-day, after the expulsion of British
subjects with great loss and suffering; but until the threatened
act of aggression is committed I shall not despair of peace, and
I feel sure that any reasonable proposal, from whatever quarter
proceeding, would be favourably considered by Her Majesty's
Government if it offered an immediate termination of present
tension and a prospect of permanent tranquillity."[177]

[Footnote 177: C. 9,530.]

With this--practically the final communication of the British
Government--it is instructive to compare the "last words" of the two
other protagonists. The Pretoria Executive, true to its policy of
playing for time, sends through Mr. Reitz two long and argumentative
replies to the British despatches of July 27th (the Joint Commission),
and May 10th (Mr. Chamberlain's reply to the petition to the Queen).
The Afrikander nationalists having failed to "mediate" in Pretoria and
Bloemfontein, consoled themselves with a final effort in the shape of
a direct appeal to the Queen. In a petition signed by the fifty-eight
Afrikander members of both Houses of the Cape Parliament, including,
of course, the members of the Schreiner Cabinet, they declare their
earnest belief that the South African Republic "is fully awakened to
the wisdom and discretion of making liberal provision for the
representation of the Uitlanders," and urge Her Majesty's Government
to appoint a Joint Commission--a proposal to which the British
Government had declared that it was impossible to return. The effect
of this somewhat half-hearted effort was, however, on this occasion
appreciably diminished by the fact that the nationalist petition was
accompanied by a