rations were made. I do not
think it necessary to discuss the questions you have raised. But
the result of these preparations, carried on with great secrecy,
has been that the British Empire has been compelled to confront
an invasion which has entailed upon the Empire a costly war and
the loss of thousands of precious lives. This great calamity has
been the penalty which Great Britain has suffered for having in
recent years acquiesced in the existence of the two Republics.

"In view of the use to which the two Republics have put the
position which was given to them, and the calamities which their
unprovoked attack has inflicted upon Her Majesty's dominions, Her
Majesty's Government can only answer your Honours' telegram by
saying that they are not prepared to assent to the independence
either of the South African Republic or of the Orange Free
State."

[Sidenote: Conventions to be annulled.]

This reply has been cited at length for two reasons. In the first
place it affords a concise and weighty statement of the British case
against the Republics, and, in the second, it contains a specific and
reasoned declaration of the central decision of the Salisbury Cabinet,
against which the efforts both of the Dutch party in the Cape and of
the friends of the Boers in England continued to be directed, until
the controversy was closed by the surrender of the republican leaders
at Vereeniging. In the Cape Colony the cry of "conciliation" was
raised to cloak the gross appearance of a movement which was, in fact,
a direct co-operation with the enemy. And the same specious word was
adopted in England, so soon as the strain of the war had begun to make
itself felt in the constituencies, as a decent flag under which the
party opponents of the Unionist Government in general could join
forces with the traditional friends of the Boers and other convinced
opponents of Imperial consolidation. The decision of the Salisbury
Cabinet not to restore the system of the Conventions, which was in
fact the decision of the great mass of the British people both at home
and over-sea, was not reversed. It was confirmed in the House of
Commons by 208 votes against 52 on July 25th, 1900, and by the verdict
of the country in the General Election which followed.[209] But the
political agitation by which it was sought to reverse this decision
was none the less injurious alike to the Boer