and British peoples,
since it acted as a powerful incentive to the republican leaders to
continued struggle which, except for the illusions created by this
agitation, they would have recognised as hopeless in itself and
unjustified by any prospect of military success. In both cases the
effect of the agitation was the same: the war was unnecessarily
prolonged--intentionally by the Afrikander nationalists, and
unintentionally by Lord (then Mr.) Courtney, Mr. Morley, Mr. Bryce,
and other opponents in England of the annexation of the Republics.

[Footnote 209: The Unionist party was returned to power with
a slightly decreased majority--130 as against 150. But this
loss of seats was counterbalanced by the consideration that
it is unusual for the same Government to be entrusted with a
second period of office by a democratic electorate.]

[Sidenote: The 'Conciliation' movement.]

The Presidents had demanded the recognition of the independence of the
Republics and a free pardon for the Cape rebels as the price of peace.
The Afrikander nationalists at once began to co-operate with the
Republics in the endeavour to wrest these terms from the British
Government. Mr. Schreiner, as we have seen, had already incurred Mr.
Hofmeyr's displeasure by allowing the Cape Government to render
assistance to the Imperial authorities in the prosecution of the war.
The breach thus created between the Prime Minister and Sir Richard
(then Mr.) Solomon, on the one hand, and Dr. Te Water, Mr. Merriman,
and Mr. Sauer, who shared the views of the Bond, on the other, was,
rapidly widened by the "conciliation" meetings held throughout the
Colony by the Afrikander nationalists in support of the "peace
overtures" of the Presidents. The British population at the Cape was
quick to realise the insidious and fatal character of the
"conciliation" movement thus inaugurated by the Afrikander
nationalists. The universal alarm and indignation to which it gave
rise among the loyalists of both nationalities found expression in the
impassioned speech which Sir James (then Mr.) Rose Innes delivered at
the Municipal Hall of Claremont[210] on March 30th, 1900. The purpose
of the meeting was to allow the British subjects thus assembled to
record their approval of Lord Salisbury's reply to the Republics, and
their conviction that "the incorporation of these States within the
dominions of the Queen could alone secure peace, pr