fellow-burghers to lay down their arms after the
battle of Dalmanutha, it was President Steyn, a politician, and not a
fighting man, who manifested the stubborn determination that was
directly responsible for the unnecessary devastation and suffering
which the guerilla war entailed upon the Boer people. The remote, but
still carefully cherished possibility of foreign intervention, the
belief that the colonial Dutch would even yet rise _en masse_, and the
reliance upon the traditional sympathy of the Liberal party with the
Boer aspirations for independence, were all considerations that
contributed to the decision. But of these three influences the last
was incomparably the most important; since it not only affected the
disposition of the republican leaders, but, what was more, stimulated
the Afrikander nationalists to make the efforts which brought the
Dutch in the Cape Colony to the condition of passionate resentment
that drew the Boer commandos, in the last month of 1900 and the
opening months of 1901, a second time across the Orange River.

[Footnote 234: See letter of Piet de Wet to his brother
Christian, in Cd. 547, and correspondence between Steyn and
Reitz (captured by British troops), in Cd. 903.]

[Sidenote: An injurious influence.]

We have seen the actual origin of this most injurious influence. The
"conciliation" movement was initiated in the Cape Colony by the
Afrikander nationalists in concert with President Krueger, in order
that "the hands of the friends of the Afrikander party in England
might be strengthened." They were strengthened. We have observed the
formation of a Conciliation Committee in England, working in close
connection with the parent organisation, founded by Mr. Hargrove, in
the Cape Colony; and we have noticed the declarations of Mr. Morley,
Lord Courtney, and Mr. Bryce, in favour of the restoration of the
internal independence of the Boers--declarations all made in
opposition to the expressed determination of the British Government to
incorporate the Republics into the system of the British Empire. The
official leader of the Liberal party was less consistent. In June,
1900, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman signified in general terms his
recognition of the necessity of this measure. But he returned in
October to vague expressions of sympathy with the Boers, which, after
the general election had resulted in the return of the Unionist
majority, took the form of a di