nsion between the two Governments, and would in all probability
render unnecessary any future intervention to secure redress for
grievances which the Uitlanders themselves would be able to bring to the
notice of the Executive Council and the Volksraad.

'Her Majesty's Government are increasingly impressed with the danger of
further delay in relieving the strain which has already caused so much
injury to the interests of South Africa, and they earnestly press for an
immediate and definite reply to the present proposal. If it is acceded
to they will be ready to make immediate arrangements ... to settle all
details of the proposed tribunal of arbitration.... If, however, as they
most anxiously hope will not be the case, the reply of the South African
Republic should be negative or inconclusive, I am to state that Her
Majesty's Government must reserve to themselves the right to reconsider
the situation _de novo_, and to formulate their own proposals for a
final settlement.'

This despatch was so moderate in form and so courteous in tone that
press and politicians of every shade of opinion were united in approving
it, and hoping for a corresponding reply which would relax the tension
between the two nations. Mr. Morley, Mr. Leonard Courtney, the 'Daily
Chronicle'--all the most strenuous opponents of the Government
policy--were satisfied that it was a message of peace. But nothing at
that time, save a complete and abject surrender upon the part of the
British, could have satisfied the Boers, who had the most exaggerated
ideas of their own military prowess and no very high opinion of our own.
The continental conception of the British wolf and the Transvaal lamb
would have raised a laugh in Pretoria, where the outcome of the war was
looked upon as a foregone conclusion. The burghers were in no humour for
concessions. They knew their own power, and they concluded with justice
that they were for the time far the strongest military power in South
Africa. 'We have beaten England before, but it is nothing to the licking
that we shall give her now!' said one prominent citizen. 'Reitz seemed
to treat the whole matter as a big joke,' remarked de Villiers. 'Is it
really necessary for you to go,' said the Chief Justice of the Transvaal
to an English clergyman. 'The war will be over in a fortnight. We shall
take Kimberley and Mafeking and give the English such a beating in Natal
that they will sue for peace.' Such were the extravagant ide