svaal were four
weeks' march from Pretoria at the time. There was nothing whatsoever
to prevent the Boers putting a summary stop to the proceedings of the
Commissioner if they had thought fit.

That Sir Theophilus played a bold and hazardous game nobody will deny,
but, like most players who combine boldness with coolness of head and
justice of cause, he won; and, without shedding a single drop of blood,
or even confiscating an acre of land, and at no cost, annexed a great
country, and averted a very serious war. That same country four years
later cost us a million of money, the loss of nearly a thousand men
killed and wounded, and the ruin of many more confiding thousands, to
surrender. It is true, however, that nobody can accuse the retrocession
of having been conducted with judgment or ability--very much the
contrary.

There can be no more ample justification of the necessity of the issue
of the annexation proclamation than the proclamation itself--

First, it touches on the Sand River Convention of 1852, by which
independence was granted to the State, and shows that the "evident
objects and inciting motives" in granting such guarantee were to promote
peace, free-trade and friendly intercourse, in the hope and belief that
the Republic "would become a flourishing and self-sustaining State, a
source of strength and security to neighbouring European communities,
and a point from which Christianity and civilisation might rapidly
spread toward Central Africa." It goes on to show how these hopes have
been disappointed, and how that "increasing weakness in the State itself
on the one side, and more than corresponding growth of real strength
and confidence among the native tribes on the other have produced their
natural and inevitable consequence . . . that after more or less of
irritating conflict with aboriginal tribes to the north, there commenced
about the year 1867 gradual abandonment to the natives in that direction
of territory, settled by burghers of the Transvaal in well-built towns
and villages and on granted farms."

It goes on to show that "this decay of power and ebb of authority in
the north, is being followed by similar processes in the south under
yet more dangerous circumstances. People of this State residing in
that direction have been compelled within the last three months, at the
bidding of native chiefs and at a moment's notice, to leave their farms
and homes, their standing crops . . . all to be take