suffer. That H. M. Government, being persuaded that the only
means to prevent such a catastrophe would be by the annexation of the
country, and, knowing that this was the wish of a large proportion of
the inhabitants of the Transvaal, the step must be taken. Next follows
the formal annexation.

Together with the proclamation, an address was issued by Sir T.
Shepstone to the burghers of the State, laying the facts before them
in a friendly manner, more suited to their mode of thought than it was
possible to do in a formal proclamation. This document, the issue
of which was one of those touches that ensured the success of the
Annexation, was a powerful summing up in colloquial language of the
arguments used in the proclamation strengthened by quotations from the
speeches of the President. It ends with these words: "It remains only
for me to beg of you to consider and weigh what I have said calmly and
without undue prejudice. Let not mere feeling or sentiment prevail over
your judgment. Accept what Her Majesty's Government intends shall be,
and what you will soon find from experience, is a blessing not only to
you and your children, but to the whole of South Africa through you, and
I believe that I speak these words to you as a friend from my heart."

Two other proclamations were also issued, one notifying the assumption
of the office of Administrator of the Government by Sir T. Shepstone,
and the other repealing the war-tax, which was doubtless an unequal and
oppressive impost.

I have in the preceding pages stated all the principal grounds of the
Annexation and briefly sketched the history of that event. In the next
chapter I propose to follow the fortunes of the Transvaal under British
Rule.

CHAPTER IV

THE TRANSVAAL UNDER BRITISH RULE

_Reception of the annexation--Major Clarke and the Volunteers--
Effect of the annexation on credit and commerce--Hoisting of the Union
Jack--Ratification of the annexation by Parliament--Messrs. Kruger and
Jorissen's mission to England--Agitation against the annexation in the
Cape Colony--Sir T. Shepstone's tour--Causes of the growth of discontent
among the Boers--Return of Messrs. Jorissen and Kruger--The Government
dispenses with their services--Despatch of a second deputation to
England--Outbreak of war with Secocoeni--Major Clarke, R.A.--The Gunn
of Gunn plot--Mission of Captain Paterson and Mr. Sergeaunt
to Matabeleland--Its melancholy termination--The Isandhlwana
disas