so far as its moral aspect is concerned, be
summed up in a few words.

Whether or no the Annexation was a necessity at the moment of its
execution,--which I certainly maintain it was--it received the
unreserved sanction of the Home Authorities, and the relations of
Sovereign and subject, with all the many and mutual obligations involved
in that connection, were established between the Queen of England and
every individual of the motley population of the Transvaal. Nor was this
change an empty form, for, to the largest proportion of that population,
this transfer of allegiance brought with it a priceless and a vital
boon. To them it meant--freedom and justice--for where, on any portion
of this globe over which the British ensign floats, does the law even
wink at cruelty or wrong?

A few years passed away, and a small number of the Queen's subjects in
the Transvaal rose in rebellion against Her authority, and inflicted
some reverses on Her arms. Thereupon, in spite of the reiterated pledges
given to the contrary--partly under stress of defeat, and partly
in obedience to the pressure of "advanced views"--the country was
abandoned, and the vast majority who had remained faithful to the Crown,
was handed to the cruel despotism of the minority who had rebelled
against it.

Such an act of treachery to those to whom we were bound with double
chains--by the strong ties of a common citizenship, and by those claims
to England's protection from violence and wrong which have hitherto
been wont to command it, even where there was no duty to fulfil, and
no authority to vindicate--stands--I believe--without parallel on our
records, and marks a new departure in our history.

I cannot end these pages without expressing my admiration of the
extremely able way in which the Boers managed their revolt, when once
they felt that, having undertaken the thing, it was a question of
life and death with them. It shows that they have good stuff in them
somewhere, which, under the firm but just rule of Her Majesty, might
have been much developed, and it makes it the more sad that they should
have been led to throw off that rule, and have been allowed to do so by
an English Government.

In conclusion, there is one point that I must touch on, and that is the
effect of the retrocession on the native mind, which I can only describe
as most disastrous. The danger alluded to in the Report of the Royal
Commission has been most amply realised, and the