y exist and were becoming dangerous.

Was there not also, it may be asked, the suzerainty of Britain, and if
so, did it not justify intervention? I will not discuss the question,
much debated by English lawyers, whether the suzerainty over the
"Transvaal State," mentioned in the preamble to the Convention of 1881,
was preserved over the "South African Republic" by the Convention of
1884, not because I have been unable to reach a conclusion on the
subject, but because the point seems to be one of no practical
importance. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that there is a
suzerainty, it is perfectly clear from an examination of the Conventions
and of the negotiations of 1884 that this suzerainty relates solely to
foreign relations, and has nothing whatever to do with the internal
constitution or government of the Transvaal. The significance of the
term--if it be carried over and read into the Convention of 1884--is
exhausted by the provision in Article IV of that instrument for the
submission of treaties to the British Government. No argument,
accordingly, for any right of interference as regards either the
political arrangements of the Transvaal or the treatment of foreigners
within its borders, can be founded on this real or supposed suzerainty.
This view had been too frequently and too clearly expressed by the
British Government before 1896, to make it possible for any British
official to attempt to put any such construction upon the term; and the
matter might therefore have been suffered to drop, since the right to
veto treaties was explicit, and did not need to be supported by an
appeal to the preamble of 1881. The term, however, though useless to
Britain, was galling to the Transvaal, which suspected that it would be
made a pretext for infringements upon their independence in internal
affairs; and these suspicions were confirmed by the talk of the
Uitlander spokesmen in Johannesburg, who were in the habit of appealing
to Britain as the Suzerain Power. It has played a most unfortunate part
in the whole controversy.

Suzerainty, which is a purely legal, though somewhat vague, conception,
has in many minds become confused with the practical supremacy, or
rather predominance, of Britain in South Africa, which is a totally
different matter. That predominance rests on the fact that Britain
commands the resources of a great empire, while the Dutch republics are
petty communities of ranchmen. But it does not carry any leg