e. The loss of the Transvaal seemed a slight evil
in comparison.

Whether such a race conflict would in fact have broken out all over
South Africa is a question on which opinion is still divided, and about
which men may dispute for ever. The British government, however, deemed
the risk of it a real one, and by that view their action was mainly
governed. After careful inquiries from those best qualified to judge, I
am inclined to think that they were right. It must, however, be admitted
that the event belied some of their hopes. They had expected that the
Transvaal people would appreciate the generosity of the retrocession, as
well as the humanity which was willing to forgo vengeance for the
tarnished lustre of British arms. The Boers, however, saw neither
generosity nor humanity in their conduct, but only fear. Jubilant over
their victories, and (like the Kafirs in the South Coast wars) not
realizing the overwhelming force which could have been brought against
them, they fancied themselves entitled to add some measure of contempt
to the dislike they already cherished to the English, and they have ever
since shown themselves unpleasant neighbours. The English in South
Africa, on their part, have continued to resent the concession of
independence to the Transvaal, and especially the method in which it was
conceded. Those who had recently settled in the Republic, relying on the
declarations repeatedly made that it would for ever remain British,
complained that no proper compensation was made to them, and that they
had much to suffer from the Boers. Those who live in the two Colonies
hold that the disgrace (as they term it) of Majuba Hill ought to have
been wiped out by a march to Pretoria, and that the Boers should have
been made to recognize that Britain is, and will remain, the paramount
power in fact as well as in name. They feel aggrieved to this day that
the terms of peace were settled at Laing's Nek, within the territory of
Natal, while it was still held by the Boers. Even in Cape Colony, where
the feeling is perhaps less strong than it is in Natal, the average
Englishman has neither forgotten nor forgiven the events of 1881.

I have dwelt fully upon these events because they are, next to the Great
Trek of 1836, the most important in the internal history of South
Africa, and those which have most materially affected the present
political situation. The few years that followed may be more briefly
dismissed. The Trans