The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-24

lOI III speaking or lHe Iollei, he eoi
 of the efforts of Governor Sir Harri
 Smith to check the exodus, and his fall
 ure to secure hies object. FIe was final
 ly forced, he said to write to Englan
 that the Boers were reduced to a stat
 of misery which he had never seel
 equalled. -.--
 But in 1852 q complete change oc
 cured in the policy of Great Britain
 The Sand River Convention was held
 and treaty signed in which the Brit
 is5 Government acknowledged the in
 dependence of the Boers, and agreed
 that no encroachments were to be mad
 on the territory north of the Bar river
 Two years later a treaty was made witl
 the people of Orange Free State; tn,
 terms were almost similar to the treat!
 of 1852. The meaning of the two treat!e!
 was l take it, that the English Gov
 ernment had come to the conclusion tha
 the two territories were or no use t(
 them. It was also probably influenced
 in it's action by. it's trouble With ths
 Basutos, which worsted the Englisf
 troops, repeatedly in their fights Int
 troops were withdrawn and the Boers
 were left at the mercy of the blacks.
 '"rhe next difficulty occurred in. the
 discovery of gold in 1869. The territory
 was immediately claimed by the Boers;
 but Waterfall, a black chief came for
 ward and claimed all the territory as his by right of priority, and he inn
 mediately submitted his claim to Eng land, underits treaty. But England could do nothing in the matter, but not wish ing to lose such an advantage, assum- ed the office of arbitrator. The evidence submitted, showed not the slightest par tiele of right in the claim Of the Black Chief but it was at once proclaimed that the land belonged by right to him. He at once turned the territory over to the English in charge for him, and Great Britain nothing loath accepted the trust.
 Tn 1876 after years of pickering the case was finally submitted to another board of arbitra tors and the result proved clearly that there was no right in the black mans claim over the ter- ritory. Did Great Britain turn over the territory then and there? No indeed! Instead she paid over &90,C00 sterling. How much the diamonds already taken from the mines by her were worth who knows?
 Tn 1877 the Boers elected a new pres ident Shortly after that Great Britain violated a clause i'll the Sand River treaty and sold arms and ammunition to the blacks. Thousands of rifles were put in the hands of the bloodthirsty natives, When 1t is remembered that the entire safety of the Boers lay in the force of their arms, the heiniousness of Englands offence is apparent. In consequence of her treachery, the Boers were reduced to pretty low state, in- deed.
 About the time Sir Theophilus Shep- stone arrived from England, and started his work of attempting a fede- ration. He tried to overcome the preju- dices of the Boers in every way, and finally boldly issued his proclamation, stating that the colony of the Trans vaal had dissolved and joined itself to England. It was tissue of casuistries; sophistries from beginning to end, representing to the home govern ment things that did not exist. have no doubt he was cent there to do just what he did, and when he represented to the English people that the Boers want ed to be annexed it was readily believ- ed. The Boers resented the proclama- ton and delegates were sent to London, but they got little satisfaction. The sense of injustice at the whole affair then became so strong that the entire young element of the Boer country rose in arms. The result was the battle c M +fN% l,n British
 "The British opposition now ceased; the British were occupied with the Egyptian occupation and it was proba- bly, thought that too many irons in the fire would be disastrous The Germans had also appeared in South Africa and it was discovered that the Boers of the south were willing to join with those of the north. Peace was counselled and Joe" Chamberlain was one of the 
 The arrangement of 'S1 established a suzerainty; it made the Boers subservl- ent to Great Britain. It was merely a and not what was wanted by the Boers; it was not satisfactory to either side. It led to continual bicker- HE WHICH ldSleu uIltli lcof, WIleH dll-l other Boer delegation went to London, Paul Kruger among the number. It was received coldly, but as the question of the boundary of the territiry on the north of the Transvaal had to be ad justed, for which Great Britain was eager, the result was the convention of 1884, throwing aside that of 1881. The result of the convention was that the Transvaal was to be allowed to manage It's own affairs 1t only being reserved that Great Britain should hold veto power in case of all treaties. This de- rogated from the power of the Trans faal, but by international law England | could have no right of interference in | he internal laws of the country.
 Then came the discovery of gold in | he Transvaal and England immediate y began to cast about for some means | ,f getting around the treaty. I've new | IT yet seen a treaty that couldn't be in some way. In this case t was claimed that the suzerainty of . England had not been abolished. It {