Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1900-02-14

ilizstion. They fought and worked
and starved aud died for their land
of promise, where they might hope to
be alone, like the simple people of
their own Book, where they might
never know the hated British rule,
where they might never experience
the forms aud trammels. the restless
ness and changes, the worries, the
necessities or the benefits Of progress
sive civilization"
When the Beers left Cape Colony
they held that they renounced their
British allegiance. AS sooh a. posi-
ble. Mr.. Bryce says, they set up rude
repsblican governments. They de-
scended into what is now the Colony
of Natal, defeated tn Zulus, built the
village of Pietermaritzburg and es
tablished the Republic of Natalia.
The British Government sent troops
to Durham, the best harbOr on the
coast, who were besIeged bv the Ma
Italian Beers. The troops were rein
forced, the Beers were compelled to
submit and the Republic of Natalia
vanished. The British Government
later annexed the country between
the Orange river and the Vaal river,
and ia 1876 built fort in it at a spot
called Bloemfontein. The emigrant
Beers, unwilling to come under Brit
ISL dominion. again resisted, and were
defeated in an engagement.
But the troubles of the British
Government did not end. IL WAS
menaced by the Bssutos on one side.
while the Beers from beyond the Vaal
threatened it on another. Troops
could not be spared for these remote
districts. so the British Cabinet de-
cided to withdraw altogether from
the interior aud to release the emi-
grant Beers from any claim it might
still have to their allegiance. In 1852
the Sand river treaty was made with
representatives of the Boer who dwelt
beyond the Naal river, which gIanted
to them "the right to manage their
own affairs aud to govern themselves
according to their own laws without
any interference on the part of the
British Government" In 1894 an
other convention was made at BlOem
fontein, by which the Beers living in
the Sovereignty between the Vaal aud
Orange rivers were declared to be a
free and independent people" and
the future independence of the coun
try and its government was guaran
teed
The treaty of 1852 WAS approved
by the Cabinet of LORD Derby; the
treaty of 1854 by the Cabinet of Lord
Aberdeen. From these two recog
nitions of Boer independence" says
MIR. Bryce, "there sprang up two Boer
republics. After l6 years of practi-
cal but legally unacknowledged indie
pendence the emigrants who lived be
yond the Vaal, and began to be call
ed Transvaal people, were at length
masters of their own destinies." The
Transvaal Beers, ut first divided into
several communities and factions
united to form one state in 1864.
The Orange River Beers gave their
republic the name of the Orange Free
State. 1t adopted a short aud simple
constitution, which has proved salts
factory.
The Transvaal Republic remained
independent until 1877. Mr.. Bryce
tells us that it was then not onl,
bankrupt, but virtually unable to en-
force obedience. Again the British
Government interviewed. The cOudi.
ton of the republic, it WAS held, con
stituted a danger to the surrounding
territory by inviting native attacks
A British commissioner, Sir Theoph
illus Shepstone, who had been sent tc
the Transvaal, used the discretion
which the Colonial Office had en-
trusted to him and proclaimed the
annexation of the country to the
British crown. Mr.. Bryce says
"Britain had no more legal right tC
annex it than she had to seize tn,
neigh boring territories of Portugal
- The event proved that Sil
Theopilus Shepstoue had acted fool
ishly because precIpitately. If he