With this sentiment I am entirely in accord.  It is our hope that the present national awakening on the whole subject of our position and responsibilities in South Africa will—­in case of the re-establishment of peace under the principles of British rule—­result in a change in the condition of the native races, both in the Transvaal, and at the hands of our countrymen and others who may be acting in their own interests, or in the interests of Commercial Societies.

I do not intend to sketch anything approaching to a history of South African affairs during the last seventy or eighty years; that has been ably done by others, writing from both the British and the Boer side.  I shall only attempt to trace the condition of certain native tribes in connection with some of the most salient events in South Africa of the century which is past.

In 1877, as my readers know, the Transvaal was annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone.  There are very various opinions as to the justice of that annexation.  I will only here remark that it was at the earnest solicitation of the Transvaal leaders of that date that an interference on the part of the British Commissioner was undertaken.  The Republic was in a state of apparently hopeless anarchy, owing to constant conflicts with warlike native tribes around and in the heart of the country.  The exchequer was exhausted.  By the confession of the President (Burgers) the country was on the verge of bankruptcy.[1] The acceptance of the annexation was not unanimous, but it was accepted formally in a somewhat sullen and desponding spirit, as a means of averting further impending calamity and restoring a measure of order and peace.  Whether this justified or not the act of annexation I do not pretend to judge.  The results, however, for the Republic were for the time, financial relief and prosperity, and better treatment of the natives.  The financial condition of the country, as I have said, at the time of the annexation, was one of utter bankruptcy.  “After three years of British rule, however, the total revenue receipts for the first quarter of 1879 and 1880 amounted to L22,773 and L47,982 respectively.  That is to say, that, during the last year of British rule, the revenue of the country more than doubled itself, and amounted to about L160,000 a year, taking the quarterly returns at the low average of L40,000."[2] Trade, also, which in April, 1877, was completely paralysed, had increased enormously.  In the middle of 1879, the committee of the Transvaal Chamber of Commerce pointed out that the trade of the country had in two years risen to the sum of two millions sterling per annum.  They also pointed out that more than half the land-tax was paid by Englishmen and other Europeans.