The Zulus and other fierce native tribes bordering on the Transvaal hated the Boers and threatened to “eat them up.”  Later (1877), England thought it for her interest, and for that of the Boers as well, to annex the Transvaal.  The English Governor did not grant the Boers the measure of political liberty which he had promised; this led to a revolt, and a small body of English soldiers was beaten at Majuba Hill (1881).

Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister, did not think that the conquest of the Transvaal, supposing it to be justifiable, would pay for its cost, and he accordingly made a treaty with the people of that country (1881).  Lord Beaconsfield thought this policy a serious mistake, and that it would lead to trouble later on.  He said, “We have failed to whip the boy, and we shall have to fight the man.”  The Gladstone Treaty acknowledged the right of the Boers to govern themselves, but subject to English control.  Three years later (1884) that treaty was modified.  The Boers declared that the English then gave up all control over them, except with regard to the power to make treaties which might conflict with the interests of Great Britain.  But this statement the English Government emphatically denied.[1]

[1] The preamble of the Convention or agreement made between England and the Boers in 1881 at Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, secured to the Boers “complete self-government, subject to the suzerainty of her Majesty,” Queen Victoria.  In the Convention of 1884, made at London, the word “suzerainty” was dropped; but Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary of Great Britain, contended that it was implied or understood.  This interpretation of the agreement President Kruger of the South African or Boer Republic absolutely rejected.

The discovery of diamond fields in Cape Colony (1867) and of the richest gold mines in the world (1884) in the Transvaal stimulated a great emigration of English to South Africa.  In a few years the “Outlanders”—­as the Boers called all foreigners—­outnumbered the Boers themselves.  The “Outlanders,” who worked the gold mines and paid nearly all the taxes, complained that the laws made by the Boers were unjust and oppressive.  They demanded the right to vote.  The Boers, on the other hand, refused to give them that right, except under arduous restrictions, lest the foreigners should get the upper hand in the Transvaal Republic, and then manage it to suit themselves.

Things went on from bad to worse.  At length (1895) a prominent Englishman of Cape Colony, Dr. Jameson, armed a small body of “Outlanders,” who undertook to get by force what they could not get by persuasion.  The Boers captured the Revolutionists and compelled some of the leaders to pay, in all, about a million dollars in fines.  Dr. Jameson was sent to England and imprisoned for a short time.  A committee appointed by Parliament investigated the invasion of the Transvaal and charged Cecil J.