On May 15th the Boer conference opened at Vereeniging.  Sixty-four delegates from the commandos met with the military and political chiefs of the late republics, the whole amounting to 150 persons.  A more singular gathering has not met in our time.  There was Botha, the young lawyer, who had found himself by a strange turn of fate commanding a victorious army in a great war.  De Wet was there, with his grim mouth and sun-browned face; De la Rey, also, with the grizzled beard and the strong aquiline features.  There, too, were the politicians, the grey-bearded, genial Reitz, a little graver than when he looked upon ‘the whole matter as an immense joke,’ and the unfortunate Steyn, stumbling and groping, a broken and ruined man.  The burly Lucas Meyer, smart young Smuts fresh from the siege of Ookiep, Beyers from the north, Kemp the dashing cavalry leader, Muller the hero of many fights—­all these with many others of their sun-blackened, gaunt, hard-featured comrades were grouped within the great tent of Vereeniging.  The discussions were heated and prolonged.  But the logic of facts was inexorable, and the cold still voice of common-sense had more power than all the ravings of enthusiasts.  The vote showed that the great majority of the delegates were in favour of surrender upon the terms offered by the British Government.  On May 31st this resolution was notified to Lord Kitchener, and at half-past ten of the same night the delegates arrived at Pretoria and set their names to the treaty of peace.  After two years seven and a half months of hostilities the Dutch republics had acquiesced in their own destruction, and the whole of South Africa, from Cape Town to the Zambesi, had been added to the British Empire.  The great struggle had cost us twenty thousand lives and a hundred thousand stricken men, with two hundred millions of money; but, apart from a peaceful South Africa, it had won for us a national resuscitation of spirit and a closer union with our great Colonies which could in no other way have been attained.  We had hoped that we were a solid empire when we engaged in the struggle, hut we knew that we were when we emerged from it.  In that change lies an ample recompense for all the blood and treasure spent.

The following were in brief the terms of surrender:—­

1.  That the burghers lay down their arms and acknowledge themselves
subjects of Edward VII.
2.  That all prisoners taking the oath of allegiance be returned.
3.  That their liberty and property be inviolate.
4.  That an amnesty be granted—­save in special cases.
5.  That the Dutch language be allowed in schools and law-courts.
6.  That rifles be allowed if registered.
7.  That self-government be granted as soon as possible.
8.  That no franchise be granted for natives until after
self-government.
9.  That no special land tax be levied.
10.  That the people be helped to reoccupy the farms.
11.  That 3,000,000 pounds be given to help the farmers.
12.  That the rebels be disfranchised and their leaders tried, on
condition that no death penalty be inflicted.