The members from the mining districts would be in a hopeless
minority in the assembly; and indeed, very few of those entitled to a
vote would have cared to claim it, inasmuch as they would thereby render
themselves citizens of the republic, and be liable to be commandeered
and called upon to serve in arms, not only against the natives, upon
whom the Boers were always making aggressions, but against England, when
the war, which all foresaw could not long be delayed, broke out.
For months the negotiations went on between President Kruger and Mr.
Chamberlain, the British colonial minister, and the certainty that the
Boers were bent upon fighting became more and more evident. Vast
quantities of rifles, ammunition, and cannon poured into the Transvaal,
their passage being more than winked at by the Dutch ministry of Cape
Colony.
It was that day known that President Kruger had thrown off the mask of a
pretended desire for peace, and that an ultimatum had been telegraphed
to England couched in terms of such studied insolence that it was
certain war must ensue. The greatest civilized power on earth would have
shown less arrogance towards the most feeble. Not only was England
called upon to send no more troops to South Africa, but to withdraw most
of her forces already in the country, and this by a state that owed its
very existence to her, and whose total population was not more than that
of a small English county.
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