One hundred years ago
THE Transvaal and Orange Free Re- publics have, it is stated on authority, concluded a defensive and offensive league. The two Boer States are there- fore fused for certain purposes, and as they can only be attacked by the British Government, the arrangement is held to be of some importance. We do not know that it matters much. There is no danger of quarrel visible, and if one occurred, the Boers in the Orange Free State would side with their kinsfolk, whether a treaty had been ratified or not. The future of both States will probably not be decided by war, but by the change of their populations conse- quent on the large British immigration attracted by the gold-fields. Englishmen are just now in an odd mood, inclined to believe anybody, even Negroes, more competent to govern than themselves; but there are some historic facts to be noticed. No body of Englishmen, whether British or American, number- ing ten thousand persons in one place, has ever consented to live under foreign domination. They go stumbling all over the world in search of gain, but they will settle only in places where the law- makers think in English. It is an odder fact still, that the Irish who hate them so much follow them everywhere, and settle only under the Union Jack or the Stars and Stripes. 'Presidents' Kruger and Rietz may make all the treaties they like, but water will not flow up-hill.
The Spectator, 16 March 1889
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