The latest intelligence from the Cape is unexpectedly pacific and
favourable to confederation. The Zulu King has not moved, but an independent tribe has entered the Transvaal, and driven the settlers in one district into precipitate flight. Either this in- cident or further reflection has convinced President Burgers that it is dangerous to remain at loggerheads with the British Government, and he is said to have signified to Sir Theophilus Shepstone that he is not unwilling to enter into Lord Carnarvon's scheme. As the people of Natal and the Orange River are also willing, a beginning of Confederation might be made, but for one danger. We do not understand that the slavery difficulty is entirely settled. The Dutch are willing, it is true, to give up slavery in its avowed forms, but they want some labour-laws which, if we understand their drift, the British Parliament will be slow to sanction. Anything like tolerance of forced labour, whether hidden under a Vagrant Act or not, is inadmissible. Sooner or later, the conflict of the two civilisations would wreck the South-African Dominion.
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