The Colonial Office has, it is understood, rejected the terms
agreed to by the Cape Ministers and the Administrators of Goshen for the settlement of Bechuanaland, considering them insufficient even if sincere. This view of them is undoubtedly accurate, and will probably be strengthened by the language of Mr. Upington, the Cape Premier, who was one of the envoys to Goshen, and who is said to have made a speech defending the freebooters, and declaring that they were not responsible for the murder of Mr. Bethell. Sir Charles Warren, who landed at the Cape on Thursday, amid general enthusiasm, will, therefore, proceed to Bechuanaland, and should, by January 15th, have his small corps d'armee ready for action. It is still uncertain whether the Boers will honestly assist him ; but they are hampered on the east by a growing hostility in Zululand, and also by the doubts among the Afrikander section of the population in Cape Colony whether the time has arrived for resistance to the British Government. Mr. Upington's speech, if made at all, must have been intended to catch the votes of the Afrikanders ; but between disloyalty and open rebellion there is a long interval, particularly in a country where rebellion might be followed by a rising among a black population indefinitely superior in numbers.
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