On Tuesday evening the Chancellor of the Exchequer explained the
exceptional circumstances necessitating the reopening of Supply in order to provide for the free grants to the burghers (23,000,000), for compensations for war losses to the loyalists (22,000,000), and for the temporary advance of 0,000,000 to the Colonial Governments to enable them to proceed with the loans to both Boers and loyalists. It appears that the Government had originally understood that the free grant (0,000,000) promised under the terms of settlement should come out of any Transvaal loan that should be floated, but in face of the representations of the Boer leaders, had decided to treat it as a free gift out of the revenues of the United Kingdom. The Government felt that the loyalists ought to be treated with similar liberality, and had deter- mined to appropriate 02,000,000 for their repatriation also; while the 23,000,000 to be advanced to both Boers and loyalists, though it would come out of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony loan when that loan was put on the
market, would have to be found by this country in the interval. The Chancellor's Motion was agreed to without a division, but not before Mr. Gibson Bowles and Sir William Harcourt bad, each after his manner, castigated the Government for their violation of Parliamentary usage. The Government certainly can plead Imperial precedent for their interpretation of the terms of settlement; but the "man in the street" undoubtedly read them as the Baer generals did, and we are sincerely glad that the Government decided to revise their reading. Unfor- tunately this is not the first time that the Government have done the right thing after a preliminary muddle.
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