The annexation of the Transvaal to the British dominions in
South Africa has been announced this week in a telegram from Sir Theophilus Shepatone, and the Government, though without official verification of the news, have declared their belief that it is probably trustworthy. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Courtney both made the mistake of assailing the Govern- ment in their speeches on the Eastern Question for this act, as if it were a stroke of rash and dangerous ambition. That is not in the least like Lord Carnarvon, and we feel very little doubt, looking to his wise and cautious policy hitherto in South Africa, that this annexation will prove to have been a prompt and courageous act, securing the British dominions from the danger of a most threatening conflagration, and saving the Boers, even though it be somewhat against their own will, from the consequences of their own folly. These premature judgments are never safe ; and are somewhat apt to recoil, like the boomerang, on the hand which discharged them.
