Perhaps the most interesting passage in Sir William Har- court's
speech was his specific suggestion for a way out of the present difficulties. "In my opinion," said he, "what ought to be done is to accept the franchise as offered for examination. I think it is fair that there should be an examination of the details, and that they [the Government] should give the assurance to the Transvaal which the Transvaal have asked, —that is, the assurance that under the name of suzerainty they shall not claim to interfere in every particular whenever they chose in the internal affairs of the Transvaal." Is it beyond the resources of diplomacy, he went on, "to retrieve a false position like this on both sides, and to restore this offer of August, which has now fallen through " ? We do not suppose it is; but remember that just as it takes two to make a, quarrel, it takes two to make peace. It lies, in truth, with the Boers, not with us, to clear the situation as Sir William suggests. Can any one doubt that if the Boers even now announced that, provided that we would state that we did not claim any greater rights over their country than are contained in the Convention of 2884, they would grant a five years' franchise as free from complications as is the franchise in the Cape or in the Free State, and would grant a reasonable amount of representation in the Read, they could not have peace P We cannot doubt that such proposals, if made in good faith and honestly acted on, would stop war.
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