The probabilities of war in South Africa increase. The Boers,
relying on their kinsfolk in Cape Colony, and transported with their success in defending the Transvaal, are losing their heads, and will shortly do some act equivalent to invasion. They have taken Zululand, and are now occupying Bechuana- land, annexing it by proclamation, and will probably re- claim Natal and Grignaland, so driving us back beyond the line of the Orange River. It will, we fear, be neces- sary yet to act against them ; and when the time arrives the action must be of the decisive kind. For the present, they are protected by English preoccupations, by their own weakness, and by the extreme reluctance of the English people to fight for
a Colony which is net at heart loyal to British rule. There is a point, however, at which the statesmen will decide that they must either reconquer South Africa or quit it, and it is very nearly reached.
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