THE TRANSVAAL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Your correspondent "M. C. S." contends that the South African Republic ceased to exist with the annexation in 1877, and that all rights which it now enjoys have been -created de novo by the Conventions of 1881 and 1884. There is in common law a sound and salutary maxim that a man cannot take advantage of his own crime. Yet we have now the claim made that by virtue of the crime—for it was nothing else—of the annexation the British Govern- ment has acquired rights over the South African Republic which it did not possess prior to 1377. It is the assertion -of claims of this kind that drive even the most patient
'people to war.—I am, Sir, &e., ANGLo-AFracArrus. The annexation of the Transvaal may have been a mis- take, but it is ridiculous to call it a crime.—En. Spectator.]
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