The peace of all British South Africa was seriously jeopardized by the weakness and fatuity of the Government of the Transvaal Republic. They were unable to conquer Sekukuni, and were so threatened by Cetywayo as to make an incursion by that potentate exceedingly probable. If the outworks of civilization were not looked after there would soon be serious danger to the fortress. Sir Theophilus Shepstone was therefore appointed special Commissioner. He arrived at Pretoria in January, 1877, and an extraordinary session of the Volksraad was held in February. A radical reform, legislative, executive, and judicial, or the British flag, was the alternative laid before them. They chose the former, but remedies then came too late. The patient was incurable. President Burgers declared that a new constitution could not save them. On the 8th of March the Raad broke up, and on the 12th of April Sir Theophilus Shepstone formally annexed the Transvaal territory to the British crown. It was, without doubt, incomparably the best course for a bankrupt country, perfectly unable to cope either with its debts or its foes, but it is very doubtful whether it was the wisest course for the British Government. An immense burden was at once placed upon our shoulders, and the people furnished with a grievance easily fanned into discontent, and perhaps even into rebellion, by Hollanders and others who could make capital out of factious opposition and a trade out of revolution. If Sir Theophilus Shepstone had only waited long enough, the people would have begged upon their knees for protection and assistance when attacked by the enormous armies of the Zulu king. If we had intervened in such a crisis, we would have obtained the assistance—valuable assistance—of thousands of mounted burghers; whereas, when we did fight really for the Transvaal, its inhabitants were so disgusted with what had transpired, as to render almost no assistance. There is no doubt that we managed the annexation of this country badly, and have been compelled to suffer for it. By a policy of delay, which would certainly have been less kind but incomparably more wise, the people would have been forced to come as suppliants for protection and annexation. Their lives and property when threatened by Cetywayo, could have alone been saved by British intervention. It can certainly be argued, on the other side, that delay was particularly dangerous, and that if we had not at once established ourselves in the Transvaal, the Zulus would have lighted a fire which would have spread quickly throughout every native tribe, and have endangered the peace of all our settlements. Sir Theophilus Shepstone was in an excellent position to judge of the necessity, and her Majesty's Government has uniformly upheld the policy adopted by him in annexing the Transvaal.