In October 1899, the Government of the South African Republic had sent an ultimatum to the Government of the British Empire. To this there could be but one answer, and that answer was given. Lord Roberts, in the month of March 1900, seized the capital of the Orange Free State, and in June took possession of the capital of the Transvaal, and from that time the two South African Republics virtually ceased to exist. Within appreciable distance we now saw before us a vast British Empire stretching from the Cape to the Zambesi, and a huge population--a mixed population consisting of a majority of Kaffirs and a minority of Dutch and English-speaking Europeans--cemented together by the most just and fair of all laws--British law. If the principles that guide this law had been followed by the two extinct Republics, which had owed their very existence to British toleration and British magnanimity, they would have continued to live and to prosper, and to develop in harmony with their own interests and those of the Mother Power which, so to speak, had afforded them the protection to promote their own growth. But, having grown, having battened on the advantages of their position in relation to the British, they became inflated with the idea of their own importance, and denied to the English-speaking settlers in the Transvaal that liberality of treatment which was extended to their own countrymen in the British colonies. The arrogance of this denial, and the success in maintaining it for many years, gave birth to more arrogance still. The British at last were not only to be trodden down, but were to be driven into the sea! That Mr. Kruger should have so far lost his sound common sense as to dream of an ascendency of the Dutch in South Africa, was due partly to the misleading representations of needy foreigners and _chevaliers d'industrie_, who endeavoured to convert the President into a figurehead for their own piratical cruiser, and also to the folly of certain self-seeking British politicians, who tried to persuade the shrewd Dutchman into a belief in Boer arms and Boer diplomacy, and actually deceived him with the notion that their sympathetic bleats represented the trumpet voice of the British nation! It became necessary to teach him his mistake, and the lesson was taught. Thus it came to pass that, at the end of a long and really remarkable career, the despot was fleeing as fast as steam would carry him from the scene of his life's labours, while Lord Roberts, crowned with years and honour, reigned in his stead! [Illustration: THE ENTRY OF LORD ROBERTS AND STAFF INTO PRETORIA After a Photograph by the Earl of Rosslyn] APPENDIX REARRANGEMENT OF STAFF The following rearrangement of divisional and brigade commands in South Africa took place during the month of April:-- CAVALRY DIVISION. Lieutenant-General J. D. P. French commanding.