the political alliance existing between the two Republics.’ On the 29th Mr. Chamberlain, more aggressive than ever, laid down certain impossible conditions: 1. The franchise to every Uitlander after five years of residence, unencumbered by any formalities that might restrict the privilege. 2. An absolute separation of the executive and judicial power in the Transvaal. 3. Abolition of the dynamite monopoly. 4. Dismantlement of the fortress of Johannesburg. 5. A special municipal government for Johannesburg. 6. Official recognition of the English language, and an equal use of it and the Dutch tongue. During the first days of October the situation became more and more serious. Certain attempts at conciliation were still made. On October 5, President Steyn demanded that the massing of troops on the frontier should cease. But on the 6th Sir Alfred Milner replied that he could not accede to his request. Mr. Steyn accordingly wrote to the Governor of Cape Colony ’that the success of further negotiations was very doubtful, as the Transvaal would refuse any conditions whatever laid down by Her Majesty’s Government if British troops continued to arrive while negotiations were in progress.’ Finally, on October 10 the Boer ultimatum was handed to Mr. Conyngham-Green. The Transvaal Executive had demanded an answer within twenty-four hours, but the delegates of the Orange Free State got the term extended to forty-eight hours. War was declared on October 11. The Boer commandos grouped themselves in two principal centres, the Orange Free State and Natal. In the Free State, Du Toit and Kolby invested Kimberley on October 14. Cronje advanced against Methuen in the south-east, Schoeman against Colesberg, and Olivier to meet Gatacre south of Aliwal North. In Natal, Botha, Schalk Burgher, Lucas Meyer and Prinsloo, under the Commander-in-Chief Joubert, marched upon Ladysmith. On October 20 a desperate engagement took place at Glencoe. General Symons, himself mortally wounded, lost sixty killed, 300 wounded, and 300 prisoners. The Boers had seventy men killed. On October 21, at Elandslaagte, the German Legion and the Scandinavians, surprised by the enemy, were slaughtered by the English Lancers after a heroic resistance. On the 23rd, at Dundee, Generals Yule and White were obliged to fall back on Ladysmith. Finally, on October 30, under the very walls of the town, at Lombard’s Kop, General White, beaten again, lost 300 dead and wounded, 1,200 prisoners and ten guns. On November 2 Ladysmith was invested. To judge by the behaviour of the Boers at this juncture, it would have seemed that the siege of the three towns, Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith, was the end and object of the whole campaign.