Many people, both in England and in South Africa, regarded the annexation of the Transvaal as final. But leading members of the Liberal party, then in opposition, had emphatically condemned it, and this had raised hopes in the Transvaal Africanders and their sympathizers in England that when Gladstone came into power again the things which they regarded as wrong would be righted. Such hopes were doomed to disappointment. In 1880 the Liberals carried the country and took office in April of that year. Guided by information derived from the crown officials in South Africa, the new ministers were misled as to the measure of discontent in the Transvaal, and declared that the act of annexation would not be reversed. This flat refusal brought matters to an immediate issue. The Transvaal burghers, though they had continued to agitate and protest and memorialize the throne, had waited with considerable patience for three years, hoping for either a restoration of their independence or—as the next best thing—the instituting of such a representative local government as had been promised them by the imperial authorities. But now the new Liberal government, after using the Transvaal grievances for electioneering purposes, had refused to consider and redress those grievances; the military administration of a mere crown colony continued in full force under the detested Sir William Owen Lanyon; and there appeared to be no hope that the promises made to mollify their indignation when their independence was being subverted would ever be fulfilled. It has been said, in extenuation, that the British government of this time was too busy with other pressing matters to give the attention necessary to a correct understanding of the condition, and the rights and the wrongs, of the Transvaal Africanders. And it has been said, in further extenuation, that there was an honest intention on the part of the government to fulfill the promises made—some time—as soon as the authorities could get to it. Be that as it may, at the end of three years, which had brought no betterment of their state, the burghers concluded that their protests and their patience had been wasted, and determined to wait no longer. Accordingly a mass-meeting was held at Paardekraal, in December, 1880, at which it was resolved to appeal to arms. The burghers elected Messrs. Pretorius, Paul Kruger and Joubert to proclaim for them the re-establishment of their former government as the South African Republic, which was done in Heidelberg, and the national flag was raised, on the 16th of December, 1880. The first battles of this war were little more than skirmishes. The British troops were scattered through the country in small detachments, which the Africanders—every man of whom was a marksman and an experienced fighter—found it easy to either cut off or drive before them to positions that could be fortified.