"There was a still stronger reason than that for not receding; it was impossible to say what calamities such a step as receding might not cause. We had, at the cost of much blood and treasure, restored peace, and the effect of our now reversing our policy would be to leave the province in a state of anarchy, and possibly to cause an internecine war. For such a risk, he could not make himself responsible. The number of the natives in the Transvaal was estimated at about 800,000, and that of the whites less than 50,000. Difficulties with the Zulus and frontier tribes would again arise, and, looking as they must to South Africa as a whole, the Government, after a careful consideration of the question, came to the conclusion _that we could not relinquish the Transvaal_. Nothing could be more unfortunate than uncertainty in respect to such a matter." On the 8th June 1880, Mr. Gladstone, in reply to a Boer memorial, wrote as follows:-- "It is undoubtedly a matter for much regret that it should, since the Annexation, have appeared that so large a number of the population of Dutch origin in the Transvaal are opposed to the annexation of that territory, but it is impossible now, to consider that question as if it were presented for the first time. We have to do with a state of things which has existed for a considerable period, during which _obligations have been contracted, especially, though not exclusively, towards the native population, which cannot be set aside_. Looking to all the circumstances, both of the Transvaal and the rest of South Africa, and to the necessity of preventing a renewal of disorders, which might lead to disastrous consequences, not only to the Transvaal but to the whole of South Africa, _our judgment it that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish the Transvaal_." Her Majesty's Speech, delivered in Parliament on the 6th January 1881, contains the following words: "A rising in the Transvaal has recently imposed upon me the duty of _vindicating my authority_." These extracts are rather curious reading in face of the policy adopted by the Government, after our troops had been defeated. III. A BOER ON BOER DESIGNS.