PREFACE THE affairs of the South African Republic though they scarcely can be said, in this country to come home to men's business and bosoms, have given rise of late to so much discussion that it seems worth while to present a brief historical account of the Transvaal Boer and his country. History, as Sir John Seeley and Mr. Freeman were so fond of insisting, is but past politics, as politics are present history. Thus, whilst I have studiously abstained from presenting any opinion which is not immediately based on facts, or from forming any of those prospects which will so easily commend themselves to the reader, I venture to think that this little book will be found to have a real and direct bearing upon the most puzzling South African questions of the moment. To know how a thing has come to be is the essential pre |