the following alternative proposal for consideration of Her Majesty's Government, which this Government trusts may lead to a final settlement: (1) The Government are willing to recommend to the Volksraad and the people a 5 years' retrospective franchise, as proposed by His Excellency the High Commissioner on the 1st June, 1899. (2) The Government are further willing to recommend to the Volksraad that 8 new seats in the First Volksraad, and, if necessary, also in the Second Volksraad, be given to the population of the Witwatersrand, thus with the 2 sitting members for the Goldfields, giving to the population thereof 10 representatives in a Raad of 36, and in future the representation of the Goldfields of this Republic shall not fail below the proportion of one-fourth of the total. (3) The new burghers shall equally with the old burghers be entitled to vote at the election for State President and Commandant-General. (4) This Government will always be prepared to take into consideration such friendly suggestions regarding the details of the Franchise Law as Her Majesty's Government, through the British Agent, may wish to convey to it. (5) In putting forward the above proposals Government of South African Republic assumes: (a) That Her Majesty's Government will agree that the present intervention shall not form a precedent for future similar action and that in the future no interference in the internal affairs of the Republic will take place. (b) That Her Majesty's Government will not further insist on the assertion of the suzerainty, the controversy on the subject being allowed tacitly to drop. (c) That arbitration (from which foreign element other than Orange Free State is to be excluded) will be conceded as soon as the franchise scheme has become law. (6) Immediately on Her Majesty's Government accepting this proposal for a settlement, the Government will ask the Volksraad to adjourn for the purpose of consulting the people about it, and the whole scheme might become law say within a few weeks. (7) In the meantime the form and

scope of the proposed Tribunal are also to be discussed and provisionally agreed upon, while the franchise scheme is being referred to the people, so that no time may be lost in putting an end to the present state of affairs. The Government trust that Her Majesty's Government will clearly understand that in the opinion of this Government the existing franchise law of this Republic is both fair and liberal to the new population, and that the consideration that induces them to go further, as they do in the above proposals, is their strong desire to get the controversies between the two Governments settled, and further to put an end to present strained relations between the two Governments and the incalculable harm and loss it has already occasioned in South Africa, and to prevent a racial war from the effects of which South Africa may not recover for many generations, perhaps never at all, and therefore this Government, having reregard to all these circumstances would highly appreciate it if Her Majesty's Government, seeing the necessity of preventing the present crisis from developing still further and the urgency of an early termination of the present state of affairs, would expedite the acceptance or refusal of the settlement here offered.

21st August.

Sir, In continuation of my dispatch of the 19th instant, and with reference to the communication to you of the State Attorney this morning, I wish to forward to you the following in explanation thereof, with the request that the same may be telegraphed to His Excellency the High Commissioner for South Africa, as forming part of the proposals of this Government embodied in the above-named dispatch: (1) The proposals of this Government regarding question of franchise and representation contained in that dispatch must be regarded as expressly conditional on Her Majesty's Government consenting to the points set forth in paragraph 5 of the dispatch, viz.: (a) In future not to interfere in internal

affairs of the South African Republic. (b) Not to insist further on its assertion of existence of suzerainty. (c) To agree to arbitration. (2) Referring to paragraph 6 of the dispatch, this Government trusts that it is clear to Her Majesty's Government that this Government has not consulted the Volksraad as to this question and will only do so when an affirmative reply to its proposals has been received from Her Majesty's Government.

NOTE.

In reply to the above proposals of the South African Republic, the Secretary of State for the Colonies declared Great Britain "unable to appreciate the objections entertained by the Government of the South African Republic to a Joint Commission of Inquiry," and refused to enter into a consideration of the alternative proposals of the South African Republic.

As a consequence of this refusal, the South African Republic communicated to Great Britain that the "proposal for a five years' franchise and extension of representation of the Witwatersrand with the conditions attached thereto" had lapsed, whereby also lapsed the necessity of laying it before the representatives of the people for ratification.

During the month of September following, the negotiations failed to produce any agreement, and matters remained in this unsatisfactory state until, on October 9, 1899, the ultimatum of President Kruger brought affairs to an actual crisis.

CHAPTER IV.

ULTIMATUM OF south african REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 9, 1899.

The Government of the South African Republic feels itself compelled to refer the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland once more to the Convention of London, 1884, concluded between this Republic and the United Kingdom and which in its XIVth Article secures certain specified rights to the white population of this Republic, namely, that "All persons, other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the South African Republic (a) will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the South African Republic; (b) they will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises; (c) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents whom they may think fit to employ; (d) they will not be subject, in respect of their persons or property, or in respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon citizens of the said Republic." This Government wishes further to observe that the above are only rights which Her Majesty's Government have reserved in the above Convention with regard to the Uitlander population of this Republic and that the violation only of those rights could give that Government a right to diplomatic representations or intervention while, moreover, the regulation of all other questions affecting the position or the rights of the Uitlander population under the above-mentioned Convention is handed over to the Government and the representatives of the people of the South African Republic. Amongst the questions the regulation of which falls exclusively within the competence of the Government and of the Volksraad, are included those

of the franchise and representation of the people in this Republic, and although thus the exclusive right of this Government and of the Volksraad for the regulation of that franchise and representation is indisputable, yet this Government has found occasion to discuss in a friendly fashion the franchise and the representation of the people with Her Majesty's Government, without, however, recognizing any rights thereto on the part of Her Majesty's Government. This Government has also, by the formulation of the now existing Franchise Law and the Resolution with regard to representation, constantly held these friendly discussions before its eyes. On the part of Her Majesty's Government, however, the friendly nature of these discussions has assumed a more and more threatening tone, and the minds of the people in this Republic and in the whole of South Africa have been excited and a condition of extreme tension has been created, while Her Majesty's Government could no longer agree to the legislation respecting franchise and the Resolution respecting representation in this Republic, and finally, by your note of 25th September, 1899, broke off all friendly correspondence on the subject, and intimated that they must now proceed to formulate their own proposals for a final settlement, and this Government can only see in the above intimation from Her Majesty's Government a new violation of the Convention of London, 1884, which does not reserve to Her Majesty's Government the right to a unilateral settlement of a question which is exclusively a domestic one for this Government and has already been regulated by it.

On account of the strained situation and the consequent serious loss in and interruption of trade in general which the correspondence respecting the franchise and representation in this Republic carried in its train, Her Majesty's Government have recently pressed for an early settlement and finally pressed, by your intervention, for an answer within forty-eight hours (subsequently somewhat modified) to your