Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/112

 104] ENGLISH HISTOEY. [may

neither the capitalists nor the South African League were involved, and at length with shame the case was dropped. In this country there was not the least idea in any responsible quarter of encroaching upon the independence of the Transvaal as guaranteed by treaty and convention. Mr. Goschen, in presiding at the South African dinner (May 18), assured his hearers that Sir Alfred Milner had accepted President Steyn's invitation to meet President Kruger in order, if possible, to reach "such an arrangement as her Majesty's Government could accept and recommend to the Uitlander population as a reasonable concession to their just demands, and a settlement of the difficulties which have threatened the good relations which her Majesty's Government desire should constantly exist between themselves and the Government of the South African Eepublic." President Kruger apparently was not altogether free 'from suspicion as to the character of the proposed interview, for he answered that the terms of Sir Alfred Milner's reply " go further than his intention," an expression which Mr. Goschen explained when he described the British High Commissioner as particu- larly fitted to deal with the tangle which must be unravelled. In conclusion Mr. Goschen pointed to the good relations exist- ing between parties in Cape Colony, where equal rights were accorded to Dutch and British. He dwelt upon the fact that the liberality of the Cape in contributing to the cost of the Navy — a liberality he held up for imitation to the rest of our self-governing colonies — was not confined to men of one party or of one race. The original proposal was made by the Govern- ment of Sir Gordon Sprigg. It was taken up and carried in a different but not a less acceptable shape by a unanimous vote under the Government of Mr. Schreiner. That Government had done, perhaps, even more to strengthen the defences of the empire by the act of last December, carried by Mr. Schreiner and Mr. Solomon, which practically gave the Admiralty a free hand in Simon's Bay. But the services of the Cape citizens, British and Dutch, to imperial defence were not, as Mr. Goschen said, to be measured by their intrinsic worth, but by the spirit which prompted them.

The report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the licensing question showed a very strong divergence of opinion, and incidentally led to the resignation of the chairman, Viscount Peel, who had been led to expect greater support for his proposal that compensation at the full market value of a licensed house, resting on no legal foundation, could not " for a moment be entertained." On this point, however, he had the support of only the seven temperance members of the commis- sion. The majority report — signed by seven out of eight of the neutral members, all the trade members and one temper- ance member, sixteen in all — held that the outgoing publican was entitled " to a compensation equivalent to the fair intrinsic value of the licence and goodwill." The other points of diver-