Is the Duke of Buckingham going to add the Trans-Vaal
Republic to the British possessions ? It looks very like it. The brave, but cruel and half civilized Boers, who some years since marched out of our territory, bag and baggage, rather than part with their slaves, have been kidnapping Basutos in great numbers. They make war, carry off the savages, and then condemn them to unrequited labour for life. The Governor of the Cape has now declared that the Basutos are under British protection, and the Boers intimate that they shall capture them all the same. Troops haire been moved to the frontier, and we should not wonder if it were ultimately necessary to include the Republic itself in British dominion. If the Boers were only just to the blacks they might ere this have organized a strong State, defended by a Sepoy force ; but they will not be just, and are consequently at the Governor's mercy. They have not 3,000 men upon whom they can rely, and at any moment might have to meet a servile revolt.
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