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or foresight; and these events need never have occurred。 They were one of Mr。 Gladstone’s gifts to his country。
But the very fact of their occurrence shows that Shepstone; on whose shoulders everything rested at the time; was right in his premises。 He said in effect that the incorporation of the Transvaal in the Empire was an imperial necessity; and the issue has proved that he did not err。 I say that the course of history has justified Sir Theophilus Shepstone and shown his opponents and detractors to be wrong; as in another case it has justified Charles Gordon and again proved those same opponents and detractors to be wrong。 On their heads be all the wasted lives and wealth。 I am sure that the future will declare that he was right in everything that he did; for if it was not so why is the Transvaal now a Province of the British Empire? Nothing can explain away the facts; they speak for themselves。
How shocking; how shameless was the treatment meted out to Shepstone personally — I presume for purely political reasons; since I cannot conceive that he had any individual enemies — is well shown by the following letter from him to me which through a pure accident chances to have been discovered by my brother; Sir William Haggard; amongst his own papers。
Pietermaritzburg; Natal:
July 6; 1884。
My dear Haggard; — I am afraid that I cannot take much credit to myself this time for giving you practical proof that I think of you by writing you a letter; for although I do as a matter of fact think of you both; almost as often as old Polly the parrot calls me a “very domde Boer;” an expression which you taught the bird and which it has not forgotten; yet this is essentially a selfish letter written with selfish ends; but let me assure you that it
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