Kruger himself accepted a paid office under Government.
There was every sign that the people, if judiciously handled, would settle down under the British flag.

It is even asserted that they would themselves have petitioned for annexation had it been longer withheld.
With immediate constitutional government it is possible that even the most recalcitrant of them might have been induced to lodge their protests in the ballot boxes rather than in the bodies of our soldiers.
But the empire has always had poor luck in South Africa, and never worse than on that occasion.

Through no bad faith, but simply through preoccupation and delay, the promises made were not instantly fulfilled.
Simple primitive men do not understand the ways of our circumlocution offices, and they ascribe to duplicity what is really red tape and stupidity.

If the Transvaalers had waited they would have had their Volksraad and all that they wanted.

But the British Government had some other local matters to set right, the rooting out of Sekukuni and the breaking of the Zulus, before they would fulfill their pledges.