Nine persons out of ten, when speaking of the Transvaal question, say:
"Why did Chamberlain, at the last moment, raise the question of
suzerainty? When everything had been settled, that question ruined all."

The more thoughtful men base their opinion on an article in _Le Temps_
of September 15th, in which occurs this hypothetical paragraph:--

"Moreover it is possible, that, in the dim recesses of his brain,
the Colonial Minister treasures, as a supreme hope and shadowy
idea, the half-formed design of profiting by the discussion he is
raising in order to excite fresh disputes, such as the complex
question of suzerainty."

This insiduous and disloyal conjecture has been reproduced and utilised;
the absolutely unfounded insinuation of _Le Temps_, has been turned into
an accusation against Mr. Chamberlain.

Some people who fancy they can gauge the motives of statesmen better
than their neighbours, add: "If he raised the question of suzerainty,
it was because he wanted to bring about a war." Facts prove, however,
that the suzerainty question was not raised by England, but by the
Government at Pretoria.

The argument against England's suzerainty over the Transvaal is well
known; the preamble to the 1881 Convention, in which the word occurs was
not reproduced in the Convention of 1884.

But it is also known, that, in the letter to Lord Derby of November
14th, 1883, the delegates from the Pretoria Government demanded