ABSTRACT
The South African War ended with the signature of the Treaty of Vereeniging on May 31, 1902. The action which earned for Campbell-Bannerman so enviable a reputation for magnanimous statesmanship was the granting of responsible self-government first to the Transvaal on December 6, 1906, and then to the Orange River Colony on June 5, 1907, and it is well to enquire at the outset to what extent the adjective was merited. Lord Rosebery, who contributed much in his own idiosyncratic way to Liberal divisions during the South African War, spoke of the 'Liberal throne' as 'the most uneasy that had existed since the partition of Poland'. For some sixty years British statesmen had conceived of a Federation in South Africa. In all human affairs magnanimous gestures customarily exact a price, otherwise indeed they might be more usual occurrences, but it is not necessarily the man or nation that makes the gesture that pays the price.
