Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, reversed this policy and restored
the whole territory to the natives. He maligned the Boers in even more
forcible terms than the emissaries of the London Missionary Society, and
openly favoured the Kaffirs, placing them on a higher pedestal than the
Boers. The latter had succeeded in rescuing their cattle from the
Kaffirs, but were forced to look on passively while the very same
cattle, with the owner's brand marks plainly visible, were sold by
public auction to defray the cost of the commando. It was useless to
hope for justice from Englishmen. There was no security for life and
property under the flag of a Government which openly elected to uphold
Wrong. The high-minded descendants of the proudest and most stubborn
peoples of Europe had to bend the knee before a Government which united
a commercial policy of crying injustice with a veneer of simulated
philanthropy.

[Sidenote: The Dutch language.]

But it was not only in regard to the Natives that the Boers were
oppressed and their rights violated. When the Cape was transferred to
England in 1806, their language was guaranteed to the Dutch inhabitants.
This guarantee was, however, soon to meet the same fate as the treaties
and conventions which were concluded by England with our people at later
periods.

The violator of treaties fulfilled its obligation by decreeing in 1825
that all documents were for the future to be written in English.
Petitions in the language of the country and complaints about bitter
grievances were not even acknowledged. The Boers were excluded from the
juries because their knowledge of English was too faulty, and their
causes and actions had to be determined by Englishmen, with whom they