CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 45 
existing constitution, which placed an insuperable power of 
obstruction in the hands of a legislature not responsible for 
the conduct of affairs was a system only defensible as one 
of transition. The social and financial evils to which it was 
liable had only been partly averted by Imperial assistance, 
and by a succession of able Governors. In a further letter 
of November 171, Lord Kimberley intimated that a second 
regiment would be allowed to remain in the Colony pending 
the decision as to the adoption of responsible government, 
and for some time after, but the Imperial Government were 
determined not to maintain Imperial forces in South Africa 
except for Imperial purposes, and he warned the new 
Governor that no extension of British South Africa would 
be contemplated unless the Cape accepted responsible 
government. Meanwhile the question of the annexation of 
Waterboer’s territory came prominently to the front, and on 
the Cape Legislature agreeing to provide for the adminis- 
tration and defence of the territory in question, a commission 
was issued on May 17, 1871, authorizing the annexation of 
the lands in question to the Cape. Before this commission 
was received in the Colony, the existing chief officers of the 
Government presented a statement 2 of reasons for deploring 
the introduction of responsible government. The paper 
drawn up by them on April 26, 1871, is an able one, and 
effectively shows the difficulties of government at all in a 
country where there was so great a preponderance of the 
native race, where there was a sharp line of cleavage between 
the two sections of the European population, where education 
even among Europeans was so backward, where communica~ 
tions were so difficult, and where the people of the eastern 
province could not be effectively represented in Parliament, 
as their leaders could not afford to surrender their private 
interests to the necessity of a long parliamentary session 
and absence from their homes. But they were not able to 
show any real prospect of improvement under the constitu- 
tion as it stood. They evidently hoped that the state of 
confusion and difficulty in the finances might pass away, but 
1 Parl. Pap., C. 459, p. 66. * Thid., pp. 173 seq.