of Warden, who had been dismissed. At the close of that year a settlement was at length concluded with Moshoeshoe, which perhaps left that chief in a stronger position than he had hitherto been. There had been ministerial changes in England and the Aberdeen ministry, then in power, adhered to the determination to withdraw from the Sovereignty. Sir George Russell Clerk was sent out in 1853 as special commissioner "for the settling and adjusting of the affairs" of the Sovereignty, and in August of that year he summoned a meeting of delegates to determine upon a form of self-government. At that time there were some 15,000 Europeans in the country, many of them recent immigrants from Cape Colony. There were among them numbers of farmers and tradesmen of British descent. The majority of the whites still wished for the continuance of British rule provided that it was effective and the country guarded against its enemies. The representations of their delegates, who drew up a proposed constitution retaining British control, were unavailing. Sir George Clerk announced that, as the elected delegates were unwilling to take steps to form an independent government, he would enter into negotiations with other persons. "And then," wrote George McCall Theal, "was seen the strange spectacle of an English commissioner of high rank and courteous demeanour addressing men who wished to be free of British control as the friendly and well-disposed inhabitants, while for those who desired to remain British subjects and who claimed that protection to which they believed themselves entitled, he had no sympathising word." While the elected delegates sent two members to England to try to induce the government to alter their decision, Sir George Clerk speedily came to terms with a committee formed by the republican party and presided over by Mr J P Hoffman. Even before this committee met, a royal proclamation had been signed (30 January 1854) "abandoning and renouncing all dominion" in the Sovereignty. The Orange River Convention, recognising the independence of the country, was signed at Bloemfontein on 23 February 1854 by Sir George Clerk and the republican committee, and in March the Boer government assumed office. Five days later the representatives of the elected delegates had an interview in London with the colonial secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, who informed them that it was now too late to discuss the question of the retention of British rule. The