It was the Boers who really attracted him, and the man he admired the most in South Africa was President Brand.

The sketch of the two Dutch Republics in his Report is drawn with a very friendly hand.

He thought, not without reason, that they had been badly treated.

Their independence, which they did not then desire, had been forced upon them by Lord Grey and the Duke of Newcastle.

The Sand River Convention of 1852, and the Orange River Convention of 1854, resulted from British desire to avoid future responsibility outside Cape Colony and Natal.