This sum, with the characteristic liberality that distinguished them in
their dealings with the Boers, but which was not so marked where loyals
were concerned, the Commissioners (Sir Evelyn Wood dissenting) reduced
by a stroke of the pen to 265,000 pounds, thus entirely remitting an
approximate sum of 500,000 pounds, or 600,000 pounds. To the sum of
265,000 pounds still owing, must be added say another 150,000 pounds
for sums lately advanced to pay the compensation claims, bringing up the
actual amount now owing to England to something under half a million, of
which I say with confidence she will never see a single 10,000 pounds.
As this contingency was not contemplated, or if contemplated, not
alluded to by the Royal Commission, provision was made for a sinking
fund, by means of which the debt, which is a second charge on the
revenues of the States, is to be extinguished in twenty-five years.
It is a strange instance of the proverbial irony of fate, that whilst
the representatives of the Imperial Government were thus showering gifts
of hundreds of thousands of pounds upon men who had spurned the benefits
of Her Majesty's rule, made war upon her forces, and murdered her
subjects, no such consideration was extended to those who had remained
loyal to her throne.
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