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merely a manifestation of this law' – a formula which relieves him of the necessity of even touching in a single page any of the actual concrete issues that have arisen between the Transvaal and Great Britain. England happens, through her colony, to be the nearest neighbour of the Transvaal, and, since neighbourhood of nations implies conflict, England was bound to measure her strength against the Transvaal and to assert her predominance; being of superior social efficiency, she is able to conquer, and has the right to do so. It matters nothing, according to M. Demolins, whether the particular quarrel which the nation of superior social efficiency picks with its weaker neighbour is justifiable or not; the law of competition among nations rises superior to such details. Some one objects, and seeks to raise questions such as, 'What is the standard of social efficiency according to which you pronounce British civilization superior to Boer for the conditions of life in the Transvaal? What right has Britain to determine in her own cause the relative social superiority? Will the socially superior nation retain this superiority intact if she spreads it over an unlimited area of territory taken forcibly from other peoples whom she is bound to rule by force?' But to M.