Never were opinions more diverse, nor was it ever so obviously important to detect and assert the philosophical principle, in recognition and obedience to which the laws of human government may be preserved and kept in view, and the Retrocession of mankind prevented.
"The Jericho Road"
W. Bion Adkins
They were not appeased by the Retrocession of 1881, which they ascribed solely to British fear of a civil war in South Africa.
"Impressions of South Africa"
James Bryce
A free nation which professes to be everywhere the friend of freedom is bound-so it was argued-to recognize the principles it maintains even when they work against itself; and if these considerations went to show that the Retrocession of the Transvaal was a proper course, was it either wise or humane to prolong the war and crush the Boer resistance at the cost of much slaughter, merely in order to avenge defeats and vindicate a military superiority which the immensely greater forces of Britain made self-evident?
"Impressions of South Africa"
James Bryce