William's unpopularity with his new people was, on the whole, unjustified, but his memory is rightly darkened by the stain of the "Massacre of Glencoe."
Such assumptions are not wholly unjustified.
He realized that one of the most potent factors in the Milner situation was the attitude of the Cape Dutch, and in March 1898 at Graaff Reinet Milner called upon the Dutch citizens of the Cape, " especially those who had gone so far in the expression of their sympathy for the Transvaal as to expose themselves to charges of disloyalty to their own flag " to use all their influence, not in confirming the Transvaal in unjustified suspicions, not in encouraging its government in obstinate resistance to all reform, but in inducing it gradually to assimilate its institutions, and the temper and spirit of its administration, to those of the free communities of South Africa, such as Cape Colony or the Orange Free State.
From the moment the apparent recrudescence of the Liberal split over this question seemed to have misled Mr Balfour, who resigned office on the 4th of December, into thinking that difficulties would arise over the formation of a Liberal cabinet; but, whether or not the rumour was correct that a blunder had been made at Stirling and that explanations had ensued which satisfied Mr Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, this anticipation proved unjustified.
This is an important counterweight to some unjustified perceptions that the whole system is failing to function.