ch for
England's prestige as Marlborough at Blenheim or Wellington at
Waterloo. Sir George Colley miscalculated his own and his enemy's
strength, but he had nothing to do with disgraceful surrender, and I
am sure had rather be where he now rests than sign a disgraceful
peace, which is the only thing that can injure England's prestige."

Mr. R. W. Murray, of the _Cape Times_, writing to Sir Bartle Frere,
thought bitterly indeed.

"Ask your English statesmen," he wrote, "if, in the history of the
world, there was ever such a cruel desertion of a dependency by the
parent State. How can England hope for loyalty from South Africans?
The moral of the Gladstone lesson is, that you may be anything in
South Africa but loyal Englishmen."

These letters, taken haphazard from volumes of correspondence on the
melancholy event of the time, serve better than the words of an
outsider to show the terrible position in which the "magnanimity" of
the British Ministers had placed their countrymen. One more extract
and we must pass on.

[Illustration: COLOUR-SERGEANT and PRIVATE, THE SCOTS GUARDS.

Photo by Gregory & Co. London.]

Colonel Lanyon, writing again to Sir Bartle Frere, said:--

"_April 26, 1881._

"The Boers are practically dictators, and have been ruling the
country in a manner which is simply humiliating to Englishmen.
Active persecution is going on everywhere, and consequently all that
can are leaving the country. Thirty families have left Pretoria
alone; B---- and M---- have left, having been frequently threatened
because of their having been members of the Executive, and those two
poor fellows J---- and H---- are completely ostracised for the
same reason. They are both ruined men, practically speaking, and all
because they trusted to England's assurances and good faith....

"But hard as these cases are, I feel that the natives have had the
cruellest measure meted out to them, and they feel it acutely. The
most touching and heart-breaking appeals have come from some of the
chiefs who live near enough to have heard the news. They ask why
they have been thrown over after showing their loyalty by paying
their taxes and resisting the demands made upon them by the Boers
during hostilities. They point out that we stopped them from helping
us, and that, had we not done so, the Boers would have been easily
put down. They say that, as we so hindered their action, it is a