under you will not fail to come to the rescue of people who
will be so situated. We guarantee any expense that may reasonably be
incurred by you in helping us, and ask you to believe that nothing
but the sternest necessity has prompted this appeal.

"CHARLES LEONARD.
LIONEL PHILLIPS.
FRANCIS RHODES.
JOHN HAYS HAMMOND.
GEORGE FARRAR."

It was arranged that Dr. Jameson should start from camp on the night
of the outbreak at Johannesburg--either on the 28th of December or
on the 4th of January--according to notice which would subsequently
be given. From this moment, however, doubts began to fill the minds
of the Reformers. They were dissatisfied with the quantity of arms
they had been able to smuggle into the town; there was a want of
cohesion among the different sections, of those interested; they
went so far as to disagree as to what flag they were going to revolt
under. The Reformers were evidently not all of Dr. Jameson's
opinion, that the Union Jack was the one and only flag under which
they could hope for justice--they were, as we know, only comrades in
suffering but not compatriots, and besides this, many declared that
reform and not annexation was what they were anxious to secure.

[Illustration: Dr Leander Starr Jameson.

Photo by Elliott & Fry, London.]

Here we have before us what made the complicated riddle of the Raid.
Since it has defied all the Oedipuses of the century, we will not
endeavour to unravel it. Did the Reformers set all their grievances
aside before the paramount question, "Under which flag, Jameson?" or
did they make use of the flag argument to cover a series of
vacillations which prevented them from acting up to the rules of the
conspiracy they themselves had set on foot? Did Mr. Rhodes engage in
the plot for the sake of financial gain? Did he do so out of
sympathy for the "cause," or did he attempt a magnificent political
_coup_? And lastly--Did that unhappy scapegoat, the gallant Jameson,
launch himself on the wild mistaken escapade to rescue his
fellow-countrymen from oppression, to serve his private ends
financial or political, or from the sheer spirit of adventure which,
in some degree, animates every British heart? Who shall say?

THE CRITICAL MO