by methods which did not even recoil before the criminal law
of the land, to say nothing of elementary morality.

And did they succeed? Were the people and the Volksraad as corrupt as
they thought, and as they still endeavour to make the world believe?
Their failure is the best and most complete answer to this calumny.

If corruption on a large scale, however, failed to ensure the triumph of
Capitalism over the community, the other trump card of Jingoism still
remained. The pulse of the High Commissioner was felt by Mr. Lionel
Phillips, and what was the answer of Sir Henry Loch, Her Majesty's
representative in South Africa? We extract from the same secret letter
book from which we have already quoted the following letter, dated 1st
July, addressed to Wernher, a member of the influential firm of Wernher,
Beit & Co.:--

[Sidenote: (Sir) Henry Loch's indiscretion.]

[32] "Sir Henry Loch (with whom I had two long private interviews alone)
asked me some very pointed questions, such as what arms we had in
Johannesburg, whether the population could hold the place for six days
until help could arrive, etc., etc., and stated plainly that if there
had been three thousand rifles and ammunition here he would certainly
have come over."

And so on in the same strain. Sir Henry Loch endorsed the truth of these
statements two years later by boasting openly in the House of Lords
about his plans for organising a raid into the South African Republic.

And all this happened while he (Sir Henry Loch) was the guest of our
Government, and engaged in friendly negotiations about the interests of
British subjects. To what a depth had British Policy in South Africa
already degenerated. Within two years, however, a deeper abyss was to
open.

[Sidenote: The conspiracy.]

The secret conspiracy of the Capitalists and Jingoes to overthrow the
South African Republic began now to gain ground with great rapidity, for
just at this critical period Mr. Chamberlain became Secretary of State
for the Colonies. In the secret correspondence of the conspirators,
reference is continually made to the Colonial Office in a manner which,
taken in connection with later revelations and with a successful
suppression of the truth, has deepened the impression over the whole
world that the Colonial Office was privy to, if not an accomplice in,
the villainous attack on the South African Republic.

[Sidenote: The Jameson Raid]

It is unnecessary to dwell at length