efensive purposes. A few, however, were for
upsetting the present Government by a show of arms, and for this purpose
invited the gallant but reckless doctor to come in with his forces to
their aid, promising to meet him.

"Of course you know he came too soon, riding right away from the
Rhodesian border. We were not even agreed to meet him, and he and his
force suffered defeat at the hands of the Boers. It was a gallant but
an extremely foolhardy movement.

"Since then our grievances have increased. Numbers of necessaries are
monopolies, for which we have to pay a tremendous price, and on top of
all two new laws have been passed. One, the Press Law, makes it
impossible for us to air our grievances in the papers; and the other,
the Alien Expulsion Law, decrees that any foreigner who by word or deed
disturbs the peace of the country shall be expelled without appeal to
the courts.

"It is monstrous! In no other place in the whole of the civilised world
are Englishmen treated so shamefully. We have done all that is
possible, and now we have appealed to our Government, who are carrying
on negotiations with Pretoria.

"And meanwhile the Boer population is becoming more and more openly
hostile. They evince it in every possible action, and they do not
hesitate to show that they are armed to the teeth, while we are
completely without weapons. But do you think all this agitation will
end in peace? Do you think that autocratic, pig-headed Kruger will give
in in the slightest? No, my lads, he will not, I am assured. He cares
nothing for us. Our needs, our grievances, are little to him, and only
serve as a pretext for a rupture with England. He is as sly as a fox,
and has more ambition than any single individual in this world. For
many long years he has waited for a day when the British Lion shall be
engaged in some European war, and then, and only then, has he been
prepared to drive us out, and throw off the suzerain power of England,
that hated power which destroys his sense of independence. But he does
not stop there. A united Africa, a vast republic with Paul Kruger as
its first president or king, is what he aims at; and to bring that about
he is on the eve of defying the might of our great empire. He has the
guns and ammunition, the money lies in abundance beneath our feet, and
the men he will obtain by harping on that independence for which all are
sworn to lay down their lives. Once the fire is kindled,