man is
breaking up that rule, what is he going to give as a substitute? Anarchy
and lawlessness, or good government which tends to peace and prosperity?

"We can only hope for better times, and a more humane Government for the
natives, to wipe out the wrong that has been done to both black and
white under a bastard civilization which has prevailed in Pretoria for
the past fifteen years. The Government which holds down such a large
number of its subjects by treating them as cut-throats and outlaws, will
one day repent bitterly of its sin of misrule."[35]

* * * * *

Tyranny has a genius for creeping in everywhere, and under any and every
form of government. This is being strikingly illustrated in these days.
Under the name of a Republic, the traditions of a Military Oligarchy
have grown up, and stealthily prevailed.

When a nation has no recorded standard of guiding principles of
government, it matters not by what name it may be called--Empire,
Republic, Oligarchy, or Democracy--it may fall under the blighting
influence of the tyranny of a single individual, or a wealthy clique, or
a military despot.

Too much weight is given just now to mere names as applied to
governments. The acknowledged principles which underlie the outward
forms of government alone are vitally important, and by the adherence to
or abdication of these principles each nation will be judged. The
revered name of _Republic_ is as capable of being dragged in the mire
as that of the title of any other form of government. Mere names and
words have lately had a strange and even a disastrous power of
misleading and deceiving, not persons only, but nations,--even a whole
continent of nations. It is needful to beware of being drawn into
conclusions leading to action by associations attaching merely to a
name, or to some crystallized word which may sometimes cover a principle
the opposite of that which it was originally used to express. Such names
and words are in some cases being as rapidly changed and remodelled as
geographical charts are which represent new and rapidly developing or
decaying groups of the human race. Yet names are always to a large part
of mankind more significant than facts; and names and appearances in
this matter appeal to France and to Switzerland, and in a measure to the
American people, in favour of the Boers.

Among the concessions made by Lord Derby in the Convention of 1884, none
has turned out