duty to speak now; it is more than time to protest, as
British subjects, against the extermination of defenceless women
and children....

"But, in Heaven's name, let the Congress be a People's Congress
in reality. Let no one or other stay away for one or other small
difficulty. Let members of Parliament, clergymen, yes, every man,
old or young, be present at Worcester on the 6th of December
next. Let them turn up in numbers. Let us use our rights as
British subjects in a worthy and decided manner. Let us at least
adopt three petitions or resolutions: (1) Praying Her Majesty,
our Gracious Queen, to make an end to the burning of homes and
the ill-treatment of helpless women and children; if not, that
they may be murdered at once, rather than die slowly by hunger
and torture; (2) a petition in which it be urged that the war
should be ended, and the Republics allowed to retain their
independence; and finally, a pledge that those who do not wish
to sign these petitions will no longer be supported by us in any
way.

"[No shopkeeper, attorney, doctor, master, or any one--no
victuals, meat, bread, meal, sheep, oxen, horses, vegetables,
fruit whatsoever will he sell to the jingoes until the wrong is
righted and compensated.]

"The dam is full. Our nation cannot, dare not, say with Cain, 'Am
I my brother's keeper?' There must be a way out for the
overflowing water. Disloyal deeds and talk are wrong. But if we,
as a nation, as one man, earnestly and decisively lay our hands
to the plough in a constitutional manner, and are determined, I
trust, through God's help, we shall--yes, we must--win."

The passage placed in brackets, in which this member of the Cape
Parliament urges that all who may refuse to sign the two "petitions"
should be rigorously boycotted, was omitted--without any indication of
omission--by _The South African News_. _Ons Land_, on the other hand,
expressed approval of the letter as it stood.[229]

[Footnote 229: Cd. 547.]

[Sidenote: The Worcester congress.]

These were the kind of stories, and the kind of appeals, with which
the mind of the colonial Dutch had been inflamed by the nationalist
leaders when the Worcester Congress met. The gathering is said to have
consisted of between 8,000 and 10,000 persons; and its promoters
claimed that a far larger number--120