utterances of his despatches
showed an ill-balanced and ill-regulated mind, which was utterly
unable to cope with the problem." While, as for the prospect of a
British army ever conquering the South African Dutch, he reasserted
the opinion which he held before the war--"Our friends they might be,
but our subjects never."[294] Mr. Sauer, who "felt honoured by seeing
such a gathering, and seeing in it a Gladstone[295] and a Leonard
Courtney," was no less explicit:

[Footnote 292: These two ex-officials, representing the
respective Governments of the late Republics, were living in
Holland at this time.]

[Footnote 293: It is only fair to assume that Mr. Bryce was
not acquainted with the details of the Dordrecht and Hargrove
affairs, to which reference has been made respectively at p.
287 and p. 375. And, still more that he was unaware of the
utterly discreditable Basuto incident, with respect to which
General Gordon's biographer writes: "The consequence was that
Mr. Sauer deliberately resolved to destroy Gordon's
reputation as a statesman, and to ensure the triumph of his
own policy by an act of treachery which has never been
surpassed."--_The Life of Gordon_, vol. ii., p. 83. (Fisher
Unwin.)]

[Footnote 294: Compare the different and infinitely more
instructive treatment of the question of Dutch allegiance by
Lord Milner in his Johannesburg speech, quoted at p. 145.]

[Footnote 295: _I.e._, the Rev. Stephen Gladstone.]

"I stand here," he said, "as a representative of the Dutch
people, and declare that they never mean to be a subject race. If
they cannot get their rights by justice they will get them by
other means.... I am glad to go back and tell my own people how
many there are in this country who appreciate their devotion to
an ideal, and are prepared to befriend them in the hour of
trial."[296]

[Footnote 296: Apart from those mentioned in the text, the
following attended the Merriman and Sauer banquet: Mr. E.
Robertson, M.P. (chairman), Lord Farrer, Mr. T. Shaw, M.P.,
Mr. Burt, M.P., Mr. Channing, M.P., Mr. John Ellis, M.P., Mr.
H. J. Wilson, M.P., Sir Wilfred Lawson, Mr. Frederic
Harrison, and others. And among those who sent letters of
regret for thei