was
intended to seize the fort and magazines at Pretoria. And
circumstances favoured the plans of the Johannesburg men. The
surrounding wall of the fort, a mere barrack, had been removed on one
side in order to effect some additions; there were only about 100 men
stationed there, and all except half a dozen could be counted on as
being asleep after 9 p.m. There never was a simpler sensational task
in the world than that of seizing the Pretoria fort--fifty men could
have done it. But there was more to be done than the mere taking. In
the fort there were known to be some 10,000 rifles, ten or twelve
field-pieces, and 12,000,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition; and it
was designed to seize the fort and the railway on the night of the
outbreak and, by means of one or two trains, to carry off as much of
the material as possible and destroy the rest.

Association with Dr. Jameson as the leader of an invading force is
the one portion of their programme which the Reform leaders find it
extremely difficult to justify. As long as the movement was confined
to the Uitlanders resident in the Transvaal the sympathy of South
Africa and indeed of the world was with them. It was the alliance
with the foreign invader which forfeited that sympathy. That the
eventual intention of the Reformers was only to call upon Dr. Jameson
in case they found themselves attacked by and unable to cope with the
Boers is a fact, but it is only fair to Dr. Jameson to note that this
was a modification of the original arrangement by which both forces
were to act simultaneously and in concert,--when the signal should be
given from Johannesburg.

On the occasion of Dr. Jameson's second visit to Johannesburg,
towards the end of November, the following letter of invitation was
written and handed to him:

_To Dr. Jameson._

JOHANNESBURG.{19}

DEAR SIR,

The position of matters in this State has become so critical that we
are assured that at no distant period there will be a conflict
between the Government and the Uitlander population. It is scarcely
necessary for us to recapitulate what is now matter of history;
suffice it to say that the position of thousands of Englishmen and
others is rapidly becoming intolerable. Not satisfied with making the
Uitlander population pay virtually the whole of the revenue of the
country while denying them representation, the policy of the
Government has been steadily to encroach upon the liberty of the
subject, and to