p under any conditions the latter would abide by the
arrangements agreed upon.

It was then thought that a week would be sufficient time in which to
clear up the flag question and complete preparations. It was
decided to call a big public meeting for the night of Monday, January
6, not with the intention of holding the meeting, but as a blind to
cover the simultaneous rising in Johannesburg and seizing of the
arsenal in Pretoria on the night of Saturday, January 4. With this in
mind it was arranged to publish, in the form of a manifesto,{21} the
address which Mr. Charles Leonard had prepared for the meeting.

Among the Reformers there had always been a considerable section who
regarded the alliance or arrangement with Dr. Jameson as a very
doubtful advantage. It was this section which strongly and
successfully opposed the suggestion that he should start before an
actual outbreak. The difference of opinion was not such as to cause
division in the ranks, but yet sufficient to keep alive discussion as
to how the common aim could be achieved without risk of the
complications which external aid in the initial stages would be sure
to cause. To this feeling of doubt was added a sense of distrust when
Dr. Jameson's importunity and impatience became known; and when the
question of the flag was raised there were few, if any, among those
concerned in the movement who did not feel that the tail was trying
to wag the dog. The feeling was so strong that many were prepared to
abandon the whole scheme and start _de novo_ rather than continue an
undertaking in which it looked as though they were being fooled.
Hence the despatch of Messrs. Leonard and Hamilton on Christmas Day.

Confidence in their power to control Dr. Jameson and direct the
movement, as they considered they had the right and ability to do,
had been so shaken in the reformers that as soon as Messrs. Leonard
and Hamilton had been sent they began to discuss a complete change of
plans, and awaited only the reply from Capetown before taking the
first steps in the prosecution of the new programme. The plan most
favoured was that the importation and distribution of arms should be
continued as speedily and as secretly as possible, that, instead of
an invading force, as many armed and trained men as could be obtained
should be brought in, nominally as mechanics or men seeking
employment on the mines, that the public meeting called for
January 6 should be held and made as larg