order that the subsequent actions and attitude
of the Reform Committee may be properly understood it is necessary to
explain somewhat fully the position of affairs on this Monday
evening.

As soon as it was realized that the news was beyond all doubt true
the bitterest censure was expressed upon Dr. Jameson's action, and it
was at first stated by many that either Dr. Jameson or Mr. Rhodes or
both had deliberately and for the furtherance of their personal aims
disregarded in treacherous and heartless fashion all their
agreements. Soon however a calmer view was taken, and a consideration
of all the circumstances induced the Reformers to believe that Dr.
Jameson had started in good faith, but under some misapprehension.
They recalled the various reports that had been in circulation in the
press about conflicts between the Boers and Uitlanders at the Simmer
and Jack and Jumpers mines, the reported arrest of Mr. Lionel
Phillips and the demand of L80,000 bail--rumours which had been
treated by those on the spot as too ridiculous to gain credence
anywhere, but which they nevertheless thought might have reached Dr.
Jameson in such guise as to induce him to take the step which he had
taken. It was assumed that the telegrams sent from Johannesburg and
Capetown to stop him had not reached him, and that Messrs. Heany and
Holden had also failed to catch him before he started. Opinions
however were still divided as to whether he had simply lost patience
and come in regardless of all consequences, or had been really misled
and had dashed in to the assistance of Johannesburg. The position was
at best one of horrible uncertainty, and divided as the Committee
were in their opinions as to his motive they could only give him the
benefit of the doubt and assume that there was behind his action no
personal aim and no deliberate disregard of his undertakings. In
order to realize the perplexity of the position it must be understood
that only the few who happened to meet on Sunday and Monday morning
knew of the telegrams which had passed during the previous
twenty-four hours, many did not know of them until Pretoria prison
gave them time to compare notes; to some they may be news even now.
There was no time to argue then!

Knowing the poorness of the equipment of Johannesburg and the
unpreparedness of the place and its inhabitants the more logical and
cold-blooded course would have been to repudiate Dr. Jameson
instantly and to have left him