as as a voice crying in the wilderness in
those days, and, as has been said, it required the Jameson Raid to
advertize the conditions in the Transvaal and to direct attention to
what had been proclaimed unheeded for many years. Immediately prior
to the Raid Mr. Kruger was floundering in a morass of difficulties.
The policy of 'something for nothing' had been exposed, and it was
seen through by all the Dutchmen in South Africa and was resented by
all save his own little party in the Transvaal; but the Jameson Raid
gave the President a jumping-off place on solid ground, and he was
not slow to take advantage of it.

It is not too much to say that the vast majority of people in Europe
and America are indebted to Dr. Jameson for any knowledge which they
may have acquired of the Transvaal and its Uitlander problem. Theirs
is a disordered knowledge, and perhaps it is not unnatural that they
should in a manner share the illusion of the worthy sailor who, after
attending divine service, assaulted the first Israelite he met
because he had only just heard of the Crucifixion. A number of worthy
people are still disposed to excuse many things in the Transvaal
because of the extreme provocation given by the Jameson Raid. The
restrictions upon English education are considered to be 'not
unnatural when one remembers the violent attempt to swamp the Dutch.'
The excessive armaments are held to be 'entirely justifiable
considering what has happened.' The building of forts is 'an ordinary
precaution.' The prohibiting of public meetings is 'quite wrong, of
course, but can you wonder at it?' Many of these worthy people will,
no doubt, learn with pained surprise that all these things were among
the causes which led to the Reform movement of 1895-6, and are not
the consequences of that movement as they erroneously suppose. The
Press Law and Public Meetings Act had been passed; arms had been
imported and ordered in tens of thousands; machine guns and
quantities of ammunition also; forts were being built;{42} the
suppression of all private schools had been advocated by Dr.
Mansvelt--all long, long before the Jameson Raid. So also had the
republican propaganda been at work, but it had not caught on outside
the two Republics.

Difficult as his task might appear, Mr. Kruger had now command of the
two great persuasive forces--money and sentiment. With the money he
pushed on the forts, and imported immense quantities of big guns,
small arms, and a