itions. Those who
have petitioned their Sovereign to secure for them some amelioration
of their lot are branded by the head of the State as rebels for so
doing, and his example is followed by all his party. Those men who
organized or addressed the public meetings which were suggested by
Mr. Reitz, the State Secretary, and held for the purpose of
discussing a proposal publicly made by the Government, are the men
whom Messrs. Dieperink and Viljoen, the members representing
Johannesburg in the First and Second Volksraads, denounced as
traitors who should be summarily dealt with by the Government.
British subjects associated with the Uitlander cause who venture to
call upon the British Agent in Pretoria or the High Commissioner in
Cape Town are regarded as conspirators and are watched by spies and
all their movements are reported to the Transvaal Government.{52} The
recognized leaders among the Uitlanders are black-listed in the Dutch
press, their names, addresses, and occupations given so that they may
be identified,--marked down in the newspapers supported by the
Government--as men to be dragged out and shot without trial.
Uitlander newspapers have been suppressed for mere political reasons,
without even the allegation that there was incitement to violence or
disorder, and it is therefore not unreasonable that the impunity
with which the Dutch newspapers continue this campaign month after
month should be taken as the measure of the Government's complicity.

It is in these circumstances that appeal has been made to England,
the only other quarter in which there rests the power to see that
justice shall be done. It is an appeal which might well be based upon
the broad and acknowledged right of a subject to claim in case of
injustice the good offices of his own Government. But here it is
based upon a special right. It is the _spirit_{53} of the Pretoria
Convention which the Uitlander has invoked for many years, only to be
told that the spirit is as it may be interpreted from the letter. But
it is not so! Will it be suggested that the British Government
contemplated such license when they granted the charter of
self-government to the Transvaal or that they would have granted
it had they foreseen the interpretation? Can it be said that Mr.
Kruger and his colleagues contemplated it or would have dared to avow
the intention if it were ever entertained? No! And he will be a
bolder man than Mr. Kruger who will dispute that answer