with, and the Transvaal was a convenient
point on which to attack the Government. He probably neither knew
nor cared what effect his reckless words might have on ignorant Boers
thousands of miles away; and yet, humanly speaking, many a man would
have been alive and strong to-day, whose bones now whiten the African
Veldt, had those words never been spoken. Then, for the first time,
the Boers learnt that, if they played their cards properly and put
on sufficient pressure, they would, in the event of the Liberal party
coming to office, have little difficulty in coercing it as they wished.

There was a fair chance at the time of the utterance of the Mid-Lothian
speeches that the agitation would, by degrees, die away; Sir G. Wolseley
had succeeded in winning over Pretorius, and the Boers in general
were sick of mass meetings. Indeed, a memorial was addressed to Sir G.
Wolseley by a number of Boers in the Potchefstroom district, protesting
against the maintenance of the movement against Her Majesty's rule,
which, considering the great amount of intimidation exercised by the
malcontents, may be looked upon as a favourable sign.

But when it slowly came to be understood among the Boers that a great
English Minister had openly espoused their cause, and that he would
perhaps soon be all-powerful, the moral gain to them was incalculable.
They could now go to the doubting ones and say,--we must be right about
the matter, because, putting our own feelings out of the question,
the great Gladstone says we are. We find the committee of the Boer
malcontents, at their meeting in March 1880, reading a letter to Mr.
Gladstone, "in which he was thanked for the great sympathy shown to
their fate," and a hope expressed that, if he succeeded in getting
power, he would not forget them. In fact, a charming unanimity prevailed
between our great Minister and the Boer rebels, for their interests were
the same, the overthrow of the Conservative Government. If, however,
every leader of the Opposition were to intrigue, or countenance
intrigues with those who are seeking to undermine the authority of Her
Majesty, whether they be Boers or Irishmen, in order to help himself to
power, the country might suffer in the long run.

But whatever feelings may have prompted Her Majesty's opposition, the
Home Government, and their agent, Sir Garnet Wolseley, blew no uncertain
blast, if we may judge from their words and actions. Thus we find
Sir Garnet speaking a