ever came. People in England
hardly understand what these men and women went through because they
chose to remain loyal. Let them suppose that all the inhabitants of an
ordinary English town, with the exception of the class known as poor
people, which can hardly be said to exist in a colony, were at an hour's
notice ordered--all, the aged, and the sick, delicate women, and tiny
children--to leave their homes to the mercy of the enemy, and crowd up
in a little space under shelter of a fort, with nothing but canvas tents
or sheds to cover them from the fierce summer suns and rains, and the
coarsest rations to feed them; whilst the husbands and brothers were
daily engaged with a cunning and dangerous enemy, and sometimes brought
home wounded or dead. They will, then, have some idea of what was gone
through by the loyal people of Pretoria, in their weak confidence in the
good faith of the English Government.

The arrangements made for the defence of the town were so ably and
energetically carried out by Sir Owen Lanyon, assisted by the military
officers, that no attack upon it was ever attempted. It seems to me that
the organisation that could provide for the penning up of four thousand
people for months, and carry it out without the occurrence of a single
unpleasantness or expression of discontent, must have had something
remarkable about it. Of course, it would have been impossible without
the most loyal co-operation on the part of those concerned. Indeed,
everybody in the town lent a helping hand; judges served out rations,
members of the Executive inspected nuisances, and so forth. There was
only one instance of "striking;" and then, of all people in the world,
it was the five civil doctors who, thinking it a favourable opportunity
to fleece the Government, combined to demand five guineas a-day each
for their services. I am glad to say that they did not succeed in their
attempt at extortion.

On the 23d December, the Boer leaders issued a second proclamation in
reply to that of Sir O. Lanyon of the 18th, which is characterised by
an utter absence of regard for the truth, being, in fact, nothing but
a tissue of impudent falsehoods. It accuses Sir O. Lanyon of having
bombarded women and children, of arming natives against the Boers,
and of firing on the Boers without declaring war. Not one of these
accusations has any foundation in fact, as the Boers well knew; but
they also knew that Sir Owen, being shut up in Pretoria,