affirmative
reply on these four points, before five o'clock, p.m. on Wednesday,
October 11th, and it is added that should a satisfactory reply not
have reached within that period, it will, to its great regret, be
compelled to consider the action of Her Majesty's Government as a
formal declaration of War."

Next day Mr. Chamberlain naturally replied that "henceforth all
discussion was impossible." Notification was made on the 11th of
October. Englishmen and suspected foreigners were expelled; and
President Steyn, with the special Boer skill, in misrepresenting facts,
announced that "England had committed itself to an open, and
unjustifiable attack upon the independence of the South African
Republic."

We have seen from which side the attack came.

CHAPTER XVIII.

DR. KUYPER'S FINAL METAPHOR.[24]

1.--_Where are the Peace Lovers?_

I have finished my criticism of Dr. Kuyper's article.

Should he not find it clear, perhaps he will be kind enough to mark the
points which he desires to have explained. I will gladly insert his
reply, on condition that he allows me to publish it, with his article,
in pamphlet form, so that readers may have both sides of the question
before them. I do not follow him in detail in his apologetic, religious,
metaphysical, and oratorical digressions where common-places stand for
facts and arguments.

"Has civilisation the right to propagate itself by means of war?" he
cries. As far as I am concerned, I think war a very bad vehicle of
civilisation, albeit it has often served the purpose; but as long as it
remains the last resource of international relations, it is impossible
to suppress it.

I return the question. "Has an inferior civilisation the right to impose
itself upon a superior civilisation, and to propagate itself by means of
war?"

Pro-Boers delight to exhibit in the shop windows a picture representing
three Transvaal soldiers; a youth of sixteen, an old man of sixty-five,
and a man in the prime of life. What does it prove? That every Boer is
a soldier. They have no other calling; to drive ox-teams; ride; shoot;
keep a sharp eye on the Kaffirs in charge of their cattle; use the
sjambok freely "in Boer fashion," to make them work; these are their
occupations. Their civilisation is one of the most characteristic types
of a military civilisation.

It is a curious thing, that so many Europeans among the lovers of peace,
should actually be the fi