ry efficient. But the militia included all Boers
over sixteen; and the Boer, though not disciplined in the European way,
was accustomed to shoot, inured to hardships by his rough life, ready to
fight to the death for his independence. This militia, consisting of
eighteen thousand men or more, would have been, when all collected, more
than a match in the field for any force the Uitlanders were prepared to
arm. And in point of fact, when the rising took place, the latter had
only some three thousand rifles ready, while few of their supporters
knew anything of fighting. As the Reform leaders were aware that they
would be out-matched if the Government had time to gather its troops, it
has been subsequently hinted that they meant to carry Pretoria by a
_coup de main_, capturing the President, and forthwith, before the Boer
militia could assemble, to issue a call for a general popular vote or
plebiscite of all the inhabitants, Boers and Uitlanders, which should
determine the future form of government. Others have thought that the
Reformers would not have taken the offensive, but have entrenched
themselves in Johannesburg, and have held out there, appealing meanwhile
to the High Commissioner, as representative of the Paramount Power, to
come up, interpose his mediation, and arrange for the peaceable taking
of such a general popular vote as I have mentioned. To do this it might
not have been necessary to defend the town for more than a week or ten
days, before which time the general sympathy which they expected from
the rest of South Africa would have made itself felt. Besides, there
were in the background (though this was of course unknown to the visitor
and to all but a few among the leaders) the British South Africa
Company's police force by this time beginning to gather at Pitsani, who
were pledged to come if summoned, and whose presence would have enabled
them to resist a Boer assault on the town.

As everybody knows, the question of strength was never tested. The
rising was to have been ushered in by a public meeting at the end of
December. This meeting was postponed till the 6th of January; but the
Company's police force, instead of waiting to be summoned, started for
Johannesburg at the time originally fixed. Their sudden entrance, taking
the Reform leaders by surprise and finding them unprepared, forced the
movement to go off at half-cock, and gave to it an aspect quite
different from that which it had hitherto borne. T