mind? It was the inexorable logic of facts. It was that that had changed his mind, and now we find him attacked by those persons whom he had referred to, and I have been endeavouring to ascertain on what grounds they based their attacks. First of all, so far as I can learn, they said that Sir Alfred Milner had rushed this country into an unjust war. ("No.") Well, I would say, let them refer to the despatches; let them refer to the prolonged negotiations which preceded the ultimatum that was sent by the Transvaal Republic, and I would ask, could any negotiations have been carried on with more patience, and with greater tact than those conducted by Sir Alfred Milner? (Loud cheers.) When one came to read those despatches and follow the train of events that led up to the war, it was clear that if there was one thing that the British Government desired it was peace, and if there was one thing that the British Government desired to avoid it was war, at all costs, saving the loss of British supremacy in South Africa. (Loud cheers.) And then another charge that has been hurled against Sir Alfred Milner was that he made reflections upon the loyalty of a certain section of the inhabitants. It was a charge which was seriously advanced in the columns of certain papers appearing both here and in England. It certainly did sound comical in the light of events, when we see a large section of the inhabitants of this Colony who have broken out into open rebellion. We have got to look not only at the rank and file. We have beyond the mere rank and file professional men, field-cornets, justices of the peace galore. (Laughter and cheers.) We have ministers of religion and members of Parliament. (Loud groans.)

TRAITORS IN PARLIAMENT.

Yes, we have members of Parliament, and I will give them one or two little particulars with regard to these latter gentry. (Cheers.) First of all, let us take the case of Vryburg. If you will take the map you will find that in every district into which a Boer commando entered the inhabitants of Dutch descent have risen with open arms to receive them, not all of them, but the vast majority who took Vryburg. Seventy-five per cent. of the inhabitants were now either squatting round Mafeking, endeavouring to subdue the indomitable Baden-Powell-(loud and prolonged cheers) or else they were engaged in the more congenial occupation of looting loyalists' farms. And, as I have said before, it was not only the rank and file, but we have a fair sprinkling of members of Parliament. What happened at Burghersdorp? There was a patriotic gentleman, named Joubert. (Laughter.) He is at present, I believe, member for the district of Albert. When the Boer commando entered Burghersdorp, of course this gentleman was there. One of the very first things done was to raise a commando of rebels, and a considerable force was got together, which was captained by a well-known field-cornet, also

a Justice of the Peace (laughter) and a rebel commando consisting almost entirely of Dutch Colonists. What did this patriotic gentleman, Mr. Joubert, do? On the market square at Burghersdorp he presented the gallant commandant with a Free State flag, beautifully embroidered, and expressed the pious hope that he would carry it with the force with honour and glory to victory. (Loud groans and cries of "Traitor" and "Hang him.") That patriotic gentleman is still at large. And then there is another gentleman, well known to all members of Parliament, whose speeches were read by all with the very greatest attention. That gentleman is Mr. Van der Walt. (Groans and laughter.) I believe Mr. Van der Walt has been a member of Parliament since the year 1884, or even longer. What has this gentleman done? He is one of the most loquacious members in the House. He makes lengthy speeches on almost every conceivable subject; but never was he so eloquent as when he was protesting the loyalty of the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of this country. (Loud laughter and cheers.) Now, what has Mr. Van der Walt done? When the commando arrived at Colesberg he had welcomed them, and had made a speech. That was not surprising. (Laughter.) And he told them, that as an old member of the Cape Parliament, the time had arrived when every Afrikander should work shoulder to shoulder. That gentleman is also still at large. Then they came to a somewhat painful subject. That is, the colleague of the Treasurer-General. I will not say anything about him-(A Voice: "Do ")-because he was in durance vile. (Laughter.) Last, and perhaps not least, we have that reverend patriot, Mr. Schroder, of Upington. Until very recently he was the Landdrost of Upington, and at the same time he never knew when he might be called upon to take his seat in the Cape Parliament. In the face of all this, can we not say that Sir Alfred Milner was perfectly right in making aspersions upon the loyalty of certain inhabitants of this colony? And we have only to look close at hand and read the speeches which many of the members who attend these so-called Christian meetings make, and we will find violent treason in a very large number of them. (Hear, hear.)

THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION.

It is a significant fact that the military authorities had found it necessary to place tens of thousands of men on the lines of communication between this and Bloemfontein. (Cheers.) I will go farther, and say that it was Sir Alfred Milner's duty to draw the attention of the English people to the state of affairs which existed in this colony. Fortunately, not only the people of Great Britain, but the people of Greater Britain over the sea, had recognised the gravity of the situation, and had made up their minds that such a state of affairs should never exist again in

South Africa. (Loud cheers.) They sent some of their best men, many of whom had given up their lives fighting for the old flag. In the words of one of their most eloquent colonial Premiers," Every bullet that finds its way to the heart of our colonial soldiers is an irresistible rivet in the links of that chain which welds together the different parts of the British Empire." (Loud cheers.) I will just briefly refer to another series of charges against His Excellency. It has been said that Sir Alfred Milner had disregarded the advice of his constitutional ministers. (Laughter and a Voice: All rebels.) Well, he certainly declined to jettison the Uitlander. He certainly put his foot down when large quantities of ammunition were being sent over our railways to the Free State at the time when those extraordinary expressions of neutrality were being made by the Prime Minister of this colony; the doctrine that an integral part of the British Empire could remain neutral in the struggle. I think you will agree with me that His Excellency was right. (Loud cheers.)

SLANDERING THE HIGH COMMISSIONER.

But I can hardly believe that these charges were levelled against the head of the High Commissioner and the Governor of this colony. If it is true that the Governor had a serious disagreement with his ministers, they had a constitutional course open to them, which perhaps they might have adopted. Of course this remedy involved retirement; but I do not think that the representatives of a party who had the monopoly of that "righteousness which exalteth a nation" would consider such a question on such a vital point. (Laughter.) They had their constitutional remedy. They had not chosen to take it, but had remained in office. I think that was the strongest argument in favour of the suggestion that there could not be any very large amount of disagreement between the Governor and his constitutional advisers. (Hear, hear.) It has been said by my friend Mr. Innes that, after all, was there any necessity at the present moment to raise any agitation, when the bulk of thinking people in England were with us, when the bulk of the colonies were with us, was there any reason why we should not sit absolutely quiet and allow matters to take their course? I feel that in 1881 and 1882, if the truth had been known to the Empire, then war might never have been raised. (Hear, hear.) Consequently, I would echo the wish that has been expressed by the last speaker, and urge upon you to roll up at the meeting which has been organised by the Vigilance Committee, and I will go one step farther, and ask you to put your names down on the Vigilance Committee. Its sole object is to carry out the motion which you have just enthusiastically passed. (Loud cheers.)

APPENDIX IX.

FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A LOYAL WOMAN IN SOUTH

AFRICA.

AN OPEN LETTER FROM MRS. T. LYNEDOCH GRAHAM.

The Cape Times of 12th July contains the following open letter:To Mrs. Cronwright-Schreiner.

Wynberg Hill, July 10.

Sir, Can you find space in your paper for this open letter to Mrs. Cronwright-Schreiner ?—I am, etc.,

A. GRAHAM.

July 10, 1900.

Dear Mrs. Schreiner,-As only sympathisers with the views of your own party were invited to the meeting in Cape Town yesterday afternoon, I could not, of course, be present, but your speech is reported in this morning's paper, so though we might not hear there is evidently no objection to our reading it, and I should like to make a few remarks upon it.

Unfortunately we women on the other side have no Olive Schreiner to voice our sentiments on public platforms, so mass meetings are not much in our line. But do not imagine that because we are silent, we do not exist, or that because we make no noise we are in the minority. The women of South Africa who believe in the justice of the British cause are in a great majority, and their feelings on the rights and wrongs of the war are deep if silent.

You say you have received letters from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other English colonies, condemning the war and the proposal to annex the Republics. Doubtless you have. There are cranks in every community. But shall I tell you what we have received? Not letters, but men, men who have flocked to the. Imperial standard and gladly given their blood to fight for the cause that they believe to be just. Men in hundreds have voluntarily come from all those very places from which it is your boast to say that you have received letters. The cause for which men will die is more likely to be fundamentally right than the one for which they will only write letters.

You dare to accuse us of a "Hideous crime against justice and humanity;" the "hideous crime against justice and humanity" lies at

the door of the Republics. The war was none of our making. They made long and careful preparations, they spent millions on armaments; they launched the ultimatum, they invaded our territories, and finding us unprepared, in the first dark days of the war, they slew the flower of our manhood by hundreds. To plead in justification that they did all this in self-defence, on account of Great Britain's threatening attitude, is a poor argument. I wonder how much excuse your friends would find for me if I met you some day and killed you, because I fancied you looked ferocious and might be meaning murder? Over and over again we have given blood and treasure to save these same Boers from extinction by the native tribes that swarm around them; we ignored the shameful defeat of Majuba, although our troops, ready to wipe it out, were actually in Table Bay; and this, because the conscience of the British people thought the Boers had some right on their side. And what was the return we got? Hardly were our backs turned than some of the people of this colony, thinking they scented weakness in our treatment of the Transvaal, began to conspire to turn us out of South Africa altogether. As far back as 1882 (which was before the Jameson Raid, you know) this dream of a United South Africa for the Afrikanders, under a Dutch flag, was first dreamt of and plotted for; and this scheming and plotting has never ceased since. Read the articles under the title "De Transvaalsche Oorlog" which appeared in De Patriot in 1882, and deny it if you can.

Your parallel of a surgical operation is good, but it fits us better than it does you. We all know a serious surgical operation is not undertaken for fun, neither is a great war undertaken for the benefit of a few capitalists, as you pretend to think. We tried a surgical operation in 1881, and we were both stupid and careless-we left some of the instruments of discord in the wound; we gave the Transvaal a badly-worded Convention and the right to arm itself to the teeth, although every child knew the only Power those guns and cannon were to be used against was Great Britain. We have suffered long, and now we are going through another surgical operation. This time, please God, we will be more careful, and leave no instruments inside to cause a festering sore in the future. We should be fools indeed if we did not profit by experience; if we left the Transvaal and the Free State the independence they have so grossly abused, so that they might again have the satisfaction of invading our territories and oppressing our subjects as soon as the khaki backs of our soldiers were turned. The Republics have made a bid for Empire, and played us for a great stake, and in a fair fight they have been beaten; if the peace you talk so much about is dear to your heart, now is the time to show it. Bid them pay their stakes like honourable men, then bury the hachet and shake hands; that is the only way to promote peace. What would you say of a man, who having lost his game, went whimpering round to his friends asking them to try and get him let off paying his