shall that President Kruger has no desire to inflict on these men the penalties they have incurred, and, in my opinion, they richly deserve. He will, however, insist that they shall forever rid the South African Republic of their presence, a step which, in my opinion, will tend to the future peace and prosperity of Johannesburg and the Transvaal generally, and enable President Kruger to grant those concessions to the Uitlanders that I know he desires to confer as largely and generously as possible, and which would have been granted long ago had it not been for the arrogant behaviour of the selfconstituted leaders of the Uitlanders in Johannesburg and their precious 'National Union,' which was not 'National' in any proper sense of the term. -Yours obediently, WM. F. REGAN.

"17th January 1896."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "NORTHERN WHIG."

"SIR,-So much has been written in the Press and spoken on public platforms during the past few weeks respecting Boers and Uitlanders, in almost every instance to the disadvantage of the Boers, that I feel impelled by a sense of justice, now that public feeling has to some extent calmed down, to endeavour to afford some enlightenment on the subject respecting which my interests in, and knowledge of, the Transvaal generally, and Johannesburg in particular, enable me, I think, to speak with some authority. Recognising as I do in your journal a

paper that has during the recent crisis attempted to calm and control the excited feelings of the multitude and prevent them from jumping to somewhat erroneous conclusions upon imperfect information, I venture to ask your permission to calmly and impartially narrate in the Northern Whig the circumstances that have led up to the recent events in the Transvaal.

"Now, sir, what is primarily responsible for producing the recent and present deplorable condition of things in the Transvaal? Gold. It is the same old story that we can perchance remember ourselves, or, if we cannot, can read in history as having happened all the world over. The Transvaal unfortunately for the Boers, who, rightly or wrongly, live a rural life away from the din and turmoil of towns, and 'trekked' to the Transvaal to get away from men and things that were not in accordance with their ideas, was a few years ago found to be rich in the precious metal, and as soon as news of this was noised abroad, men, good, bad and indifferent, but largely of the latter two classes, flocked there from all parts of the world, till it has come about that Johannesburg has a population for its size probably less reputable than any city on the face of the globe. Well, in due course, the gold mines became developed, with the result that there has been, month by month, a large and steadilyincreasing output of the precious metal therefrom. Enormous fortunes have consequently been realised by vendors, promoters, investors and speculators,

all, be it observed, directly or indirectly due to the mineral wealth of the Transvaal Republic. The Republic, not unnaturally, taxed the hybrid inhabitants, who had come there in search of and had found wealth-taxed them not to punish them, but merely to defray the cost of Government and other expenses incidental to the service of the State. Thereupon the immigrants resented this, talked glibly about 'taxation without representation,' referred to the revolt of the American colonies against Great Britain, because the latter ignored this great principle, and demanded, there is no other word for it, to be admitted to all the rights and privileges of citizenship of the Transvaal Republic without further ado. President Kruger, who, whatever his faults, is certainly not lacking in shrewdness, saw clearly enough that were he to accede to these preposterous proposals, he and his fellow Boers might as well at once commence about 'trekking' afresh if they could find any uninhabited portion of Africa to 'trek' to, and declined to grant such demands, but promised to consider any reasonable grievances the Uitlanders might desire to put forward. Thereupon the latter indulged in scarcely veiled threats, and much vituperative language in the English papers published in Johannesburg, and organised a society which made no secret of its intentions to resort to force if necessary. Arms were imported in large quantities by devious methods, and a gigantic conspiracy was formed to get possession of the Transvaal for the Uitlanders, not from any patriotic or even

plausibly upright motives, but simply and solely in order that the Uitlanders might come into full possession of the country with all its wealth and expel the Boers therefrom. The object of this precious scheme is now full well known to your readers, and I think it may be truthfully averred that the only man who comes well out of the whole business is President Kruger. He has shown that he knows how to be magnanimous and merciful, and no honest man can say justly that the words of congratulations addressed to him by the Queen, the High Commissioner, the Governor of Natal and others have in any way gone beyond the merits of the case. Even in the hour of triumph, President Kruger has promised to alleviate any substantial grievances which the Uitlanders could show they suffered from, and from my knowledge of him, I verily believe the President will keep his promise in the spirit as well as in the letter.-Yours, etc.,

66 17th January 1896."

"WM. F. REGAN.

CHAPTER XIII

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S DESPATCH-HOME RULE FOR

THE RAND

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S conduct generally, in regard to the invasion of the Transvaal by the Chartered Company's forces under Dr Jameson, has been so admirable that I am loth to make what may be deemed hypercritical remarks in respect of any action on his part in regard to matters arising out of that invasion. Nevertheless, in a book such as this some reference must undoubtedly be made to the voluminous despatch, published in the London Gazette of 7th February, addressed by Mr Chamberlain to Sir Hercules Robinson, and propounding what was virtually a scheme of Home Rule for the Rand. Whatever the merits of Mr Chamberlain's proposals, it was, I think, a thousand pitics that they should ever have been made public before the contents of the despatch had reached the person for whom it was primarily intended, viz., President Kruger. As it was, the President gleaned, in the first instance, from other sources details of the farreaching, if not revolutionary, proposals put forward