A Century of Wrong | Page 7

that they are

fighting for their national existence, and agree that it equals the pathos
of Leonidas, William Tell, and Kosciusko.
Over and above all else the note in the State Secretary's appeal which
will vibrate most loudly in the British heart is that in which he appeals
to his countrymen to cling fast to the God of their forefathers, and to
the righteousness which is sometimes slow in acting, but which never
slumbers or forgets. "It proceeds according to eternal laws, unmoved by
human pride and ambition. As the Greek poet of old said, it permits the
tyrant, in his boundless self-esteem, to climb higher and higher, and to
gain greater honour and might, until he arrives at the appointed height,
and then falls down into the infinite depths."
Who is there who remembers the boastings of the British press at the
outbreak of the war can read without awe the denunciations of the
Hebrew seers against the nations and empires who in arrogance and
pride forgot the Lord their God?
"Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of
Hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. And the most
proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up."
This, after all, is the great issue which underlies everything. Is there or
is there not in the affairs of men a Providence which the ancients
pictured as the slow-footed Nemesis, but which we moderns have
somewhat learned to disregard? "If right and wrong, in this God's world
of ours, are linked with higher Powers," is the great question which the
devout soul, whether warrior or saint, has ever answered in one way.
When in this country a leading exponent of popular Liberalism declares
that "morally we can never win, but that physically we must and shall,"
we begin to realise how necessary is the chastisement which has fallen
upon us for our sins. If this interpretation of the situation be even
approximately correct, the further we go the worse we shall fare. It is
vain for us to kick against the pricks.
W.T. STEAD. January 1st, 1900.
FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: 1894.--Year of Lord Loch's visit (in June) to Pretoria.]
[Footnote 2: 1895.--Conspiracy, culminating in the Raid.]
[Footnote 3: 1898.--First nine months.]

A CENTURY OF WRONG.
* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.
BROTHER AFRICANDERS!
Once more in the annals of our bloodstained history has the day
dawned when we are forced to grasp our weapons in order to resume
the struggle for liberty and existence, entrusting our national cause to
that Providence which has guided our people throughout South Africa
in such a miraculous way.
The struggle of now nearly a century, which began when a foreign rule
was forced upon the people of the Cape of Good Hope, hastens to an
end; we are approaching the last act in that great drama which is so
momentous for all South Africa; we have reached a stage when it will
be decided whether the sacrifices which both our fathers and we
ourselves have made in the cause of freedom have been offered in vain,
whether the blood of our race, with which every part of South Africa
has been, as it were, consecrated, has been shed in vain; and whether by
the grace of God the last stone will now be built into the edifice which
our fathers began with so much toil and so much sorrow.
[Sidenote: The alternative of Africanderdom.]
The hour has struck which will decide whether South Africa, in
jealously guarding its liberty, will enter upon a new phase of its history,
or whether our existence as a people will come to an end, whether we

shall be exterminated in the deadly struggle for that liberty which we
have prized above all earthly treasures, and whether South Africa will
be dominated by capitalists without conscience, acting in the name and
under the protection of an unjust and hated Government 7,000 miles
away from here.
[Sidenote: The necessity of historical retrospect.]
In this hour it behoves us to cast a glance back at the history of this
great struggle. We do so not to justify ourselves, because liberty, for
which we have sacrificed everything, has justified us and screened our
faults and failings, but we do so in order that we may be, as it were,
sanctified and prepared for the conflict which lies before us, bearing in
mind what our people have done and suffered by the help of God. In
this way we may be enabled to continue the work of our fathers, and
possibly to complete it. Their deeds of heroism in adventures with
Bantu and Briton shine forth like guiding stars through the history of
the past, in order to point out