With Buller in Natal | Page 2

war
would begin.
Similar though smaller groups were gathered here and there in the
streets. Parties of Boers from the country round rode up and down with
an air of insolent triumph, some of them shouting "We shall soon be rid
of you; in another month there will not be a rooinek left in South
Africa."
Those addressed paid no heed to the words. They had heard the same
thing over and over again for the past two months. There was a
tightening of the lips and a closing of the fingers as if on a sword or
rifle, but no one replied to the insolent taunts. For years it had been the
hope of the Uitlanders that this would come, and that there would be an

end to a position that was well-nigh intolerable. Never before had a
large body of intelligent men been kept in a state of abject subjection
by an inferior race, a race almost without even the elements of
civilization, ignorant and brutal beyond any existing white community,
and superior only in the fact that they were organized and armed,
whereas those they trampled upon were deficient in both these respects.
Having no votes, these were powerless to better their condition by the
means common to civilized communities throughout the world. They
were ground down by an enormous taxation, towards which the Boers
themselves contributed practically nothing, and the revenue drawn from
them was spent in the purchase of munitions of war, artillery, and
fortifications, so enormously beyond the needs of the country, that it
was no secret that they were intended not only for the defence of the
republic against invasion, but for a general rising of the Boer
population and the establishment of Dutch supremacy throughout the
whole of South Africa.
The Boer government was corrupt from the highest to the lowest. The
president and the members of his family piled up wealth to an
enormous amount, and nothing could be done without wholesale
bribery. The price of everything connected with the mining industry
was doubled by the supply being in the hands of monopolists, who
shared their gains with high state officials. Money was lavished like
water on what was called secret service, in subsidizing newspapers to
influence public opinion throughout Europe, and, as it was strongly
suspected, in carrying on a propaganda among the Dutch in Cape
Colony, and in securing the return of members and a ministry secretly
pledged to further in every way the aims of the Presidents of the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The British and other aliens were
not only deprived of all rights of citizenship, but even freedom of
speech and the right of public meeting was denied them; they were not
allowed to carry arms except by a special license, their children were
taught in Dutch in the schools, they had no right of trial by jury; judges
who had the courage to refuse to carry out the illegal behests of the
president were deprived of their offices, and the few editors of
newspapers representing the Uitlanders--as all men not born in the state
were called-were imprisoned and their journals suppressed.

Intolerable as was such a state of things to a civilized community, it
might have been borne with some patience had it not been that the
insolence of their masters was unbounded. Every Boer seemed to take a
pleasure in neglecting no opportunity of showing his contempt for the
men whose enterprise and labour had enormously enriched the country,
and whose superior intelligence he was too grossly ignorant to
appreciate. A Boar farmer would refuse a cup of water to a passing
traveller, and would enforce his refusal by producing his rifle
immediately if the stranger ventured to urge his request. Of late the
insolence of the Boers had greatly increased; the manner in which
England had, instead of demanding justice with the sternness and
determination that the circumstances called for, permitted her
remonstrances to be simply ignored, was put down as a consciousness
of weakness. And having now collected arms sufficient not only for
themselves but for the whole Dutch population of South Africa, the
Boers were convinced that their hour of triumph had come, and that in
a very short time their flag would float over every public building
throughout the country and the Union Jack disappear for ever.
The long discussions that had been going on with regard to a five or
seven years' franchise were regarded with absolute indifference by the
Uitlanders--even the shorter time would have afforded them no
advantage whatever. The members from the mining districts would be
in a hopeless minority in the assembly; and indeed, very few of those
entitled to a vote would have cared to claim it, inasmuch as they would
thereby render themselves