was accorded them, and who as evidently meant to earn laurels in
the service of the great Queen Mother. Indeed, all the Colonial troops
were remarkable for their excellent appearance, and the sight of them
arriving from every corner of the earth to support the honour and
prestige of the Empire was vastly inspiriting. One may safely assert
that such an exhibition of patriotic solidarity and power was without
precedent in the world's history.

There never was such a show of fine men, said all who saw them; but--.
There was a great But. We were deficient still in other ways. We had the
men, but in the matter of guns we were still lamentably weak; we could
not compete with our enemies. Those in power seemed to have been
ignorant of, or apathetic to, the fact that the expenditure of the
Transvaal Government for artillery during the previous four years had
been enormous. The marvel was that our Intelligence Department should
have taken no cognisance of these gigantic preparations, or that if it
had, the Cabinet had not acted on its information. In 1894 L100,000 was
handed over to Krupp of Germany, and the same amount to an Austrian
firm. Two of the finest guns in the world were imported in 1895. These
were 48 feet long, 120 tons in weight, throwing a shell weighing 2300
lbs., and requiring 904 lbs. of powder for each discharge. Both were
amply provided with ammunition, which, in addition to the great steel
and iron shells, consisted of shrapnel holding 3000 balls, weighing 3 1/2
ounces each. One of these treasures was pointed at Ladysmith, and the
other was used to defend the fortifications of Pretoria.

This was not all. In 1895 Krupp received another L100,000, and
field-guns of long range, which we now know too well, were forwarded,
and also certain mountain and bush guns suited to high ground and hot
climate. In 1896 further developments took place. Six Creusot guns were
introduced, to be followed later on by eighteen more. In 1897, '98, and
'99 further additions to the Boer artillery were made, and the frontier
kopjes fortified, and distances marked and measured. Then were bought
forty-eight rapid-fire Schneider-Canet 14 1/2 pounders, that throw a
shrapnel containing 234 bullets, to be fired 200 times per minute, with
a range of 3 1/2 miles. Maxims in plenty were invested in, as those in
Mafeking and Ladysmith knew to their cost, and the Boers also secured
four batteries of 12-lb. quick-firing Vickers Maxim guns, with a