re those
among us who have been led to look back and to search deeply into the
meanings of the present great "history-making war."

The personality of Paul Kruger stands out mournfully at this moment on
the page of history. Mr. FitzPatrick wrote of him in 1896, as follows:--

"_L'Etat c'est moi_, is almost as true of the old Dopper President as it
was of its originator; for in matters of external policy and in matters
which concern the Boer as a party, the President has his way as
completely as any anointed autocrat. To anyone who has studied the Boers
and their ways and policy ... it must be clear that President Kruger
does more than represent the opinion of the people and execute their
policy: he moulds them in the form he wills. By the force of his own
strong convictions and prejudices, and of his indomitable will, he has
made the Boers a people whom he regards as the germ of the Afrikander
nation; a people chastened, selected, welded, and strong enough to
attract and assimilate all their kindred in South Africa, and thus to
realize the dream of a Dutch Republic from the Zambesi to Cape Town.

"In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim old President
will loom large and striking,--picturesque as the figure of one who, by
his character and will, made and held his people; magnificent as one
who, in the face of the blackest fortune, never wavered from his aim or
faltered in his effort ... and it maybe, pathetic too, as one whose
limitations were great, one whose training and associations,--whose very
successes had narrowed and embittered and hardened him;--as one who,
when the greatness of success was his to take and to hold, turned his
back on the supreme opportunity, and used his strength and qualities to
fight against the spirit of progress, and all that the enlightenment of
the age pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and a
healthy State.

"To an English nobleman, who in the course of an interview remarked, 'my
father was a Minister (of the Queen),' the Dutchman answered, 'and my
father was a shepherd!' It was not pride rebuking pride; it was the ever
present fact which would not have been worth mentioning but for the
suggestion of the antithesis. He, too, was a shepherd,--a peasant. It
may be that he knew what would be right and good for his people, and it
may be not; but it is sure that he realized that to educate would be to
emancipate, to broaden their views would be to break d