sed if he appears to be so to those of his
fellow-citizens whose inclination is to start with the exactly
opposite assumption. And so I do not take it that in this case
people are necessarily disloyal because they carry their sympathy
with the Government of the Transvaal--which, seeing the close tie
of relationship which unites a great portion of the population
here with the dominant section in that country, is perfectly
natural--to a point which gives some ground for the assertion
that they seem to care much more for the independence of the
Transvaal than for the honour and the interests of the country to
which they themselves belong.

"For my own part, I believe the whole object of those people in
espousing the cause of the Transvaal is to prevent an open
rupture between that country and the British Government. They
loathe, very naturally and rightly, the idea of war, and they
think that, if they can only impress upon the British Government
that in case of war with the Transvaal it would have a great
number of its own subjects at least in sympathy against it, that
is a way to prevent such a calamity.

"But in this they are totally wrong, for this policy rests on the
assumption that Great Britain has some occult design on the
independence of the Transvaal--that independence which it has
itself given--and that it is seeking causes of quarrel in order
to take that independence away. But that assumption is the exact
opposite of the truth. So far from seeking causes of quarrel, it
is the constant desire of the British Government to avoid causes
of quarrel, and not to take up lightly the complaints (and they
are numerous) which reach it from British subjects within the
Transvaal, for the very reason that it wishes to avoid even the
semblance of interference in the internal affairs of that
country, and, as regards its external relations, to insist only
on that minimum of control which it has always distinctly
reserved, and has reserved, I may add, solely in the interests of
the future tranquillity of South Africa. That is Great Britain's
moderate attitude, and she cannot be frightened out of it. It is
not any aggressiveness on the part of Her Majesty's Government
which now keeps up the spirit of unrest in South Africa. Not at
all. It is that