ite accusation to bring against the people of Natal
that they make the South African wars in order to make money out of
them. For instance, in a leading article of one of the principal English
journals, it was stated not long ago, that the murmurs of the colonists
at being forced to eat the bread of humiliation in the Transvaal
matter, arose from no patriotic feeling, but from sorrow at the early
termination of a war out of which they hoped to suck no small advantage.
This statement is quite untrue.

No doubt a great deal of money has been made out of the wars by a few
colonial speculators, some of it, maybe, dishonestly; but this is not
an unusual occurrence in a foreign war. Was no money made dishonestly
by English speculators and contractors in the Crimean War? Cannot
Manchester boast manufacturers ready to supply our enemies,--for cash
payments,--with guns to shoot us with, or any other material of war?

It is not to be supposed that because a few speculators made fortunes
out of the Commissariat that the whole colony participated in the spoils
of the various wars. On the contrary, the marjority of its inhabitants
have suffered very largely. Not only have they run considerable personal
risk, but since, and owing to, the Zulu and Boer wars the cost of living
has almost, if not quite doubled, which, needless to say, has not been
the case with their incomes. It is therefore particularly cruel that
Natal should be gibbeted as the abode of scoundrels of the worst sort,
men prepared to bring about bloodshed in order to profit by it. Sir
Garnet Wolseley, however, found in this report of colonial dishonesty
a convenient point of vantage from which to attack the colonists
generally, and in his despatch about responsible government we may be
sure he did not spare them. The Legislative Council thus comments on his
remarks: "To colonists a war means the spreading among them of distress,
alarm, and confusion, peril to life and property in outlying districts,
the arrest of progress, and general disorganisation. . . . The Council
regard with pain and indignation the uncalled-for and cruel stigma thus
cast upon the colonists by Sir Garnet Wolseley."

At first sight these accusations may not appear to have much to do with
the question of whether or no the colonists should accept responsible
government, but in reality they have, inasmuch as they create a
feeling of soreness that inclines the Natalians to get rid of Imperial
interfe