his affairs interfered with by any superior
power whatsoever, and not to pay taxes if he can possibly avoid it.
But he has also a specific cause of complaint against the English
Government, which would alone cause him to do his utmost to get rid of
it, and that is its mode of dealing with natives, which is radically
opposite to his own. This is the secret of Boer patriotism. To
understand it, it must be remembered that the Englishman and the Boer
look at natives from a different point of view. The Englishman, though
he may not be very fond of him, at any rate regards the Kafir as a
fellow human being with feelings like his own. The average Boer does
not. He looks upon the "black creature" as having been delivered into
his hand by the "Lord" for his own purposes, that is, to shoot and
enslave. He must not be blamed too harshly for this, for, besides
being naturally of a somewhat hard disposition, hatred of the native
is hereditary, and is partly induced by the history of many a bloody
struggle. Also the native hates the Boer fully as much as the Boer hates
the native, though with better reason. Now native labour is a necessity
to the Boer, because he will not as a rule do hard manual labour
himself, and there must be some one to plant and garner the crops, and
herd the cattle. On the other hand, the natives are not anxious to serve
the Boers, which means little or no pay and plenty of thick stick, and
sometimes worse. The result of this state of affairs is that the Boer
often has to rely on forced labour to a very great extent. But this is a
thing that an English Government will not tolerate, and the consequence
is that under its rule he cannot get the labour that is necessary to
him.

Then there is the tax question. If he lives under the English flag the
money has to be paid regularly, but under his own Government he pays or
not as he likes. It was this habit of his of refusing payment of taxes
that brought the Republic into difficulties in 1877, and that will ere
long bring it into trouble again. He cannot understand that cash is
necessary to carry on a Government, and looks upon a tax as though it
were so much money stolen from him. These things are the real springs of
the "sturdy independence" and the patriotism of the ordinary Transvaal
farmer. Doubtless, there are some who are really patriotic; for
instance, one of their leaders, Paul Kruger. But with the majority,
patriotism is only another word for unbounded lice