pressive gaze. He receives a stranger with the
air of a pedagogue about to impress his new pupil, and methodically
starts to inculcate the principles of true statesmanship; but he soon
heats himself with the dissertation, and breaks out into the strong
masterful style which his friends say is such a picturesque feature in
his character, and which his critics call the "humbug pose." If by the
latter is meant the repetition of stale platitudes, and the reiteration
of promises which will never be carried out, I fear I must agree with
the critics.

LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND--

Had I been asked to describe Mr Kruger's character as conceived by me
from what I had read of him, I should have summed him up after the style
of an old author, thus: "What can be more extraordinary than that a man
of no education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, should have
had the courage to attempt, and the happiness to succeed, in wresting
back this splendid country from the tenacious grasp of one of the
greatest powers of the earth? That he should have the pluck and skill
to defeat a British general in the field, even while that general was
flattering himself for his successful manoeuvre, compel the British
Government to relinquish what it had gained, and to reinstate the
independence of his country by a Convention; and then upon second
thoughts to cancel that Convention and substitute another which almost
made his country a sovereign State; then, in flat opposition to the
terms of that Convention, dare to disclose his vindictive hatred of the
British race, among whom he was born and whom he often served, oppress
so many thousands of his former fellow-subjects, curtail their
guaranteed rights, trample upon them as he pleased, and spurn those who
did not please his tastes, make every diplomatist who ventured to plead
for them ridiculous for his failures; and while he dealt so hardly with
those whom he characterised as his enemies, could make his friends
understand that he was master, his burghers awe-stricken by his
successes, at the same time make both friends and enemies give ready
credence to his professions of justice and benevolence, to mock three of
the most powerful nations of Europe by turns, and compel each with equal
facility to maintain its distance; to make his illiterate and rude
burghers feared and courted by the Governors of the several Colonies
around him, to make their Governors and Legislatures humbly thank and
cong