the people must keep their guns, because "at our circumcision we were
given a shield and an assagai, and told never to part with them; and
that if ever we came back from an expedition and our shield and assagai
were not found before our house, we should die the death." And a fourth,
wishing to excuse any vehement expression he might use, observed: "We
have a proverb which says that a man who makes a mistake in a public
assembly cannot be killed." In this proverb there is the germ of the
English "privilege of Parliament." It is easy to gather from the whole
proceedings of these Pitsos how much more popular government has been
among the Basutos than it was among the Zulus or Matabili. Tshaka or Lo
Bengula would in a moment have had the neck twisted of any one who
ventured to differ publicly from his opinion. In this respect the
Basutos resemble their kinsfolk the Bamangwato, among whom Khama rules
as a chief amenable to public opinion, which, in that instance, is
unfortunately far behind the enlightened purposes of the sovereign.

Nowhere has the gospel made such progress among the Kafirs as in
Basutoland. The missionaries,--French, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and
English Episcopalian,--working not only independently but on very
different lines, have brought nearly fifty thousand natives under
Christian influences, as members or adherents. Not all of these are
baptised converts--the Franco-Swiss missionaries, by whom far the
largest part of the work has been done, tell me that baptisms do not
increase fast; and they are wise in not measuring the worth of their
work by the number of baptisms. Education is spreading. At the last
public examinations at the Cape, the French Protestant missionaries sent
up twenty Basuto boys, of whom ten passed in honours, and ten in high
classes, the standard being the same for whites and blacks. There are
now one hundred and fifty schools in the country, all but two of which
are conducted by the missionaries.

Strange waves of sentiment pass over the people, at one time carrying
them back to paganism, at another inclining them to Christianity--the
first sign of the latter tendency being discernible in an increase of
attendance at the mission schools. The women are more backward than the
men, because they have been kept in subjection, and their intelligence
has remained only half developed. But their condition is improving; men
now work with them in the fields, and they demand clothes instea