It was a feasible device, though it must seem to us, who have had such an experience of the military virtues of the burghers, a very desperate one.

But it is conceivable that the rebels might have held Johannesburg until the universal sympathy which their cause excited throughout South Africa would have caused Great Britain to intervene.

Unfortunately they had complicated matters by asking for outside help.

Mr.Cecil Rhodes was Premier of the Cape, a man of immense energy, and one who had rendered great services to the empire.

The motives of his action are obscure--certainly, we may say that they were not sordid, for he has always been a man whose thoughts were large and whose habits were simple.