did the common people, who had only the sweat of their brows, join in the protest.  The public, in fine, were thoroughly roused, and denounced in unmeasured terms the conduct and the “enterprise” of the grocers.  The women were much alarmed; they collected together in wrathful groups to enquire where the matter was to end, and with peculiar unanimity, not to say satisfaction, to prophesy a revolution.  This bound in the cost of living brought us nearer to a state of panic than ever did the sharp practice of the Boer artillery.  The Colonel heard of it—­what did he not hear?  Deputations waited on him; his intervention was solicited; he agreed to intervene.  And then came a splendid exhibition of the autocracy of Martial Law.  We had not yet seen all that it could do (far from it!), and it was a pleasure, in the circumstances, to see the Colonel put his foot down, since the step was highly approved and ratified by the people.

Forth from Lennox Street, accordingly, another popular proclamation was launched, A whole page of our local newspaper was commandeered for its insertion.  By virtue of the powers reposed in him, Colonel Kekewich fixed the prices to be charged for “necessaries,” such as tea, sugar, coffee, meat (the butchers also had been brushing up their Shakespeare).  Goods were to be sold practically at ordinary rates; and if any storekeeper charged more, or affected to be “sold out” of this, that, or the other, the Colonel was to be told, and he would talk to the storekeeper.  There followed, of course, a grand slump.  The combination of the “upper” and “lower” middle-classes was irresistible.  The Commanding-Officer’s prompt action was highly esteemed, and even those who afterwards inveighed against him most severely (for other actions) never denied him credit for it.

Paraffin oil is worthy of special mention.  Coal not being much in evidence in the diamond fields—­where the sun is ever shining with all its might—­paraffin was an important factor in the culinary sphere.  When, therefore, a few gentlemen formed a syndicate, to vaunt their loyalty in a crisis by cornering all the kerosene in town, another outcry followed.  They bought all they could lay hands on at market price (sixteen and six per case), and next day imperturbably continued buying at twenty-five shillings.  On Tuesday the wide-awake vendors asked fifty shillings, and were paid it cheerfully.  Another sovereign was added to each case of what remained on Wednesday, and the seventy shillings was put down without a murmur.  How much farther the bidding would have gone will never be known, for a vicious little bird must needs tell the Colonel all about it.  That gentleman happened to be engaged in his favourite (proclaiming) pastime; he sat ruminating on the high price of coal, and evolving schemes to bring wood back to its proper level.  The latter article was what the poorer classes used as fuel.  The Colonel had no scruples about dotting down a reasonable figure for coal; but