and thus would not desert them when their services were most needed.  Instead of abandoning the two Republics to their sad fate, they were determined to support them with all the energy and power at their command.  On the battlefield many of them distinguished themselves by their dauntless valour.  They willingly sacrificed their lives and property for their adopted fatherland, which they loved even better than many a Boer.  For when the Boers became disheartened and surrendered ignominiously, the Colonials, be it said to their everlasting honour, remained steadfast, thereby putting to shame those burghers who were possessed of so little national pride as to kneel at the invaders’ feet and sue for mercy.

These Transvaal and Free State Colonials had their relatives in the Cape Colony, so that the Dutch of South Africa may almost be regarded as one large family, linked together from Table Bay to the Zambezi by bonds of blood, religion and marriage.  Hence it was impossible to strike a blow at the two states without touching the very heart of the Cape Dutch—­impossible to inflict losses and bring ruin upon some members of the family without seriously disturbing and distressing the rest.  The physical boundaries separating the British colonies from the Republics made no separation as far as the people were concerned.  In speech, religion, character, and blood, the Dutch are essentially one throughout South Africa.  And it was owing to this fact that the Cape Dutch felt for the Republicans as none else could have felt.  Their strong sympathies took the form of practical assistance when they shouldered their rifles and took the field against the enemies of the Republics.  But this was not done before their protests, petitions, and all other constitutional measures had signally failed, and were utterly ignored by the British Government.  Then only did they resort to aggressive measures.

However strongly some might condemn their action, still we believe that any other people, even the English themselves, and they probably to a far greater extent, would, in like circumstances, have acted similarly.  If England had been invaded by a foreign foe, and English homes destroyed and burnt en masse, and English women and children removed in thousands to disease-stricken camps, and English officers and soldiers court-martialled or deported to distant islands and countries, we ask, would Scotland, for instance, have looked on with stolid indifference and cold apathy?  Would she not, as well as all other true Englishmen, wherever they were, have protested most emphatically against such a war; and if their protests were slighted, would they not have assisted their fellow-Englishmen?  Verily they would, were they subjects or not of the invaders.