Sir Alfred Milner knew all this very well, and probably had an inward conviction, notwithstanding his efforts to prevent the war, that a conflict was the only means of breaking these chains of gold which shackled the wheels of progress.  At so critical a time the support of Rhodes and his party would have been invaluable.  And Sir Alfred would have welcomed it.  Cecil Rhodes, of course, had declared himself officially in accord with the High Commissioner, and even praised him to a degree of fulsomeness.  But the ulterior motive was simply to excite the Dutch party against him.  The reputation of Sir Alfred Milner as a statesman and as a politician was constantly challenged by the very people who ought to have defended it.  Rhodes himself had been persuaded that the Governor harboured the most sinister designs against his person.  The innuendo was one of the most heinous untruths ever invented by his crowd of sycophants.

An opportunity came my way, by which I was able to convince myself how false was the belief nourished by Rhodes against Milner.  During the course of a conversation with Sir Alfred, I boldly asked him whether he was really such an enemy of Rhodes as represented.  I was surprised by the moderate tone in which he replied to my, after all, impertinent question.  The remarks which we then exchanged filled me with the greatest admiration for the man who so nobly, and so worthily, upheld British prestige in South Africa under the most trying circumstances.  Milner was an entirely honest man—­the rarest thing in the whole of Cape Town at that anxious period—­and after one had had the advantage of discussing with him the political situation, one could only be filled with profound respect for him and for his opinions, actions and conduct.  Far from working against Rhodes, as Sir Alfred had been represented to me as doing, I convinced myself that he was keenly anxious to be on good and, what is more important, on sincere terms with him.  Sir Alfred had not the slightest feeling of animosity against the Dutch.  On the contrary, he would have liked them to become persuaded of his desire to protect them against possible aggression by the Jingoes, whose offensive conduct none more than himself assessed at its true value.

But what was the real situation?  He found his every action misconstrued; whatever he did was interpreted in a wrong sense, and those who should have shared his aims were plotting against him.  The position was truly tragic from whatever side it was viewed, and a weaker or less honest man would assuredly have given up the struggle.