[Footnote 2:  Le Siecle, March 20th, 1900.]

[Footnote 3:  See Le Siecle, February 3rd and March 14th, 1900.]

2.—­The Boers, the Natives, and Slavery.

Dr. Kuyper’s article begins with the words:  “Once more the yuletide has sent forth the angelic message ‘Peace on Earth,’ even to where the natives gather at the humble chapels of our missionaries.”

Dr. Kuyper then undertakes to show us how the Boers understand “the angelic message” in their treatment of the coloured race.  He begins by waxing wroth with the English who, in 1816, in consequence of the representations of their missionaries, had instituted an enquiry as to the manner in which the Boers treated their slaves, “England humiliated them before their slaves,” he says.  The English also protected natives.

Dr. Kuyper says:—­

     “With little regard for the real rights of their ancient colonists,
     the English prided themselves on protecting the imaginary rights
     of the natives.”

The italics are his own.  This virtuous protester continues:—­

“Deceived by the reports from their missionaries, little worthy of belief, and led astray by a sentimental love for primitive man, ‘The Aborigines Protection Societies,’ so drastically exposed by Edmund Burke, saw their opportunity.  With their Aborigines Societies, the deists posed in the political arena as protectors of the native races, while, in religious circles, the Christians with their missionary societies posed as their benefactors.”

Dr. Kuyper forgives neither the deists nor the missionaries.  And what of the Boers?

“The Boers had introduced a system of slavery copied from that adopted by the English in their American colonies; but greatly modified.  I do not deny that, at times, the Boers have been too harsh, and have committed excesses....

     “The Boers are not sentimentalists, but are eminently practical. 
     They recognised that these Hottentots and Basutos were an inferior
     race....

     “The Boers have always resolutely faced the difficulty of the
     colour question so persistently kept out of view by the English.”

And Dr. Kuyper goes on to speak of the multiplication of the blacks in South Africa.  He dare not point to the logical solution, which would be to regulate matters by extermination, pure and simple; but he gives vent to his hatred of the English who, far from checking that multiplication, assist it by their humane treatment of the natives.  He is especially wrathful with English missionaries, “those black-frocked gentlemen.”  He states that the Boers do their best “to keep them at a distance”; and he cites, as a fact, which fills him with indignation and alarm:—­

     “A coloured bishop has been appointed president of a kind of negro
     council in Africa.”