THE CONCOCTED LETTER. 727 vention that re-established the Transvaal Republic gave Great Britain a vaguely defined right of suzerainty over the Boer Government.

This Convention was replaced by another Convention signed in London on February 27th, 18-84, by which the Transvaal State was to be known as the South African Republic, and the British suzerainty was restricted to the control of foreign relations. About the same time rich discoveries of goldin the south of the Transvaal territory began to attract an ever-increasing stream of foreign immigrants. Mine after minewas opened. Johannesburg from a smallhamlet of herdsmen grew gradually into a great city, Jameson, was Administrator of Rhodesia. Towardsthe endof 1895arrangementsweresecretlymade for backing the demandsof the Uitlanders by an appeal to force. Lee-Metford rifles, Maxims and cartridges, bought with the Company's funds, were smuggled into Johannesburg, and men wereenrolledto use them.

The railway that now links Cape Town with Buluwayo was then in process of construction, and wasapproaching the western bordersof the Transvaalin British Bechuanaland. Under the plea of protecting the railway works, a considerable number of the mounted riflemen who formed the white police of Rhodesia were conand the main reef on which it standsproved to be therichestgold-bearing formation in all Africa. The much-vaunted gold reefs of Rhodesia were comparatively worthless beside the treasures of the Transvaal.

The Boers had made no effort to develop these sources of wealth. A race of farmers and herdsmen, they viewed with dread the prospect of seeing themselves outnumbered, outvoted,and finally ruled by a rich community of miners and speculators. The legislation of the Republic was shaped so as centrated by Dr. Jameson at Pitsani and Mafeking. Maxims and 7-pounders were taken to the same places. The BechuanalandBorderPolice,whose services had become unnecessary since the pacification of Matabeleland, were being disbanded at Mafeking, and a large numberof them were enrolled in the Company's forces. In order to pre-1.ne everything for an advance on Johannesburg, it was given out that a line ofcoaches wouldsoon be running to that city from the railroad, when the line was winking to MR. KRUGER.

{Photo:Dtiffus Brothers, Johannesburg.)

to derive revenue from the mines, but the foreign or Uitlander element who worked them could only obtain a vote and a voice in the government of the country after long residence, and under conditions that were declared to be unjust to those who were now the chief producers of the wealth of the country. There is no needto gointo the longcontroversy on the rights and wrongs of the Uitlander-; suffice it to say that in 1895 Johannesburg became the centre of an agitation for reform.

Thanks to subsequent revelations we know HOW that this agitation waslargely"engineered" by the agents of the Chartered Company. Its now in a position to largely influence the course of events in .South Africa. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, thanks largely to the support of the Dutch voters in the colony, who still trusted him, was Prime Minister of the -■ colleague and right-hand man, Dr.

Mafeking, and under the plea of getting ready for this business enterprise,depots of provisions and of horses were formed at various points between the western border of the Transvaal and the" gold-reefcity." Finally,preparations were made for enlisting public sympathy with the coming movement. The British public could not be expected to sympathise with a mere seizure of Johannesburg andits reef in the interest of a group of speculative capitalists. It would be too like "claim-jumping" on a large scale. So a letter— to which the date was to be subsequently added— was drawn up, addressed from the conspirators at Johannesburg to Dr. Jameson, appealing to him to come to the aid of the citizens, oil tin plea that life andproperty no longer Ife in the city, and that women and children were in danger from the Boers. Early in the New Year the committee at Johannesburg was to proclaim a local provisional