CHAPTER IX. 



HOW THE DIAMOND FIELDS WERE ACQUIRED BY 

 ENGLAND. 



CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with the progress of the 

 trial of the Claimant for the illegal means he had 

 employed in the endeavour to substantiate a false 

 claim to the Tichborne estates, a land swindle of 

 infinitely more importance, if gauged by its 

 political bearing and consequences, or by the value 

 of the interests involved, was being carried on with 

 success in a remote corner of South Africa. It 

 attracted very little public attention at the time, 

 and has since been relegated to oblivion by a 

 profuse application of " hush-money," which 

 Government found it expedient to provide in 

 order to evade an exposure which represented 

 national disgrace, and by the obliterating effects 

 due to the lapse of time, combined with the 

 extreme excitement caused by the development 



