178 SOUTH AFRICA. 



is not one which can be referred to as expressive 

 of a mere exigency meant to confront an 

 emergency, but is an ingrained irreducible article 

 of faith which knows of no doubt or limitation. 

 The mischief which must one day, sooner or later, 

 result from persistence in such fanatical actions 

 must be prevented by the use of force in some 

 shape or other moral if possible, physical if 

 necessary. Unless this principle is acted upon, 

 evil days, with civil war, and a struggle for 

 supremacy in South Africa are imminent 



That the Transvaal Government is prepared to 

 show its teeth, and use them too, if a favourable 

 occasion presents itself, is quite clearly proved by 

 the excessive amount of arms of every description 

 it has lately imported ; and I use the term excessive 

 advisedly, I think, as not only is the Transvaal abso- 

 lutely immune from the remotest danger of hostile 

 aggression from any quarter, but the armament it 

 possesses is sufficient for the equipment of four 

 times the number of burgher warriors it could put 

 into the field. In the absence of exact statistics 

 this may be approximately estimated at between 

 fifteen and eighteen thousand men between the ages 

 of sixteen and sixty and of these at least one- 



