262 SOUTH AFRICA. 



this subject will be treated on its merits without 

 reference to any propitiatory sacrifice to Transvaal 

 proclivities. That the details of the bill of costs 

 handed in by Dr. Leyds could not be sworn to 

 as correct without the commission of perjury by 

 its concocters I feel sure, as I have some remem- 

 brance of the very small expense of calling out 

 " commandos " in that part of the world, and am 

 convinced that all costs of that kind have been 

 covered by the fines inflicted on the officers impli- 

 cated and by the value of the captured loot, and 

 that a very nice little balance has been left over 

 for the benefit of others. The charge of 28,000 

 for the benefit of the families of the five or six 

 casualties to burghers in the fight with Dr. Jim 

 is exorbitant, unless the Transvaal Government is 

 prepared to stultify itself by proving that its 

 official report of these casualties was false, and that 

 the real losses of the Boers by death and wounds 

 in the skirmish were infinitely greater than those 

 on account of which the claim is based. For my 

 own part I believe in the approximate correctness 

 of the report, and that the loss of life among the 

 burghers did not exceed five men, as not only are 

 the Boers expert tacticians, but they are most 



