remarkably confirmed by a passage in mr defence in which he hence i met alone in my house and opened up the of his mission with a b the that me he that his purpose was to the country as he had sufficient grounds for it unless i could so alter as to satisfy his my plan of a new constitution after that of america of a standing police force of two hundred mounted men was then proposed he promised to give me time to call the together and to abandon ms design if the would adopt these measures and the country be willing to submit to them and to carry them out further on he says in justice to i must say that i would not consider an officer of my government to have acted faithfully if he had not done what did it has also been frequently alleged in england and always seems to be taken as the of argument in the matter of the that the special represented that the majority of the inhabitants wished for the and that it was on that ground this statement shows the great ignorance that exists in this country of south african affairs an ignorance which in this case has been carefully by mr s government for party purposes they having found it necessary to assume in order to make their position in the matter that sir t and other officers had been guilty of unfortunately the government and its have been more intent upon making out their case than upon the truth of their statements if they had taken the trouble to refer to sir t s they would have found that the ground on which the was was not because the majority of the inhabitants wished for it the but because the state was drifting into was and was about to be destroyed by native tribes they would further have found that sir t never represented that the majority of the were in favour of what he did say was that most thinking men in the country saw no other way out of the difficulty but what proportion of the can be called thinking men he also said in the paragraph of his despatch to lord of th march that signed by people representing every class of the community out of a total male population of had been presented to the government of the setting forth its difficulties and dangers and praying it to treat with me for their or removal he also stated and with perfect truth that many more would have signed had it not been for the that was exercised and that all the towns and villages in the country desired the change which was a patent fact this is the foundation on which the charge of is built � a charge which has been so and with such a charming disregard for the truth that the british public has been into believing it when it is examined into it into thin air but a darker charge has been brought against the special � a charge affecting his honour as a gentleman and his character as a christian and strange to say has gained a considerable especially amongst a certain party in england i allude to the statement that he called up the army with the intention of sweeping the o the if the was objected to i may state from my own personal knowledge that the report is a complete falsehood and that no such threat was ever made either by sir t or by anybody connected with him and i will briefly prove what i say when the mission first arrived at a message came from to the effect that he had heard that the had fired at sir t and announcing his intention of attacking the if his father was touched about the middle of march alarming began to spread as to the intended action of with reference to the but as sir t did not think that the king would be likely to make any hostile movement whilst he was in the country he took no steps in the matter neither did the government ask his advice and assistance indeed a remarkable trait in the is their supreme self conceit which makes them believe that they are capable of all the natives in africa and of the whole british army if necessary unfortunately the recent course of events has tended to confirm them in their opinion as regards their white enemies to return towards the second week in april or the week before the of was issued things began to look very serious indeed that could hardly be reached the special that the whole army was collected in a chain of or with the intention of bursting into the and sweeping the country knowing how terrible would be the catastrophe if this were to thb sir t was much alarmed about the matter and at a meeting with the council of the government he pointed out to them the great danger in which the country was placed this was done in the presence of several officers of his staff and it was on this friendly of the state of affairs that the charge that he had threatened the country with invasion by the was based on the april or the day before the a message was despatched to telling him of the reports that had reached and stating that if they were true he must forthwith give up all such intentions as the would at once be placed under the of her majesty and that if he had assembled any armies for purposes of they must be at once sir t s message reached not a day too soon had the of the been delayed by a few weeks even � and this is a point which i earnestly beg englishmen to remember in connection with that act � s armies would 