persuasion induced by political hatred and the souring effects of
jealousy and unsuccessful rivalry. This feature is, of course, most
accentuated in Holland, where, with the eyes set upon the loaves and
fishes in South Africa, that nation has for some time been "publicly
praying" for Boer victory over England. These are instances of mere
interest in lieu of genuine convictions. In England the spectacle is
more varied. There we see interest where there are paid agencies, and
persuasion more or less pronounced induced by political party spirit and
also by real convictions. It is in regard to the latter category where
perverted journalism triumphs most and stabs deepest, where men of
honour and patriotism have adopted views which clash against public
interest, and convictions which torture their own minds with grief and
shame under the supposed idea of England's unjust attitude towards the
Boer people, assuming that a Government majority allows itself to be
actuated by base motives.

Is it not attributable in a large proportion to misguided as well as to
venal journalism that the Boer cause has so heavily scored?

Was all this not manifest in the divisions of England's counsels, in the
hampered progress of her diplomacy, her fateful hesitancy and delay in
providing appropriate preventive and protective measures in South
Africa?

And as regards the tenacity of those convictions, it is with them as it
is in plant life. The longer a tree is in maturing, the harder is it to
uproot it.

The activities of Bond propaganda have been in continuance for many
years, and the prejudices fostered so long are correspondingly