avoid injustice to others an earnest attempt has been made to state
the facts fairly. In how far that attempt has been successful the
reader must decide for himself.

J.P.F.
_July, 1899._




NOTE


It has been impossible to avoid in this volume more or less pointed
reference to certain nationalities in certain connections; for
instance such expressions as "the Boers," "the Cape Dutch," "the
Hollanders," "the Germans," are used. The writer desires to say once
and for all that unless the contrary is obviously and deliberately
indicated, the distinctions between nationalities are intended in the
political sense only and not in the racial sense, and if by mischance
there should be found something in these pages which seems offensive,
he begs the more indulgent interpretation on the ground of a very
earnest desire to remove and not to accentuate race distinctions.

General references are also made to classes--"the civil service,"
"the officials," &c. There are officials in the Transvaal service
who would earn the confidence and esteem of the public in any
administration in the world. It is hardly necessary to say that there
is no intention to disparage them.