Johannesburg; and the British Government has to follow them. It is not
English trade which follows the flag, it is the flag which follows the
trade. The present crisis was not brought about by the zeal of British
statesmen, but by their weakness in 1881 and 1884; and by the habit
which they have allowed the Government of Pretoria of violating
conventions with impunity. To such a degree were these violations
carried on with regard to the Uitlanders (chiefly English) who, relying
on the guarantee of the Transvaal Government, had settled and invested
millions of capital in the country, that, dreading for their lives after
the murder of Edgar, they presented the petition of March 28th, 1899, to
the British Government. No government in the world, approached in such a
manner, could have refused to move; and where European governments have
gone wrong is that, instead of supporting the action of Great Britain,
they let President Krüger believe that they would intervene against her,
to the prejudice even of their own countrymen.

It may be mentioned that British Uitlanders only appealed to their own
government, after having, conjointly with Uitlanders of other
nationalities, addressed various petitions, since 1894, to the Pretoria
Government which petitions were received with contempt, President Krüger
replying: "Protest! protest as much as you like! I have arms, and you
have none!"

[Footnote 24: _Le Siècle_, April 14th, 1900.]


2.--_The Moral Worth of the Boers._

Dr. Kuyper affirms that "with regard to moral worth the Boers do not
fall short of any European nation." I have not wished to digress from my