that his aim is to suggest the idea that England's sole object in the
present war has been to possess herself of the gold mines. Here Dr.
Kuyper employs the arguments of _L'Intransigeant_, _La Libre Parole_,
and _Le Petit Journal_; for he is perfectly well aware that England will
derive no benefit from the gold mines, nor will she take possession of
them any more than she has done of the gold mines of Australia. They are
private property.

Further, Dr. Kuyper well knows that the gold mines of the Rand were only
discovered in 1886, and he himself states that the annexation of the
Transvaal took place on April 12th, 1877. The annexation therefore was
prompted by other motives than the possession of the gold mines, but Dr.
Kuyper is careful not to suggest these to his readers.

He informs us that Sir Theophilus Shepstone "entered Pretoria at the
head of a small army." In reality, he had with him five-and-twenty
policemen. Why then did the Boers, "so essentially men of war and
politics," permit this?

"Once again, the fate of the natives served as pretext," Mr. Kuyper adds
"but the wheel of fortune turns; two years later the English,
themselves, were at daggers drawn with the natives, and massacred 10,000
men, women and children." That is how Dr. Kuyper writes history! The
pretext was not the fate of the natives, but the fate of the Boers, who,
having gone to war with Sekukuni, had been beaten. This is admitted in
the "Petition of Rights": "At first, our operations were not very
successful, our opponents declare that we were unable to defend
ourselves against the natives."

[Footnote 6: _Le Siècle_, March 26th, 1900.]