1.--_Contempt of Justice._

I stated at the close of my last article that I did not think that Dr.
Kuyper had even made mention of Articles 7 and 14 of the Convention of
1884. I find that I was mistaken. He has said a few words about the
latter, to draw from it the inference that it did not give the right of
franchise to Uitlanders. He is right.

But Articles 7 and 14 guarantee to all white men, civil rights, the
protection of their persons and property, the right to enter into trade,
and equality of taxation. How did the Boers construe the application of
these conditions of the Convention of 1884? As early as 1885 Mr.
Gladstone found himself obliged to send Sir Charles Warren to prevent
the Boers from invading Bechuanaland. Mr. Krüger had already attacked
Mafeking, and annexed the territory. The Boers retreated, but brutally
murdered a man named Bethell who had been wounded by them.

That same year, the case of Mr. James Donaldson came before the House of
Commons. He held property in Lydenburg. He had been ordered by two Boers
(one of whom was in the habit of boasting that he had shot an unarmed
Englishman since the beginning of the war, and had fired on several
others) to abstain from collecting hut taxes on his own farm. On his
refusal he was attacked by them; three other Boers joined them, and he
was left in such a condition that he was thought to be dead.

Upon the representations of the English Government the aggressors were
condemned to pay a fine; but the Government of Pretoria remitted it!

An Indian, a British subject and man of education far superior to that