inferior race, a race almost without even the elements of civilization,
ignorant and brutal beyond any existing white community, and superior
only in the fact that they were organized and armed, whereas those they
trampled upon were deficient in both these respects. Having no votes,
these were powerless to better their condition by the means common to
civilized communities throughout the world. They were ground down by an
enormous taxation, towards which the Boers themselves contributed
practically nothing, and the revenue drawn from them was spent in the
purchase of munitions of war, artillery, and fortifications, so
enormously beyond the needs of the country, that it was no secret that
they were intended not only for the defence of the republic against
invasion, but for a general rising of the Boer population and the
establishment of Dutch supremacy throughout the whole of South Africa.

The Boer government was corrupt from the highest to the lowest. The
president and the members of his family piled up wealth to an enormous
amount, and nothing could be done without wholesale bribery. The price
of everything connected with the mining industry was doubled by the
supply being in the hands of monopolists, who shared their gains with
high state officials. Money was lavished like water on what was called
secret service, in subsidizing newspapers to influence public opinion
throughout Europe, and, as it was strongly suspected, in carrying on a
propaganda among the Dutch in Cape Colony, and in securing the return of
members and a ministry secretly pledged to further in every way the aims
of the Presidents of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The
British and other aliens were not only deprived of all rights of
citizenship, but even freedom of speech and the right of public meeting
was denied them; they were not allowed to carry arms except by a special
license, their children were taught in Dutch in the schools, they had no
right of trial by jury; judges who had the courage to refuse to carry