But When Every Other
Method Had Failed, And Their Petition For The Rights Of Freemen Had
Been Flung Back At
Them, it was natural that their eyes should turn
to that flag which waved to the north, the west, and
The south of
them - the flag which means purity of government with equal rights
and equal duties for all men. Constitutional agitation was laid
aside, arms were smuggled in, and everything prepared for an
organised rising.
The events which followed at the beginning of 1896 have been so
thrashed out that there is, perhaps, nothing left to tell - except
the truth. So far as the Uitlanders themselves are concerned, their
action was most natural and justifiable, and they have no reason to
exculpate themselves for rising against such oppression as no men
of our race have ever been submitted to. Had they trusted only to
themselves and the justice of their cause, their moral and even
their material position would have been infinitely stronger. But
unfortunately there were forces behind them which were more
questionable, the nature and extent of which have never yet, in
spite of two commissions of investigation, been properly revealed.
That there should have been any attempt at misleading inquiry, or
suppressing documents in order to shelter individuals, is
deplorable, for the impression left - I believe an entirely false
one - must be that the British Government connived at an expedition
which was as immoral as it was disastrous.
It had been arranged that the town was to rise upon a certain
night, that Pretoria should be attacked, the fort seized, and the
rifles and ammunition used to arm the Uitlanders.
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