is very hard to get from him a sanction for any increased expenditure. It would I think be impossible to get from him sanction for a measure which would put all control over expenditure out of his own hands. "We will guard as our choicest privilege that independence which Her Majesty some years since was pleased to bestow upon us." It is thus that the Boer declares himself,—somewhat sarcastically,—when he is asked whether he does not wish to avail himself of the benefit of British citizenship.
Somewhat sarcastically;—for he is well aware that when England repudiated him,—declaring that she would have nothing to do with him across the Orange River, she did so with contempt and almost with aversion. And he is as well aware that England now wants to get him back again. The double consciousness is of a nature likely to beget sarcasm. "You thought nothing of me when I came here a poor wanderer, daring all dangers in order that I might escape from your weaknesses, your absurdities, your mock philanthropies,—when I shook off from the sole of my foot the dust of a country in which the black Savage was preferred to the white Colonist; but now,—now that I have established myself successfully,—you would fain have me back again so that your broad borders may be extended, and your widened circle made complete. But, by the Providence of God, after many difficulties we are well as we are;—and therefore we are able to decline your offers." That is the gist of what the Boer is saying when he tells us of the independence bestowed upon him by Her Majesty.
Thinking as I do that Great Britain was wrong when she
