A DEBATE
As we have said before, Steve and his fellow-boarders sometimes
constituted themselves into a sort of debating society, in which the
public questions of the day were generally discussed. Let us follow
Steve into the drawing-room, which he is just entering as a heated
debate is on.
‘Hullo, Keith, at it again as usual, running down the powers that be of
the land we live in,’ remarked Steve on entering. ‘What is the use of
knocking your head against a rock; for I tell you this Government is
as firmly established as a rock. Have you ever seen a big old mastiff
walking along the street, calm and self-contained, a troop of curs
following, barking and snapping at him, without the mastiff taking the
least notice of their noise or snaps. Well, Oom Paul is the mastiff,
the newspapers that abuse him and petty pot politicians (I hope the
shoe won’t fit you) are the curs; there you have my opinion.’
‘So you think it currish to stand up for your rights, and agitate for
it?’
‘By no means.’
‘What do you mean then?’
‘I think it currish to be perpetually barking and snapping at a man,
as so many of the Jingo imperialistic papers and private amateur
politicians are continually doing. You do not see it because you do not
wish to do so; but just watch the actions of the Government, no matter
_what_ they may do or decide upon doing, but it is reviled and cried
down. They may do something with the most honest intention of pleasing
the Uitlanders, but some sinister intention is found, or supposed to
be found, lurking behind it. No contract is given out for some public
work, no matter if the man be the best workman and has sent in the
lowest tender, but somebody is sure to have taken a bribe from the
contractor to work into his hands, and so with everything, just because
it is a Boer Government; any stick will do to beat a dog with, or--a
Boer official.’
‘Well, all the same, it is hard lines that an educated Englishman
should submit to laws made by ignorant, uneducated Boers; we won’t
submit to it. Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britons never,
never will be slaves; there you have my opinion.’
‘My dear fellow, no one wants you to submit to it. I don’t believe you
got an invitation from the Boer Government to come here and live under
their laws. All you have to do is to submit to it or leave. No one will
prevent you or ask you to come back. I do not say this because I wish
to make myself nasty, but, in common fairness, you must consider what
is right. Here you come into a free Republic, inhabited by a quiet,
peace-loving, God-fearing people. They have obtained their country
after herculean struggles against enemies from within and without.
Again and again they had to fight for country and liberty, and at last
they seem to be safe, and wealth comes to them. Strangers from afar
come unto them. (Strangers, besides, who are of the people who have
persecuted and chased them from their old home, “into a new country,
and out again”; and still are they threatened by the Government
of these self-same strangers.) They share their wealth with these
strangers, they give these strangers the protection of their laws, on
an equal footing with themselves. But these gold-hunting strangers are
not satisfied with this. It is not enough for them to share with the
original owners of the soil--no, they want to be _masters_! And because
the owners of the soil will not walk quietly out of their country and
give everything up to the would-be usurpers, they are reviled, libelled
and abused. You are an Englishman, an Englishman’s boast is supposed
to be _love of “fair play,”_ where does your love of fair play come in
here?’
‘But if they wish to share with us, why do they not share the franchise
with us?’
‘That is it--you are asking for the handle of the knife. You know very
well that if the franchise is given to every Tom, Dick and Harry, the
Uitlanders will get hold of the handle, and if the Boers should try
to pull it out of their hands, they will cut their fingers. You are
asking them to simply commit political suicide. No, old man, a thing
obtained, as their liberty was obtained, will be more cherished than to
be thus lightly given up. Now, if your intentions were honest and fair
to the Boers, you would quietly wait your hour until the stipulated
time expires, when you may legally become a Burgher; and if the time
appears rather long, I have perfect confidence that, if the Uitlanders
will only show the Government that they wish to become peaceful,
law-abiding citizens of the Republic, anxious to advance the honour
and prosperity of the country of their adoption, which they can only
do by working with the Government, and ceasing to show their prejudice
to everything that is _Boer_, then I am sure the Government will soon
shorten the time of probation, and take them into the fold of full
burghership.’
‘Yes; but we are not going to humble ourselves and beg for a vote; no,
by Jingo! sooner than that, we will fight for it, and take by force
what is refused us when we ask for it. Besides, even though we are not
strong enough to take the Government by force, we only have to get up a
row, and start some sort of revolution, and ask the British Government
to step in, and of course England will say to your President, “You
cannot keep the peace, we will have to come and keep it for you,” and
the trick is done, _wacht een beetje_.’
Such reasoning disgusted Steve, as I am sure it would many an honest
and fair-thinking Englishman. However, he replied,--
‘All I can say is that, if England does this, her glory shall pass away
from her; such injustice will be tolerated by neither God nor man, and
England shall raise such a cry of shame as has never been heard before.
She shall feel something like the man who opened a hive of angry bees,
and when the bees are stinging and buzzing about his ears, she shall be
sorry she ever opened that hive. But I must say I have more faith in
the honour and justice of your countrymen than you seem to have.’
Such discussions as these were the order of the day, and the sample
given above may be taken as a fair example of the opinions of the two
parties in the country. We shall leave the debaters now, but on some
future occasion we shall take advantage of the privilege of historians
to visit them again.