and I had spoken freely, because I supposed myself to be
speaking in confidence, of colonial factions and tempers out
of which so much evil had arisen and might again arise. I
had complained especially of the misleading information which
had been supplied to the English Government, and of the
unscrupulous character of part of the Cape press. To my
horror, yet to my amusement also, I found the whole of the
conversation in print (so far as my friend had remembered
it), filling two columns of the newspaper, and a furious leader
attached, holding me up to indignation. Interviewers who
are taking down one's words ought to give one notice. The
system anyway is questionable, but when unacknowledged is
intolerable. If you know what is before you, you can at
least be careful what you say, and make sure also that your
friend understands what you say, and so can report it cor-
rectly.

Apology was hopeless, and explanation impossible. There
was no time for it, for one thing, and, for another, I believed
what I had said to be true, and therefore could not unsay it,
though it had never been meant for the public.

The 'Argus' people, I suppose, had seen the report ac-
cidentally in a London paper, and having heard that I was
coming, had prepared this pretty reception for me. It was a
neat and characteristic stroke, which, provoked as I was, I
could not refuse to admire. M. ----- the oldest friend I had
in the Colony, came on board while I was reflecting. The
whole town he told me was in a rage. But, after all, it mat-
tered little, except to myself, and the three or four persons
whom I wished to see would perhaps forgive me. The po-
litical situation was precisely what I expected. M. ----- had
accompanied the Premier to Bechuanaland, when making the
arrangement with the Boers which Lord Derby had declined
to ratify. Had it been accepted the Premier would have
been prepared to advise the Cape Parliament to annex the

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