On Friday was published a Blue-book containing the letters from
Members of Parliament and others found at Bloemfontein. Though not nearly so sensational as was supposed, they are of very considerable interest and import- ance,—especially the letters from Sir Henry de Villiers, Mr. Merriman, and other Cape politicians. These letters convey, in fact, a complete answer to the most serious and often repeated allegations of the Pro-Boer party. The Pro-Boers here have always been furious when we or others have described the Transvaal Government as an oligarchy, have represented the Boers as having become de- moralised by the corruptions of their Government, and have declared that President Kruger and his satellites were determined to cling to their monopoly of authority at all risks, and preferred war to sharing their power in the least degree with the Outlanders. For taking this view, indeed, we have been denounced as either demented or cor- rupt, or both. Yet now it appears that Mr. Merriman, who is, so to speak, the oracle of the Pro-Boers, held very similar views. A picture of President Kruger contained in one of the letters based on a conversation with " Lippert " would have been regarded as a gross calumny if it had come from Mr. Chamberlain. We cannot unfortunately find space to quote at length from these letters, but it is impossible to read them and not to realise that it was the Boer Government, and not the British, who made war inevitable.
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