6 JANUARY 1900, Page 23

should like to say a word about a - friend of mine,

whose letters to his father and mother at home I have been allowed to see. The writer while still in his native Somersetshire village worked as a collier, and was a young man of strongly marked character, working in the Sunday-school of the Wesleyan chapel, as well as an ardent supporter of temperance work. He was not only liked but respected among his fellow working men. At Johannesburg he was employed at a temperance restaurant. Yet he was, and is, as strong an Anti-Boer as any capitalist, and his case is worth noting by those who are inclined to believe the allegation that none of the tonii-fide English working men wanted the franchise, or oared a straw about political rights. I have no doubt that the present instance is in no way isolated, and that many English homes have sent worthy Outlanders to the Transvaal, who, like my friend, are citizens any State might be glad to own, and to whom it is our duty to do justice. I cannot con- ceive a greater injustice than to speak of this Somersetshire collier as "the scum of the earth." He may not be a person of cultivation or literary attainments, but he is a sound and honourable man, fit to exercise the rights of

citizenship in any community.—I am, Sir, &c., S.