Government irksome and obstructive. The mining industry set itself to influence public opinion in Britain and to organize in South Africa a movement against Boer independence. President Kruger played into the hands of the mining magnates by occasional breaches of his agreements with Britain. Among these was the famous “Drifts” question, by which Kruger in the summer of 1895 attempted to close access to the Transvaal from the rest of South Africa by any other routes than those of the Netherlands Railway, which was a privileged corporation. Mr Joseph Chamberlain, who had become Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1895, took up this question with vigour and found himself fully supported by the Dutch colonists in Cape Colony and Natal. It seemed as though there was to be war with the Transvaal, in which case, on this question of the Drifts, Great Britain would have been thoroughly supported by her Dutch-speaking subjects in South Africa. As part of the plan of campaign conceived in the case of war, was a movement from the British South Africa Company’s territory through Bechuanaland into the western and northern parts of the Transvaal; this in fact was the germ of the Jameson Raid. Kruger gave way on the subject of the Drifts when he saw how united was the rest of South Africa against him; and it seemed to persons in authority in Great Britain as well as in South Africa that the great opportunity for solving the Boer question in South Africa had gone by. Insufficient measures were taken, or no measures at all were taken, to restrain the preparations of Dr Jameson (the Administrator of Rhodesia) for a descent on the Transvaal. Consequently the Jameson Raid took place—a most unfortunate occurrence, since it put Great Britain entirely in the wrong on a question where otherwise she could plead legitimate griefs and annoyances.