What to do now? The populace refuses to fight. The Reform Committee resolved to carry on the revolution by the means of GOLD. This is the golden city. We are all gold kings, we will let our gold fight our battles, and when everything is gained, we shall get our gold back a thousandfold. Thus they argued, and the result was, _one pound sterling a day_ was offered to any and everybody who would take up arms and fight against the Government. It is true a few corps--small corps, too--were raised without pay, but with the avowed object only to protect life and property and not to fight against the Government. It seems the conspirators had foreseen this apathy or want of interest on the part of the populace in their artificial revolution, for which reason they had arranged the Jameson Raid. Whoever had first thought of this arrangement, viz., Jameson’s Raid? Was it the Reform Committee, or was it the arch conspirator himself? Certain it is, it was a short-sighted policy, for Jameson’s failure, as we shall see, ruined all their hopes. But we are inclined towards the belief that, although the Reform Committee sent the invitation to Jameson, it was done by the suggestion of the arch conspirator himself--Rhodes. Of course the chief conspirators on the Rand, the originators of the so-called revolution, were nothing but the agents of their chief in Cape Town, and all they did and suggested (it must be taken for granted) emanated from their leader. And we can understand his policy. If he had left the whole conduct of the affair to the Johannesburg Committee, they might take the bit in their mouth, and strike out for themselves, and leave him out in the cold, once success was assured. They might disown him, and take all the fruits of success for themselves, and possession being ten points of the law in such a case, he would be nicely sold. To guard against this, he must have decided to have a force of his own on the spot at any cost, by which means he hoped to hold the trump cards, in case his friends tried to play him false. And his fears were not unfounded by any means, as the majority of the conspirators who joined later, and especially those who were not in all the secrets of the organisation, were in favour of retaining the republican form of government in the event of success. This was evidenced by the fact that the Committee felt themselves compelled to confess to only wishing for a reformed Republic, and not for any other form of government. This was even carried so far that (whether in good faith or not we cannot say) the Transvaal flag was hoisted on the Gold Fields Office, the headquarters of the Reform Committee. This must have caused gnashing of teeth in the private cabinet of a certain prime minister in the Cape Colony when he received the news, and even his faithful agents on the Rand must have felt terrified and troubled when they saw the prize slipping through their fingers. What account will they be able to give to their lord and