The Reform Committee had sent a letter to Jameson (as per agreement?) requesting his aid to obtain their demands, as is proved by the letter Jameson had received, signed by five of the leading members of the Reform Committee. The Reform Committee had promised Jameson (so he declared) to send two thousand men to aid him in pushing his way through to Johannesburg. But what did these brave reformers do--these followers of Mirabeau, Rousseau, and who knows, perhaps, Marat? When Jameson was on his way, as per agreement with them, to fight with them, and for them, these reformers (?) sent a deputation to Pretoria and concluded an armistice with the Government, by which they bound themselves not to do anything to break the peace, or to give the Government cause to send a force against them for a stipulated time. A very laudable thing, and tending towards a peaceful solution, you would think. Quite so; only why did they not do so before? Why did they first entice Jameson to place himself in peril, and in danger of life on their behalf, and then utterly desert him. This much can be said on behalf of Jameson, and is freely acknowledged by the Boers, that he at least was no coward, and kept his part of the agreement, even though it was in an ignoble cause; but it only proves that there _is_ sometimes honour among thieves, even though the honour was all on one side here. How can the action of the Reform Committee be explained? I am afraid it can be explained no more than the action of C. Leonard (the leader and president of the conspirators on the Rand) can be explained. His cowardly action seemed to have given a very bad example to his fellow-conspirators, and utterly demoralised them. What did he do? He threw the fat into the fire by the issue of his famous manifesto, and when he had succeeded in thoroughly rousing the public and the Government, and when Jameson was on his way, in answer to his invitation to come and aid him and his gang in their nefarious work--in short, when he saw the moment of danger had come, like a cur, he put his tail between his legs and fled the country, leaving his friends to get out of their position of danger, where he had helped to place them, as best they may. When Leonard had fled, the rest of the conspirators seemed to realise the danger of their little game of bluff. They had hoped, as one of their members had said months before, that the Boer Government would _funk_ it (excuse the slang), and give them all they demanded. _Fools!_ They had been living amongst the Boers for so long, and ought to have known that, while there was life, no Boer would give up the much-treasured and dearly-bought liberty of the nation.