A Committee has been appointed by the English Parliament to inquire about the raid made by Dr. Jameson into the Transvaal in December, 1895. All London is deeply interested in this matter, so much so that a number of the great English peers are present at the meetings, even the Prince of Wales having attended several of them. These meetings are held in Westminster Hall, which is one of the most interesting buildings in London. It was begun by King William Rufus, about 1090, and was used by the early English Kings as a banqueting hall. All the Kings and Queens of England until the time of George IV. were crowned in Westminster Hall, and in this same building Charles I. was condemned to death, and Oliver Cromwell was declared Protector of England, and here the first Parliaments sat. Westminster Hall after a while became part of the King's palace of Westminster, where the famous Henry VIII. lived. This palace was destroyed by fire except the grand old Hall, which was left standing alone until the new Houses of Parliament were built on the ground where the palace had once stood, and the Hall became a part of the Houses of Parliament. This grand old building with its wonderful arched roof has seen many great assemblies in its 800 years of life, but this inquiry into the affairs of the Transvaal is by no means the least interesting of them. If you take your map, you will see that the southern part of Africa is divided into several states and colonies. Cape Colony, the most southerly of all, belongs to England. Then comes the Orange Free State, and then the South African Republic, or the Transvaal, as it is called. You will notice that the English possessions creep up the coast in front of the Transvaal, and also form its western or land boundary. The Transvaal is a Republic originally settled by the Dutch. Its inhabitants are called Boers, and they are a race of sturdy farmers. It is from their employment that they get their name of Boer. In the Dutch language boer means a peasant, a farmer, or a tiller of the soil. It is the same word as the German _Bauer_, a peasant. These Boers are governed by a clever old man named Paul Krueger,--Oom (or Uncle) Paul, as his people call him. England, as you will see by your map, owns vast tracts of land in South Africa, and according to her regular practice she is trying to enlarge her possessions still further. Wherever England establishes a colony, she reaches out on either side of her, and takes, if possible, a little piece of land here, and another little scrap there, until by and by she has laid hold of the greater part of the land around her. She has been following her usual custom in South Africa. But the Boers are not fond of the English, and they have been trying with all their power to keep these neighbors of theirs as far away from them as possible. As the English have advanced, the Boers have retreated, even giving up the diamond mines of Kimberly in the process of moving.