A REPLY TO "CIVIS."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11798, 30 July 1900, Page 8

A REPLY TO "CIVIS."

Per Favour of Otago Daily Times.

' —To use a Gallicism, I was

Dear "Civis,"

desolated to find myself classed by you as a pro-Boer. I cannot think that the mild mistrust, suggested in my borrowed allegory, is deserving the imputation of ugly treason. Tt

is truo that my. bad penmanship has led you to mistake my iiora de plume; but surely "' Civis " is no vulgar jingo to be stirred to sarcasm by the mere name of "Justice" in connection with this subject; nor can I think that prejudice against this, to the rest of the colony, Nazareth of New Zealand has induced him to make the deduction of my sentiments

ho has. My letter "was intended as an admonition, maybe a mere squeak in a corner; but looking at the past history of our motherland, are there no facts justifying my misgivings as to the efficacy of British policy to effect a permanent settlement of the Afrikander difficulty? Are there not many instances when the gourd of disaffection lias

through our misrule beon allowed to ripen, and. bursting, scatter the seeds of treason; and would not the British Calendar, in relating his experiences to the "Just one," haste to confess that his own neglect lias permitted

the transformation into that deadly form against which fire and sword were the sole remedies? Further, to borrow from your own allegory, has the roostor been always successful in assimilating to its own substance all the seeds it lias picked up in the past? Now, for. a small personal incident. On the evening oE Mafeking Day I met a friend, a gentleman intimately connected with one of our journals, who said to me, " This has been a great day for the ExGLisit Empire, Mr ." I repued, " Oh, do say British Empire, Mr ." Now, when an Englishman uses the expression "English Empire," we may charitably put it down to pardonable, if inexpedient, pride of nationality; to a Scotchman the expression would be impossible; but when an Irishman utters it, I fear he does co, not with a view to tickle the vanity of that particular section of his follow subjects, but from a rooted objection to efface the individuality of his race by merging it in the common title British, although so many of his countrymen have contributed to the lustre of that name.— I am, etc.,

July 24.

Jacobus.