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THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN 1899.
to him, and not merely 2000. That raid was universally deplored throughout South Africa. It had embittered the feeling of the two races, caused many people in Cape Colony to transfer their sympathies from the Uitlanders to the Boers, and, to some extent, been responsible for the change of attitude on the part of the Orange Free State. Many people in South Africa believed that Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Chamberlain were privy to the Jameson raid, but he did not share the belief.
The personnel of the Reform agitation.Coming to his recent personal experiences in South Africa, Mr. Brassey said he was told by many people in Cape Town that the Uitlander grievances were grossly exaggerated, that the Reform movement in 1899, like that of 1895, was being promoted by capitalists by Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Beit, and people of that kind, and that the Uitlanders were the scum of the earth. The first hour he spent in Johannesburg convinced him that the last-named assertion was untrue. As far as he could judge he should say that the population of that town was on the whole above the average of most large English towns. It was true that the population included a considerable number of disreputable persons, such as illicit liquor-sellers, pickpockets, and others of that kind, but in the main the character of the people was as he had stated. In regard to the men who were running the Reform movement, he found they mostly belonged to the professional classes mining engineers, doctors, and lawyers. He had the privilege of meeting several of the men who were taking part in the movement, notably, Mr. Wybergh, the President of the South African League, and he sought to learn how far the grievances were voiced by the miners and other work-249
