The British and the Boers

BRITISH AND THE BOERS.

The war which began lately between England and the South African republic, presided over by President Paul Kruger, can only end in the victory of the British over the Boers. The conflict,

however, will probably witness some desperate encounters. Presi- dent Kruger has forty thousand men under his command, now that the neighboring republic, the Orange Free State, has made com- mon cause with the Transvaal. The South African republic is about 119,000 square miles in extent, and has a population of over one million, of whom the majority are blacks. The Boers form the minority of the white population, while the ''Uitlanders," or foreigners, mostly British, pay nearly all the revenue of about five millions of dollars annually, but are debarred from a voice in the government. Johannesburg is the leading city and the center of the mining region, and had a population, before war became immi- nent, of over one hundred thousand. The Orange Free State is

about 48,000 square miles in extent, and can levy an army of about twelve thousand men. The war promises to be carried on over an extensive area, favorable to Boer methods of fighting.