The following letter has been sent to a contemporary by Professor Wallace:--

    Sir,--I see by the various election addresses and election literature that the only really tangible cause stated for the war against the South African Republics is now, as it was a year ago, the alleged terrible "oppression" and "grievances" of the Outlanders, British subjects treated as "helots," the objects of continual "insults," and denied "the ordinary rights of free men." The alleged arming of the Boers "many years" before the Raid is now given up; the afterthought of a general "conspiracy" against the British power in South Africa has utterly broken down for want of evidence; but the "grievances" remain, and it seems to me that, before it is too late, an effort should be made to secure a public inquiry while so many of those who are said to have been the sufferers are still in this country.

    It is surely very important in the interests of truth and justice, and to furnish trustworthy materials for the historian, that every Englishman who lived in the Transvaal during the three or four years before the war should be called upon to give public testimony to the exact nature and amount of the oppression, contumely, and wrongs which he had to endure, and to redress which such a terrible punishment has been inflicted on the alleged oppressors, at such a terrible cost of life to this country.

    I venture to think that the very first step taken by the Liberal Party in the new Parliament should be to insist upon such an impartial and thorough inquiry, which, besides the purposes above indicated, would afford trustworthy information of the greatest value in deciding the future relations of this country with the conquered and devastated Republics.--Yours, etc.,

Alfred R. Wallace.