Impressions of South Africa | Page 3

numbers, yet growing in influence, which
desired reform, perceived that the existing state of things could not
continue, and was ready to join the Uitlanders in agitating for sweeping
changes in the Constitution and in administration.
The events of December, 1895, changed the face of things swiftly and
decisively in all these communities.
In Cape Colony Dutch feeling, which as a political force was almost
expiring, revived at once. The unexpected attack on the Transvaal
evolved an outburst of sympathy for it, in which the faults of its
government were forgotten. Mr. Rhodes retired from office. The
reconstructed Ministry which succeeded fell in 1898, and a new
Ministry supported by the Africander Bond came into power after a
general election. Its majority was narrow, and was accused of not fairly
representing the country, owing to the nature of the electoral areas. A

Redistribution Bill was passed by a species of compromise, and in the
elections to the new constituencies which followed the Dutch party
slightly increased its majority, and kept its Cabinet (in which, however,
men of Dutch blood are a minority) in power. Party feeling, both inside
and outside the legislature, became, and has remained, extremely strong
on both sides. The English generally have rallied to and acclaim Mr.
Rhodes, whose connection with Dr. Jameson's expedition has made
him the special object of Dutch hostility. There is, according to the
reports which reach England, no longer any moderating third party: all
are violent partisans. Nevertheless--and this is a remarkable and most
encouraging fact--this violence did not diminish the warmth with which
the whole Assembly testified its loyalty and affection towards the
Queen on the occasion of the completion of the sixtieth year of her
reign in 1897. And the Bond Ministry of Mr. Schreiner proposed and
carried by a unanimous vote a grant of £30,000 per annum as a
contribution by the Colony to the naval defence of the Empire, leaving
the application of this sum to the unfettered discretion of the British
Admiralty.
In the Orange Free State the explosion of Dutch sentiment was still
stronger. Its first result was seen in the election of a President. In
November, 1895, two candidates for the vacant office had come
forward, and their chances were deemed to be nearly equal. When the
news of the Jameson expedition was received, the chance of the
candidate of British stock vanished. Since then, though there was not
(so far as I gather) down till the last few weeks any indication of
hostility to Britain, much less any social friction within the State, a
disposition to draw closer to the threatened sister Republic showed
itself at once. This led to the conclusion of a defensive alliance between
the Free State and the Transvaal, whereby either bound itself to defend
the other, if unjustly attacked. (The Transvaal is believed to have
suggested, and the Free State to have refused, a still closer union.) As
the Orange Free State had no reason to fear an attack, just or unjust,
from any quarter, this was a voluntary undertaking on its part, with no
corresponding advantage, of what might prove a dangerous liability,
and it furnishes a signal proof of the love of independence which
animates this little community.

We come now to the Transvaal itself. In that State the burgher party of
constitutional reform was at once silenced, and its prospect of
usefulness blighted. So, too, the Uitlander agitation was extinguished.
The Reform leaders were in prison or in exile. The passionate
anti-English feeling, and the dogged refusal to consider reforms, which
had characterized the extreme party among the Boers, were intensified.
The influence of President Kruger, more than once threatened in the
years immediately preceding, was immensely strengthened.
The President and his advisers had a golden opportunity before them of
using the credit and power which the failure of the Rising and the
Expedition of 1895 had given them. They ought to have seen that
magnanimity would also be wisdom. They ought to have set about a
reform of the administration and to have proposed a moderate
enlargement of the franchise such as would have admitted enough of
the new settlers to give them a voice, yet not enough to involve any
sudden transfer of legislative or executive power. Whether the
sentiment of the Boers generally would have enabled the President to
extend the franchise may be doubtful; but he could at any rate have
tried to deal with the more flagrant abuses of administration. However,
he attempted neither. The abuses remained, and though a Commission
reported on some of them, and suggested important reforms, no action
was taken. The weak point of the Constitution (as to which see p. 152)
was the power which the legislature apparently possessed of interfering
with vested rights, and even with pending