The Transvaal from Within | Page 2

position. With the knowledge, however, that a good case is spoiled by overstatement and with the desire to avoid injustice to others an earnest attempt has been made to state the facts fairly. In how far that attempt has been successful the reader must decide for himself.
J.P.F. _July, 1899._

NOTE
It has been impossible to avoid in this volume more or less pointed reference to certain nationalities in certain connections; for instance such expressions as "the Boers," "the Cape Dutch," "the Hollanders," "the Germans," are used. The writer desires to say once and for all that unless the contrary is obviously and deliberately indicated, the distinctions between nationalities are intended in the political sense only and not in the racial sense, and if by mischance there should be found something in these pages which seems offensive, he begs the more indulgent interpretation on the ground of a very earnest desire to remove and not to accentuate race distinctions.
General references are also made to classes--"the civil service," "the officials," &c. There are officials in the Transvaal service who would earn the confidence and esteem of the public in any administration in the world. It is hardly necessary to say that there is no intention to disparage them.

CONTENTS

PART I.

CHAPTER I.
EARLIER DAYS 1
CHAPTER II.
AFTER THE WAR 44
CHAPTER III.
THE ORIGIN OF THE MOVEMENT 117
CHAPTER IV.
THE REFORM COMMITTEE 137
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMITTEE'S DILEMMA 151
CHAPTER VI.
THE INVASION 173
CHAPTER VII.
AFTER DOORNKOP 200
CHAPTER VIII.
ARREST AND TRIAL OF THE REFORMERS 222
CHAPTER IX.
LIFE IN GAOL 251

PART II.

CHAPTER X.
THREE YEARS' GRACE 285
CHAPTER XI.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 333
APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. Pretoria Convention. 369 APPENDIX B. London Convention. 377 APPENDIX C. President Kruger's Affairs in the Raads. 385 APPENDIX D. Volksraad Debates. 387 APPENDIX E. Malaboch. 395 APPENDIX F. The Great Franchise Debate. 396 APPENDIX G. Terms of Dr. Jameson's Surrender. 404 APPENDIX H. Sir John Willoughby's Report to the War Office. 411 APPENDIX I. Manifesto. 422 APPENDIX K. The Case of the Chieftainess Toeremetsjani. 432 APPENDIX L. Report on the Letter written on a Torn Telegram Form signed "F.R.," by Mr. T.H. Gurrin, Expert in Handwriting. 438


PART I.

CHAPTER I.
IN EARLIER DAYS.
When, before resorting to extreme measures to obtain what the Uitlanders deemed to be their bare rights, the final appeal or declaration was made on Boxing Day, 1895, in the form of the manifesto published by the Chairman of the National Union, President Kruger, after an attentive consideration of the document as translated to him, remarked grimly: 'Their rights. Yes, they'll get them--over my dead body!' And volumes of explanation could not better illustrate the Boer attitude and policy towards the English-speaking immigrants.
'L'��tat c'est moi' is almost as true of the old Dopper President as it was of its originator; for in matters of external policy and in matters which concern the Boer as a party the President has his way as surely and as completely as any anointed autocrat. To anyone who has studied the Boers and their ways and policy--who has given more than passing consideration to the incidents and negotiations of the present year{01}--it must be clear that President Kruger does something more than represent the opinion of the people and execute their policy: he moulds them in the form he wills. By the force of his own strong convictions and prejudices, and of his indomitable will, he has made the Boers a people whom he regards as the germ of the Africander nation; a people chastened, selected, welded, and strong enough to attract and assimilate all their kindred in South Africa, and then to realize the dream of a Dutch Republic from the Zambesi to Capetown.
In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim old President will loom large and striking--picturesque, as the figure of one who by his character and will made and held his people; magnificent, as one who in the face of the blackest fortune never wavered from his aim or faltered in his effort; who, with a courage that seemed, and still seems, fatuous, but which may well be called heroic, stood up against the might of the greatest empire in the world. And, it may be, pathetic, too, as one whose limitations were great, one whose training and associations--whose very successes--had narrowed, and embittered and hardened him; as one who, when the greatness of success was his to take and to hold, turned his back on the supreme opportunity, and used his strength and qualities to fight against the spirit of progress, and all that the enlightenment of the age pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and a healthy State.
To an English nobleman, who, in the course of an interview, remarked, 'My father was a Minister of England, and twice Viceroy of Ireland,' the old Dutchman answered, 'And my father was a shepherd!' It was not pride rebuking pride; it