times on the side of Pretorius and sometimes against him, but he is always exceedingly ready to take up arms, and exhibits all the traditional contempt of the South African Boer for what is called constitutional agitation. In one of his speeches or conversations after the Jameson Raid President Kruger spoke, rather in sorrow than in anger, in that tone which he so well knows how to assume, of the perfidy involved in taking up arms against a peaceful neighbour, a COLONEL FRANCIS RHODES. perfidy, the darkest side of which was the story then current that the assistance of native chiefs had actually been invoked by the raiders, thus setting black against white, in South Africa the unforgivable sin. President Kruger has a keen memory, but it may be described as rather selective than retentive. Paul Kruger the President has undoubtedly forgotten how Paul Kruger the Raider once gave the Government of the Free State twenty-four hours in which to set free its imprisoned reformer rebels. Even the stirring up of natives, a story now thoroughly discredited, and indeed at no time supported by a shred of proof, might recall to his memory the advances made by Pretorius to the military Moshesh against the Free State, advances which President Boshof, in his opening speech to the next Session of the Free State Raad, gave Moshesh credit for declining. But, it may be said, all this is ancient history; like the Boer raids into British Bechuanaland in the eighties which we spare recalling. In the presence of the stranger it may be thought burghers of the Transvaal have sunk all differences. On the contrary, within two years the Transvaal burghers of to-day have twice come close to civil war among themselves. A civil war with which the Uitlander had nothing to do except in so far as his presence exercised a deterrent effect. So that in each case the crisis blew over. In 1892-3 the last Presiden-f tial election contest was fought between S. J. P. Kruger and Pict Joubert, the present Commandant-General. It was a close fight. Joubert was supposed to represent the progressives, that is to say, burghers who were inclined to conciliate the Uitlander population by the extension of some modest instalment of rights. Kruger, of course, represented what he represents to-day-the opposite. He won, but not by much. Joubert's supporters alleged that corrupt practices, impersonation, and dual voting had flourished rankly on the Kruger side. They demanded a scrutiny, at which the supporters of each candidate should be represented. The Exccutive Council, being a Krugerite body, refused this, and undertook the scrutiny itself. Three times the votes were counted, and three times different results were announced, the final version giving Kruger 7,854 against Joubert's 7,009. Although the Joubert party finally accepted this finding there was intensely bitter feeling for some months, and persons in a position to judge believe that there was more than mere threatening in the talk indulged in among the Joubert adherents of resorting to the traditional Transvaal method of redressing what they considered their wrongs: that is, by a demonstration in arms. The General himself, in a conversation which the writer once had with him, though of course talking like a book about the impropriety of resorting to arms against countrymen under any provocation, distinctly took credit to himself for having resisted the temptation. More recently the most dangerous feeling was aroused in an unintelligible squabble between the Hervormde and the Gereformeerde branches of the Dutch Reformed Church, one of which, again, is allied with the narrower "dopper" sect of Oom Paul himself. Theologically, it would take a Scotsman to distinguish between them; and for that reason, need it be said, the schism is excessively sharp and keen. Matters came to a head over a decision of the Court transferring en bloc a quantity of Church property from one sect to the other. It is not quite settled yet what the upshot will be, the religious division being complicated by political and family crossdivisions and feuds impossible for an outsider to trace; but here, again, persons on the spot and closely acquainted with the character and drift of the people, believe that an acute crisis over the Church dispute has only been averted by the Uitlander and Jameson crisis, which swamped all else. Turning to the Uitlander issue in itself, there have been three or four distinct occasions, before any Jameson complication was heard of, in which a street scuffle or a random shot might have precipitated bloodshed. Once, in 1891, on his way to confer with the High Commissioner on various questions, President Kruger passed through Johannesburg and was besieged in the Landdrost's house by a mob, which uproariously demanded a speech, groaned, broke in the railings, and actually hauled down the Transvaal flag and trampled it under foot to the strains of "Rule Britannia." There was a similar scene in 1894 at the time of the Commandeering Incident, when men who were denied with contempt every other right of citizenship were favoured with a requisition to go to the front and fight for the Republic in one of its native wars. Let Lord Loch (then Sir 12 THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN CRISIS Henry and High Commissioner) tell the story in his own words : "On my arrival at Pretoria I was met at the station by President Kruger, accompanied by many of his Executive. There was a great crowd at the station, and it was with the greatest difficulty that President Kruger was enabled to have the way cleared for himself and myself going to his carriage. The crowd was a very excited crowd. They removed the President's coachman from the box and took out his horses. Two men clambered on the box with Union Jacks, and in this way we were conducted to Pretoria, a distance of from a quarter to half a mile. On our arrival at the hotel where rooms had been prepared for me, there was a great crowd assembled in the streets wishing to present addresses. I reminded those who were anxious to present addresses to me that I was the guest of a friendly Power, and I refused to receive any address unless proper consideration was paid to the President, to his Government, and to the people of the South African Republic. There was much excitement at Johannesburg at this period." There was indeed. So much that Mr. Kruger personally wrote to Sir Henry begging him not to visit Johannesburg, “lest a collision should arise." "It would be very agreeable to me, personally, and would be regarded by my Government as an act of international friendship, if you would give up your intended journey to Johannesburg." Accordingly Sir Henry received a deputation at Pretoria instead, and the conversation took place in which the possibility of Johannesburg being driven to defend itself by arms was mooted. According to a recent sensational statement in the Temps, the High Commissioner incited the deputation to this course. That, of course, is from the home of canards. But on his own showing he found the prospect so likely that he found it necessary to dissuade them from it. To quote again his House of Lords statement: "To strengthen my position to the deputation I asked them what amount of arms they had at the time in Johannesburg. They told me they had a thousand rifles, and at the outside ten rounds of ammunition per rifle. I then pointed out to them, not as an encouragement to resist, but to show them what a futile measure it would be, if any action on their part brought about disturbances, and as a consequence an attack upon Johannesburg. I |