The state of the Boer Government at that
time added to the President's difficulties. He was hampered by the
narrowest--minded Volksraad (Parliament) imaginable, who resented tooth
and nail even the most necessary concessions to the Uitlanders; he was
surrounded by corrupt officials, most of whom were said to be implicated
in the late rebellion; he was the head of a community which was known to
be split up into several sections, owing to acute religious disputes;
and yet he contrived, at seventy-one years of age, to outwit the 60,000
Uitlanders at Johannesburg, and to present his rotten republic as a
model of all that was excellent and high-minded to the world at large.
At the same time he compelled his burghers to forget their own
differences, as they hurled defiance at the common foe. It seems to be a
truism that it requires a Boer to rule a Boer; and in some ways the
mantle of President Kruger would appear to have descended in our days
upon General Louis Botha. According to all accounts, his will is now law
to the ignorant back Veldt Boers, although his guiding principles savour
more of the big stick than of the spoon-feeding system. Undoubtedly
loyal to England, he bids fair in the future to help found a nation,
based upon the union of British and Boer, inheriting their traditions,
cultivating their ideals, and pursuing their common ends.
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