Of late
years had crept in an element of treachery and disloyalty, emanating
from their jealousy of the English, which by degrees was bound to
permeate the whole country, spreading southward to Cape Colony itself,
till the idea of "Africa for the Dutch, and the English in the sea,"
would have been a war-cry that might have dazzled hundreds of to-day's
so-called loyal colonists. He even asserted that those at the head of
affairs in England had shown great perspicacity and a clear insight into
the future. If at the Bloemfontein Conference, or after, Kruger had
given the five years' franchise, and the dispute had been patched up for
the moment, it would have been the greatest misfortune that could have
happened. The intriguing in the colony, the reckless expenditure of the
Transvaal Secret Service money, the bribery and corruption of the most
corrupt Government of modern times, would have gone on as before, and
things would soon have been as bad as ever. Mr. Keeley was positive that
it was jealousy that had engendered this race hatred one heard so much
about; even the well-to-do Dutch knew the English were superior to them
in knowledge and enterprise. At the same time any English invention was
looked upon with awe and interest; they were wont to copy us in many
respects, and if a Dutch girl had the chance of marrying an Englishman,
old or young, poor or rich, she did not wait to be asked a second time.
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