ut of the register, and, lastly, a suspension of
the Constitution, which would have allowed the Governor a "free" hand in
placing certain measures on the statute book. The most influential members
among the executive of the South African League met at Cotswold Chambers,
and Rhodes, who was present, drew up a petition which was to be presented
to the Prime Minister. Sir Gordon Sprigg, who filled that office, was a
man who, with all his defects, was absolutely incapable of lending himself
to any mean trick in order to remain in power. When Sir Gordon became
acquainted with the demands of the League he refused absolutely to take a
part in what he maintained would have been an everlasting blot on the
reputation of the Government.

After Rhodes' death, when the question of the suspension of the
Constitution was raised by the Progressives in the House of Assembly, it
was discussed in all its details, and it was proved that the South African
League, in trying throughout the country to obtain signatures to a monster
petition on the matter, had resorted to some more than singular means to
obtain these signatures. Mr. Sauer, who was the leader of the Bond party
in the Chamber, revealed how the League had employed agents to induce
women and sometimes young children to sign the petition, and that at the
camp near Sea Point, a suburb of Cape Town, where soldiers were stationed
previous to their departure for England, these same agents were engaged in
getting them to sign it before they left under the inducement of a fixed
salary up to a certain amount and a large percentage after it had been
exceeded, according to the number of the names obtained in this way. When
trustworthy people of unimpeachable character wrote to the papers
denouncing this manoeuvre the subsidised papers in Cape Town, and the
Rhodesian Press, refused to publish the affidavits sworn on the subject,
but wrote columns of calumnies about the Dutch Colonials, and, as a
finishing stroke, clamoured for the suspension of the Constitution.

The speech of Mr. Sauer gave rise to a heated debate, during which the
Progressive members indignantly denied his assertions. Then stepped in Mr.
David de Waal, that friend of Rhodes to whom I have already referred. He
rose to bring his testimony to the facts revealed by Mr. Sauer, who was
undoubtedly the most able leader which the Afrikander party possessed,
with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Merriman.

"In February, 1902," he sai