tions are not like the laws of the Medes and the
Persians. They are mortal, they can be destroyed ... and once destroyed
they can never be reconstructed in the same shape.' The long-enduring
patience of Great Britain was beginning to show signs of giving way.

Pressure was in the meanwhile being put upon the old President and upon
his advisers, if he can be said ever to have had any advisers, in order
to induce him to accept the British offer of a joint committee of
inquiry. Sir Henry de Villiers, representing the highest Africander
opinion of the Cape, wrote strongly pleading the cause of peace, and
urging Mr. Fischer of the Free State to endeavour to give a more
friendly tone to the negotiations. 'Try to induce President Kruger to
meet Mr. Chamberlain in a friendly way, and remove all the causes of
unrest which have disturbed this unhappy country for so many years.'
Similar advice came from Europe. The Dutch minister telegraphed as
follows:

'_August 4, 1899._--Communicate confidentially to the President that,
having heard from the Transvaal Minister the English proposal of the
International Commission, I recommend the President, in the interest of
the country, not peremptorily to refuse that proposition.'

'_August 15, 1899._--Please communicate confidentially to the President
that the German Government entirely shares my opinion expressed in my
despatch of August 4, not to refuse the English proposal. The German
Government is, like myself, convinced that every approach to one of the
Great Powers in this very critical moment will be without any results
whatever, and very dangerous for the Republic.'

But neither his Africander brothers nor his friends abroad could turn
the old man one inch from the road upon which he had set his foot. The
fact is, that he knew well that his franchise proposals would not bear
examination; that, in the words of an eminent lawyer, they 'might as
well have been seventy years as seven,' so complicated and impossible
were the conditions. For a long time he was silent, and when he at last
spoke it was to open a new phase of the negotiations. His ammunition was
not all to hand yet, his rifles had not all been distributed, the grass
had not appeared upon the veldt. The game must be kept going for a
couple of months. 'You are such past-masters in the art of gaining
time!' said Mr. Labouchere to Mr. Montague White. The President
proceeded to prove it.

His new suggestions were put forward