population consists of
what remains of these 35,000 souls and their natural increase during
eighteen years. There are other Dutch immigrants from the Cape
Colony and Free State: these are aliens, who have the invaluable
qualification of hating England and her sons and her ways and
her works; but, as will be made clear when the Franchise Law is
explained, the present Boer electorate consists-or, without fraud or
favouritism, _should_ consist-of the 'possible 8,000' and their
sons.

Many a champion of liberty has lived to earn the stigma of tyrant,
and the Boers who in 1835 had trekked for liberty and freedom from
oppressive rule, and who had fought for it in 1880, began now
themselves to put in force the principles which they had so stoutly
resisted. In the Volksraad Session of 1882 the first of the measures
of exclusion was passed. The Franchise, which until then-in
accordance with Law No. 1 of 1876-had been granted to anyone holding
property or residing in the State, or, failing the property
qualification, to anyone who had qualified by one year's residence,
was now altered, and Law No. 7 of 1882 was passed which provided that
aliens could become naturalized and enfranchised after five years'
residence, thus attaining the status of the oldest Voortrekker. The
feeling was now very strong against the Annexation Party, as they had
been called, that is to say, the men who had had the courage of their
convictions, and had openly advocated annexation; and as usual the
bitterest persecutors and vilifiers were found in the ranks of those
who, having secretly supported them before, had become suspect, and
had now need to prove their loyalty by their zeal. The intention was
avowed to keep the party pure and undiluted, as it was maintained
by many of the Boers that former proselytes had used their
newly-acquired privileges to vote away the independence of the
country. The view was not unnatural under the circumstances, and this
measure, had it not been a violation of pledges, might have found
defenders among impartial persons; but unfortunately it proved to
be not so much a stringently defensive measure which time and
circumstances might induce them to modify, as the first step in a
policy of absolute and perpetual exclusion. It was the first
deliberate violation of the spirit of the settlement, and, although
there is no clause in the Pretoria Convention which it can be said
to contravene, it was, as Mr. Chamberlain has since s