ened before and we have
always profited. That will be our time to drive them out.'

It would be very unjust to some of the most prominent men on the
Dutch side in Cape Colony to leave the slenderest grounds for the
inference that they are to be associated with the extreme and
actively disloyal aim. All that it is intended to do is to indicate
the fine gradations in arguments by which a number are drawn
together--under a leadership which they do not realize, and going
they know not where! The strongest of these arguments and appeals are
particularly popular with the younger generation of Dutch South
Africans who entertain a visionary scheme of independence suggested
by the history of the United States. But there is something more
serious in it than this, as may be deduced from the fact that in
December, 1896, the writer was approached by Mr. D.P. Graaff,
formerly a prominent member of the Cape Legislative Council and now
as always a prominent Afrikander Bondsman, with the suggestion that
all the South African born should combine in the effort to create the
United States of South Africa, 'upon friendly terms with England, but
confining the direct Imperial right in South Africa to a naval
base at Simonstown and possibly a position in Natal.' This
concession--from South Africa to England--would not, it was argued,
involve disadvantage to the former, because for a considerable time
it would be necessary to preserve friendly relations with England and
to have the protection of her fleet for the coast.

It is of course quite easy to attach too much importance to the
opinions of individual politicians of this class, who are as a rule
merely shouters with the biggest crowd; but the prominent association
of such an apostle of republicanism with the Bond, and the fact that
he should have gone so far with a Reformer of known strong British
sympathies seem to warrant the attaching of some importance to the
suggestion.{43} A similar suggestion was made to several of the
Reformers at the time of the judicial crisis by one of the judges of
the Transvaal High Court, when it was hoped to enlist the sympathies
of the Uitlanders with a movement to curtail President Kruger's power
and to establish republicanism on a firmer basis in South Africa. In
order to forestall an obvious comment, it may be said that discussion
was in both cases declined on the ground that it would be
participating in politics in the sense forbidden by President
Kr