took
place in the Chamber of Mines, it became the business of Dr. Leyds
and the President to keep the rift open. This was done persistently
and in a very open manner--the seceders being informed upon several
occasions that a fusion of the two Chambers would not be welcome to
the Government. Both before and since that time the same policy has
found expression in the misleading statement made on behalf of the
Government upon the compound question (namely, that the companies
were aiming at compounding all the natives and monopolizing all
the trade of the Rand), a statement made to divide the mercantile
from the mining community. The fostering of the liquor industry with
its thousands of disreputable hangers-on is another example; the
anti-capitalist campaign carried on by the Government press another.
And the most flagrant of all of course is the incitement to race
hatred. _Divide et impera_, is a principle which they apply with
unfailing regularity whether in their relations with other countries,
in the government of their own State, or in their dealings with
private individuals. Happily for the Rand community the effort to
settle their internal differences was successful; towards the end of
1897 the fusion of the two mining chambers took place, and the
unanimity thus restored has not since been disturbed.

By this time even the most enthusiastic and sanguine friends of the
Government had to some extent realized the meaning of the 'something
for nothing' policy. They began to take count of all that they had
done to please Mr. Kruger, and were endeavouring to find out what
they had got in return. The result, as they were disposed to admit,
was that for all the good it had done them they might as well have
had the satisfaction of speaking their minds frankly as the others
had done. The Raad's treatment of the Industrial Commission report
had estranged all those who had taken part in the deliberations of
the Commission, and as Mr. Kruger had been careful to select only
those whom he believed to be friendly to him he suffered more in the
recoil than he would otherwise have done. He fell into the pit which
he had himself dug.

Mr. Kruger was fast losing his friends, and another affair which
occurred about this time helped to open the eyes of those who still
wished to view him in a favourable light. Mr. Chamberlain in the
course of some remarks had stated that the President had failed to
fulfil the promises which he had mad