the best hope is that some enlightened and tactful
statesman may, by disarming the suspicions and allaying the jealousies I
have described, succeed in uniting the existing colleges, and add to
their scanty revenues an adequate Government grant. This may possibly be
effected. But the jealousies and ambitions which those who control an
institution feel for it are often quite as tenacious as is the
selfishness of men where their own pockets are concerned; and since
these jealousies disguise themselves under a cloak of disinterestedness,
it is all the more hard to overcome them by the pressure of public
opinion.

One other intellectual force remains to be mentioned--that of the
churches. In the two British Colonies no religious body receives special
State recognition or any grants from the State.[74] All are on an equal
footing, just as in Australia and in North America. In the two Boer
Republics the Dutch Reformed Church is in a certain sense the State
church. In the Transvaal it is recognized as such by the Grondwet
("Fundamental Law"), and receives a Government subvention. In that
Republic members of other churches were at one time excluded from the
suffrage and from all public offices, and even now Roman Catholics are
under some disability. In the Orange Free State the Dutch Reformed
Church receives public aid, but I think this is given, to a smaller
extent, to some other denominations also, and no legal inequalities
based on religion exist. In these two Republics nearly the whole of the
Boer population, and in the Free State a part even of the English
population, belong to the Dutch Reformed communion, which is
Presbyterian in government and Calvinistic in theology. In the British
Colonies the Protestant Episcopal Church (Church of England) comes next
after the Dutch Reformed, which is much the strongest denomination; but
the Wesleyans are also an important body; and there are, of course, also
Congregational and Baptist churches. The Presbyterians seem to be less
numerous (in proportion to the population) than in Canada or Australia,
not merely because the Scottish element is less numerous, but also
because many of the Scottish settlers joined the Dutch Reformed Church
as being akin to their own in polity and doctrine. The comparative
paucity of Roman Catholics is due to the paucity of Irish
immigrants.[75] These bodies live in perfect harmony and good feeling
one with another, all frankly accepting the principle of e