by train amid the jeers of their
comrades.

These three sections of Uitlanders constituted a numerical majority not
merely of the dwellers on the Rand, but of the whole white population of
the country.[83] There are about 65,000 Boers, all told, and about
24,000 male citizens over the age of sixteen. The English-speaking
Uitlanders numbered nearly 100,000, of whom fully one-half were adult
males. Seven-eighths of these were gathered on the Rand. Had they been
armed and drilled and unanimous, they would have been irresistible. But
they were not unanimous, and were, moreover, not only unarmed but also
unorganized, being a crowd of persons suddenly gathered from the four
winds of heaven.

Over against the Uitlanders stood the native Boer population, among whom
we must distinguish two classes. The majority, consisting of the old
"true blues," who hated the British Government and clung to their
national ways, supported the Boer Government in its stubborn refusal to
grant reforms. The President in particular had repeatedly declared
himself against any concession, insisting that no concessions would
satisfy the disaffected. He looked upon the whole movement as a scheme
to destroy the independence of the country and hand it over to England.
Exercising by his constant harangues in the Volksraad, what has been
called a "dictatorship of persuasion", he warned the people that their
customs, their freedom, their religion, were at stake, and could be
saved only by keeping the newcomers out of power. He was confirmed in
this policy of resistance by the advice of his Hollander officials, and
especially of the State Secretary, an able and resolute man.

But the President, though powerful, was not omnipotent. There existed a
considerable party opposed to him, which had nearly overthrown him at
the last preceding presidential election. There was in the Volksraad a
liberal minority, which advocated reforms. There were among the country
Boers a number of moderate men who disliked the Hollander influence and
the maladministration of the Government, and one was told (though with
what truth I could not ascertain) that the trekking which went on out of
the Transvaal into Mashonaland and to the far north-west was partly due
to this discontent. There was also much opposition among the legal
profession, Dutch as well as English, for attacks had been made upon the
independence of the judiciary, and the reckless conduct of legislation
gave displ