house. He said as much, and pointed out that were he to do so there
would be no alternative but to haul down his flag. This being the
case, there was no resource but to transform the so-called free
Republic into an absolute oligarchy. Much has been said of the
"Russian despot," but this century can present no more complete
spectacle of despotism than that of Mr. Kruger. The Emperor of
Russia, autocrat as he is, is guided by the traditions of his empire
and the machinations of his ministers, but Mr. Kruger has allowed
himself to be reasoned with and influenced by none, and his word has
been in reality the only form of law or justice on which the
Uitlanders have had to rely. Such system of government as there was
was corrupt. Smuggling flourished under the very eye of the
officials, and the Field Cornets, whose business it was to act as
petty justices, collect taxes, and register arrivals of new-comers,
kept their books in a manner more in accord with their personal
convenience than with accuracy. Hence, when it came to the question
of the naturalisation of the Uitlanders, the books which should have
recorded their registration were either withheld or missing.
Settlers in the Transvaal between the years 1882 and 1890, owing to
this irregularity, were debarred from proving their registration as
the law required. Speaking of this period, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in "The
Transvaal from Within," says:--

"In the country districts justice was not a commodity intended for
the Britisher. Many cases of gross abuse, and several of actual
murder occurred, and in 1885 the case of Mr. Jas. Donaldson, then
residing on a farm in Lydenburg--lately one of the Reform
prisoners--was mentioned in the House of Commons, and became the
subject of a demand by the Imperial Government for reparation and
punishment. He had been ordered by two Boers (one of whom was in the
habit of boasting that he had shot an unarmed Englishman in
Lydenburg since the war, and would shoot others) to abstain from
collecting hut taxes on his own farm; and on refusing had been
attacked by them. After beating them off single-handed, he was later
on again attacked by his former assailants, reinforced by three
others. They bound him with reims (thongs), kicked and beat him with
sjamboks (raw-hide whips) and clubs, stoned him, and left him
unconscious and so disfigured that he was thought to be dead when
found some hours later. On receipt of the Imperial Government's
representa