uling and
dominant class, have hopelessly failed to master or comprehend the new
conditions with which they have been called upon to deal. They have not,
as a body, shown either capacity or desire to treat the new developments
with even a remote appreciation of their inherent value and inevitable
trend. The Boer has simply set his back against the floodgates,
apparently oblivious or indifferent to the fact that the hugely
accumulating forces behind must one day burst every barrier he may
choose to set up. That is the whole Transvaal situation in a sentence.

"It is necessary to point out, further, that this blind and dogged
determination on the part of the Boers to 'stop the clock' affects not
merely the Transvaal; it is vitally and perniciously affecting the whole
of South Africa. But for the obstructiveness and obscurantism of the
Transvaal Boers, the rate of progress and development which would
characterise the whole South African continent would be unparalleled in
the history of any other country. The reactionary policy of the
Transvaal is the one spoke in the wheel. It must therefore be removed in
the name of humanity and civilisation."

* * * * *

M. Elisee Reclus, the great Geographer, an able and admittedly impartial
Historian, wrote some years ago in his "Africa," Vol. 4, page 215:--

"The patriotic Boers of South Africa still dream of the day when the two
Republics of the Orange and the Transvaal, at first connected by a
common customs union, will be consolidated in a single 'African
Holland,' possibly even in a broader confederacy, comprising all the
Afrikanders from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambesi. The Boer
families, grouped in every town throughout South Africa, form,
collectively, a single nationality, despite the accident of political
frontiers. The question of the future union has already been frequently
discussed by the delegates of the two conterminous Republics. But,
unless these visions can be realized during the present generation, they
are foredoomed to failure. Owing to the unprogressive character of the
purely Boer communities and to the rapid expansion of the
English-speaking peoples by natural increase, by direct immigration, and
by the assimilation of the Boers themselves, the future 'South African
Dominion' can, in any case, never be an 'African Holland.' Whenever the
present political divisions are merged in one State, that State must
sooner or later c