side
interference. He knows full well that he has sent his representative
to Parliament, and he leaves that member severely alone. Sometimes the
member calls a public meeting of his own accord, and the Boer attends
that meeting, not because he is anxious to bring forward any matter
affecting the welfare of his country or district, nor because the
member has failed to satisfy him, but merely because he is desirous of
meeting his fellow-men and discussing crops and Kaffirs and oxen and
sheep and wool--in short, anything outside of politics, in which he
professes no interest whatever. He is not interested in general
measures for the benefit of the whole country; his attention is fully
occupied with the affairs of his own particular piece of land, and so
long as he himself prospers, he does not trouble about the prosperity
or otherwise of his neighbours.

Oom Paul is the leading light, and should he elect to do this or that,
he need exercise no discretion concerning the probable feeling of the
country. He is the man at the wheel, and the crew have such implicit
faith in him that he can practically steer where he wills. He may
sometimes experience a little opposition in the House, but he is
long-headed as well as hard-headed, and he invariably holds the trump
card. He is not a Boer in the ordinary sense of the word; he is only a
Boer in the sense that he smokes hard and prefers coffee. He lives in
a very ordinary dwelling-house, and it is even stated that his vrouw
starches and irons his dress-shirts, but this may only be surmise. At
all events he does not allow these trifles to worry him, his renowned
diplomacy being directed chiefly to the management of his cosmopolitan
children, who are apt occasionally to wax troublesome and exceed the
bounds of caution.

[Illustration: PRESIDENT KRUGER'S HOUSE.]

When a Government assumes a more or less aggressive attitude, or
something tantamount, it is safe to predict that such a Government
will encounter difficulties. It may be a good Government; but it will
not be a successful one. The actions of any Government reflect upon
the country, adversely or otherwise. In a country like the Transvaal,
the Government is a weighty concern which does not so much consider
the voice of the people as the preservation of its own individual
sanctity. The presidential chair represents the universal criterion
either for good or for evil, although it is not usually associated
with evil. It practise