ion as regards the Orange River
Colony being a less urgent one, it appears to them that there will be
advantage in allowing a short period to intervene before elective
representative institutions are granted to the last-named Colony,
because this will permit His Majesty's Government to observe the
experiment, and, if need be, to profit by the experience so gained."

What is the train of reasoning in this strange specimen of political
argument? It was important to "ascertain the views" of the bi-racial
Transvaal, but needless to ascertain the views of the practically
homogeneous Orange River Colony. The "question" there is a "less urgent
one." What question? Why less urgent? Is it that the British minority,
being so very small, is more liable to oppression by the Dutch? That is
a tenable point, though by parity of reasoning it would seem to make the
question more, not less, urgent, and the importance of "ascertaining the
views" of the different sections of the population, greater, not less.
Or is it the diametrically opposite train of thought, namely, that an
assumed improbability of disorder owing to the homogeneity of the
population is a reason, not for giving Home Rule, but for withholding
it? These contradictions and confusions are painfully familiar in
anti-Home Rule dialectics all over the world. A quiet Ireland does not
want Home Rule; a turbulent Ireland is not fit for it. If the Unionist
element in Ireland is strong, that is clearly an argument for
withholding Home Rule in deference to the wishes of a strong minority.
If the minority, on the other hand, is proved to be small, all the
greater reason for withholding it, because oppression by the majority
will be easier. So the sterile argument swings back and forth, and men
still talk of "experiments" and "profiting by experience," while the
demonstration of their errors is written in the blood and tears of
centuries, and while masses of facts accumulate, demonstrating the great
truth that free democratic government, whatever its disadvantages and
dangers--and it has both--is the best resource for uniting,
strengthening, and enriching a community of white men.

The Transvaal Constitution of 1905 was cancelled on the incoming of the
Liberal Ministry at the end of that year, and in the following year full
responsible government was granted both to the Transvaal and Orange
River Colony, with the results that we know. Instantaneously there
permeated the bi-racial urb