inexpensive magnanimity
which would gratify himself and be approved by everyone--except
the recipients--appointed the most prominent supporters of his rival
in the Volksraad to be the official deputation to welcome the new
President.

The President did not neglect those who had stood by him in his hour
of need. Mr. Kock, landdrost and polling-officer of Potchefstroom,
who had deserved well of his patron, if for nothing more than the
overthrow of Mr. Esselen, was appointed member of the Executive to
fill a position created purposely for him. The membership of the
Executive is expressly defined by the Grondwet; but his Honour is not
trammelled by such considerations. He created the position of Minute
Keeper to the Executive with a handsome salary and a right to vote,
and bestowed this upon his worthy henchman.

The Executive Council thus constituted consisted of six members; and
here again the President contrived to kill two birds with one stone,
the expression of his gratitude being by no means unprofitable. After
so bitter a struggle and the resort to such extreme measures as he
had been obliged to use, he anticipated no little opposition even
within the inner circle, and, in any case, he as usual deemed it wise
to provide against all contingencies. Dr. Leyds' vote he knew he
could count on, the interests of the party which the State Secretary
represents being such that they are obliged to work with Mr. Kruger.
The appointment, therefore, of Mr. Kock gave his Honour one half of
the Executive, and the casting-vote which pertains to his office
turned the scale in his favour. Whatever, therefore, might be his
troubles with the Volksraad when, by process of justice, reform, or
death his adherents should be gradually removed from that Chamber,
his position was, humanly speaking, assured in the Executive Council
for the term of his office.

The opposition to Mr. Kock's appointment was extremely strong,
culminating in the formulation of charges of theft against him by Mr.
Eugene Marais, the spirited editor of the leading Dutch paper, _Land
en Volk_. The charge alleged against Mr. Kock was that during his
term of office as landdrost at Potchefstroom he had appropriated the
telegraph-wires in order to fence his own farm. Feeling ran so high
ordinary courts was not permitted, but a Special Commissioner, one
not qualified by legal experience or official position to preside in
such a case, was selected. By a positively ludicro