nment, which has so often been brought up against him, it was
after all no more than his due after five years of arduous work. If the
Republic had continued to exist, it is to be presumed that they would
have made some provision for their old President, more especially as
he seems to have exhausted his private means in paying the debts of
the country. Whatever may be said of some of the other officials of the
Republic, its President was, I believe, an honest man.

In 1875, Mr. Burgers proceeded to Europe, having, he says in a
posthumous document recently published, been empowered by the Volksraad
"to carry out my plans for the development of the country, by opening up
a direct communication for it, free from the trammels of British ports
and influence." According to this document, during his absence, two
powerful parties, viz., "the faction of unprincipled fortune-hunters,
rascals, and runaways on the one hand, and the faction of the extreme
orthodox party in a certain branch of the Dutch Reform Church on the
other, began to co-operate against the Government of the Republic and
me personally. . . . . . Ill as I was, and contrary to the advice of my
medical men, I proceeded to Europe, in the beginning of 1875, to carry
out my project, and no sooner was my back turned on the Transvaal, than
the conspiring elements began to act. The new coat of arms and flag
adopted in the Raad by an almost unanimous vote were abolished. The laws
for a free and secular education were tampered with, and my resistance
to a reckless inspection and disposal of Government lands, still
occupied by natives, was openly defied. The Raad, filled up to a large
extent with men of ill repute, who, under the cloak of progress and
favour to the Government view, obtained their seats, was too weak to
cope with the skill of the conspirators, and granted leave to the acting
President to carry out measures diametrically opposed to my policy.
_Native lands_ were inspected and given out to a few speculators, who
held large numbers of claims to lands which were destined for citizens,
and so a war was prepared for me, on my return from Europe, which I
could not avert." This extract is interesting, as showing the state of
feeling existing between the President and his officers previous to the
outbreak of the Secocoeni war. It also shows how entirely he was out of
sympathy with the citizens, seeing that as soon as his back was turned,
they, with Mr. Joubert and Paul