e that way, but it lies
in the opinion and advice of an Afrikander--to be found in Sir H. de
Villiers' letters--he being the Speaker of the House in Cape Colony,
Chief Justice, and one of the leaders of the Afrikander party. Sir
Henry de Villiers has been often taken to task for being a partisan of
the Boers, he cannot, therefore, be suspected of biassed ideas in favour
of Great Britain. Some extracts of the letters he wrote to President
Steyn on the 21st of May to Mr. Fischer and to his brother Mr. Melius de
Villiers on the 31st of July, then on the 28th September, twelve days
before the ultimatum was sent by Mr. Krueger, show to what extent he
appreciated the latter's policy. His opinion carries all the more weight
as he was one of the delegates to negotiate the 1881 Convention.

On the 21st of May, he says:

"I am quite certain that if in 1881 it had been known to my fellow
Commissioners that the President would adopt his retrogressive
policy, neither President Brand nor I would ever have induced them
to consent to sign the Convention. They would have advised the
Secretary of State to let matters revert to the condition in which
they were before peace was concluded; in other words, to recommence
the war."

Here are his views on the actual situation:

"On my recent visit to Pretoria I did not visit the President as I
considered it hopeless to think of making any impression on him,
but I saw Reitz, Smuts and Schalk Burger, who, I thought, would be
amenable to argument, but I fear that either my advice had no
effect on them, or else their opinion had no weight with the
President.

"I urged upon them to advise the President to open the Volksraad
with promises of a liberal franchise and drastic reforms.

"It would have been so much better if these had come voluntarily
from the Government instead of being gradually forced from them. In
the former case they would rally the greater number of the
malcontents around them, in the latter case no gratitude will be
felt to the Republic for any concessions made by it. Besides, there
can be no doubt that as the alien population increases, as it
undoubtedly will, their demands will increase with their
discontent, and ultimately a great deal more will have to be
conceded than will now satisfy them. The franchise proposals made
by the President seems to be