disposition to draw
closer to the threatened sister Republic showed itself at once. This
led to the conclusion of a defensive alliance between the Free State and
the Transvaal, whereby either bound itself to defend the other, if
unjustly attacked. (The Transvaal is believed to have suggested, and the
Free State to have refused, a still closer union.) As the Orange Free
State had no reason to fear an attack, just or unjust, from any quarter,
this was a voluntary undertaking on its part, with no corresponding
advantage, of what might prove a dangerous liability, and it furnishes a
signal proof of the love of independence which animates this little
community.

We come now to the Transvaal itself. In that State the burgher party of
constitutional reform was at once silenced, and its prospect of
usefulness blighted. So, too, the Uitlander agitation was extinguished.
The Reform leaders were in prison or in exile. The passionate
anti-English feeling, and the dogged refusal to consider reforms, which
had characterized the extreme party among the Boers, were intensified.
The influence of President Kruger, more than once threatened in the
years immediately preceding, was immensely strengthened.

The President and his advisers had a golden opportunity before them of
using the credit and power which the failure of the Rising and the
Expedition of 1895 had given them. They ought to have seen that
magnanimity would also be wisdom. They ought to have set about a reform
of the administration and to have proposed a moderate enlargement of the
franchise such as would have admitted enough of the new settlers to give
them a voice, yet not enough to involve any sudden transfer of
legislative or executive power. Whether the sentiment of the Boers
generally would have enabled the President to extend the franchise may
be doubtful; but he could at any rate have tried to deal with the more
flagrant abuses of administration. However, he attempted neither. The
abuses remained, and though a Commission reported on some of them, and
suggested important reforms, no action was taken. The weak point of the
Constitution (as to which see p. 152) was the power which the
legislature apparently possessed of interfering with vested rights, and
even with pending suits, by a resolution having the force of law. This
was a defect due, not to any desire to do wrong, but to the inexperience
of those who had originally framed the Constitution, and to the want of