conciliatory proceedings following upon the rehabilitation of the
Transvaal independence had utterly failed in advancing the object of
uniting the English and Boer races, and that instead the existing gulf
was ever widening through the spread of those fell Afrikaner Bond
doctrines, it had become imperative, on the part of British statesmen,
to employ special efforts to overcome the serious menace hanging over
South Africa. The critical situation designedly brought about by the
action of the Transvaal Government and by the influence of the Bond
party indicated the remedy. A liberal franchise in favour of the
Uitlanders would at one stroke correct that evil, and counteract the
other impending danger as well. With a large accession of legitimized
voters working in accord with England's desire for peace and progress,
that good influence would be potent, first to shackle Bond action and
ultimately to reduce it to Colonial limits. The Transvaal would then no
longer be the giant ally, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Afrikaner
Bond, and that organisation would then be checkmated into impotence for
evil.

The success of such a remedial and defensive measure would naturally
depend upon the adequacy of the franchise aimed at. Mr. Chamberlain and
his colleagues were not a little sanguine in expecting that a five
years' qualification for voting and a representation equal to one-fifth
of the total number of seats in the Legislature would be effective for
all that which was needed; nor could it be averred that the Transvaal
burghers would be swamped out thereby.

The Bond chiefs did not fail to at once penetrate the object when the
demand for a five years' franchise was made, and in vain did Sir Alfred
display that firm attitude and exhaust his arguments at the historic
Bloemfontein conference. He had pointed out to President Krüger in a