restored our independence? And can that gracious Lord, if we only let
Him act, not also protect us against any wiles and dangers if such
should occur in the future? As yet none such have arisen. The Lord was
with us in our battles for liberty; He was equally present and prompted
the sense and conditions of that very convention of 1881, which the
people were subsequently dissatisfied with and in their own wisdom
sacrificed for that of 1884. It is just possible that that presumptuous
act of wanting to improve upon the Lord's work will result in trouble
and prove to our sorrow that we have simply tampered and tinkered with a
good thing and spoilt it to our hurt.

"'Thou shalt not provoke thy children to wrath lest they be discouraged
and be tempted to do evil,' applies specially also to the duties of
Governments. Our rulers need wisdom in this direction, and will be
responsible if our strangers are subjected to unfair laws. The older
people here will call to mind, when the old voortrekkers were obliged to
go hundreds of miles, as far as Pietermaritzburg, for their supplies,
that we prayed for shopkeepers in our land so that we might be spared
those long journeys. What was done soon after we had attracted strangers
to establish businesses with us? We were seduced to deliberately attempt
their ruin by starting those _nationale Boerenwinkels_ (national Boer
stores), supported by our own capital, but governed by Hollanders who
eventually squandered our money. Was that dealing fairly by confiding
strangers? Later on, again in response to our prayers, we got railways;
skilled men and much capital from foreign countries, first to prospect
for gold and then to develop and exploit the mines. Their labour and
hard-earned money were risked when the return was still problematic.
Shall we begrudge them their successes now, seeing that our whole land
is equally enriched at the same time, and but for them and their
enterprise the gold would still be lying uselessly hidden in the depths