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THE BASIS FOR SETTLEMENT. The Government had been rightly patient hitherto, but the present state of suffering could not be prolonged indefinitely.

The struggle of the Transvaal Government to exclude the Uitlanders from a share in the government of the country was like struggling to stem a flood with a few spadesful of sand. They might deplore the gold discovery and the enormously increased Uitlander population, but the gold was discovered and the population was there, and they had to deal with circumstances as they found them. The only basis upon which the Dutch and British in South Africa could live together in harmony was that of equal rights and equal privileges in whatever part of that country they might live. Men with the longest heads in South Africa prophesied that a great struggle was coming in the not far distant future in which it would be necessary for the Dutch and British to stand shoulder to shoulder as they had in times past. Let them hope sincerely that the present question might be settled before that time came. 255