Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/618

 194 STATE PAPEES— TBANSVAAL. [1899.

which the present Chief Justice said that no self-respecting man could sit on the bench while it was on the Statute-book. Formerly the foreign population, however bitterly they might resent the action of the Legislature and of the Administration, had yet confidence in the High Court of Judicature. It cannot be expeeted that they should feel the same confidence to-day. Seeing no hope in any other quarter, a num- ber of Outlanders who happen to be British subjects have addressed a petition to her Majesty the Queen. I have already expressed my opinion of its substantial genuineness and the absolute bona fides of its promoters. But the petition is only one proof among many of the profound discontent of the unenfranchised population, who are a great majority of the white inhabitants of the State.

The public meeting of January 14 was indeed broken up by work- men, many of them poor burghers, in the employment of the Govern- ment and instigated by Government officials, and it is impossible at present to hold another meeting of a great size. Open-air meetings are prohibited by law, and by one means or another all large public buildings have been rendered unavailable. But smaller meetings are being held almost nightly along the Rand, and are unanimous in their demand for enfranchisement. The movement is steadily growing in force and extent.

With regard to the attempts to represent that movement as artificial — the work of scheming capitalists or professional agitators — I regard it as a wilful perversion of the truth. The defenceless people who are clamouring for a redress of grievances are doing so at great personal risk. It is notorious that many capitalists regard political agitation with disfavour because of its effect on markets. It is equally notorious that the lowest class of Outlanders, and especially the illicit liquor dealers, have no sympathy whatever with the cause of reform. More- over, there are in all classes a considerable number who only want to make money and clear out ; and who, while possibly sympathising with reform, feel no great interest in a matter which may only concern them temporarily. But a very large and constantly-increasing proportion of the Outlanders are not birds of passage; they contemplate a long residence in the country or to make it their permanent home. These people are the mainstay of the reform movement as they are of the prosperity of the country. They would make excellent citizens if they had the chance.

A busy industrial community is not naturally prone to political unrest. But they bear the chief burden of taxation ; they constantly feel in their business and daily lives the effects of chaotic local legisla- tion and of incompetent and unsympathetic administration ; they have many grievances, but they believe all this could be gradually removed if they had only a fair share of political power. This is the meaning of their vehement demand for enfranchisement. Moreover, they are mostly British subjects, accustomed to a free system and equal rights; they feel deeply the personal indignity involved in position of permanent subjection to the ruling caste which owes its wealth and power to their exertion. The political turmoil in the Transvaal Republic will never end till the permanent Outlander population is