within a government, and was so denounced by the President himself.  But the report of the Volksraad Committee contained one supreme stroke of humour.  It adopted the recommendations of the Industrial Commission to remit the duties upon certain articles of consumption so as to make living cheaper, but as a condition it stipulated that in order that the State revenue should not suffer, the duty upon other articles of consumption should be increased so as to rather more than counterbalance the loss.  That was one result which the Uitlanders had in the beginning confidently expected:  Something for nothing.  But the other result upon which they had also calculated was a valuable one.  They had put their case on record and for the future the task of justifying the Uitlanders’ cause was to be reduced to the formality of pointing to the Industrial Commission’s report.

The third event of importance, and an event of much greater importance than has generally been recognised, was the Queen’s Record Reign celebration in Johannesburg.  ‘Britons, hold up your heads !’ was the watchword with which the late Mr. W. Y. Campbell started to organize what he eventually carried out as the biggest and most enthusiastic demonstration ever made in the country.  No more unselfish and loyal subject of her Majesty ever set foot in South Africa than Mr. Campbell, whose organization and example to ’Rand Britons,’ as he called them, did more to hearten up British subjects in the Transvaal than has ever been fully realized or properly acknowledged.  The celebration was an immense success in itself, and besides restoring the hopes and spirits of British subjects it promoted generally a better feeling and a disposition to forget past differences.

One of the consequences of the Raid and Reform had been a split in the Chamber of Mines caused by the secession of a minority who held views strongly opposed to those of the Reform party.  It has always been the policy of the Government to endeavour to divide the Rand community.  This is no vague general charge:  many instances can be given extending over a number of years.  The accidental revelations in a police court showed that in 1891 the Government were supporting from the Secret Service Funds certain individuals with the object of arranging labour unions to coerce employers upon various points.  The movement was a hopeless failure because the working men declined to have anything to do with the so-called leaders.  When the split took place in the Chamber of Mines, it became the business of Dr. Leyds and the President to keep the rift open.  This was done persistently and in a very open manner—­the seceders being informed upon several occasions that a fusion of the two Chambers would not be welcome to the Government.  Both before and since that time the same policy has found expression in the misleading statement made on behalf of the Government upon the compound question (namely, that the companies were aiming at compounding all the natives and monopolizing