all the trade of the Rand), a statement made to divide the mercantile from the mining community.  The fostering of the liquor industry with its thousands of disreputable hangers-on is another example; the anti-capitalist campaign carried on by the Government press another.  And the most flagrant of all of course is the incitement to race hatred. Divide et impera, is a principle which they apply with unfailing regularity whether in their relations with other countries, in the government of their own State, or in their dealings with private individuals.  Happily for the Rand community the effort to settle their internal differences was successful; towards the end of 1897 the fusion of the two mining chambers took place, and the unanimity thus restored has not since been disturbed.

By this time even the most enthusiastic and sanguine friends of the Government had to some extent realized the meaning of the ’something for nothing’ policy.  They began to take count of all that they had done to please Mr. Kruger, and were endeavouring to find out what they had got in return.  The result, as they were disposed to admit, was that for all the good it had done them they might as well have had the satisfaction of speaking their minds frankly as the others had done.  The Raad’s treatment of the Industrial Commission report had estranged all those who had taken part in the deliberations of the Commission, and as Mr. Kruger had been careful to select only those whom he believed to be friendly to him he suffered more in the recoil than he would otherwise have done.  He fell into the pit which he had himself dug.

Mr. Kruger was fast losing his friends, and another affair which occurred about this time helped to open the eyes of those who still wished to view him in a favourable light.  Mr. Chamberlain in the course of some remarks had stated that the President had failed to fulfil the promises which he had made at the time of the Raid.  His Honour took an early opportunity to denounce Mr. Chamberlain to Mr. J. B. Robinson and the manager of the then Government newspaper in Pretoria.  ‘I would like Mr. Chamberlain to quote,’ he said, ’any instances of my failure to keep my promises, and I will know how to answer him.’  The challenge was published and Mr. Chamberlain promptly cabled instructions to the British Agent to ask President Kruger whether he had said this and if so whether he really did desire a statement by Mr. Chamberlain of the character indicated.  Mr. Kruger took his own peculiar way out of the dilemma; he repudiated the intermediaries, denounced the statement as untrue, and said that he was not in the habit of conveying his requests through irresponsible nobodies.  The result was the immediate resignation of the newspaper man and final rupture between the President and Mr. Robinson.  Thus were two more thick-and-thin supporters cast off at convenience and without an instant’s hesitation, and thus were provided two more witnesses to the ‘something for nothing’ policy.  This incident was the immediate cause of the fusion of the Chambers.