before the real struggle began.  There are two stages in the Presidential election at which a fight can under certain circumstances be made.  There were certainly two stages in this election.  The first is at the polls; the second is in the Volksraad, when objections have to be lodged against candidates and a commission of investigation appointed, and the steps necessary for the installation of the new President have to be discussed.  Mr. Kruger and his party took ample precautions.  It has been stated openly and without contradiction, and is accepted in the Transvaal as an unquestionable fact, that at least three properly elected members of the Volksraad were ‘jockeyed’ out of their seats because they were known to have leanings towards General Joubert.  A number of his supporters among the prominent officials of the Civil Service were disfranchised by the action of President Kruger because they had favoured his rival.  In a country where the matters of Government have been so loosely conducted it is no doubt fairly easy to find flaws, and the President experienced no difficulty in establishing sufficient case against General Joubert’s supporters to satisfy the persons appointed by him to investigate matters.  On various pretexts newly-elected members were debarred from taking their seats.  In one case, a strong supporter of General Joubert, who was returned by a majority of something like six to one, was kept out of his seat by the mere lodging of an objection by his opponent, the former representative of the constituency; there being a provision in the law that objections with regard to elections shall be heard by the Volksraad, and that, pending the return of a new member, the member last elected for the constituency shall continue to represent it.  That the objection lodged in this case was ridiculous in the extreme had no bearing on the immediate result.  The President, with admirable gravity, said, ’The law provides that all objections must be heard by the Volksraad, and that pending the decision the old member (a strenuous supporter of his Honour) shall retain his seat; and before all things we must support the law.’  In the case of Mr. Esselen, who was elected member for Potchefstroom, the most flagrant abuses were proved to have been committed by the polling officer, the landdrost, dead and absent men having (according to him) rolled up freely to vote for the Krugerite candidate.  Numbers of Mr. Esselen’s supporters were disqualified on various pretexts, and the voting being conducted openly the moral suasion and close supervision of the official (Krugerite) party were very effective.  Mr. Esselen was declared to have lost his seat by seven votes.  Scrutinies were demanded and objections lodged, but without avail.  The tactics above indicated were pursued in every case.  The old Volksraad having been filled with Mr. Kruger’s creatures, it was, of course, his interest to support the return of old members.  He was thus enabled by the law above quoted to retain an old member in the Volksraad