“The radical fault is the utter incapacity of the body that affects to issue its mandates to the Courts.  In England it is a Parliament, but then it represents the intelligence of the country, and in Switzerland the same; in the Transvaal it is a narrow oligarchy.”

In a letter dated 1st January, 1899, President Krueger is depicted as follows: 

“I had the opportunity the other day of a long talk, or rather several talks, with Lippert about the Transvaal.  He takes a very sane view of matters there, and is very hopeless.  He represents Krueger—­as others describe him—­as more dogged and bigoted than ever, and surrounded by a crew of self-seekers who prevent him from seeing straight.  He has no one to whom he turns for advice, and he is so inflated as to have the crazy belief that he (Krueger) is born to bring about peace between Germany and France!”

Mr. Merriman is confident that the Orange Free State will interfere (Mr. Steyn was alas, so blind as to fall in with Mr. Krueger’s temper instead of smoothing it down), and says: 

     “Is there no opportunity of bringing about a rapprochement
     between us, in which the Free State might play the part of honest
     broker?”

“Us” here means Cape Colony and Orange Free State.

Having spoken of matters of general interest for South Africa, of uniform custom duties, etc., he ends by saying: 

“The deplorable confusion and maladministration of his financial arrangements still continue, and are a standing menace to the peace of South Africa.  Yet, judging from the utterances of the leading men from the Rand who come down here, a very moderate reform would satisfy all except those who do not want to be satisfied, and, I believe, there is very little sympathy for the mischievous agitation that, rightly or wrongly, is attributed to the designs of Rhodes and Beit.”

On the 26th of May, 1899, on the eve of the Bloemfontein Conference, he writes to Mr. Fischer, prompter and organiser of the Conference, foreseeing the results of the policy advocated by Dr. Leyds: 

" ... but there is, of course, an even worse prospect, namely, that misrepresentation may goad Great Britain into a position where, with the concurrence and invitation of the other powers, she might feel obliged, even at the risk of enormous military outlay, to cut the Gordian knot.  You will probably say, as I certainly say, ‘where is the casus belli,’ and refuse to believe it possible to imagine such a contingency.  Unfortunately, you and I, who keep our heads, must not ignore the fact that an immense number of people seem to have lost theirs and are ready, without reflection or examination, to accept the highly-coloured statements of a partisan press.”

He mentions the maladministration in the Transvaal several months before he had written to Mr. Smuts, asking for detailed account of the money granted by the Boer Government to Johannesburg but without getting an answer.