But it is a poor cause which cannot bear to fairly state and honestly consider the case of its opponents.  The Boers had made, as has been briefly shown, great efforts to establish a country of their own.  They had travelled far, worked hard, and fought bravely.  After all their efforts they were fated to see an influx of strangers into their country, some of them men of questionable character, who outnumbered the original inhabitants.  If the franchise were granted to these, there could be no doubt that though at first the Boers might control a majority of the votes, it was only a question of time before the newcomers would dominate the Raad and elect their own President, who might adopt a policy abhorrent to the original owners of the land.  Were the Boers to lose by the ballot-box the victory which they had won by their rifles?  Was it fair to expect it?  These newcomers came for gold.  They got their gold.  Their companies paid a hundred per cent.  Was not that enough to satisfy them?  If they did not like the country why did they not leave it?  No one compelled them to stay there.  But if they stayed, let them be thankful that they were tolerated at all, and not presume to interfere with the laws of those by whose courtesy they were allowed to enter the country.

That is a fair statement of the Boer position, and at first sight an impartial man might say that there was a good deal to say for it; but a closer examination would show that, though it might be tenable in theory, it is unjust and impossible in practice.

In the present crowded state of the world a policy of Thibet may be carried out in some obscure corner, but it cannot be done in a great tract of country which lies right across the main line of industrial progress.  The position is too absolutely artificial.  A handful of people by the right of conquest take possession of an enormous country over which they are dotted at such intervals that it is their boast that one farmhouse cannot see the smoke of another, and yet, though their numbers are so disproportionate to the area which they cover, they refuse to admit any other people upon equal terms, but claim to be a privileged class who shall dominate the newcomers completely.  They are outnumbered in their own land by immigrants who are far more highly educated and progressive, and yet they hold them down in a way which exists nowhere else upon earth.  What is their right?  The right of conquest.  Then the same right may be justly invoked to reverse so intolerable a situation.  This they would themselves acknowledge.  ‘Come on and fight!  Come on!’ cried a member of the Volksraad when the franchise petition of the Uitlanders was presented.  ’Protest!  Protest!  What is the good of protesting?’ said Kruger to Mr. W. Y. Campbell; ‘you have not got the guns, I have.’  There was always the final court of appeal.  Judge Creusot and Judge Mauser were always behind the President.