His great object was to bring about a reconciliation between the two great political parties in the Colony--the South African League, with Rhodes as President, and the Afrikander Bond, headed by Messrs.

Hofmeyr (the one most in popular favour with the Boer farmers), Sauer and Schreiner.
In the gigantic task of welding together two materials which possessed little affinity and no love for each other, Sir Alfred was unable to be guided by his experience in the Motherland.

In England a certain constitutional policy was the basis of every party.

At the Cape the dominating factors were personal feelings, personal hatreds and affections, while in the case of the League it was money and money alone.
I do not mean that every member of the League had been bought by De Beers or the Chartered Company; but what I do maintain is that the majority of its members had some financial or material reason to enrol themselves.
In judging the politics of South Africa at the period of which I am writing, one must not forget that the greater number of those who then constituted the so-called Progressive party were men who had travelled to the Cape through love of adventure and the desire to enrich themselves quickly.

It was only the first comers who had seen their hopes realised.
Those who came after them found things far more difficult, and had perforce to make the best of what their predecessors left.