I am quite sure that you have done what you can in modifying the attitude at Pretoria; but I entreat you, for the welfare of South Africa, to persevere, however unsatisfactory it may be to see your advice flouted and your motives so cruelly misrepresented by a section of colonists.
"Humanly speaking, the advice and good will of the Free State is the only thing that stands between the South African Republic and a catastrophe." Alluding to the Kotze incident, the upshot of which was that Krueger and the Volksraad claimed the right to overrun judicial decisions, he writes: "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.