were: revenue, including railway profits, £799,000; expenditure, including outlay on new railways, 1956,000. Omitting the figures during the war period, the figures for the year ending June 1903 were: revenue, £956,000; expenditure, £839,000. The depression in trade which followed caused a reduction in revenue, the average for the years 1904-1909 being: revenue, 820,000; expenditure, £819,000. These figures are exclusive of railway receipts and expenditure (see TRANSVAAL: Finance). Religion. The vast majority (over 95 %) of the white inhabitants are Protestants, and over 70% belong to the Dutch Reformed Church, while another 3% are adherents of the very similar organization, the Gereformeerde Kerk. Anglicans are the next numerous body, forming 12.53% of the white population. The Wesleyans number nearly 4% of the inhabitants. The Roman Catholics number 2.30% of the whites, the head of their church in the province being a vicar apostolic. At the head of the Anglican community, which is in full communion with the Church of England, is the bishop of Bloemfontein, whose diocese, founded in 1863, includes not only the Orange Free State, but Basutoland, Griqualand West and British Bechuanaland. All the churches named have missions to the natives, and in 1904, 104,389 aboriginals and 10,909 persons of mixed race were returned as Protestants, and 1093 aboriginals and 117 of mixed race as Roman Catholics. The total number of persons in the country professing Christianity was 251,904 or 65%. The Dutch Reformed Church had the largest number (21,272) of converts among the natives, the Wesleyans coming next. The African Methodist Episcopal (Ethiopian) Church had 4110 members, of whom only two were whites. The Jewish community numbered 1616. Nearly 33% of the population, 127,637 persons, were returned officially at the census of 1904 as of no religion," under which head are classed the natives who retain their primitive forms of belief, for which see KAFFIRS, BECHUANAS, &c. Education. At the census of 1904, 32.57% of the total population could read and write; of the whites over fifteen years old 82.63% could read and write. Of the aboriginals, 8-15% could read and write; of the mixed and other races, 12-28%. In the urban areas the proportion of persons, of all races, able to read and write was 50-67%; in the rural areas the proportion was 26.43%. By sexes, 35% of males and 29.63 % of females could read and write.

Elementary education is administered by the provincial council, assisted by a permanent director of education. From 1900 to 1905 the schools were managed, teachers selected and appointed and all expenses borne by the government. They were of an undenominational character and English was the medium of instruction. The teaching of Dutch was optional. In 1904 the Dutch Reformed Church started Christian National (i.e. Denominational) Schools, but in March 1905 an agreement was come to whereby these schools were amalgamated with the government schools, and in June 1905 a further agreement was arrived at between the government and the leading religious denominations. By this arrangement "religious instruction of a purely historical character" was given in all government schools for two hours every week, and might be given in Dutch. Further, ministers of the various denominations might give, on the special request of the parents, instruction to the children of their own congregations for one hour on one day in each week. The attendance at government schools reached in 1908 a total of nearly 20,000, as against 8000 in 1898, the highest attendance recorded under republican government. On the attainment of self-government the colonial legislature passed an act (1908) which in respect to primary and secondary education made attendance compulsory on all white children, the fee system being maintained. English and Dutch were, nominally, placed on an equal footing as media of instruction. Every school was under the supervision of a committee elected by the parents of the children. Schools were grouped in districts, and for each district there was a controlling board of nine members, of whom five were elected by the committees of the separate schools and four appointed by the government. Religious instruction could only be given by members of the school staff. Dogmatic teaching was prohibited during school hours, except in rural schools when parents required such teaching to be given. The application of the provision as to the media of instruction gave rise to much friction, the English-speaking community complaining that instruction in Dutch was forced upon their children (see further, History). Primary education for natives is provided in private schools, many of which receive government grants. In 1908 over Provision is made for secondary education in all the leading town schools, which prepare pupils for matriculation. At Bloemfontein is a high school for girls, the Grey College school for boys, and a normal school for the training of teachers. The Grey University College is a state institution providing university education for the whole province. It is affiliated to the university of the Cape

10,000 natives were in attendance at schools.

of Good Hope.

History.

The country north of the Orange river was first visited by Europeans towards the close of the 18th century. At that time

Establish

it was somewhat thinly peopled. The majority of the inhabitants appear to have been members of the Bechuana division of the Bantus, but in the valleys of the Orange and Vaal were Korannas and other Hottentots, meat of and in the Drakensberg and on the western border lived a Boer numbers of Bushmen. Early in the 19th century republic. Griquas established themselves north of the Orange. Between 1817 and 1831 the country was devastated by the chief Mosilikatze and his Zulus, and large areas were depopulated. Up to this time the few white men who had crossed the Orange had been chiefly hunters or missionaries. In 1824 Dutch farmers from Cape Colony seeking pasture for their flocks settled in the country. They were followed in 1836 by the first parties of the Great Trek. These emigrants left Cape Colony from various motives, but all were animated by the desire to escape from British sovereignty. (See SOUTH AFRICA, History; and CAPE COLONY, History.) The leader of the first large party of emigrants was A. H. Potgieter, who concluded an agreement with Makwana, the chief of the Bataung tribe of Bechuanas, ceding to the farmers the country between the Vet and Vaal rivers. The emigrants soon came into collision with Mosilikatze, raiding parties of Zulus attacking Boer hunters who had crossed the Vaal without seeking permission from that chieftain. Reprisals followed, and in November 1837 Mosilikatze was decisively defeated by the Boers and thereupon fled northward. In the meantime another party of emigrants had settled at Thaba'nchu, where the Wesleyans had a mission station for the Barolong. The emigrants were treated with great kindness by Moroko, the chief of that tribe, and with the Barolong the Boers maintained uniformly friendly relations. In December 1836 the emigrants beyond the Orange drew up in general assembly an elementary republican form of government. After the defeat of Mosilikatze the town of Winburg (so named by the Boers in commemoration of their victory) was founded, a volksraad elected, and Piet Retief, one of the ablest of the voortrekkers, chosen " governor and commandant-general." The emigrants already numbered some 500 men, besides women and children and many coloured servants. Dissensions speedily arose among the emigrants, whose numbers were constantly added to, and Retief, Potgieter and other leaders crossed the Drakensberg and entered Natal. Those that remained were divided into several parties intensely jealous of one another.

Basutos

and

Griquas.

Meantime a new power had arisen along the upper Orange and in the valley of the Caledon. Moshesh, a Bechuana chief of high descent, had welded together a number of scattered Early and broken clans which had sought refuge in that relations with mountainous region, and had formed of them the Basuto nation. In 1833 he had welcomed as workers British, among his people a band of French Protestant missionaries, and as the Boer immigrants began to settle in his neighbourhood he decided to seek support from the British at the Cape. At that time the British government was not prepared to exercise effective control over the emigrants. Acting upon the advice of Dr John Philip, the superintendent of the London Missionary Society's stations in South Africa, a treaty was concluded in 1843 with Moshesh, placing him under British protection. A similar treaty was made with the Griqua chief, Adam Kok III. (See BASUTOLAND and GRIQUALAND.) By these treaties, which recognized native sovereignty over large areas on which Boer farmers were settled, it was sought to keep a check on the emigrants and to protect collisions between all three parties. The year in which the both the natives and Cape Colony. Their effect was to precipitate treaty with Moshesh was made several large parties of Boers recrossed the Drakensberg into the country north of the Orange, refusing to remain in Natal when it became a British colony. During their stay there they had inflicted a severe defeat on the Zulus under Dingaan (December 1838), an event which, following on the flight of Mosilikatze, greatly strengthened the position of Moshesh, whose power became a menace to that of the emigrant farmers. Trouble first arose, however, between the Boers and the Griquas in the Philippolis district. Many of the white

the voortrekkers, who had previously taken an active part in the affairs of Natal.

into the

Distracted among themselves, with the formidable Basuto power on their southern and eastern flank, the troubles of the A Trans- infant state were speedily added to by the action of vaal raid the Transvaal Boers. Marthinus Pretorius, who had succeeded to his father's position as commandantFree State. general of Potchefstroom, wished to bring about a confederation between the two Boer states. Peaceful overtures from Pretorius were declined, and some of his partisans in the Free State were accused of treason (February 1857). Thereupon Pretorius, aided by Paul Kruger, conducted a raid into the Free State territory. On learning of the invasion President Boshof proclaimed martial law throughout the country. The majority of the burghers rallied to his support, and on the 25th of May the two opposing forces faced one another on the banks of the Rhenoster. President Boshof not only got together some eight hundred men within the Free State, but he received offers of support from Commandant Schoeman, the Transvaal leader in the Zoutpansberg district and from Commandant Joubert of Lydenburg. Pretorius and Kruger, realizing that they would have to sustain attack from both north and south, abandoned their enterprise. Their force, too, only amounted to some three hundred. Kruger came to Boshof's camp with a flag of truce, the" army " of Pretorius returned north and on the 2nd of June a treaty of peace was signed, each state acknowledging the absolute independence of the other. The conduct of Pretorius was stigmatized as " blameworthy. Several of the malcontents in the Free State who had joined Pretorius permanently settled in the Transvaal, and other Free Staters who had been guilty of high treason were arrested and punished. This experience did not, however, heal the party strife within the Free State. In consequence of the dissensions among the burghers President Boshof tendered his resignation in February 1858, but was for a time induced to remain in office. The difficulties of the state were at that time (1858) so great that the volksraad in December of that year passed a resolution in favour of confederation with | the Cape Colony. This proposition received the strong support of Sir George Grey, then governor of Cape Colony, but his view did not commend itself to the British government, and was not adopted (see SOUTH AFRICA: History). In the same year the disputes between the Basutos and the Boers culminated in open war. Both parties laid claims to land beyond the Warden line, and each party had taken possession of what it could, the Basutos being also expert cattle-lifters. In the war the advantage rested with the Basutos; thereupon the Free State appealed to Sir George Grey, who induced Moshesh to come to terms. On the 15th of October 1858 a treaty was signed defining anew the boundary. The peace was nominal only, while the burghers were also involved in disputes with other tribes. Mr. Boshof | again tendered his resignation (February 1859) and retired to Natal. Many of the burghers would have at this time welcomed union with the Transvaal, but learning from Sir George Grey that such a union would nullify the conventions of 1852 and 1854 and necessitate the reconsideration of Great Britain's policy towards the native tribes north of the Orange and Vaal rivers, the project dropped. Commandant Pretorius was, however, elected president in place of Mr Boshof. Though unable to effect a durable peace with the Basutos, or to realize his ambition for the creation of one powerful Boer republic, Pretorius saw the Free State begin to grow in strength. The fertile district of Bethulie as well as Adam Kok's territory was acquired, and there was a considerable increase in the white population. The burghers generally, however, had not learned the need of discipline, of confidence in their elected rulers, or that to carry on a government taxes must be levied. Wearied like Mr Boshof of a thankless task, and more interested in affairs in the Transvaal than in those of the Free State, Pretorius resigned the presidency in 1863, and after an interval of seven months Mr (afterwards Sir) John Henry Brand (q.v.), an advocate at the Cape bar, was elected president. He assumed office in February 1864. His election proved a turning-point in the history of the country,

Brand

which, under his beneficent and tactful guidance, became peaceful and prosperous and, in some respects, a model state. But before peace could be established an end had to be made of the difficulties with the Basutos. Moshesh continued elected to menace the Free State border. Attempts at accom- President. modation made by the governor of Cape Colony (Sir Philip Wodehouse) failed, and war between the Free State and Moshesh was renewed in 1865. The Boers gained considerable successes, and this induced Moshesh to sue for peace. The terms exacted were, however, too harsh for a nation yet unbroken to accept permanently. A treaty was signed at Thaba Bosigo in April 1866, but war again broke out in 1867, and the Free State attracted to its side a large number of adventurers from all parts of South Africa. The burghers thus reinforced gained at length a decisive victory over their great antagonist, every stronghold in Basutoland save Thaba Bosigo being stormed. Moshesh now turned in earnest to Sir Philip Wodehouse for preservation. His prayer was heeded, and in 1868 he and his country were taken under British protection. Thus the thirty years' strife between the Basutos and the Boers came to an end. The Settlement intervention of the governor of Cape Colony led to the of the conclusion of the treaty of Aliwal North (Feb. 12, 1869), Basuto which defined the borders between the Orange Free troubles. State and Basutoland. The country lying to the north of the Orange river and west of the Caledon, formerly a part of Basutoland, was ceded to the Free State (see BASUTOLAND). This country, some hundred miles long and nearly thirty wide, is a fertile stretch of agricultural land on the lower slopes of the Maluti mountains. It lies at an altitude of nearly 6000 ft., and is well watered by the Caledon and its tributaries. It has ever since been known as the Conquered Territory, and it forms to-day one of the richest corn-growing districts in South Africa. A year after the addition of the Conquered Territory to the state another boundary dispute was settled by the arbitration of Mr Keate, lieutenant-governor of Natal. By the Sand River Convention independence had been granted to the Boers living " north of the Vaal," and the dispute turned on the question as to what stream constituted the true upper course of that river. Mr Keate decided (Feb. 19, 1870) against the Free State view and fixed the Klip river as the dividing line, the Transvaal thus securing the Wakkerstroom and adjacent districts.

Diamond

The Basutoland difficulties were no sooner arranged than the Free Staters found themselves confronted with a serious difficulty on their western border. In the years 1870-1871 a Discovery large number of diggers had settled on the diamond of the fields near the junction of the Vaal and Orange rivers, Kimberley which were situated in part on land claimed by the Fields. Griqua chief Nicholas Waterboer and by the Free State. The Free State established a temporary government over the diamond fields, but the administration of this body was satisfactory neither to the Free State nor to the diggers. At this juncture Waterboer offered to place the territory under the administration of Queen Victoria. The offer was accepted, and on the 27th of October 1871 the district, together with some adjacent territory to which the Transvaal had laid claim, was proclaimed, under the name of Griqualand West, British territory. Waterboer's claims were based on the treaty concluded by his father with the British in 1834, and on various arrangements with the Kok chiefs; the Free State based its claim on its purchase of Adam Kok's sovereign rights and on long occupation. The difference between proprietorship and sovereignty was confused or ignored. That Waterboer exercised no authority in the disputed district was admitted. When the British annexation took place a party in the volksraad wished to go to war with Britain, but the wiser counsels of President Brand prevailed. The Free State, however, did not abandon its claims. The matter involved no little irritation between the parties concerned until July 1876. It was then disposed of by the 4th earl of Carnarvon, at that time secretary of state for the colonies, who granted to the Free State £90,000 "in full satisfaction of all claims which it considers it may possess to Griqualand West." Lord Carnarvon declined to entertain the proposal made by Mr Brand that the territory

At this time, largely owing to the exhausting struggle with the Basutos, the Free State Boers, like their Transvaal neighbours, had drifted into financial straits. A paper currency had been instituted, and the notes-currently known as "bluebacks "soon dropped to less than half their nominal value. Commerce was largely carried on by barter, and many cases of bankruptcy occurred in the state. But as British annexation in 1877 saved the Transvaal from bankruptcy, so did the influx of British and other immigrants to the diamond fields, in the early 'seventies, restore public credit and individual prosperity to the Boers of the Free State. The diamond fields offered a ready market for stock and other agricultural produce. Money flowed into the pockets of the farmers. Public credit was restored. "Bluebacks" recovered par value, and were called in and redeemed by the government. Valuable diamond mines were also discovered within the Free State, of which the one at Jagersfontein is the richest. Capital from Kimberley and London was soon provided with which to work them.

The relations between the British and the Free State, after the question of the boundary was once settled, remained perfectly Cordial amicable down to the outbreak of the Boer War in relations 1899. From 1870 onward the history of the state with Great was one of quiet, steady progress. At the time of the Britain. first annexation of the Transvaal the Free State declined Lord Carnarvon's invitation to federate with the other South African communities. In 1880, when a rising of the Boers in the Transvaal was threatening, President Brand showed every desire to avert the conflict. He suggested that Sir Henry de Villiers, Chief Justice of Cape Colony, should be sent into the Transvaal to endeavour to gauge the true state of affairs in that country. This suggestion was not acted upon, but when war broke out in the Transvaal Brand declined to take any part in the struggle. In spite of the neutral attitude taken by their government a number of the Free State Boers, living in the northern part of the country, went to the Transvaal and joined their brethren then in arms against the British. This fact was not allowed to influence the friendly relations between the Free State and Great Britain. In 1888 Sir John Brand died. In him the Boers, not only in the Free State but in the whole of South Africa, lost one of the most enlightened and most upright rulers and leaders they have ever had. He realized the disinterested aims pursued by the British government, without always approving its methods. Though he had thrown the weight of his influence against Lord Carnarvon's federation scheme Brand disapproved racial rivalries.

During the period of Brand's presidency a great change, both political and economic, had come over South Africa. The renewal of the policy of British expansion had been answered by the formation of the Afrikander Bond, which represented the racial aspirations of the Dutch-speaking people, and had active branches in the Free State. This alteration in the political outlook was accompanied, and in part occasioned, by economic changes of great significance. The development of the diamond mines and of the gold and coal industries-of which Brand saw the beginning had far-reaching consequences, bringing the Boer republics into vital contact with the new industrial era. The Free Staters, under Brand's rule, had shown considerable ability to adapt their policy to meet the altered situation. In 1889 an agreement was come to between the Free State and the Cape Colony government, whereby the latter were empowered to extend, at their own cost, their railway system to Bloemfontein. The Free State retained the right to purchase this extension at cost price, a right they exercised after the Jameson Raid.

Alliance with the Transvaal.

In January 1889 Mr F. W. Reitz was elected president of the Free State. His accession to the presidency marked the beginning of a new and disastrous line of policy in the external affairs of the country. Mr Reitz had no sooner got into office than a meeting was arranged with Mr Kruger, president of the Transvaal, at which various terms of an agreement dealing with the railways, terms of a treaty of amity and commerce and what was called a political treaty, were discussed and decided upon. The political treaty referred in general terms to a federal union between the Transvaal and the Free State, and bound each of them to help the other, whenever the independence of either should be assailed or threatened from without, unless the state so called upon for assistance should be able to show the injustice of the cause of quarrel in which the other state had engaged. While thus committed to a dangerous alliance with its northern neighbour no change was made in internal administration. The Free State, in fact, from its geographical position reaped the benefits without incurring the anxieties consequent on the settlement of a large uitlander population on the Rand. The state, however, became increasingly identified with the reactionary party in the Transvaal. In 1895 the volksraad passed a resolution, in which they declared their readiness to entertain a proposition from the Transvaal in favour of some form of federal union. In the same year Mr Reitz retired from the presidency of the Free State, and was succeeded in February 1896 by M. T. Steyn (q.v.), a judge of the High Court. In 1896 President Steyn visited Pretoria, where he received an ovation as the probable future president of the two Republics. A further offensive and defensive alliance between the two Republics was then entered into, under which the Free State took up arms on the outbreak of hostilities with the Transvaal in 1899.

In 1897 President Kruger, bent on still further cementing the union with the Free State, visited Bloemfontein. It was on this occasion that President Kruger, referring to the London Convention, spoke of Queen Victoria as a kwaaje Vrouw, an expression which caused a good deal of offence in England at the time, but which, to any one familiar with the homely phraseology of the Boers, obviously was not meant by President Kruger as insulting.

Afrikander

In order to understand the attitude which the Free State took at this time in relation to the Transvaal, it is necessary to review the history of Mr Reitz from an earlier date. Previously to his becoming president of the Free State The he had acted as its Chief Justice, and still earlier in ideal. life had practised as an advocate in Cape Colony. In 1881 Mr Reitz had, in conjunction with Mr Steyn, come under the influence of a clever German named Borckenhagen, the editor of the Bloemfontein Express. These three men were principally responsible for the formation of the Afrikander Bond (see CAPE COLONY: History). From 1881 onwards they cherished the idea of an independent South Africa. Brand had been far too sagacious to be led away by this pseudo-nationalist dream, and did his utmost to discountenance the Bond. At the same time his policy was guided by a sincere patriotism, which looked to the true prosperity of the Free State as well as to that of the whole of South Africa. From his death may be dated the disastrous line of policy which led to the extinction of the state as a republic. The one prominent member of the volksraad who inherited the traditions and enlightened views of President Brand was Mr (Afterwards Sir) John G. Fraser. Mr Fraser, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency in 1896, was the son of a Presbyterian minister, who had acted as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church since the middle of the century. He grew up in the country of his father's adoption, and he consistently warned the Free State of the inevitable

result the loss of independence-which must follow their mischievous policy in being led by the Transvaal. The mass of Boers in the Free State, deluded by a belief in Great Britain's weakness, paid no heed to his remonstrances. Mr Fraser lived to see the fulfilment of these prophecies. After the British occupation of Bloemfontein he cast in his lot with the Imperial Government, realizing that it had fought for those very principles which President Brand and he had laboured for in bygone years. On entering Bloemfontein in 1900 the British obtained possession of certain state papers which contained records of negotiations between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The evidence contained in these state records so clearly marks the difference between the policy of Mr Kruger and the pacific, commercial policy of President Brand and his followers, that the documents call for careful consideration. From these papers it was found that, in 1887, two secret conferences had taken place between representatives of the Republics, dealing with various political and economical questions. At the first of these conferences, held in Pretoria, the object of the Free State deputies were to arrange a general treaty of amity and commerce which would knit the states more closely together, and to come to some agreement with reference to the scheme for building a railway across the Free State from the Cape, to connect with a farther extension in the Transvaal to Pretoria. The deputation also urged the Transvaal to join the South African Customs Union. Both of these suggestions were strongly disapproved by Mr Kruger, inasmuch as they meant knitting together the Boer republics and the British possessions, instead of merely bringing the Free State into completer dependence on the Transvaal. From the minutes of this conference it is clear that the two deputations were practically at cross purposes. In the minds of President Kruger and his immediate followers one idea was dominant, that of ousting and keeping out at all costs British influence and interests. On the part of the Free State there was obviously a genuine desire to further the best interests of the state, together with the general prosperity of the whole of South Africa. In President Kruger's eyes British trade meant ruin; he desired to keep it out of the Republic at all costs, and he begged the Free State to delay the construction of their railway until the Delagoa Bay line was completed. He said, "Delagoa is a life or death question for us. Help us: if you hook on to the Colony you cut our throat. How can our state exist without the Delagoa railway? Keep free." With regard to the Customs Union, President Kruger was equally emphatic; he begged the Free State to steer clear of it. "Customs Unions," he said, " are made between equal states with equal access to harbours. We are striving to settle the question of our own harbour peacefully. The English will only use their position to swindle the Transvaal of its proper receipts." In response, Mr Fraser, one of the Free State delegates, remarked that a harbour requires forts, soldiers, ships and sailors to man them, or else it would be at the mercy of the first gunboat that happened to assail it. President Kruger replied that once the Transvaal had a harbour foreign powers would intervene. Mr Wolmarans was as emphatic as President Kruger. "Wait a few years.. You know our secret policy. We cannot treat the [Cape] Colony as we would treat you. The Colony would destroy us. It is not the Dutch there we are fighting against. Time shall show what we mean to do with them; for the present we must keep them off."

The result of this conference was a secret session of the Transvaal volksraad and the proposition of a secret treaty with the Free State, by which each state should bind Antiitself not to build railways to its frontier without the British consent of the other, the eastern and northern frontiers designs. of the Transvaal being excepted. The railway from Pretoria to Bloemfontein was to be proceeded with; neither party was to enter the Customs Union without the consent of the other. The Transvaal was to pay £20,000 annually to the Free State for loss incurred for not having the railway to Cape Colony. Such a treaty as the one proposed would simply have enslaved the Free State to the Transvaal, and it was rejected by the Free State volksraad. President Kruger

determined on a still more active measure, and proceeded with Dr Leyds to interview President Brand at Bloemfontein. A series of meetings took place in October of the same year (1887). President Brand opened the proceedings by proposing a treaty of friendship and free trade between the two Republics, in which a number of useful and thoroughly practical provisions were set forth. President Kruger, however, soon brushed these propositions aside, and responded by stating that, in consideration of the common enemy and the dangers which threatened the Republic, an offensive and defensive alliance must be preliminary to any closer union. To this Brand rejoined that, as far as the offensive was concerned, he did not desire to be a party to attacking any one, and as for the defensive, where was the pressing danger of the enemy which Kruger feared? The Free State was on terms of friendship with its neighbours, nor (added Brand) would the Transvaal have need for such an alliance as the one proposed if its policy would only remain peaceful and conciliatory. At a later date in the conference (see TRANSVAAL) President Brand apparently changed his policy, and himself drafted a constitution resembling that of the United States. This constitution appears to have been modelled on terms a great deal too liberal and enlightened to please Mr Kruger, whose one idea was to have at his command the armed forces of the Free State when he should require them, and who pressed for an offensive and defensive alliance. Brand refused to allow the Free State to be committed to a suicidal treaty, or dragged into any wild policy which the Transvaal might deem it expedient to adopt. The result of the whole conference was that Kruger returned to Pretoria completely baffled, and for a time the Free State was saved from being a party to the fatal policy into which others subsequently drew it. Independent power of action was retained by Brand for the Free State in both the railway and Customs Union questions.

After Sir John Brand's death, as already stated, a series of agreements and measures gradually subordinated Free State interests to the mistaken ambition and narrow views of the Transvaal. The influence which the Kruger party had obtained in the Free State was evidenced by the presidential election in 1896, when Mr Steyn received forty-one votes against nineteen cast for Mr Fraser. That this election should have taken place immediately after the Jameson Raid probably increased Mr Steyn's majority. Underlying the new policy adopted by the Free State was the belief held, if not by President Steyn himself, at least by his followers, that the two republics combined would be more than a match for the power of Great Britain should hostilities occur.

In December 1897 the Free State revised its constitution in reference to the franchise law, and the period of residence necessary to obtain naturalization was reduced from five to three years. The oath of allegiance to the state was alone required, and no renunciation of nationality was insisted upon. In 1898 the Free State also acquiesced in the new convention arranged with regard to the Customs Union between the Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. These measures suggest that a slight reaction against the extreme policy of President Kruger had set in. But events were moving rapidly in the Transvaal, and matters had proceeded too far for the Free State to turn back. In May 1899 President Steyn suggested the conference at Bloemfontein between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner, but this act, if it expressed a genuine desire for reconciliation, was too late. President Kruger had got the Free State ensnared in his meshes. The Free Staters were practically bound, under the offensive and defensive alliance, in case hostilities arose with Great Britain, either to denounce the policy to which they had so unwisely been secretly party, or to throw in their lot with the Transvaal. War occurred, and they accepted the inevitable consequence. For President Boer War. Steyn and the Free State of 1899, in the light of the negotiations we have recorded, neutrality was impossible. A resolution was passed by the volksraad on the 27th of September declaring that the state would observe its obligations to the Transvaal whatever might happen. Before war had actually