CHAPTER XIV. 



POSTSCRIPT: THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 



SINCE the foregoing chapters have been in the 

 printer's hands Paul Kruger has been re-elected 

 nominally as President of the Transvaal, but really 

 as its Autocrat; no doubt the majority of that 

 large section of the British public interested in 

 South African affairs will consider the fact as a 

 more or less genuine expression of the public 

 opinion of the Burgher constituency as especially 

 accentuated by the immense majority of votes 

 polled for this rustic potentate. The sooner, how- 

 ever, that opinion is discarded by Officialdom, and 

 by those interested in the expansion of British 

 commerce, in the reinstatement of the indispensable 

 " prestige " so recklessly thrown to the winds by 

 Mr. Gladstone's Administration, and in the peace 

 and welfare of the country generally, the better 

 for all concerned. 



