POSTSCRIPT. 259 



generally. I by no means endorse this idea, and 

 have every reason to believe that the two races 

 would get on extremely well together were it not 

 for the action of certain political agitators and 

 minor cliques interested in the maintenance of a 

 profitable fiction. It must, however, be admitted 

 that in South Africa the Imperial Government in 

 bygone days committed about as many blunders 

 as the nature of the situation admitted, and that 

 this has complicated the existing knot to such an 

 extent that attempts to untie it can only end in 

 its severance once for all, and the adoption of less 

 tortuous and more honest action in the future. 



The present situation of South Africa as affected 

 by the inimical action of the Transvaal potentate 

 is briefly this. An immense auriferous area exists 

 which if developed would in a very short time 

 double the present value of all the commercial 

 interests of the country and make a very consider- 

 able advantageous increase in English commerce 

 generally, and increasingly as the years pass by. 

 At present, large as the export of gold is, only 

 a few first-class mines pay dividends, but the 

 majority of inferior grades would soon do so were 

 it not that the Transvaal policy is to take effectual 



