POSTSCRIPT. 269 



upright character, is now fighting for the general 

 principle involved by the attempt of the Executive 

 to legalise the dispensing power, and deserves the 

 unstinted support of the public ; as, if this attempt 

 on the part of Kruger is successful, all security for 

 life and property in the Transvaal vanishes, and 

 the President and his clique supersede the law to 

 all intents and purposes. 



Comment on such a possible state of things is 

 superfluous. It will be a question for jurists to 

 decide whether such an infraction of the law is 

 or is not an infraction of existing Conventions ; 

 but there can be no doubt that should the Trans- 

 vaal Executive become paramount, the interests of 

 the whole of the people of South Africa, and those 

 of investors in South African properties, will be 

 seriously endangered. In such circumstances it 

 seems clear that the question changes its character 

 as a local grievance and becomes of national 

 importance, and, as such, one to be dealt with by 

 the Imperial Government. 



The population of Johannesburg and of other 

 mining centres here has been so helotised of late 

 that any energetic local action is hardly to be 

 expected in the absence of effectual outside 



