It is true that the corrupt oligarchy would have vanished, and the spirit of a broader more tolerant freedom influenced the counsels of the State.

But the republic would have become stronger and more permanent, with a population who, if they differed in details, were united in essentials.

Whether such a solution would have been to the advantage of British interests in South Africa is quite another question.

In more ways than one President Kruger has been a good friend to the empire.
So much upon the general question of the reason why the Uitlander should agitate and why the Boer was obdurate.

The details of the long struggle between the seekers for the franchise and the refusers of it may be quickly sketched, but they cannot be entirely ignored by any one who desires to understand the inception of that great contest which was the outcome of the dispute.
At the time of the Convention of Pretoria (1881) the rights of burghership might be obtained by one year's residence.