for statecraft and the organization and arrangement of new social
conditions which seem inherent as a gift of the blood to all those
peoples who took their rise in the little deltas on the northeast of
the continent of Europe, where the English and Dutch peoples alike
took their rise, could have made it possible. We do not say that
the Transvaal Republic has among its guides and rulers a Solon or a
Lycurgus; but it has to-day, among the men guiding its destiny, men of
brave and earnest spirit, who are seeking manfully and profoundly to
deal with the great problems before them in a wide spirit of humanity
and justice. And, we do again repeat, that the strong sympathy of all
earnest and thoughtful minds, not only in Africa, but in England,
should be with them.
Let us take as an example one of the simplest elements of the question,
the enfranchisement of the new arrivals. Even those of us, who with
the present writer are sometimes denominated “the fanatics of the
franchise,” who hold that that state is healthiest and strongest, in
the majority of cases, in which every adult citizen, irrespective of
sex or position, possesses a vote, base our assertion on the fact that
each individual forming an integral part of the community has their
all at stake in that community; that the woman’s stake is likely to be
as large as the man’s, and the poor man’s as the rich; for each has
only his all, his life; and that their devotion to its future good,
and their concern in its health is likely to be equal; that the state
gains by giving voice to all its integral parts. But the ground is
cut from under our feet when a large mass of persons concerned are
_not_ integral portions of the State, but merely temporarily connected
with it, have no interest in its remote future, and only a commercial
interest in its present. We may hold (and we personally very strongly
hold) that the moment a stranger lands in a country, however ignorant
he may be of its laws, usages, and interests, if he intends to remain
permanently in it, and incorporates all his life and interest with
it, he becomes an integral part of the State, and should as soon
as possible be given the power of expressing his will through its
legislature; but the