It was coming sooner than he could have wished. He knew it was coming, but he would have liked it to have come a few years later, when the Afrikander race, at the rate they were strengthening now, would be considerably stronger and more able to cope with their opponents. But let it come. We shall do our best to conquer, and if it is God’s will that we should come out victorious, all praise be to Him. And if it be His will, WE SHALL be victorious! If it be His will that we should be conquered, His will be done; we can but die. The secret organisation had lately taken more visible and definite form. First, a National Union was formed by a few in the secret. The innocent Uitlander public were led by the nose. When a meeting was convened by the self-elected leaders of the so-called Union, the public were only too glad to attend a meeting where some excitement was promised them. They went to hear the inspired spoutings of their self-elected leaders, and cheered where they were expected to do so, or listened indifferently to eloquent advocates, speculators, etc. Many of them were surprised to be told that they really had any grievances. They had always thought they were better off in this country than they had been in their own land; here they earned good wages, paid little or no taxes, and were left alone and in peace; while in their own countries, they earned very little, of which little they had to pay a large percentage in taxes and rates of one kind or another. But these learned men say we have grievances; they ought to know! And if we really have any wrongs to be redressed, the sooner it is done the better; so hurrah for these philanthropic (?) gentlemen who are going to redress our wrongs. They say we ought to have the franchise, so the franchise we will have, and so on. It went uphill, it is true; the agents of the organisation found great difficulty to get the public mind wound up to the right pitch, and when they did succeed for an hour or so to get an enthusiastic audience together, it only lasted for that brief hour. But even for this want of enduring enthusiasm a remedy was found, viz., a committee was appointed who were supposed to represent the Uitlander population, who made up in themselves for all want of public enthusiasm. Gold could do a great deal; besides, the head of the organisation knew the art of _buying_ enthusiasm. For a time the National Union took a spurt, kept alive by inflaming speeches and circulars; but as soon as a little boom in shares took place, the public would have nothing to do with politics, and again and again the committee found the Union to consist of _themselves_. This would never do; the objects of the Union would never be attained if something was not done soon.