On the 10th of September, 1860, Mr. Pretorius appeared before the volksraad of the Transvaal, accompanied by a commission from the Free State appointed to ask for a further leave of absence for the president, and to further the interests of union. When Pretorius offered to give an account of his proceedings as president of the Free State, the opposition raised the point that it was manifestly illegal for any one to be president of the Transvaal Republic and of the Orange Free State at the same time, for it was provided in their constitution that during his term of office the president should follow no other occupation, and Mr. Pretorius was pressed to resign one office or the other. Pretorius at once resigned the presidency of the Transvaal; but his partisans held a mass meeting at Potchefstroom, on the 8th and 9th of October, at which revolutionary proceedings were taken. It was resolved, almost unanimously, that the volksraad no longer enjoyed the confidence of the people they represented and must be held as having ceased to exist; that Mr. Pretorius should remain president of the Transvaal Republic and have a year’s leave of absence to bring about union with the Free State, Mr. Stephanas Schoeman—instead of Mr. Grobbelear—to be acting president during his absence; and that before the return of Mr. Pretorius to resume his duties a new volksraad should be elected. The new election was so manipulated that only a thousand burghers voted, and of these more than seven hundred declared in favor of the resolutions of the Potchefstroom meeting. The committee that effected this clever political strategy was composed of Messrs. D. Steyn, Preller, Lombard, Spruyt, and Bodenstein. The new acting president, Mr. Schoeman, assumed official duty immediately. With amazing inconsistency—for he was thought to be a loyal friend of Mr. Pretorius—Schoeman called a meeting of the old volksraad that had been dissolved by the revolution. He held his office from the same authority that had declared this body to have forfeited confidence, and to be non-existent, and yet he acknowledged its legal existence. The old volksraad met on the 14th of January, 1861, and after a session of two hours the majority of the members resigned, being convinced of the general antagonism of the people. Not content to let matters rest in a peaceful acquiescence in the revolution, Mr. Schoeman called the old volksraad together a second time, under armed protection, and procured an order for legal proceedings to be instituted against the committee that had carried out the Potchefstroom resolutions. A court consisting of two landdrosts—one of whom was Cornelius Potgieter, their bitterest political enemy—tried the committee for sedition, on the 14th of February, found them guilty and sentenced each to pay a fine of £100, except Mr. Bodenstein, whose fine was only £15.