MERRIMAN, JOHN XAVIER (I$41-1926), 1-41-1926), South African statesman, was born on March 15, 1841 at Street, Somer set, England, the son of a clergyman who afterwards became bishop of Grahamstown, South Africa. His family moved to South Africa in 1849, and he was educated at the Diocesan Col lege, Rondebosch, and later at Radley College, England, returning to the Cape in 1861. He entered politics in 1869. In 1875 he joined the Molteno Ministry as commissioner of public works, and was virtually Secretary for War during the Galeka war of 1877. In the Scanlen Ministry (1881-4) he was commissioner of public works. The Afrikander Bond caused the fall of the Scan len administration because the Ministry opposed the attempt of the Transvaal Boers to seize Bechuanaland; and when Rhodes formed a Ministry in 1890 Merriman, alienated by the extreme policy of the Bond, joined it as treasurer-general. Meanwhile the Bond had adopted a constitutional programme, and 1890 saw a drawing together of the Dutch and British elements at the Cape. But the Uitlander troubles in the Transvaal became acute, and in 1893 Merriman resigned. He was chairman of the Cape parlia mentary committee which inquired into the Jameson raid of 1895, and drew up its report. The general election in Cape Colony in
1898 gave the Bond a very narrow victory, and W. P. Schreiner became Prime Minister, with Merriman treasurer-general again, though he was not a member of the Bond. Merriman was among the ministers who in 1900 opposed the measure to disfranchise the Cape rebels, causing the cabinet to resign. At the general election of 1904 Merriman was defeated, but was returned shortly after wards at a by-election. In Jan. 1908 he succeeded Dr. Jameson as Prime Minister and treasurer-general (see SOUTH AFRICA: History). Merriman was now head of the Afrikander Bond party, renamed the South African party. He was a member of the national convention which hammered out the new constitution. He supported the unitary as against the federal principle in South African policy. It was expected in some quarters that Merriman would be the first prime minister of the Union. The position fell to Botha. Merriman remained outside the ministry, though he gave the government steady support. He opposed the disruptive policy of Hertzog as strongly as he had formerly supported the independence of the Boer republics. He died Aug. 2, 1926.