ful and hard-fighting Kaffir tribes. In earlier years conflicts with the Hottentots, Bushmen, and bands of escaped slaves could be concluded successfully by a commando called together in a district or a ward without the Government's interference. But the Kaffirs were a new factor and far more difficult to dispose of. Yet it was just at that time that the Company was passing through its final period of decline. It did not afford its subjects the protection of which they stood in need.

During the last quarter of the century, too, the people were inspired first by the teachings of the American War of InAttempts to dependence and then by the French Revolution, win reforms. and they began to think and talk about the constitution, about fundamental laws, and about the rights of man. Their difficulties were discussed in the light of their experience during previous years when they had found it impossible to obtain any guarantee for the permanent redress of their grievances. Arriving in Amsterdam, their delegates pleaded with the directors of the Company and with the States General for constitutional liberties. Some years were spent in discussion and negotiation. The Company was hastening to its fall, and the States General, realising that any weakening of the authority and prestige of the Company, which was a huge national concern in whose welfare the whole of the people was directly concerned, would be fatal at that time when the political situation in Europe was in a very disturbed state, were unwilling to coerce the directors. Commissioners were sent to the Cape, however, to try to allay the unrest, but the improvements which they brought about did not meet the chief needs of the burghers. Failing to obtain compliance with their demands, which included equal representation with the employees of the Company in the Council of Government and a considerable curtailment of the powers of the fiscal, the people rose in revolt. At Graaff Reinet and Swellendam the landdrosts were expelled and miniature republics set up in 1795. The Government was unable to reassert its authority. Stellenbosch was on the point of rising and Cape Town was expected to follow the example of the other centres. But meanwhile war had broken out between France and Great Britain, and the Netherlands had attached itself to the French and expelled its stadtholder, the Prince of Orange. Having fled to England, he sent with an English expedition intended to capture the Cape an order 1 instructing the Government to admit the British forces into the Colony. After some fighting Cape Town capitulated and the South African republic was strangled at its birth.

1 Document No. 2.

2 No. 3.

SECTION II.

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN, 1795-1910.

Taking as a basis of division the three forms of colonial management, Crown Colony Government, Representative Government, and Responsible Government, the constitutional history of the Cape Colony falls naturally into the following periods: (1) 1795-1854. (2) 1854-1872. (3) 1872-1910.

§ I. THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, 1795-1854.

Up to the year 1824 the central government had no history worth recording, except during the period 1803 to 1806 when, The Governor under the Batavian Republic which received the an absolute country by the Treaty of Amiens, the Governor was ruler till 1825. assisted by a Council of four, of whom at least one had to be colonial born and no one could be a government official. In 1806 when the country was conquered a second time it reverted to the position that existed from 1795 till 1803. Every public act done derived its validity from the sole and undivided and unadvised authority of the Governor. He directed by proclamation, instructions, and commissions literally every matter, from the manner of drawing water on the Cape Town square to the quelling of rebellions on the 'eastern frontier. All the powers of government, as well civil as military, were vested in him by instructions issued in 1796 to the first civil Governor, and he had the sole legislative power in the country, giving his own reading of the old laws, modifying them at pleasure, and enacting new ones. He increased the amount of old taxes and levied fresh imposts. He regulated the tenure of land by fixing or reducing the amount of perpetual quit-rent. The governors exercised a general control of the administration of justice, and with one or more assistants, whose opinions had no binding effect on any decision, the successive governors sat as courts of appeal to try civil and criminal cases of a serious nature. The Governor appointed nearly all the officials except the very highest, and he could remove any one of them except the Lieutenant-Governor and the Secretary. He took away the power of initiating measures and enterprises from the local boards and made them the instruments of his own will, while the policy was adopted of appointing to the post of landdrost in the various centres military officers who had retired on half2 Nos. 65 and 66.

1 No. 7.

pay, and who were but very slightly acquainted with the language and customs of the people or with the laws which they had to administer. In many notable instances these extensive powers were employed to the distinct advantage of good government. Arrears of oppressive taxes were remitted, torture as a means of eliciting evidence or punishing crime was abolished on a Governor's recommendation, judges were sent on circuit to try cases in all the districts,1 judicial proceedings were ordered to be held in public, and criminal jurisdiction was granted to the district courts, thus obviating the tedious necessity of referring trivial cases to Cape Town. It is a curious fact that all these measures, which probably no one will regard otherwise than as eminently wise and statesmanlike, were adopted while the Governor was the supreme and sole ruler, whereas subsequent legislation which was most seriously complained of as short-sighted and oppressive was passed by Councils which were established in 1825, and later with the object of assisting the Governor and limiting his power.

settlers, and

3

A despotism is not necessarily bad for a country: at times it is the only chance of salvation. But certainly the large Attitude of body of British settlers who arrived in the Colony the British in 1820 and subsequent years did not think so. of the Dutch For the rest of the century these men were to have burghers. a bracing effect on the thorough but slow-moving Dutch burghers. As soon as their immediate material needs were satisfied they commenced to agitate for a share in the government, for the freedom of the press, and for the right to hold public meetings. The second of these privileges they soon gained-for the others they had to wait more than twenty years. Being for the greater part men of intelligence and sterling merit, and having influential friends in Great Britain to plead their cause in Parliament and before the country, they were hopeful that a speedy change in the form of government would be effected; but the imperial authorities knew that it would take some time before they could establish a firm hold on the old inhabitants, and therefore while engaged in establishing the English language, English law, and British institutions they realised that it was necessary to have in the Colony a government wholly responsible to themselves. The Dutch inhabitants asked for elective district government on more than one occasion. The essential characteristics of their class were a strong localism and a marked individualism developed on the veld in semi-independent districts. They did not yet realise that under British rule their cherished land did not lie along those paths, for they were as yet quite unfamiliar with the British Constitution.

1 No. 67.

2 No. 68.

3 No. 70.

They would have to make a complete break with their past history, going in a direction opposite to the one along which they had come. Instead of gaining liberties in separate areas, and freedom from unnecessary interference on the part of the British Government, they would have to realise that British sovereignty was firmly established, and that it had become necessary to look at the pivot and get the government into their own hands. That was the great constitutional lesson which the British settlers had to teach the Dutch burghers; for the latter, when they came under British rule, had fallen back into their early groove of localism, out of which they had been toiling laboriously during the eighteenth century. They were hardly aware how nearly their halting footsteps had brought them to the promised land of self-government in 1795.

co-operation

The teachers were able and determined, and the example they set would have been plain if their pupils had been able Difficulties in to read their newspapers or associate with them the way of regularly; but being unable to command the English between the language, and residing at considerable distances colonists. from the newcomers, the burghers can hardly be blamed for failing to master the lesson rapidly. No nation can unlearn all the lessons of its past history and acquire a new set of political ideals within the space of ten years. And there was the grave complication that the people were under a foreign rule and that they were intensely conscious of the fact. Nor did the Government give a distinct lead. It was never clearly and authoritatively stated in a manner that could be understood by the bulk of the inhabitants that there was a real intention to grant them at some future period the management of their own affairs. On the contrary, the Council The Council as set up in 18251 denied all hope, for it consisted of 1825. only of officials over whom the Governor had up to that time exercised the most complete control, and who were not in any way expected to represent the wishes of the people. The members were to discuss and vote on measures proposed by the Governor, but any member might request him in writing to bring up for consideration any matter. It rested with him to decide whether this would be expedient. He could act without the concurrence of a majority of his Council, but he was not authorised to act in important measures without a previous communication with them. If after such communication he took upon himself to act in opposition to their opinions he incurred a responsibility which it might be quite necessary to take, but with regard to which he was then bound to satisfy the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Governor could suspend any member on grave issues demanded by the public

1 No. 18.

interest, but here again the step had to be fully explained and justified.1 Here was a first step preliminary to the introduction of representative government. No one yet thought of self-government. That was to be first invented in Canada. But the intention was to establish a legislative assembly as soon as the older inhabitants should acquire a command of the English language, and measures for the amelioration of the slave population should place the slaves beyond the reach of colonial legislative control. The burghers were not attached to the institution of slavery. Before the close of the eighteenth century, and during the early years of the nineteenth, they had several times been on the point of stating in so many words that the whole system was bad, and should be swept away. This was one of the chief items of the policy of the Batavian Government during the years 1803-6, but by 1830 it was the earnest wish of the inhabitants of the Cape in all walks of life. In June 1828 there was started the Cape of Good Hope Philanthropic Society, for aiding deserving slaves and slave children to purchase their freedom. The aim was The Colony's attitude to- to manumit as many female slave chilren as possible wards slavery. between the ages of 3 and 12, but without causing grave pecuniary loss to their masters. The Governor was the patron, and subscriptions were collected for accomplishing the object of the society. The whole number of female slaves born annually did not exceed 600. A number of slave children were actually freed in this way at an average price of less than £20, so that £12,000 per year would be needed to prevent the increase of female slaves. Many owners of slaves were zealous supporters of the society. If the funds could be regularly procured not a single slave would be born after 30 years and very few after 20. Slaves of a certain age became free by an old law of the Colony. If in addition to the work done by the society the Cape revenue could be charged with twenty or thirty thousand pounds per annum towards this worthy object, every slave would be liberated in less than ten years' time without any cost to the British taxpayer. Petitions and addresses asking that such a scheme should be adopted were all futile, though they were warmly supported by the Governor. And if the further colonial programme embodied in resolutions passed in various parts of the country which offered to declare every slave free at birth 3 were also worked out, there would not have been a slave to set free by the end of 1838; but the intentions of the Colony were distrusted in political, missionary, and philanthropic circles in England, so that the emancipation was eventually effected by an Act of the Imperial Parliament.

1 Rec. XX. 5-6. P.R.O., MSS and pamphlets in C.O. 48/131 and 48/141. Theal, Prog. of S.A. in the Cent., pp. 185-6.