ana Cransoaal Caws and Constitutions: A COMPARISON. By EDWARD B. ROSE Ex-President of the Witwatersrand Mine Employees' and 402 Mechanics' Unirn}. DURING the late General Election, Mr. Herbert Spencer, writing to the Right Hon. Leonard Courtney with reference to the war, made the suggestion that A Comparison should be made between the constitution and doings of the so- called Boer oligarchy and the oligarchy which existed in Eng- land prior to the Reform Bill of 1832, and it should be widely circulated and emphasised." Evidently, Mr. Spencer's idea was that such a comparison would show that the Boers were at least as advanced as regards their " constitution and doings " as was the Great Britain of 1832. But there is absolutely no necessity to go back seventy years in English History to find a parallel for the Transvaal of to-day, and the fact that such an assumption should be made by a man of Mr. Herbert Spencer's eminence is striking testimony to the general ignorance which prevails in this country regard- ing the little Republics with which we are so unhappily at war in South Africa. The following comparison is between the " constitution and doings " of the Transvaal as it existed at the time that wa. was declared and those of England of to-day; and it will be seon that, so far from the former country 22092. suffering by such a comparison, it emerges froB-the ordeal decidedly with credit At the same time, I wish to point out and to emphasise that I have absolutely no desire to contrast the ancient genius of the English race, with its inherent although, unfor- tunately, too often thwarted love of freedom with those of the Boers, to the disadvantage of my own country. I simply wish to shew the extent to which the natural British love of democratic freedom has been retarded and hampered by the apathy and ignorance which are always and everywhere the evil fruits of hide-bound Toryism; and especially as of late by the bastard Imperialism with which the country is pre- sently afflicted, and which cannot fail to exercise its baneful influence as long as it holds the country in thrall. Further: according to present indications the annexation of the Re- publics will be persisted in by Great Britain. Now it is obvious that we shall, in that case, succeed in conciliating and governing the Boers according to the extent that we retain the laws and constitution to which they have been accustomed. And by shewing how excellent those institutions are in many respects, and how worthy of preservation; viewed in this light it may fairly be claimed for this little pamphlet that it may constitute a valuable contribution to the discussion of the coming settlement in South Africa. The conditions which obtain in the two countries respec- tively under the various heads dealt with are placed in parallel columns, in order that the advance made by each nation towards pure democracy may be seen at a glance. ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. i. Franchise as affecting British and Boer respectively. A restricted franchise ob- Absolute manhood suffrage tained only after fifty years of obtains. On attaining the age continuous agitation. In the of 21 years every male Boer middle of 1899 the male popu- ipso facto acquires full franchise lation aged 21 and upwards rights, while the right to a numbered 11,985,900. Of these limited franchise is acquired at only 6,161,487 possessed votes, the age of sixteen, leaving 5,824,413, or nearly 50 per cent, unenfranchised. ( 3 ) ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 2. Franchise as affecting Aliens. Requirements : Five years residence in Great Britain or a British Possession ; a certifi- cate of naturalisation; payment of 5 naturalisation fee; taking the oath of allegiance. But naturalisation and subsequent enfranchisement depend abso- lutely upon the goodwill of the Home Secretary for the time being. " He the Home Sec- retary shall have the right, with -or without giving his reasons, to refuse such certifi- cate of naturalisation, and from his decision there shall be no appeal." Vide " Naturalisation Act" of 1870. And the mere act of naturalisation does not ipso facto confer any political rights. Requirements : Seven years residence in the country; be- coming naturalised ; payment of 2 naturalisation fee; taking the oath of allegiance. Every alien who has resided for two years in the country is entitled to letters of naturalisation. These letters entitle him to vote at once for Members of the Second Volksraad and for certain officials of the State. The seven years' residence required to obtain the full franchise include the two years' required for naturalisation. There is no right in any official, as in the Home Secretary here, to refuse to grant letters of naturalisation. 3. Voting Qualifications. Various property or rating qualifications required to qualify British subjects for a vote in Great Britain, mostly tending to restrict voting D owers to the comparatively w ell-to-do. No qualifications whatsoever are required in the Transvaal to qualify Transvaal burghers for the full franchise beyond being of necessary age. 4. Registration Laws. Complex provisions which render the acquisition of voting powers difficult, and in effect disfranchise from 10 to 25 per cent, of the nominal electors at every election. There are none. All -the registration required is to enter the name in the register kept by the Field-cornet on entering the country or on removing from one town or district in-o another, and that one registrat tion holds good as long as the voter remains in the same field-cornetcy. A OOf \c\r\*~i ( 4 ) ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 5. Number of Votes. Plural voting largely pre- One man one. vote, only, vails. Another unfair privilege in favour of the well-to-do. 6. Office of Head of State. Hereditary. Elective ; the electers being all registered burghers of full age. 7 . Legisla tures. One House elective ; the Both Raads elective, and the other hereditary, obstructive, business of legislation divided unnecessary and anti-demo- between them ; the first Raad cratic. being, like the British House of Commons, the more impor- tant of the two bodies. 8. Duration of Parliaments. House of Commons elected Volksraads elected for four for seven years. years. 9. Payment of Members. None ; a fact which tends to All members of theVolksraads restrict membership to the paid at the rate of 3 per day wealthy. during the time the Volksraads are in Session ; but payment is stopped if members are absent without satisfactory excuse. 10. Attendance of Members. Parliament exercises no con- Members are liable to a fine trol over Members as regards of 75 "rix-dollars" (5 123. 6d.) attendance, etc. if absent without leave of the Volksraad. 1 1 . Election Expenses. So heavy that they practi- Non-existent. It is illegal cally debar any but the wealthy to spend money on elections from being elected to Par- in the Transvaal ; thus prevent- liament. ing corruption, and equalising the chances of rich and poor candidates. ( 5 ) ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 12. The None. The people have practically no voice in deciding the nature of legislation. Pro- mises are plentiful enough at election time, but the perform- ance is invariably very far short. Referendum. All laws except in cases of urgency having been sub- mitted by the Government to the Volksraad and the prin- ciples accepted are then pub- lished for three months in the Staatscourant, or Government Gazette, to enable the people to consider them, and the burghers either instruct their Members how to vote thereon or petition the Volksraad direct for or against the proposed law. 13. Legislators, Expounders of Laics. No such admirable principle obtains. 14. Making and R The nation may be bound to any extent by the Cabinet or even the Premier alone, by treaties with Foreign Powers, and by declaring and com- mencing war. The prerogative of the Crown means in prac- tice the absolute authority of the Cabinet. After each Session of the Volksraad each Member must repair to his constituency and render an account of his stewardship, and in particular must explain to the people the various laws passed during the Session just concluded. itijication of Treaties. The Government makes and enters into treaties, but they must be ratified by the First Volksraad before they become effective and binding. The same holds good as to declaring war. 15. Appointment of Head of Army. Commander -in -Chief; ap- Commandant-General; elec- pointed by the Crown. ted by popular vote. 1 6. Appointment of Military Officers. Army officers appointed by Commandants, Field-cornets, examination ; promoted f re- etc., who assume military rank quently by favoritism and in- in time of war, elected by fluence. popular vote. ( 6 ) ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 17. Composition of the Court-Martial. The Court-Martial is com- Eosed entirely of officers ; with icvitable tendency to class prejudices. The Court-Martial is com- posed of the Commandant- Genaral, or senior officer pre- sent, and four each of Com- mandants, Field-cornets or Assistant - Field - cornets, and burghers ; corresponding to English commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates respectively. (If the Commandant-General does not preside at a Court-Martial its sentence is subject to his rati- fication.) 18. Extent and Incidence of Taxation. Far heavier than would be necessary under a policy of " Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform ", and the bulk of it, being indirect, falls upon the poorer classes those least able to pay. Also heavier than necessary, but the bulk of it so arranged as to fall upon those best able to pay the wealthy mine- owners and land-speculators. The only direct personal taxa- tion amounts to i8s. 6d. per head per annum. Indirect taxation is mainly raised by customs duties, which, how- ever, are considerably lighter than those in the Cape Colony. There is no income tax at all. 19. Land Tax. Legitimate taxes on land shamefully evaded by the land- owners, and not nearly so heavy as they ought to be. Every farm bears a moderate tax. In the case of absentee landowners the tax is doubled, the extra revenue thus accru- ing to the State being devoted to war purposes. ENGLAND. 7 ) 20. State Church. TRANSVAAL. Supported by enormous en- dowments monopolised by one religious body exclusively. None, nor tithes. Formerly sums of money were occasion- ally voted by the Volksraad in favor of particular churches or ministers. But the latest of these grants was made in 1887. 21. Educational. Improving? but still far be- hind many other countries ; notably Germany and America. In the only cases where a com- parison can be made with the Transvaal it required over twenty-five years of agitation to secure the teaching in Welsh of Welsh children in Welsh schools ; and to this day their national language is prohibited as a medium of instruction to Irish children in Irish schools, and to Scotch Gaels in Gaelic. After a few years of agitation teaching in an alien tongue English was instituted in cer- tain Government subsidised schools, and schools were even established by the Government for the special benefit of English children in which the sole medium of teaching was English. In 1898 the last year for which returns are available the Transvaal spent five times as much per head of the population upon education as England. 22. Pauperism. One in every thirty-nine of the entire population of Great Britain and Ireland is a pauper. Not a workhouse in the State and no necessity for one. Owing to the special distress ensuing from the rinderpest visitation of 1897-8 certain of the im- poverished burghers were granted assistance by the Government. 23. Restriction upon the Immigration of Undesirable Aliens. None. A law was passed by the Volksraad and repealed in deference to the British Gov- ernment, who declared it to be in conflict with the London Convention. ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 24. Corruption. A Colonial Secretary proved to be interested in firms and companies contracting with the Government of which he is a member. A Civil Lord of the Admiralty, after assuming that Office, acquires a large interest in a company contracting with his department. The com- mercial life of the nation so rotten that only the year be- fore last the late Lord Chief Justice had to bring into Parlia- ment " A Bill to prevent, by making illegal, the giving or receiving of bribes under the name of commission," etc. The " Hooley revelations " and the scandals in connexion with Kynochs ; Tubes, Limited ; Hoskins and Sons, etc., are still fresh in the public memory ; and the " remounts ", " meat contracts", and other scandals arising out of the war still more so. Certain members of the Volksraad said to have accepted bribes in connexion with the Selati Railway Concession, etc. (N.B. Some of the men making these charges have recently been sentenced by the Belgian Court at Brussels to long terms of imprisonment for fraud upon the Transvaal Government in this very connexion.) Members of Transvaal Executive said to be corruptly interested in the Dynamite and other conces- sions. Public officials said to be corrupt and dishonest, but practically nothing proved ex- cept a shortage of cash in the cases of a few minor officials. 25. Right of Public Meeting. The police may summarily disperse any open-air meeting of more than fourteen persons, even although there be no dis- turbance or breach of the peace. In practice, for months the right of not only public but private meeting has been de- nied to the advocates of Peace by Jingo roughs ; a practice condoned by Ministers in the House of Commons. As re- gards the right of public meet- ing in Ireland the less said the better. No open-air meeting may be held without the consent of the Government having been pre- viously obtained . This law was only passed after the Jameson Raid. In practice, this " Public Meetings Law," as it is called, has been enforced three times. On two occasions meetings in favour of the Transvaal Govern- ment were prohibited, and once an Uitlander meeting, for the holding of which permission had not even been asked, was forbidden under exceptional circumstances, and rightly for- bidden. ( 9 ) ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 26. Right of Appeal in Criminal Cases. None. Has obtained to the fullest extent ever since the framing of the Transvaal Constitution in 1858. 27. Laws affecting Landlords and Tenants. Grossly unfair and partial, Absolutely impartial. Land- giving landlord an advantage lord has no preference under on every possible occasion, as any circumstances, but ranks e.g., right of distress for rent, as an ordinary creditor, and and of a preferential claim as takes the same chances as any creditor, etc. other. 28. The Gold Law. The gold mining industry in Admittedly the best in the North Wales was crushed by world and the most lenient, the excessive royalties de- Absolutely the only Gold Law manded by the Government. under which claims may be held for any length of time without a certain amount of work being put into them. Compare the five per cent, tax authorised but never imposed in the Transvaal on the profits of the gold-mines with the fifty per cent, levied in Rhodesia on the output under British rule. 29. Certificated Engine- Drivers. No certificate of competence All engine-drivers must have required. a Government certificate, to obtain which necessitates pass- ing a stiff examination. This, in the case of hauling engine- drivers ensures greater safety to the men wh@se lives are entrusted to their keeping when raising from or lowering into the mines. ENGLAND. TRANSVAAL. 30. Government Inspection of Boilers. None agitation to obtain it A reform long ago effected ; unsuccessful. also resulting in safer condi- tions of labour for the workers. 31. The Liquor Traffic. The despair of the reformer. Far more under control than Exerts a most powerful and in England. Absolute prohibi- baneful influence, scarcely, if tion as regards the natives. A anything inferior to that of the few years ago the Government land-owning classes. Drunken- effected a reduction of Bar ness denounced as the greatest Licenses in Johannesburg of scourge and curse of the fully twenty-five per cent, and country. further reductions were being made at each subsequent licen- sing session. During nearly thirteen years residence in the Transvaal the present writer never once saw a drunken Boer. Shortly before the war the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Mine Managers' Associa- tion jointly convened a mass meeting, which passed resolu- tions of thanks to the Govern- ment for the improved adminis- tration of the Liquor Law. Many other points of minor importance could be given comparing favourably with England, as, e.g., the appointment of the State-Secretary by the Volksraad, and the appoint- ment of the corresponding Minister in England the Home Secretary by the Premier. It is also worth mentioning that, notwithstanding their extreme religious bias, civil marriage only is recognised by the State in the Transvaal. Even in such a comparatively unimportant matter as the " Pawnbrokers' Act '' there is a very desirable provision which has no counterpart in the Eng- lish Law of the same name. This, is to the effect that any person desiring to pawn an article shall be required to make UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL A 000 031 031 8 a sworn declaration that the article is his or her own pro- perty, and no pawnbroker may take an article in pawn with- out the production of such an affidavit by the would-be pawner. This not only serves as a safeguard against the facilities offered for disposed of stolen property by pawning, but tends to restrict otherwise legitimate pawning by making it too troublesome a process. It may be mentioned, en passant, that pawnbroking was unknown in the Transvaal until the influx of Uitlanders led to its institution at Johannes- burg. But apart from these considerations, here we have enu- merated thirty-one points, having references to matters poli- tical, military, economical, and social, every one of great and many of supreme importance; and in the vast majority of them we find that from the democratic standpoint not only is the Transvaal abreast of England, but very far ahead. And it would certainly be impossible to name an equal number of matters of equal importance wherein Great Britain and its constitution and laws are in advance of the Transvaal. What a commentary is not the above compilation upon the assertion so persistently made that the Boers are a nation of barbarians, if not of savages ! So far from that being the case it may be said without the least exaggeration that in destroying the nationality of the Boers, the British Govern- ment is engaged in destroying the nearest approach to essen- tially democratic government that probably the world has ever seen; certainly, that exists at the present time. PRICE ONE PENNY (i^d. post free). London : A. & H. B. BONNER, i & 2 Took's Court, E.G. " MORNING LEADER" PAMPHLET DEPARTMENT, 30 St. Bride Street, E.G. SECOND EDITION White Labour in the Transvaal. BY EDWARD B. ROSE. PRICE ONE PENNY (post free i|d.). A. & H. B. BONNER, i & 2 Took's Court, London, E.G. " MORNING LEADER" PAMPHLET DEPARTMENT, 30 St. Bride Street, E.G.