d from Palestine, or used as hewers of wood and drawers of water,
but with added prejudice due to the difference of colour. So it was in
the case of the early Dutch settlers, and so it is to-day, with a few
exceptions, due mainly to the influence of the missionaries, whose work
among the natives has from the first been objected to and hindered. It
is only by social sufferance, and not by law, that the marriage of
natives with Christian rites is recognised, and it carries with it none
of the conditions as regards inheritance and the like, which are
prescribed by the Dutch Roman code in force with white men. As a matter
of fact, natives have no legal rights whatever. If they are in the
service of humane masters, mindful of their own interests and moral
obligations, they may be properly lodged and fed, not overworked, and
fairly recompensed; but from the cruelties of a brutal master,
perpetrated in cold blood or a drunken fit, the native practically has
no redress."

The Rev. John H. Bovill, Rector of the Cathedral Church, Lorenco
Marquez, and sometime Her Majesty's Acting Consul there, has worked for
five years in a district from which numbers of natives were drawn for
work in the Transvaal, has visited the Transvaal from time to time, and
is well acquainted with Boers of all classes and occupations. He has
given us some details of the working out--especially as regards the
natives--of the principles of the Grondwet or Constitution of the
Transvaal.

To us English, the most astonishing feature, to begin with, of this
Constitution, is that it places the power of the Judiciary below that of
the Raad or Legislative Body. The Judges of the Highest Court of Law are
not free to give judgment according to evidence before them and the
light given to them. A vote of the Raad, consisting of a mere handful of
men in secret sitting, can at any time override and annul a sentence of
the High Court.

This will perhaps be better understood if we picture to ourselves some
great trial before Lord Russell and others of our eminent judges, in
which any laws bearing on the case were carefully tested in connection
with the principles of our Constitution; that this supreme Court had
pronounced its verdict, and that the next day Parliament should discuss,
with closed doors, the verdict of the judges, and by a vote or
resolution, should declare it unjust and annul it.

Let us imagine, to follow the matter a little further on the lines of
Tra