nsvaal justice, that our Sovereign had power to dismiss at will from
office any judge or judges who might have exercised independence of
judgment and pronounced a verdict displeasing to Parliament or to
herself personally! Such is law and justice in the Transvaal; and that
country is called a Republic! "This is Transvaal justice," says M.
Naville; "a mockery, an ingenious legalizing of tyranny. There are no
laws, there are only the caprices of the Raad. A vote in a secret
sitting, that is what binds the Judges, and according to it they will
administer justice. The law of to-day will perhaps not be the law
to-morrow. The fifteen members of the majority, or rather President
Kruger, who influences their votes, may change their opinion from one
day to the next--it matters not; their opinion, formulated by a vote,
will always be law. Woe to the judge who should dare to mention the
Constitution or the Code, for there is one: he would at once be
dismissed by the President who appointed him."

It was prescribed by the Grondwet that no new law should be passed by
Parliament (the Volksraad) unless notice of it had been given three
months in advance, and the people had had the opportunity to pronounce
upon it. This did not suit the President; accordingly when desirous of
legalizing some new project of his own, he adopted the plan of bringing
in such project as an addition or amendment to some existing law, giving
it out as _no new law_, but only a supplementary clause. Law No. 1 of
1897 was manipulated in this manner. By this law, the Judges of the High
Court were formally deprived of the right to test the validity of any
law in its relation to the Constitution, and they were also compelled to
accept as law, without question or reservation of any kind, any
resolution passed at any time and under any circumstances by the
Volksraad. This Law No. 1 of 1897 was passed through all its stages in
three days, without being subjected in the first instance to the people.

But I am especially concerned with what affects the natives.

Article 1 of this section says:--A native must not own fixed property.

(2) He must not marry by civil or ecclesiastical process.

(3) He must not be allowed access to Civil Courts in any action against
a white man.

Article 9 of the Grondwet is not only adhered to, but is exaggerated in
its application as follows:--"The people shall not permit any equality
of coloured persons with white inhabitants, neithe