s power rests justly with the courts of law, and I
can only say that if this Bill becomes law the power of the Executive
Government of this country would be as absolute as the power of the
Czar of Russia. We shall have said goodbye finally to the last
principle of liberty.

PRESIDENT KRUGER INDICTED.

Coming to the Executive Government, we find that there is no true
responsibility to the people, none of the great departments of State
are controlled by Ministerial officers in the proper sense, the
President's will is virtually supreme, and he, with his unique
influence over the legislators of the House, State-aided by an able
if hostile State Secretary, has been the author of every act directed
against the liberties of the people. It is well that this should be
recognized. It is well that President Kruger should be known for what
he is, and that once for all the false pedestal on which he has so
long stood should be destroyed. I challenge contradiction when I
state that no important Act has found a place on the Statute-book
during the last ten years without the seal of President Kruger's will
upon it; nay, he is the father of every such Act. Remember that
all legislation is initiated by the Government, and, moreover,
President Kruger has expressly supported every Act by which we and
our children have been deprived by progressive steps of the right to
acquire franchise, by which taxation has been imposed upon us almost
exclusively, and by which the right and the liberty of the Press and
the right of public meeting have been attacked.

THE JUDGES AND THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT.

Now we come to the judicial system. The High Court of this country
has, in the absence of representation, been the sole guardian of
our liberties. Although it has on the whole done its work ably,
affairs are in a very unsatisfactory position. The judges have
been underpaid, their salaries have never been secure, the most
undignified treatment has been meted out to them, and the status
and independence of the Bench have on more than one occasion been
attacked. A deliberate attempt was made two years ago by President
Kruger and the Government to reduce the bench to a position
subordinate to the Executive Government, and only recently we had in
the Witfontein matter the last of the cases in which the Legislature
interfered with vested rights of action. The administration of
justice by minor officials, by native commissioners, and by
field-cornet