ut 'the agency' was bestowed upon a partner of
the gentleman who had formerly owned the concession, the President
himself vigorously defending this course and ignoring his own
judgment on the case uttered a few months previously. _Land en Volk_,
the Pretoria Dutch newspaper, exposed the whole of this transaction,
including the system of bribery by which the concessionaries secured
their renewal, and among other things made the charge which it has
continued to repeat ever since that Mr. J.M.A. Wolmarans, member
of the Executive, received a commission of one shilling per case
on every case sold during the continuance of the agency as a
consideration for his support in the Executive Council, and that he
continues to enjoy this remuneration, which is estimated now to be
not far short of L10,000 a year. Mr. Wolmarans, for reasons of pride
or discretion, has declined to take any notice of the charge,
although frequently pressed to take action in the matter. It is
calculated that the burden imposed upon the Witwatersrand Mines alone
amounts to L600,000 per annum, and is, of course, daily increasing.

[The Franchise Laws.]

The question of the franchise, which has achieved the greatest
prominence in the Uitlander agitation, is one with which few people
even in the Transvaal are familiar, so many and peculiar have been
the changes effected in the law. Lawyers differ as to whether certain
laws revoke or merely supplement previous ones, and the President
himself--to the grim amusement of the Uitlanders--frequently goes
astray when he speaks on franchise. The first law on burgher and
electoral rights is No. 1 of 1876, which remained in force until
1882. By it the possession of landed property or else residence for
one year qualified the settler for full burgher privileges. Law No. 7
of 1882 was the first attempt of the restored Republic to deal with
the question. It was then enacted that an alien could be naturalized
and enfranchised after five years' residence, such residence to be
proved by the Field-cornet's books of registration. It has already
been explained that these records in nine cases out of ten were
either improperly kept or non-existent.

In 1890 Law No. 4 was passed, creating the Second Volksraad and
altering the Grondwet (or constitution) accordingly. By this law the
franchise was indirectly altered without repealing those portions
which may be at variance with or repugnant to the implied
alterations, and this wa