voted by the French Chamber last year. Our answer to
him is that the violation of the most elementary principles of justice
in one country, does not justify it in another. He proceeds:
"The Boer Government is said to be an oligarchy. And yet every
citizen has his vote--Throughout the land there are juries...."
Really Dr. Kuyper affects too great _naivete_. The Boers may have
created a democracy among themselves; with regard to natives and
Uitlanders they are an oligarchy.
"Every citizen has his vote": But Mr. Krueger's argument for refusing the
franchise to Uitlanders is that they numbered 70,000, while the Burghers
were only 30,000. Here we have a minority governing the majority; what
else is an oligarchy?
"Throughout the land there are juries"; yes, but juries made up of Boers
who try Uitlanders, treat them as enemies, and find that the policeman
Jones acted rightly in killing Edgar. That way of constituting a jury is
a certainty of injustice to the Uitlanders, and not a guarantee of
justice.
President Krueger promised to do something for the municipal organisation
of Johannesburg; this is how he keeps his promise. Each division of that
town elects two members, a Burgher and an Uitlander; according to the
last census, the burghers living in Johannesburg, numbered 1,039; the
Uitlanders 23,503; thus 1,039 burghers had as many representatives in
the municipal Corporation as the 23,503 Uitlanders. The Mayor, who was
nominated by the Government, had the right of absolute veto.
In modern law there exists a principle introduced by England, which is
the true basis of representative Government: "no representation, no
taxation." It is the right of every citizen who contributes to the taxes
to approve of them and to control the use of them.
In autocratic governments, he has no such right. In oligarchic
governments, the governing class imposes burdens upon those it governs.
This is the case in the Transvaal.
In an oligarchy, taxes are not levied with a view to the general good of
the community, but for the benefit of the ruling class; and this is the
political conception of the Boers.
Dr. Kuyper says, in speaking of the Uitlanders:
"No one invited them here; they came of their own accord."
Therefore they possess the right to be taxed, but nothing else.
Dr. Kuyper's assertion is not strictly correct; for he forgets the
invitation addressed by Mr. Krueger, in London in 1884, to all who were
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