hold their places
in the council for ten years. The house of assembly to consist of
members elected for five years. The franchise to be possessed by
occupiers of tenements of the value of L25. The sessions were to be
annual. The colonists received this constitution with unbounded joy, and
petitioned the queen to grant this as the charter of the colony, without
any reference to the legislative council then existing, in which the
petition declared that the people had no confidence. The granting of a
constitution to the Cape was the result of the energetic requests of the
colonists, their dissatisfaction with the administration of Earl Grey in
the colonial office in London, and the demands of the English House of
Commons: the matter was also expedited by the enormous charges for the
Caffre war upon the imperial exchequer, which the English government
and parliament were anxious to escape; the readiest and safest mode of
accomplishing which the House of Commons declared was by granting to the
colonists self-government. Lord Derby, regretting the liberty conceded
to the colonists, threw obstacles in the way of the measure, but, by a
very small majority, he was defeated in the House of Lords.

The rebellion at the Cape of Good Hope was prolonged during the opening
months of 1851, and finally died out from the exhaustion of the enemy,
in the presence of reinforcements of British troops. As tidings of its
progress arrived in England, they occasioned grave discussions in the
press, and party debates in parliament.

The Cape of Good Hope alone, of all the British colonies, was a source
of public anxiety during the year 1851. India, so often the field of
conflict, triumph, and disaster, afforded comparatively few incidents of
great public interest suited to the records of a general history. Peace,
loyalty, material development, and prosperity characterised the colonial
chronicle of the year.

_Discovery of Gold in Australia_.--In September news reached England of
the discovery of gold fields at Bathurst, in New South Wales. Before
the close of the year intelligence was received in England of fresh
discoveries; these were in Victoria. The immediate consequence of the
gold discoveries was disadvantageous to the colonies, as men of
all trades and professions forsook their callings to repair to the
"diggings," and the shepherds abandoned their flocks, so that hundreds
of thousands of stock were lost, or perished. The ultimate effect