gh the
House of Commons. Unfortunate as these bickerings were, they had at
least the result of tending to unite the Dutch and English elements in
the population, for on native questions there was little difference of
attitude between those elements.

In 1834 a Legislative Council was created, consisting, however, of
officials and of members nominated by the Governor, and not, as the
colonists had petitioned, chosen by election. Twenty years later, when
the population had greatly increased and the demand for representative
institutions could no longer be resisted, a regular two-chambered
legislature was set up, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House
of Assembly, both elected on a wide franchise, with no distinction of
race or colour, though of course the coloured voters were comparatively
few, because the tribal Kafirs living under their chiefs were excluded,
while of other blacks there was only a small proportion who held
property even to the limited extent required for the suffrage. This
legislature met for the first time in 1854. Four years previously an
event had occurred which showed how desirable it was that
constitutional means should be provided for the expression of the
people's wishes. The home government had sent out a vessel carrying a
number of convicts to be landed and kept in the Colony, where no
convicts had been seen since the days of the Dutch Company. A strong and
unanimous feeling arose at once against this scheme, which was regarded
as likely to prove even more harmful in South Africa than it had proved
in Australia, because there was at the Cape a large native population,
among whom the escaped or released convict, possessing the knowledge and
capacity of a white man, but unrestrained by any responsibility or sense
of a character to lose, would be able to work untold mischief. The
inhabitants of Cape Town and its neighbourhood held meetings of protest,
sent remonstrances to England, and mutually pledged themselves to supply
no food to the convict ship. This pledge they carried out, and during
the five months that the convict ship lay in Simon's Bay, it was from
the naval squadron there that she had to receive provisions. The
Colonial Office at last yielded; and the people, while rejoiced at the
success they had achieved, and at the heartiness with which Dutch and
English had co-operated for a common object, were more than ever
disposed to desire some control over their own affairs.

Altho