tive
authority, meeting annually, and in extra sessions when summoned, and
its consent is required to the making of treaties and to a declaration
of war. The President has no veto on its acts, and the heads of the
executive departments do not sit in it.

The obligation of military service is universal on all citizens between
the ages of sixteen and sixty.

The constitution can be altered by the Volksraad, but only by a
three-fourths majority in two consecutive annual sessions. It is
therefore a Rigid constitution, like that of the United States and that
of Switzerland.

This simple scheme of government seems calculated to throw nearly all
the power in the hands of the legislature, leaving the President
comparatively weak. Nevertheless, in point of fact the Presidents have
been very important figures, partly because there have been no parties
in the legislature, and therefore no party leaders. From 1863 till his
death in 1888, the whole policy of the State was guided by President
Brand, a lawyer from the Cape, whom the people elected for five
successive terms. His power of sitting in and addressing the Volksraad
proved to be of the utmost value, for his judgment and patriotism
inspired perfect confidence. His successor, Mr. F. W. Reitz, who at the
time of my visit (November, 1895) had just been obliged by ill-health to
retire from office, enjoyed equal respect, and when he chose to exert
it, almost equal influence with the legislature, and things went
smoothly under him. I gathered that Judge Steyn, who was elected
President early in 1896, was similarly respected for his character and
abilities, and was likely to enjoy similar weight. So the Speaker of the
legislature has been an influential person, because his office devolves
upon him functions which the absence of a Cabinet makes important. The
fact is that in every government, give it what form you please, call it
by what name you will, individual men are the chief factors, and if the
course of things is such that the legislature does not become divided
into parties and is not called on to produce conspicuous leaders,
general leadership will fall to the executive head if he is fit to
assume it, and legislative leadership to the chairman of the assembly.
Were questions to arise splitting up the people and the legislature into
factions, the situation would change at once. Oratorical gifts and
legislative strategy would become valuable, and the President or the
Speak