er of the assembly might be obscured by the chiefs of the parties.

The people of the Free State were well satisfied with their
constitution, and showed little disposition to alter it. Some of the
wisest heads, however, told me that they thought two improvements were
needed: a provision that amendments to the constitution, after having
passed the Volksraad, should be voted on by the people (as in the Swiss
Referendum), and a provision securing to the judges their salaries, and
their independence of the Volksraad. It is interesting to notice that
both here and in the Transvaal the gravest constitutional questions that
have arisen turn on the relations between the legislative and the
judicial departments. Some years ago the Free State Volksraad claimed
the right to commit a person to prison for contempt, and to direct the
State attorney to prosecute him. The Chief Justice, a distinguished
lawyer, and his colleagues felt bound to resist what they thought an
unconstitutional stretch of power by the Raad. At first they seemed
likely to be defeated, but by using their opportunities of charging
juries to insist on their views they brought public opinion round to
their side, and the Raad ultimately retired from the position it had
taken up, leaving the question of right undetermined. It has never been
definitely settled whether the courts of law are in the Free State (as
in the United States), the authorized interpreters of the constitution,
though upon principle it would seem that they are. These South African
Constitutions were drafted by simple men in an untechnical way, so that
many legal points obvious to the minds of English or American lawyers
were left untouched, and have now to be settled either on principle or
according to the will of what may happen to be the predominant power for
the time being. It is, perhaps, better that they should remain in
abeyance until public opinion has grown more instructed and has had
fuller opportunities of considering them.

Small as is the white population of the Orange Free State, its
geographical position and the high average quality of its citizens
secure for it a position of great significance in South African
politics; and the attitude it might take would be an important factor in
any dispute between the British Government and the Transvaal Republic.
The troubles of December, 1895, drew it nearer to the Transvaal, for the
Free State Boers have strong political sympathy with their n