ght the Council was a useful part of the
scheme of government, because it interposed delay in legislation and
gave time for reflection and further debate. One point came out pretty
clearly. No difficulty is deemed to arise from the fact that there exist
two popularly elected houses equally entitled to control the
administration,[77] for custom has settled that the Assembly or larger
house is that whose vote determines the life of a ministry. But it
follows from this circumstance that the most able and ambitious men
desire a seat in the more powerful chamber, leaving the smaller house to
those of less mark. This is the exact reverse of what has happened in
the United States; where a seat in the Senate is more desired than one
in the House; but it is a natural result of the diverse arrangements of
the two countries, for in the Federal Government the Senate has some
powers which the House of Representatives does not enjoy, while in each
of the several States of the Union, although the powers of the two
houses are almost the same, the smaller number of each Senate secures
for a senator somewhat greater importance than a member of the larger
body enjoys. The Cape Colony plan of letting a minister speak in both
houses works very well, and may deserve to be imitated in England, where
the fact that the head of a department can explain his policy only to
his own House has sometimes caused inconvenience.

So much for the machinery. Now let us note the chief points in which the
circumstances of Cape Colony and of Natal (for in these respects both
Colonies are alike) differ from those of the other self-governing
Colonies of Britain.

The population is not homogeneous as regards race, but consists of two
stocks, English and Dutch. These stocks are not, as in Canada, locally
separate, but dwell intermixed, though the Dutch element predominates in
the western province and in the interior generally, the English in the
eastern province and at the Kimberley diamond-fields.

The population is homogeneous as regards religion, for nearly all are
Protestants, and Protestants of much the same type. Race difference has
fortunately not been complicated, as in Canada, by ecclesiastical
antagonisms.

The population is homogeneous as respects material interests, for it is
wholly agricultural and pastoral, except a few merchants and artisans in
the seaports, and a few miners at Kimberley and in Namaqualand.
Four-fifths of it are practically rur