main
force in the Republic. The Executive Council has exerted little power
and commanded little deference, while the Volksraad has usually been
guided by the President and has never taken the direction of affairs out
of his hands. Both legislation and administration have been carried on
in a rough-and-ready fashion, sometimes in violation of the strict
letter of the law. In particular the provision of the Grondwet, that no
statute should be enacted without being submitted for a period of three
months to the people, has been practically ignored by the enactment as
laws of a large number of resolutions on matters not really urgent,
although the Grondwet permits this to be done only in cases which do not
admit of delay. This has, however, been rectified by a law passed
subsequently to 1895, altering the provision of the Grondwet.

In 1881, when the Republic recovered its independence, there were
neither roads, railways, nor telegraphs in the country. Its towns were
rough hamlets planted round a little church. Its people had only the
bare necessaries of life. The taxes produced scarcely any revenue. The
treasury was empty, and the Government continued to be hard-pressed for
money and unable to construct public works or otherwise improve the
country till 1885, when the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand began
to turn a stream of gold into its coffers. Riches brought new
difficulties and new temptations. Immigrants rushed in,--capitalists,
miners, and traders. As the produce of the gold-field increased, it
became plain that they would come in ever increasing numbers. The old
Boers took alarm. The rush could hardly have been stopped, and to stop
it would have involved a check in the expansion of the revenue. It was
accordingly determined to maintain the political _status quo_ by
excluding these newcomers from political rights. The Grondwet declares
(Article VI.) that "the territory is open for every foreigner who obeys
the laws of the Republic," and as late as 1881 an immigrant could
acquire the electoral franchise after a residence of two years. In 1882,
however, this period was raised to five years, and in 1887 to fifteen.
In 1890, by which time the unenfranchised strangers had begun to agitate
for the right to be represented, a nominal concession was made by the
creation of a new chamber, called the Second Volksraad, for membership
in which a newcomer might be eligible after taking an oath of allegiance
followed by four