Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/277

TRANSVAAL. 215 raad and of the President of the republic. For these offices those only are eligible who are natives of Transvaal or residents of fifteen years' standing, pro- fessing the Protestant religion, and owners of a domain within the limits of the State. The legislative power is vested in the Volksraad, which consists of forty- four members elected for four years, one-half retiring every two years. Each district returns three delegates, besides which each mining district is represented in the Assembly by a member appointed by a syndicate of the miners. All signa- tories to a petition for the annexation of Transvaal are ip%o facto excluded from the right of suffrage and from all public offices. Dutch is the official language of the Volksraad, which holds its sessions in Pretoria. The President is elected for five years by all enfranchised burghers, and is assisted in his executive functions by a council of five members : the State Secretary, the Commander of the military forces, the Minister of Mines, and two non-official delegates named by the Volksraad. The suzerainty of Great Britain, restricted to the control of the foreign rela- tions of the republic, is little more than nominal. But even the present constitu- tion, which has been frequently amended since the proclamation of the " Thirty- three Articles " in May, 1849, is itself only provisionary. The patriotic Boers of South Africa still dream of the day when the two republics of the Orange and the Transvaal, at first connected by a common customs union, will be consolidated in a single " African Holland," possibly even in a broader confederacy comprising all the Afrikanders from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambese, The Boer families grouped in every town throughout South Africa form collectively a single nationality, despite the accident of political frontiers. The question of the future union has already been frequently discussed by the delegates of the two conter- minous republics. But imless these visions can be realised during the present generation, they are foredoomed to failure. Owing to the unprogressive character of the purely Boer communities, and to the rapid expansion of the English- speaking peoples by natural increase, by direct immigration, and by the assimila- tion of the Boers themselves, the future " South African Dominion " can in any case never be an "African Holland." Whenever the present political divisions are merged in one state, that state must sooner or later constitute rather an " African England," whether consolidated under the suzerainty of Great Britain or on the basis of absolute political autonomy. But the internal elements of dis- order and danger are too multifarious to allow the European inhabitants of Austral Africa for many generations to dispense with the protection of the English sceptre. The Transvaal Republic has no standing army beyond a small force of horse artillery, but in case of war all able-bodied citizens are obliged to serve. The revenue — derived chiefly from the sale of lands, the customs, the hut tax payable by the natives, and the dues levied on mines — has increased more than threefold since 1880. Hitherto the annual surplus over the normal expenditure has been chiefly applied to developing the telegraph system. The public debt, which in 1882 exceeded £560,000, was reduced in 1884 to less than £400,000. It is partly a