Page:South Africa (1878 Volume 2).djvu/270

This page needs to be proofread.

be liable to burgher duty,—which means fighting,—till they be 60 years old.

Burghers of 18 are entitled to vote for Field Cornets and Field Commandants. To vote for a member of the Volksraad or for the President a burgher must be 21, must have been born in the State,—when no property qualification is necessary,—or must be the registered owner of property to the value of £150, or be the lessor of a property worth £36 per annum; or have a yearly income of £200, or possess moveable property worth £300.

From this it will be seen that the parliamentary system of the Republic is protected from a supposed evil by a measure of precaution which would be altogether inadmissible in any Constitution requiring the sanction of the British Crown. No coloured person can vote for a Member of Parliament. However expedient it may be thought by Englishmen to exclude Kafirs or Zulus from voting till such changes shall have been made in their habits as to make them fit for the privilege, the restrictions made for that purpose must with us be common both to the coloured and to the white population. We all feel that no class legislation as to the privilege of voting should be adopted and that in giving or withholding qualification no allusion should be made to race or colour. But the Dutch of the Free State have no such scruple. They at once proclaim that this privilege shall be confined to those in whose veins European blood runs pure. I will here say nothing as to the comparative merits of British latitude or of Dutch restraint, but I will ask my readers to consider whether it be probable that a people who