race for intimating to the Raad their views
on any prospective law, "those laws, however, which admit of no
delay excepted." Others constitute an Executive Council, "which
shall also recommend to the Raad all officers for the public
service"; others refer to the liberty of the press; restrict
membership of the Volksraad to members of the Dutch Reformed
Congregations; state that "the people do not desire to allow amongst
them any Roman Catholic Churches, nor any other Protestant Churches
except those in which such tenets of the Christian belief are taught
as are prescribed in the Heidelberg Catechism"; and give the
Volksraad the power of making treaties, save in time of war or of
imminent danger.

The members of the Raad were to be twelve in number at least, and
were to be between the ages of thirty and sixty. They must be
burghers of the Dutch Reformed Church, residents, and owners of
landed property in the Republic; no native nor bastard was to be
admitted to the Raad. At the age of twenty-one every burgher,
provided he belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, was entitled to
the franchise. The election of the President to a five years' term
of office was in the hands of the burghers, and in this office he
was to be supported by an Executive Council consisting of the
Commandant-General, two burghers qualified to vote, and a Secretary.
All the able-bodied men of the Republic, and if necessary natives,
were liable to military service.

No sooner was the Grondwet arranged than Marthinus Wessels
Pretorius, the son of the chief Andries Pretorius,--who died in
1853--was elected President of the South African Republic. The next
few years were spent in internal dissension, consequent on the
ambition of the President and the jealousy of his political rivals.
Finally Lydenburg, which had struggled to proclaim itself an
independent Republic, yielded, and affairs relating to the
government of the country seemed to be mending. Still there were
always Messrs. Kruger and Schoeman, two adventurous politicians, who
kept things lively in the councils of the State. On the retirement
of Pretorius from the Free State Presidency in 1864, and his
re-election to that of the South African Republic, Mr. Kruger was
appointed Commandant-General, and for the time being his ambitious
longings were appeased.

At that period the white population consisted of merely about thirty
thousand all told. The native community almost trebled the Dutch.
Mr.