lander population is
also oppressed by the legislature of this country, the Press Law, the
Aliens Expulsion Law, and Law No. 1 of 1897 being especially instanced.
But it can also be proved that the population of the gold fields have no
solid grounds of complaint in regard to the laws in question.

Respecting the existing Press Laws, No. 26 of 1896, and No. 14 of 1898,
it is necessary to remark that no printer, issuer, or editor of a
newspaper can be prosecuted unless he has made himself guilty of
criminal libel, so that the principle of the Grondwet of 1858 has in
this respect been rigidly adhered to. Her Majesty's Government will at
once see that these laws cannot in any way bear harshly upon the writing
public, a fact which is clearly borne out by the way in which the
newspapers of this country are edited. Nowhere else in the world has the
liberty of the Press so degenerated into license. No newspaper in any
country in the world would for one moment dare to speak of the
Government, the Legislature, and authorities of the country as the
_Star_, the _Transvaal Leader_, and similar newspapers do every day in
this Republic.

The imaginary nature of these grievances is not dispelled by the fact
that the power is vested in the State President of prohibiting either
entirely or provisionally the circulation of any printed matter which is
contrary to good morals or public order, because the very same Supreme
Court, which in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government only exists at
the mercy of this Government, has pronounced that it has no power to
prohibit the circulation of any newspaper; the freedom of the regular
Press thus remains as unrestricted as under the old Grondwet.

As a matter of fact, any person who has any practical experience of the
Press of this Republic will regard the accusation as ridiculous, and as
evincing an entire ignorance of the true facts. This power has not been
exercised by the Judges on many occasions, but only once, and in that
instance the High Court annulled the decision.

With regard to the Aliens Expulsion Law, this, like the Press Law, ought
to be estimated according to its spirit and operation. Since this law
has come into force the State President has only on one occasion made
use of the power vested in him of expelling an undesirable individual,
and his action was endorsed by the approval of the Press and the public
of the country. As similar laws exist in nearly every civilised country