s Erasmus Smith, the Boer predicant, argued
in vain in behalf of his flock. In the end the Boer women passed a
unanimous resolution that rather than submit to English rule they would
emigrate once more. Pointing to the Drakensberg Mountains, the oldest of
the women said: "We go across those mountains to freedom or to death." Over
these mountains almost the whole population of Natal trekked their way into
the uninhabited regions beyond. Only 300 families remained, the ancestors
of some 10,000 Afrikanders of Natal in later days. On the other side of the
Orange and Vaal Rivers the Boer emigrants founded once more their
commonwealth, known later as the Transvaal, or South African Republic.

In Australia the first representative constitution was granted to the
English colonists of New South Wales. Almost simultaneously with this began
the agitation for separating Victoria from New South Wales.

[Sidenote: "The Sliding Scale"]

[Sidenote: British Income Tax]

In England, early in the Parliamentary session, Sir Robert Peel on behalf
of the government moved his famous bill for a sliding scale of the duties
on corn. In the debate that followed, the most notable speeches were made
by Cobden and Macaulay, who advocated complete free trade. In spite of all
opposition, the bill in an unamended form reached its third reading and was
passed on the 5th of April. The most serious difficulty confronting the
government was a financial deficit of L2,570,000, to which had to be added
the heavy expenditures for the wars in India and China. To fill up this
deficiency, Peel resorted to the levy of an income tax. To make this
unpopular tax more acceptable a number of minor mischievous taxes were
abolished. Thus rendered palatable, this bill, too, was carried through
Parliament with tolerable speed, and was passed with handsome majorities by
both Houses. It called for a tax of sevenpence on every pound of annual
income above L150.

[Sidenote: Copyright reform]

[Sidenote: "Lays of Ancient Rome"]

[Sidenote: "Locksley Hall"]

In emulation of the new provisions for copyright in France, a bill was
brought in to extend English copyright from twenty-eight to forty-two
years. Among the considerations which prompted Parliament to perform this
long delayed act of justice was the recent lamented death of Sir Walter
Scott. The royalties on his works were the only resource left to his
family, and the copyright on the most important of them, the Wav