the government of South Africa a
legislature of two houses--a Senate and a House of Assembly--and with
it an executive of ministers on the customary tenure of cabinet
government. This government, strangely enough, is to inhabit two
capitals: Pretoria as the seat of the Executive Government and Cape
Town as the meeting-place of the Parliament. The experiment is a novel
one. The case of Simla and Calcutta, in each of which the Indian
Government does its business, and on the strength of which Lord Curzon
has defended the South-African plan, offers no real parallel. The truth
is that in South Africa, as in Australia, it proved impossible to
decide between the claims of rival cities. Cape Town is the mother city
of South Africa. Pretoria may boast the memories of the fallen
republic, and its old-time position as the capital of an independent
state. Bloemfontein has the advantage of a central position, and even
garish Johannesburg might claim the privilege of the money power. The
present arrangement stands as a temporary compromise to be altered
later at the will of the parliament.

The making of the Senate demanded the gravest thought. It was desired
to avoid if possible the drowsy nullity of the Canadian Upper House and
the preponderating "bossiness" of the American. Nor did the example of
Australia, where the Senate, elected on a "general ticket" over huge
provincial areas, becomes thereby a sort of National Labor Convention,
give any assistance in a positive direction. The plan adopted is to
cause each present provincial parliament, and later each provincial
council, to elect eight senators. The plan of election is by
proportional representation, into the arithmetical juggle of which it
is impossible here to enter. Eight more senators will be appointed by
the Governor, making forty in all. Proportional representation was
applied also in the first draft of the constitution to the election of
the Assembly.

It was thought that such a plan would allow for the representation of
minorities, so that both Dutch and British delegates would be returned
from all parts of the country. Unhappily, the Afrikanderbond--the
powerful political organization supporting Mr. Merriman, and holding
the bulk of the Dutch vote at the Cape--took fright at the proposal.
Even Merriman and his colleagues had to vote it down.

Without this they could not have saved the principle of "equal rights,"
which means the more or less equal (proportionate)