Penal Settlement in the Colony
When it was understood at the Cape that the Imperial Government proposed to establish a penal settlement in the Colony, similar to the one which had been formed at Botany Bay, the indignation aroused was immediate and intense, petitions and protests were sent in great number to London, meetings were held throughout the Colony, and when the Neptune arrived in Simon's Bay, Cape Town, with convicts on board, nearly all the people of the Peninsula bound themselves together in a pledge to supply nothing to the ship or to have any dealings with persons connected with it. Sir Harry Smith, who was then Governor, had expressed his own strong opposition to the plan; but he was compelled to obey his orders from home and could not therefore send the vessel back. For five months it lay in the Harbor, supplied from passing men-of-war and treated by the Colonists as though the plague were within its wooden walls. And then, at last, came the order—in frank and acknowledged response to the petitions of the Colonists—transferring its convict cargo to Tasmania.
A New Constitution
Four years after the satisfactory settlement of this vexed question came the grant of Parliamentary institutions to the Colony. This action was part of a general Colonial plan by which full responsible or ministerial government was established in Canada, under Lord Elgin—there had long been elective legislatures in the British-American Provinces—and a system formulated in the Australias similar to that of the Cape. The details of the proposed changes were left by the Colonial Office largely in the hands of the Governor and the appointive Legislative Council, which had been created in 1834, and it was therefore not expected that the result would be extreme in a democratic sense. The new constitution was promulgated on March 11, 1853, and by its terms an elective House of Assembly numbering forty-six members was created—afterwards increased to seventy-six, and with a five years' limit in time as against the earlier seven years period. The Upper Chamber or Legislative Council was, to the surprise of many, also made elective. It consisted of fifteen members, who were afterwards increased to twenty-two, with the Chief Justice of the Colony as an additional member and ex-officio President. The right to vote for both Houses was given to every male British subject over twenty-one years of age who occupied a house or land worth $125, or was in receipt of a salary or mixed remuneration valued at $250. There was no distinction as to race, color, religion or mode of life, and this pronounced measure of electoral liberty was a matter of constant friction in the minds of the Dutch settlers—so far as they cared in these years to think or trouble themselves about the affairs of an alien rule. The legislation, however, was more important as the enunciation of a principle than because of its working out in practice at this particular period. There were few natives for many years in a position to take advantage of even this low franchise, and, of course, all who continued to share in the tribal system were absolutely debarred. Right to Vote Limited In 1892 the right to vote was limited by fresh legislation—resulting from the rising political power of the Afrikander Bund and the Dutch dislike to the natives—to such adult males as were able to sign their names and write down their addresses and employment. The franchise qualification was raised to a property one of $375, while the wage qualification was allowed to remain as it had been.
The First Parliament of the Colony
The first Parliament of the Colony met in June, 1854, and from that time onward all laws had to be sanctioned by both Houses and approved by the Governor. As elsewhere in the Empire the right of disallowance was reserved to the Queen for a given period after such laws reached London, but in practice the power was, and is, seldom used. Like so many of the apparently dormant prerogatives of the Crown it is, however, available for an emergency. Following this creation of Parliamentary institutions came the usual struggle for Parliamentary control over the appointments to office, over the expenditure of money, and over the personnel of the Governor's Council. As in other Colonies, it was found impossible to construct in a day, or a year, an exact imitation of Great Britain's Cabinet and governmental system, with all its complex Parliamentary code, its elaborate constitutional checks and counter-checks, its numerous traditions and precedents. And there was, of course, the same difficulty as Canada had already faced and overcome—the presence of a large electoral population with no hereditary or natural adaptability to the British constitutional system, and without, in some cases, the basis of cordial loyalty which is so essential to its successful operation. At first, therefore, the officials of the Executive Council (or what afterwards became the Ministry) were appointed by the Colonial Secretary. They framed the financial legislation of the Government and introduced it to the House of Assembly, and they held the right of discussion, though not of voting, in both Houses. This system was maintained for eighteen years, and, in view of England's heavy financial responsibilities in South Africa, the racial condition of Cape Colony itself and the continuous troubles everywhere with natives and Boers, it was, perhaps, as well that the threads of government should be largely held in London. And this may be said despite all the vacillations of the Colonial Office. Had there been firmness and continuity in the general Home policy concerning South Africa, there could be no question at all upon this point.
Wise Administration
Meanwhile, Sir George Grey had been distinguishing himself by a singularly wise administration between the years 1854 and 1859. He conciliated the Hottentots of the Colony by granting certain claims which had been long and fruitlessly pressed upon the authorities. He settled tor a time the native troubles in Kaffraria, and founded a great hospital for natives, in which, by 1890, more than 130,000 cases had been treated, and the resulting cures heralded in many corners of "Darkest Africa" as a proof of the Englishman's power and unexpected beneficence. He despatched troops to India at a critical period of the Mutiny and upon his own responsibility, settled the German Legion from the Crimea in the Colony, and brought out a number of German families for its members to marry into. Finally, during his first Governorship, he urged the union of the Legislatures of the Cape, Natal and Orange Free State in a common federal system, and at a time when the Free State might easily have been persuaded to accept the policy. But the Colonial Office would have none of it. Unfortunately, and to the lasting injury of South Africa, the Home Government distrusted him, and in 1858 he was recalled.
Sir George Grey Reappointed
The Derby Administration, however, met with defeat while Sir George Grey was on the sea, and when he reached London it was to find that he had been reappointed to his position. It long afterwards became known that this was done by the personal command of the Queen, who had appreciated the policy he pursued and had sympathized with his proposed federal scheme.[[1]] But despite this fact the new Government, as a whole, was so strongly opposed to the much-feared increase of responsibilities, under a federation in South Africa, that Sir George Grey was obliged to forego the hope of even attempting to carry his schema further. During his second administration, which only lasted until 1861, he entertained Prince Alfred (the Duke of Edinburgh), and traversed with him a great part of Cape Colony, Kaffraria and Natal; improved to an immense extent the splendid natural Harbor at Cape Town; visited the Orange Free State and established at Bloemfontein, as a token of friendship, the Grey Institute, in which so much has since been done for the higher education of the youth of that State. Annexation of Basutoland In 1861 he accepted the Governorship of New Zealand, and was succeeded by Sir P. E. Wodehouse, whose administration was chiefly distinguished for the annexation of Basutoland. In 1870 Sir Henry Barkly took charge of affairs and assumed possession for Great Britain of the Diamond Fields. With the coming of Sir Bartle Frere, in 1877, arose new developments along the lines of Sir George Grey's disappointed hopes and hampered policy. This time, however, a check was to be given from within the Colony instead of by the Colonial Office. The wheel of fate refused to reverse itself.