must be incurred by the public, in either event of retaining the Cape, or of abandoning it to France.

"But I doubt whether, with the Cape in the hands of the enemy, it would be possible for you to maintain your Indian trade or empire, unless you could acquire some other settlement on the southern continent of Africa. This I know to be Lord Macartney's opinion; and if this opinion be just, the question of the expenses of maintaining the Cape will be materially varied.

"On reading over my letter, I find that I have omitted to state one consideration relating to the value of the Cape as a military station. I believe the necessity of retaining Ceylon is now admitted universally. With the Cape in the hands of an enemy, would it be possible to retain Ceylon for any long period of time ?"

SECTION II.

LAW.

THE laws of the colony are those of Holland, founded upon the Roman Dutch code, which are extracted by the patient student out of the ponderous tomes of Grotius, Voetius, and Vander Linden. The Batavian Regulations issued by the Dutch East India Company, collected in 1715, and known by the name of the Statutes of India, are often also dexterously brought into play by the forensic gladiators; and what with the more recent introduction of some parts of British law and practice, since the establishment of the new Supreme Court of Justice, suitors in civil cases are rather at a loss to know by what law or combination of laws their own especially important case is to be determined. The Supreme Court, appointed by the Royal Charter 4th May, 1833, holds its terms in Cape Town four times in the year, and is presided over by three judges, two English and one Scotch. It sends out its circuit through all the districts of the colony every six months, which is attended by several talented advocates, well able to conduct their clients' cases.

In all criminal suits a jury of nine persons, whose verdict must be unanimous, is impannelled; but civil actions, for some strange

reason unexplained, have not yet been admitted to that privilege. A man's neck may be entrusted to the uncertain judgment of nine country bumpkins, but his purse is more carefully guarded by the bench alone.

In the western division of the colony there is a Grand Jury, the qualification being the possession of £3000 in landed property; but although there are many men of the same amount of property in the eastern division, the institution has not been extended.

On the Petit Jury all persons between the ages of twenty-one and sixty, and paying 20s. taxes in Cape Town, and 15s. in the country, are liable.

The circuit terms usually take place in March and September. Besides the Supreme Court and the Courts of Circuit, there are subordinate local jurisdictions established in every district, called Resident Magistrates' Courts, presided over by the civil commissioner in the chief towns, and in some others by an especially appointed functionary, in which petty offences are summarily punished, and civil actions involving the amount of £10, can be decided almost die in diem. A more extensive power with regard to civil cases in these courts has been called for by the inhabitants, in consequence of the rapid growth of the colony, and it is probable that very shortly cases where sums to the extent of £40 are at issue will be allowed to be pleaded before these limited tribunals, subject (as even the present confined jurisdiction is) to review or appeal before the higher courts.

A court of Vice-Admiralty, for the trial of offences committed on the high seas, and other maritime matters, sits occasionally at Cape Town only.

The law of succession to property is unquestionably one of the deepest interest to an emigrant from Britain. It is particularly simple in the colony, being founded on Dutch law, and unlike that of England, recognises an equal division of property, both real and personal, among all the children.

The practice in this state of the law is as follows :—

All persons who do not marry under an "ante-nuptial contract" are supposed to have entered into that state in " community of goods," and on the death of either head of the family without a will, the property then existing, whether originally

brought into the marriage, acquired during its continuance, or inherited by either party, is inventoried and appraised, and after realization, by sale or otherwise, is then divided into two portions; one-half is kept by the survivor as being his or her own proper estate, and the other half is distributed into other two equal parts, one moiety going to the survivor as inheritance from the deceased, and the remainder equally divided amongst the children. Thus A. and B. are possessed of property worth £1000; A. dies intestate, when the estate is divided

B. the survivor retains his estate of and inherits half of deceased's

£500
250

750

Five children by the marriage of A. and B. divide remainder of A.'s estate, in equal shares of £50 each

250

£1000

If the children are majors, their respective inheritances are to be paid immediately to them; but should those be minors, their shares are either secured by being paid into the Government Guardian Fund, or lent at the option of the office administering that department, to the survivor, upon a mortgage of landed property.

The parties thus married can, however, make a joint or common will, which, although it cannot materially alter the division of the property, except by enabling them to bequeath a child's portion to the longest liver, over and above the half he or she is entitled to out of the estate of the first deceased, permits the testators to leave for the survivor's use during his or her life, while continuing unmarried, the property of the children, for which, however, a deed must be passed, protecting their interests, called in the law a "kinderbeury's," which takes preference and precedency over every other description of bond, and is secured by sufficient mortgage, and not unfrequent by personal suretyship in addition. A second marriage obliges the survivor to pay at once into the hands of the heirs, who have attained the legal age, the full amount of their patrimony.

The Dutch law does not allow the right to a parent of the total disinherison of a child without special legal reasons being

given in judicio. It permits, however, of restricting its amount of inheritance to be reduced to what is called "the legitimate portion, which, if the children are four or less in number, amounts to one-third, and if five or more, to one-half among them of the parent's property." It also grants the privilege to tie up or entail the inheritance of their children, and give to them only the usufruit during their lives, and this entail, called a fidei commissum, has in the colony been made to run over two generations, the principal sum left becoming payable only to the third.

The British settlers who immigrated into the colony in 1820, unaccustomed and disinclined to this rule of distribution, memorialized the Home Government in 1821, and procured a law for themselves, by which it was enacted that "all residents and settlers in the colony being natural born subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, provided they had married in Great Britain or Ireland, were to have the privilege of enjoying the same rights of devising their property both real and personal, as they would be entitled to exercise under the laws and customs of England."

Persons marrying in the colony have, however, the means of regulating the disposition of their property, by making an agreement previous to the ceremony, called in law an ante-nuptial contract, in which they can arrange such matters according to their wishes; but should they neglect this precaution, their property is divided as already explained, that is, one-half to the surviving spouse, and the other moiety in equal shares to the children and survivor.

Amongst some of the English colonists there is an impatience for the laws of England on this subject, for they complain of a practice which takes out of their hands the power of rewarding for good, or punishing for ill-behaviour towards themselves, or of regulating the control of their heirs over property which they may have proved themselves incapable of managing. They contend too, that this constantly recurring division of estates, occasioned by the working of the colonial law, prevents their improvement, which is more than a mere theoretical objection. No argument, however, is likely at present to convince the large body of native-born colonists, that the law of primogeniture is anything better than a fraud upon the remaining branches of a

family, and that the right of disinheriting, exercised under Engglish law, is anything but absolute tyranny.

All original wills of persons dying in the colony must be registered in the chamber of the Master of the Supreme Court, who is obliged to see that every provision therein contained be duly carried out, and all intestate estates fall under his especial management. The property of foreign and of minor heirs is safely and cheaply protected by this very valuable institution, and the provisions of the existing law may be pronounced to be fully adequate to secure the interest of every class of the inhabitants devolving to its charge. From an intimate knowledge acquired in a three years' administration of a commission issued in 1828, to prepare the transfer of the business of the late orphan chamber, to the Master of the Supreme Court, (who now exercises the functions of the late chamber), under the new title of "the Guardian Fund," I have no hesitation in saying, that for safety sake, as well as economy, I should greatly prefer making that office the administrator of my own will, rather than appoint private executors.

Under the subject of colonial law naturally fall those of the tenures by which landed property is held, and the mode of their conveyance from seller to buyer. The tenures at present in use are-1st, Freehold; 2nd, Loan; and 3rd, Perpetual Quit-rent. Freehold farms are rare in the Eastern Province, but there are a few near the Cape; a small number of the quit-rent estates, in various parts of the colony, have, from time to time, been converted into this description by the redemption of the annual rents, while all plots of building ground (called erven) in the townships, throughout the colony, continue to be alienated under this tenure.

Loan farms are such as were originally granted on an annual rent of twenty-four rixdollars (or £1 16s. of present money,) but a large number of these have since become quit-rent estates, by agreement with Government, the rent in no case exceeds £18 15s.

Quit-rent. By far the large majority of farms are held under quit-rent tenures, and the amount these pay to the state is dependent upon the quality of the lands, and the circumstance of their proximity, or distance, from markets, and other essential