clause.  Law No. 1 of 1897 was manipulated in this manner.  By this law, the Judges of the High Court were formally deprived of the right to test the validity of any law in its relation to the Constitution, and they were also compelled to accept as law, without question or reservation of any kind, any resolution passed at any time and under any circumstances by the Volksraad.  This Law No. 1 of 1897 was passed through all its stages in three days, without being subjected in the first instance to the people.

But I am especially concerned with what affects the natives.

Article 1 of this section says:—­A native must not own fixed property.

(2) He must not marry by civil or ecclesiastical process.

(3) He must not be allowed access to Civil Courts in any action against a white man.

Article 9 of the Grondwet is not only adhered to, but is exaggerated in its application as follows:—­“The people shall not permit any equality of coloured persons with white inhabitants, neither in the Church, nor in the State.”

“These principles” says Mr. Bovill, “are so engrained in the mind of an average Boer that we can never expect anything to be done by the Volksraad for the natives in this respect.  It appears inconceivable,” he continues, “that a Government making any pretence of being a civilized power, at the end of the nineteenth century, should be so completely ignorant of the most elementary principles of good government for such a large number of its subjects.”

As to the access by the natives to the Courts of Law.

“If you ask a native he will tell you that access to the law-courts is much too easy, but they are the Criminal Courts of the Field Cornets and Landdrosts.  He suffers so much from these, that he cannot entertain the idea that the Higher Courts are any better than the ordinary Field Cornets’ or Landdrosts’.  However, there are times when with fear and trepidation he does appeal to a Higher Court.  With what result?  If the decision is in favour of the native, the burghers are up in arms, crying out against the injustice of a judgment given in favour of a black against a white man; burghers sigh and say that a great disaster is about to befall the State when a native can have judgment against a white man.  The inequality of the blacks and superiority of the white (burghers) is largely discussed.  Motions are brought forward in the Volksraad to prohibit natives pleading in the Higher Courts.  Such is the usual outcry.  Summary justice (?) by a Landdrost or Field Cornet is all the Boer would allow a native.  No appeal should be permitted, for may it not lead to a quashing of the conviction?  The Landdrost is the friend of the Boer, and he can always “square” him in a matter against a native.  “It was only to prevent an open breach with England that these appeals to the Higher Courts were permitted in a limited degree."[33]