to the principles of Republicanism, and were newcomers admitted to the franchise the old burghers would be deprived of all their rights.  They would not dare to vote or exercise any of their privileges.  Those persons who signed the petition for the franchise said they were peaceful and law-abiding citizens, but they gave a sign that they were not law-abiding, because they were against the law.  The Election Law was there, and they should abide by it.

The CHAIRMAN called the speaker to order and advised him to keep to the point, whether it was desirable to extend the franchise or not.

Mr. TOSEN said he was cut short, but in a few words he would say that he would resist to the bitter end any attempt to alter the law as it at present stood.  He spoke on behalf of his constituents and himself.

Mr. JEPPE, in the course of his speech, said:  Who are the people who now demand from us a reasonable extension of the franchise?  There are to begin with almost a thousand old burghers who consent to such extension.  There are in addition 890 petitioners, also old burghers, who complain that the franchise has been narrowed by recent legislation.  There are 5,100, chiefly from the Rand, who ask for extension subject to the ballot, the principle of which has already been adopted by you, and there is lastly a monster petition, bearing 35,700 names, chiefly from the Rand goldfields:  and in passing I may mention that I have convinced myself that the signatures to it, with very few exceptions perhaps are undoubtedly genuine.  Well, this petition has been practically signed by the entire population of the Rand.  There are not three hundred people of any standing whose names do not appear there.  It contains the name of the millionaire capitalist on the same page as that of the carrier or miner, that of the owner of half a district next to that of a clerk, and the signature of the merchant who possesses stores in more than one town of this Republic next to that of the official.  It embraces also all nationalities:  the German merchant, the doctor from Capetown, the English director, the teacher from the Paarl—­they all have signed it.  So have—­and that is significant—­old burghers from the Free State, whose fathers with yours reclaimed this country; and it bears too the signatures of some who have been born in this country, who know no other fatherland than this Republic, but whom the law regards as strangers.  Then too there are the newcomers.  They have settled for good:  they have built Johannesburg, one of the wonders of the age, now valued at many millions sterling, and which, in a few short years, will contain from a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand souls; they own half the soil, they pay at least three-quarters of the taxes.  Nor are they persons who belong to a subservient race.  They come from countries where they freely exercised political rights which can never be long denied to free-born men.  They are, in short,