The right hon. gentleman the Member for St. George’s, Hanover Square, had proposed to establish a franchise qualification of L100 annual value.  That is not nearly such a high property-qualification as it would be in this country.  I do not quarrel with the right hon. gentleman’s Constitution on the ground that his franchise was not perfectly fair, or not a perfectly bona fide and generous measure of representation.  But it is undoubtedly true that a property-qualification of L100 annual value told more severely against the Boers than against the British, because living in the towns is so expensive that almost everybody who lives in the towns, and who is not utterly destitute, has a property-qualification of L100 annual value.  But in the country districts there are numbers of men, very poor but perfectly respectable and worthy citizens—­day labourers, farmers’ sons, and others—­who would not have that qualification, and who consequently would have been excluded by the property-qualification, low as it is having regard to the conditions in South Africa.  Quite apart from South African questions and affairs, his Majesty’s Government profess a strong preference for the principle of manhood suffrage as against any property-qualification, and we have therefore determined that manhood suffrage shall be the basis on which votes are distributed.

It is true that in the prolonged negotiations and discussions which have taken place upon this question manhood suffrage has been demanded by one party and the voters’ basis by the other, and there has been a tacit, though quite informal agreement that the one principle should balance the other.  But that is not the position of his Majesty’s Government in regard to either of these propositions.  We defend both on their merits.  We defend “one vote, one value,” and we defend manhood suffrage, strictly on their merits as just and equitable principles between man and man throughout the Transvaal.  We have therefore decided that all adult males of twenty-one years of age, who have resided in the Transvaal for six months, who do not belong to the British garrison—­should be permitted to vote under the secrecy of the ballot for the election of Members of Parliament.

Now there is one subject to which I must refer incidentally.  The question of female suffrage has been brought to the notice of various members of the Government on various occasions and in various ways.  We have very carefully considered that matter, and we have come to the conclusion that it would not be right for us to subject a young Colony, unable to speak for itself, to the hazards of an experiment which we have not had the gallantry to undergo ourselves; and we shall leave that question to the new Legislature to determine.