Part 4 (2/2)

A Mr. Brown, an American, took proceedings. The President of the High Court, Mr. Kotze, p.r.o.nounced that this law was unconst.i.tutional, and gave judgment in favor of Brown, but left the amount of damages to be determined later after hearing further evidence.

Upon this, Mr. Kruger introduced a law known as Law I. of 1897, which empowered him to exact a.s.surances from the judges that they would respect all resolutions of the Volksraad, without testing whether they were in accord or contradiction with the Const.i.tution; and in the event of the President not being satisfied with the replies of the judges, it further empowered him to dismiss them summarily. The judges protested in a body that they would not submit to such treatment. The High Court was suspended and all legal business adjourned.

Sir Henry de Villiers, Chief Justice of Cape Colony, came to Pretoria to endeavour to avert the crisis. Mr. Kruger promised to refrain from enforcing Law I. of 1897, and to introduce a new law. The judges resumed their functions.

In February, 1898, a year later, President Kruger had not introduced a new law; President Kotze wrote to Kruger reminding him of his promise.

Mr. Kruger at once applied to him Law I. of 1897, and dismissed him.

Kotze was replaced by Mr. Gregorowski, who, at the time the law was pa.s.sed had solemnly protested that no honourable man could continue to act as a judge in the Transvaal until the law was repealed.

Now what does Dr. Kuyper think of the Volksraad's mode of legislation, and of the manner in which Mr. Kruger, that man ”of intelligence and superior morality,” interprets respect for justice?

CHAPTER VI.

POLICE, JUSTICE, AND LAW ACCORDING TO BOER METHODS.[10]

1.--_Legal and Judicial System of the Transvaal._

In the Transvaal, law is an instrument made use of either to favor or oppress the individual, according to circ.u.mstances. If necessary it is made retrospective. To provide for the case of judges refusing to apply such laws, Law I. of 1897 has been pa.s.sed, which compels them to swear obedience to the President and gives him the right to dismiss summarily such as prove insubordinate or lukewarm. The President of the High Court, Mr. Kotze, fell under the action of this law, in February, 1898.

Before that law, the President annulled any judgments that displeased him and caused the fines or damages inflicted upon the delinquents to be paid out of the public Treasury.

Such is judicial and legal rule in the Transvaal; and there are European lawyers of the opinion that the Uitlanders must be the most contemptible and lowest set of adventurers for not being satisfied with it! Dr.

Kuyper declares that ”the fact.i.tious discontent existed only among the English”; and adds with contempt, ”Let us look into the Edgar, Lombaard, and Amphitheatre cases--mere police affairs.”

Well; let us consider Mr. Kruger's interpretation of the duties of the police.

[Footnote 10: _Le Siecle,_ March 30th, 1900.]

2.--_The Police._

The chief of the departments of justice and police is called the State Attorney.

In 1895, when Mr. Esselen was promoted to the post, he stipulated that he should have full liberty of action. As chief detective officer he appointed an officer belonging to the Cape Administration, Mr. Andrew Trimble, who entered upon his duties with vigour and determination. The gold thieves and receivers and the illicit canteen keepers who supplied the natives with liquor were up in arms at once and appealed to President Kruger. They represented Trimble as having served in the English Army, and as being in receipt of a pension from the Cape Government, further stating that his appointment was an insult to the Boers, who had been thus judged unworthy to provide from among themselves a Head of Police. Mr. Esselen, who stood his ground, was dismissed and replaced by a Hollander, Dr. Coster. Mr. Trimble, chief of the detective force, was replaced by a man who had previously been dismissed, and has since been dismissed again.

As it was useless to depend upon the police for the arrest of thieves, the directors and officials of the _City and Suburban Gold Mining Company_ took upon themselves the risks and dangers of police work. They caught two notorious characters, known thieves, with gold in their possession. The thieves openly boasted that nothing would be done to them; the next day, one was allowed to escape, the other, a notorious criminal, was condemned to six months' imprisonment. Mr. Kruger regarded this penalty as excessive, remitted three-fourths of the sentence, and had him discharged unconditionally.

The police of Johannesburg, a town almost entirely inhabited by English, do not speak English--an excellent method of ensuring order! They are chosen from among the worst types of Boers, some of whom are the descendants of English deserters and Kaffir women; whence comes the fact that some bear English names. The policeman Jones, who killed Edgar, is a case in point.

The murder of Edgar was a small matter in the same way as the Dreyfus case was a small matter; only when a case of this nature arises, it reveals a condition of things so grave that it excites widespread feeling at once.

Edgar was an English workman, a boilermaker, who had been a long time in Johannesburg; a well-conducted man and generally respected. He was going home, one Sunday night in 1898, when three drunken men insulted and set upon him. He knocked one of them down. The other two called the police.

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