DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING SELECTED AND EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY G. W. EYBERS, M.A. LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED PREFACE. THIS volume is intended to supply the papers and documents necessary to the study of South African history from the year 1795. It fills a gap in the series of works by various compilers which have done so much towards the careful study of the constitutions of the United Kingdom and the outlying dominions. It is hoped also that at this time when so much thought is given to imperial relations it may serve as a handy book of reference for estimating the character of the various elements that have contributed towards the building up of the youngest of the three great British Dominions. The work is really more than a volume of select documents, for it contains nearly all the instruments necessary to follow the broad lines of the constitutional history of the four colonies that formed the Union. There will also be found some mention of practically every important step taken towards the extension of British rule and the placing of native territories under European control. Three documents which will form the basis of negotiation towards the end of the War or shortly afterwards have been included in Appendices. Under the heading "Natal" are now published several papers relating to the Great Trek which have probably never been seen by anybody now alive outside official circles except two or three historians. These are included with the kind permission of Mr. Secretary Bonar Law and after him Mr. Secretary Long. Most of the Free State laws given below are to be found nowhere in London except in one private collection of books, the fine South African library collected by the late Mr. Sidney Mendelssohn. A few documents are given in their entirety as originally issued, the object being to show the exact form given at various times in the different countries to proclamations, ordinances, acts of the legislatures, imperial papers, and 8X301 |