On Monday night, the Cape House of Assembly passed the
second reading of the new Franchise Bill by a majority of 45 to 20. Mr. Hofineyr, the head of the Africander Bund, supported the Bill, and declared that his party had nothing to fear from the ballot. He believed the Bill would be "the precursor of a closer union between the two great sections of the white population of the Colony." The Bill provides that the qualification for a vote shall be a £25 instead of a £75 occupation. Persons who are unable to write their name, address, and occupation are disqualified, but all persons already registered retain their right to vote as long as they remain resident in the same electoral division. The Bill also provides for election by ballot throughout the Colony after July, 1394. The motive of the Bill is, of course, the disfranchisement of the Blacks, who were given the suffrage owing to the jealousies between the English and Dutch. Now, however, the quarrel has been patched up by the exclusion of the natives. The compromise is the first-fruits of Mr. Cecil Rhodes's alliance with the Africander Bund.
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