Civil Departments, for the Public Service, after that Date, shall also be made in British Money. And that no Person may plead ignorance thereof, this will be published and affixed in the usual manner. GOD SAVE THE KING. Given at the Cape of Good Hope, this 6th Day of June 1825. No. 20. Ordinance.-For Improving the Condition of Hottentots and other free Persons of colour at the Cape of Good Hope, and for Consolidating and Amending the Laws affecting those Persons. WHEREAS Certain Laws relating to and affecting the Hottentots and other free persons of colour, lawfully residing in this Colony, require to be consolidated, amended, or repealed, and certain obnoxious usages and customs, which are injurious to those persons, require to be declared illegal and discontinued: Be it therefore enacted, by His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, That from and after the passing of this Ordinance, the Proclamations of the 16th day of July 1787,-9th day of May 1803,-1st day of November 1809,-23rd day of April 1812,-9th day of July 1819,—and 23rd day of May 1823, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed: [Provided that nothing herein contained shall affect any contract or indenture entered into in virtue of the said proclamations.] II. And whereas by usage and custom of this Colony, Hottentots and other free persons of colour have been subjected to certain restraints as to their residence, mode of life, and employment, and to certain compulsory services to which others of His Majesty's Subjects are not liable: Be it therefore enacted, that from and after the passing of this Ordinance, no Hottentot or other free Person of colour, lawfully residing in this Colony, shall be subject to any compulsory service to which other of His Majesty's Subjects therein are not liable, nor to any hindrance, molestation, fine, imprisonment or punishment of any kind whatsoever, under the pretence that such Person has been guilty of vagrancy or any other offence, unless after trial in due course of Law;—any custom or usage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. D 25 III. And whereas doubts have arisen as to the competency of Hottentots and other free Persons of colour to purchase T or possess Land in this Colony: Be it therefore enacted, [all transfers of land made to or by such Hottentot or other free person of colour are legal; and it is lawful for such persons born in the Colony or granted deeds of burghership to possess land.1 IV. And whereas it is expedient to protect ignorant and unwary Hottentots and other free Persons of colour as aforesaid from the effects of improvident Contracts for Service : Be it therefore enacted, [that it shall not be legal for any person to hire by written agreement any Hottentot or free person of colour for a longer period than one calendar month at a time, except as hereinafter provided.] V. [If any person and a Hottentot or free person of colour desire to enter into an agreement for a longer period, such contract shall be made in writing in the presence of a Clerk or a Justice of the Peace, the period of such contract not to exceed 12 calendar months. Liquor or tobacco given to a servant, not to be regarded as wages. At the expiration of the period, no goods or cattle of a servant shall be detained except by sentence of a competent court.] VI. [All such contracts to be made in triplicate, one copy to be given to each of the contracting parties, and one copy to be filed by the officer of justice.] VII. [Procedure in cases of dispute as to whether wages have or have not been paid.] VIII. [Contract with wife of Hottentot or free person of colour, to be executed by her; contract with children under 18, to be executed by parents. Provided always, that nothing therein contained shall give the employer of such parents any claim on the services of the said children or of any other children, beyond the period contracted for. No person shall have a claim to the service of any children merely on the ground that those children have been fed and clothed by such person or have been born during the period of their parents' service with such person. Procedure if this rule is disobeyed.] IX. [On the death of a Hottentot or free person of colour, the contract with his wife and children shall become void within one month after such death.] X. [A contracting Hottentot or free person of colour may keep his family on the premises of his employer without being forced to yield the service of children not contracted for.] XI. [Any Hottentot or free person of colour being above the age of 18 may form a contract, as above directed.] XII. [Any Hottentot or free person of colour may apprentice his or her children for 7 years or until the children shall reach the age of 18 in the case of males and 16 in the case of females. Such indentures to be executed before an officer of justice, as directed above.] XIII. [If a Hottentot or free person shall desert or leave behind by death his or her child, the employer shall forthwith notify an officer of justice, who shall arrange for the apprenticeship of such child.] XIV. [Procedure in apprenticing children.] XV. [Children of Hottentots, prize negroes and negresses, and other free persons of colour, to be indentured only with their parents' consent.] XVI. [Apprentices indentured in virtue of previous proclamations may be removed by a competent court from the service of their employers, if they shall have been ill-treated, and may be returned to their parents.] XVII. [Certain provisions applied also to foreigners entering the Colony from beyond the frontier. Deaths of such foreigners, and births of children in their families, to be notified by their employer.] XVIII. [Field-cornets to make to civil commissioners halfyearly returns of births and deaths of Hottentots and free persons of colour.] XIX. [Disputes between masters or mistresses and their servants to be tried by Resident Magistrates and in minor matters by Justices of the Peace.] XX. [In such disputes Justices are empowered to summon before them any masters or mistresses concerned and any other witnesses.] XXI. [Penalties that may be inflicted on servants by Resident Magistrates and Justices of the Peace in cases of ill behaviour.] XXII. [In cases of ill usage by a master or mistress the servant may be discharged by a Magistrate or Justice and an order made for payment of wages. Servants may further recover damages for injury in any competent court.] XXIII. [If wages are not paid as ordered, distress may be levied on the master or mistress neglecting to pay.] XXIV. [If the servant is poor, summons and process may be issued free of charge. If a complaint by a servant against his master or mistress turns out " to be vexatious and untrue, then such servant may be punished by imprisonment with hard labour not exceeding 14 days.] XXV. [Fines levied for breach of this ordinance shall be given, one-half to the informer and one-half to the Colonial Treasury.] P.R.O., C.O. 52/4 (C. of G. H. Govt. Gazette, 25 July 1828). ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF. [13 Jan. 1830.] No. 68. No. 21. Ordinance.-Of HIS EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR in COUNCIL, For the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects in this Colony. WHEREAS an Act was passed in the 10th year of His Present Majesty's Reign, intituled An Act for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects; and whereas it is expedient, that such Enactments and Provisions of the said Act as are or may be applicable to this Colony, shall be extended thereto, so altered and modified as to meet the circumstances of the case: Be It Therefore Enacted . . . that after the commencement of this Ordinance, it shall and may be lawful for any of His Majesty's Subjects professing the Roman Catholic Religion, to hold, exercise, and enjoy all Civil and Military Offices and Places of Trust or Profit, under His Majesty; His Heirs or Successors; and to exercise any other Franchise or Civil Right, upon taking and subscribing, at the times and in the manner hereinafter mentioned, the following Oath, instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, and instead of such other Oath or Oaths, as are or may be now by Law required to be taken for the purpose aforesaid, by any of His Majesty's Subjects professing the Roman Catholic Religion: "I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty, King George the Fourth and will defend Him to the utmost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever which shall be made against his Person, Crown or Dignity; and I will do my utmost endeavour to disclose and make known to His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies, which may be formed against Him or Them; And I do faithfully promise to maintain, support and defend, to the utmost of my power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act intituled-An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her Body, being Protestants; hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Persons, claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of the Realm of England: And I do further declare, that it is not an Article of my Faith, and that I do renounce, reject and abjure the opinion, that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any other Authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects, or by any Person whatsoever And I do declare, that I do not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other Foreign Prince, Prelate, Person, State or Potentate, hath or ought to have any Temporal or Civil Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority or Pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within the Realm of England. I do swear, that I will defend, to the utmost of my power, the Settlement of Property within the Realm of England, as established by the Laws: And I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any Intention to subvert the present Church Establishment, as settled by Law within the Realm of England: And I do solemnly swear, that I never will exercise any Privilege to which I am or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant Religion, or Protestant Government in the United Kingdom, or any of the Territories thereunto belonging; And I do solemnly, in the Presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this Declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary Sense of the Words of this Oath, without any Evasion, Equivocation, or mental Reservation whatsoever. So Help Me God. VII. And it is further enacted, That if any Jesuit, or Member of any such Religious Order, Community, or Society, as aforesaid, shall, after the commencement of this Ordinance, come into this Colony, he shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of an Offence; and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be sentenced and ordered to be banished from the Colony for the term of his natural Life. [Etc.] P.R.O., C.O. 50/1. DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. No. 22. PETITION FOR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. Lord Milton rose to present a Petition from British Settlers and others resident at the Cape of Good Hope, praying for a Representative Government. After calling the attention of the House to the importance of the question which the Petition raised, the respectability of the parties petitioning, and the obligation there lay upon the Legislature to protect the inhabitants of that colony from the effects of arbitrary power, he proceeded to say, that he considered the arbitrary imposition of taxes as one of the most objectionable exertions of arbitrary power. The Petition which he held in his hand was from British Settlers, who desired to carry with them to the colonies where they settled, the privileges which were the boast of their native country; and which they were accustomed to enjoy before they left it. In order to convey to the House |