Revenue. 



nteiu. 



402 



Of these, 82 were Americans, 66 Danes, 24 Por- 

 tuguese, 6 Swedes, 15 from Hamburgh, 4 from 

 Prussia and Bremen, and the rest English. 



While this settlement was subject to the Dutch 

 East India Company, its revenue was never adequate 

 to the contingencies and extraordinary expences of 

 its government, and it was retained merely as a place 

 of refreshment for the outward and homeward bound 

 India ships, which they considered as an ample com- 

 pensation for the annual expenditure of 300,000 

 guilders. In 1770, the deficiencies in the receipts 

 fpr defraying the expences of the colony amounted 

 to L. 26\76'S : 11 : S sterling, being nearly two-thirds 

 of the expenditure ; and in !77<Mt was increased to 

 L, 28,191. The average revenue from 1784; to 

 1794 was about 100,000 rix- dollars yearly ; but, by 

 the new regulations and imposts of the Dutch com- 

 inissaries general in 1793, it was raised to 211,568 

 rix-dollars ; which was farther increased to 450,713 

 during the last year of Lord Macartney's adminis- 

 tration, while the settlement was in possession of 

 the British, without a single additional tax having 

 been laid upon the inhabitants. The public revenue 

 of the colony arises from the following sources, to 

 each of which we have affixed the amount for 1801. 



180.1. 



Branches of Revenue. Rix. dollars, sk. it. 



Land revenue, - 47,885 6 4 



Duties on grain and wine levied at 



the barrier, 

 Transfer duty on sales of immoveable. 



estates, ... 



Duty arising from sale, of buildings 



on loan estates, 

 Public vendue duty, 

 Fees received in tHe secretary's of- 



fice, ... 



Customs, 

 Port fees, 

 Postage of letters, 

 Seizures, fines, and penalties, for con- 



traband, - 

 Licenses to. retail w,iae, beer, and spi- 



ritous liquors, ... 

 Interest of the capital lent put through 



the Loan Bank,* 

 Duty arising from stamp paper, 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



Total amount rix-dollars, 

 Or, 



450,713 2 4 

 L. 90,142 13 4 



The supreme government of this colony-is vested by 

 the king in a governor or lieutenant governor. Each 

 district is placed under the authority of a Land-droost, 

 assisted by a council of burghers, six in number, call- 

 ed, the Heemraaden. The office of Land-droost is 

 somewhat similar to that of sheriff of a county in 

 Scotland. The person .filling, that station is not only 



Cape f - 

 Good 

 Hope. 



at the head of the police of his district, but presides 

 in the provincial court, with authority to hear and 

 decide civil actions, where the sum contended for 

 does not exceed 150 rix dollars, and to try such cri- 

 minal suits as do not infer a capital punishment. Hi 

 decisions are open to appeal, and subject to the re- 

 visal of the court of justice in Cape Town. The 

 court of justice is composed of a president and six 

 judges, appointed by the governor, forming a court 

 of competent jurisdiction, to try all causes civil or 

 criminal that may be brought before them, deciding- 

 by plurality of votes, as a special jury. An appeal 

 lies from their judgment to the court of appeals, in 

 which the governor or lieutenant governor decides 

 upon a statement of the case agreed upon by parties 

 before the inferior court ; and from the decision of 

 the court of appeals, an action may be carried in ap- 

 peal before the king and council. The legal pro- 

 ceedings are regulated by a code of laws, emanating 

 from the Dutch East India company, called the 

 Statutes of India, founded upon the basis of the civil 

 law, and drawn up expressly for the jurisprudence of 

 their possessions in the East. Beside the statutes of 

 India, the proclamations of the governor were con- 

 sidered as laws, and were supposed to relate to such 

 circumstances as were in their nature only local or 

 temporary. 



In Cape Town there is also an inferior court for 

 the summary decision of petty suits, consisting of a 

 president, vice-president, and four members : it is the - 

 duty of this court to grant licenses to parties intend- 

 ing to marry, without which no clergyman is autho. 

 rised to perform the ceremony. 



There is an excellent institution here, called the Orpham 

 Wees-kammer, or Orphan Chamber, appointed by Chamber, 

 government for administering the affairs of orphans 

 and minors. This' board is composed of a president, 

 secretary, and four members. The fiscal is president 

 cx-qfficio. Private executors are by law allowed 5 

 per cent, for their trouble, and property sold by them 

 is liable to a tax of five per cent. ; whereas the pro- 

 perty managed by the Orphan Chamber is exempted 

 from the tax on the transfer of immoveable property, 

 and is charged 7 per cent., consequently 2$ per 

 cent, are saved to those interested, in addition to the 

 security derived by the most helpless part of the com- 

 munity, from having their effects vested in the charge 

 of a public college established by law, instead of be- 

 coming victims to ignorance, to misfortune, or to 

 fraud. The fiscal is the attorney general and public 

 prosecutor in all criminal cases. He is also the chief 

 magistrate of police, and in this capacity has autho- 

 rity to inflict corporal punishment upon such of tke 

 inhabitants as are not burghers for petty offences, 

 and is empowered to. impose fines and accept pe 

 cuniary compositions for misdemeanors, and whei 

 the offender does not wish to risk a public trial 

 This .power .was. formerly subject to most enormous- 



The Loan, or -Lombard Bank, wa established by the Dutch government, with a view of increasing^ their revenue, while, 

 *t the same time, they, appeared to confer a favour upon the colonists. The acquired capital was about 680,000 rix-dollars ; 

 und paper money was issued as a, loan to individuals, on mortgage of their lands and houses, witn the additional security of 

 two sufficient bondsmen, at 5 per cent, being 1 per cent, less than the legal interest of the colony. According to its regula- 

 tions, the loan was never to exceed half the value of estates in town, and two-thirds of estates in the country ; and, at th 

 expiration of two years, the directors could either call in the loan, or prolong it, as they thought proper. The sum issued 

 was at first confined within the amount of the capital, but was afterwards increased to near one million rix-dollarh 



