SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
23 
DIVISION, POPULATION, AND PRODUCE. 
When the Dutch East India Company perceived their 
settlement extending far beyond the bounds they had origr- 
iially prescribed, tliey found it expedient to divide the coun- 
try into districts, and to place over each a civil magistrate 
with the title of Landrost, who, M'ith his council called Hem- 
raaden, was authorized to settle petty disputes among the 
farmers, or between them and the native Hottentots, levy 
fines within a certain sum, collect and apply the parochial 
assessments, and enforce the orders and regulations of Go- 
vernment. His district was distributed into a number of 
subdivisions, over each of which was appointed a FelcUwagt- 
meester or country overseer, whose duty was to take cogni- 
zance of any abuses committed within his division, and 
report the same to the Landrost, to adjust disputes about 
springs or water-courses, and to forward the orders of Go^ 
vernment. 
Little as the authority was which Government had thus 
delegated to the Landrost and his assistants, that little was 
subject sometimes to abuse, sometimes to neglect, and very 
often to contempt. 
In fact, all systems of provincial judicature seem liable 
to the same objections. If too much power be confided 
in the hands of the magistrates, the temptation to corruption 
is proportionally great, and to attempt to execute the law 
without the power would seem a mockery of justice. The 
