I40 
TRAVELS IK 
Two of the members of the Court form in turn a monthlj 
commission, before which written evidence is produced by 
the attornies of the parties, and every information collected 
against the full meeting of the Court, which is held once a 
fortnight. In the intervening time all the written evidence 
and other attested documents that relate to each case are read 
by the several members. Were this not practised, so great 
is the litigious disposition of the people, they would not be 
able to go through the ordinary business. Forty or fifty 
causes are sometimes dispatched in the Court in the course 
of one morning ; and they hear none where the damages are 
not laid at a greater sum than 200 rix dollars or 40/. All 
suits, under this amount, are dtcided in an inferior Court 
called the Co wr^ of Commismries for irying petty causes : in the 
country districts the Landrost and Hemraaden are empowered 
to give judgment in all cases where the damages to be re- 
covered do not exceed JoO rix dollars or 30/. 
This litigious spirit in the people, who are mostly related 
one way or another, and who always address each other by 
the name of cousin,, is encouraged by the attornies, who, in 
the Cape, may truly be called a nest of vermin fattening on 
the folly of the people. To become a procureur it is by no 
means necessary to study the law. Hence any bankrupt 
shopkeeper, or reduced officer, or clerk in any of the depart- 
ments, mdiy set up for an attorney. The business consists in 
taking down depositions in writing, and drawing up a state 
of the case for the examination of the monthly commissioners, 
and afterwards to be laid before the full Court. As their 
