The Old Cape House. By Ralph Kilpin. (Cape Town :
T. Maskew Miller. 11s. 6d. post free.)—This is an ably written and interesting history of the House of Assembly of Cape Colony from its first Session in 1864 to its last in 1910, when the Union Parliament came into being and occupied the Legislative Chamber. The author is the second clerk-assistant of the Union House of Assembly, and has derived much of his information from his father, who was Clerk to the old Cape House, and from Mr. Merriman, the " father of the House," who contributes a Preface. Mr. Kilpin lays stress on the orderly character of the debates under five successive Speakers. Mr. Merriman says that the old House was " always decorous to the verge of dulness." The Colony was thus true to the sound Westminster tradition, which all the English-speaking peopk s have cultivated. Mr. Kilpin gives a chapter to each of the Speakers, of whom Sir James Molten was the last. His predecessor, Sir Bisset Berry, in 1904 followed the precedent set by Mr. Speaker Brand at Westminster in 1481 by closing a debate which had lasted twenty-four hours and seemed likely to continue indefinit ely.
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