Four years after the satisfactory settlement of this vexed question came the grant of Parliamentary institutions to the Colony. This action was part of a general Colonial plan by which full responsible or ministerial government was established in Canada, under Lord Elgin--there had long been elective legislatures in the British-American Provinces--and a system formulated in the Australias similar to that of the Cape. The details of the proposed changes were left by the Colonial Office largely in the hands of the Governor and the appointive Legislative Council, which had been created in 1834, and it was therefore not expected that the result would be extreme in a democratic sense. The new constitution was promulgated on March 11, 1853, and by its terms an elective House of Assembly numbering forty-six members was created--afterwards increased to seventy-six, and with a five years' limit in time as against the earlier seven years period. The Upper Chamber or Legislative Council was, to the surprise of many, also made elective. It consisted of fifteen members, who were afterwards increased to twenty-two, with the Chief Justice of the Colony as an additional member and _ex-officio_ President. The right to vote for both Houses was given to every male British subject over twenty-one years of age who occupied a house or land worth $125, or was in receipt of a salary or mixed remuneration valued at $250. There was no distinction as to race, color, religion or mode of life, and this pronounced measure of electoral liberty was a matter of constant friction in the minds of the Dutch settlers--so far as they cared in these years to think or trouble themselves about the affairs of an alien rule. The legislation, however, was more important as the enunciation of a principle than because of its working out in practice at this particular period. There were few natives for many years in a position to take advantage of even this low franchise, and, of course, all who continued to share in the tribal system were absolutely debarred. [Sidenote: Right to Vote Limited] In 1892 the right to vote was limited by fresh legislation--resulting from the rising political power of the Afrikander Bund and the Dutch dislike to the natives--to such adult males as were able to sign their names and write down their addresses and employment. The franchise qualification was raised to a property one of $375, while the wage qualification was allowed to remain as it had been. [Sidenote: The First Parliament of the Colony]