The President is elected for a term of five years and may, under the present Constitution, be re-elected for any number of terms. The present President has now nearly served his third term, and will no doubt be re-elected next year. But there is a bill now before the Volksraad by which the renewal of the President’s term is to be confined to a single reappointment. One re-election only will be allowed. This change has received all the sanction which one Session can give it. The period of the term is also to be curtailed from five to four years. It is necessary however that such a change in the Constitution shall be passed by the House in three consecutive Sessions, and on each occasion by a three-fourth majority. It is understood also that the bill if passed will not debar the existing President from one re-election after the change. President Brand therefore will be enabled to serve for five terms, and should he live to do so will thus have been the Head of the Executive of the Free State for a period of twenty-four years,--which is much longer than the average reign of hereditary monarchs. His last term will in this case have been shortened one year by the new law. It would be I think impossible to overrate the value of his services to the country which adopted him. He was a member of Assembly in the Cape Colony when he was elected, of which House his father was then Speaker. A better choice could hardly have been made. It is to his patience, his good sense, his exact appreciation of both the highness and the lowness of the place which he has been called on to occupy, that the Republic has owed its security. I have expressed an opinion as to the qualifications of President Burgers for a similar position. It is because President Brand has been exactly the reverse of President Burgers, that he is now trusted by the Volksraad and loved by the people. It would be hard to find a case in which a man has shewn himself better able to suit himself to peculiar duties than has been done by the President of this little Republic. The right of voting in the Free State belongs to the burghers, and the burghers are as follows;-- 1. All white male persons born in the State. 2. All white male persons who have resided one year in the State, and are registered owners of property to the value of £150. 3. All white male persons who have lived for three consecutive years in the State. Those however who are included in the 2nd and 3rd clauses will not be recognized as burghers unless they produce to the State President a certificate of good conduct from the authorities of their last place of abode and a written promise of allegiance to the State. Burghers who have attained the age of 16, and all who at a later age shall have acquired citizenship are bound to enrol themselves under their respective field-cornets and to be liable to burgher duty,--which means fighting,--till they be 60 years old.