There was a quiet
dignity of debate, as well as business-like capacity and orderly tone,
observed on both sides of the House, which might be copied with
advantage, as it is in striking contrast to much of the practice, in the
Parliament of Great Britain. It is certainly satisfactory to notice,
that the modern manners and customs, in the popular branch of our own
ancient national assembly, which so frequently fail in orthodox
propriety, have not been imitated in the Cape Colony.
At the Record Office attached to the House of Parliament, I went into
the vaults, and inspected the early manuscripts of the Dutch, during
their original occupation of the Cape of Good Hope. These are most
deeply and historically interesting, and valuable. The minute accuracy,
with which every incident is recorded is most remarkable. There are bays
in these vaults, filled with records, which must be of priceless value
to an historical student, and they are now in course of arrangement by
the able librarian, Mr. H.C.V. Leibbrandt, who is the author of a most
interesting work entitled "Rambles through the Archives of the Colony of
the Cape of Good Hope."[A]
At the South African Museum I found a valuable collection of beasts,
birds, fishes, &c.
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