Parliament was preceded by the unicameral Legislative Council, founded in 1835, which was a nominal body with little substantive authority. When the Imperial Parliament granted the Colony "representative" government in 1853, the body received the right to draft the Colony's first constitution. This document is still largely considered to be of great importance to the Cape Liberal Tradition, as it was the first law to grant nonracial franchise to the inhabitants of the Colony - albeit qualified with reference to property ownership.