been put and the usual reply in the negative having been received, in the midst of silence that was only disturbed by the breaking down of persons in various parts of the hall-officials, burghers, and in the general public-sentence of death was passed, first on Mr. Lionel Phillips, next on Colonel Rhodes, then on Mr. George Farrar, and lastly on Mr. Hammond. The bearing of the four men won for them universal sympathy and approval, especially, under the conditions immediately. following the death sentence, when a most painful scene took place in Court. Evidences of feeling came from all parts of the room and from all classes of people: from those who conducted the defence and from the Boers who were to have constituted the jury. The interpreter translating the sentence broke down. Many of the minor officials lost control of themselves, and feelings were further strained by the incident of one man falling insensible.

Sentence was next passed upon the other prisoners. They were condemned to suffer two years' imprisonment, to pay a fine of £2,000 each, or as an alternative suffer another year's imprisonment, and thereafter to be banished from the State for a period of three years. It was added that the question of confiscation of their property would be one for the Executive to deal with.

The action of Mr. Gregorowski has been variously described, but at no time more graphically than at the time of the sentence, when a sergeant of police who was guarding the prisoners exclaimed in the peculiar Dutch idiom: My God! he is like a dog: he has bitten and chewed and guzzled!'

After passing the minor sentences the judge gave a short address to the burghers, in which he thanked them for their attendance and made allusion with evident signs of satisfaction to the manner in which the trial had been brought to a conclusion. A long delay followed during which the judge proceeded to note his judgments. Once his attention was drawn by a remark of an official to which he replied promptly, at the same time breaking into a broad smile, but suddenly recollecting the circumstances and the presence of the men sentenced to death, placed his hand over his mouth and wiped the smile away.. The incident was of course noticed by many people in Court and helped to strengthen the impression

which a limited but sufficient experience of Mr. Gregorowski had already created.

If the belief which now obtains, that the Reformers were enticed to plead guilty and misled as to the probable consequences of that plea, should outlive personal feelings and leave a permanent mark in South African history, it will be because it survives a searching test. In South Africa-as in many other countries-it is the invariable practice of the Courts to decline to accept the plea of guilty to a capital charge. The prisoner is informed that as the plea involves capital punishment it will not be accepted; and a formal trial and sufficient evidence of the crime are required by the Court. That is done even in cases where the prisoner knows what the punishment will be! In the case of the Reformers the State Attorney had, it is true, informed Mr. Wessels that he would be obliged pro forma to put in certain evidence, but the reason was not given, and Mr. Wessels regarded it merely as the quid pro quo for accepting unquestioned the written statement of the four accused! Mr. Gregorowski in defending his sentence has stated that under Roman-Dutch law he had no option but to pass sentence of death. Yet contrary to the custom with which seventeen years' practice had made him familiar he accepted the plea of guilty—and accepted it without a word of explanation or of warning! Is it surprising that people should want to know why?

The men were removed from Court under very heavy escort, the condemned men being conveyed in a closed carriage and the rest of the prisoners being marched through the streets to the gaol, the whole party moving at a foot pace. A little incident at the start did not fail to attract attention. The officer commanding a section of the guard having issued his orders in Dutch and some confusion having ensued, the orders were repeated in German, with a satisfactory result.

One more incident-trifling perhaps in itself but leaving an ineffaceable impression-occurred during the march to the gaol. As the prisoners slowly approached the Government buidings, Dr. Leyds accompanied by one friend walked out until within a few yards of the procession of sentenced men (a great proportion of whom were personally well known to him) and stood there with his hands in his pockets smiling at them

as they went past. The action was so remarkable, the expression on the State Secretary's face so unmistakable, that the Dutch guards accompanying the prisoners expressed their disgust. His triumph no doubt was considerable; but the enjoyment must have been short-lived if the accounts given by other members of the Executive of his behaviour a month later are to be credited. The man who stood in safety and smiled in the faces of his victims was the same Dr. Leyds who within a month became seriously ill because some fiery and impetuous friend of the prisoners sent him an anonymous letter with a death's head and cross-bones; who as a result obtained from Government a guard over his private house; and who thereafter proceeded about his duties in Pretoria under armed escort.

It is stated that the death sentence was commuted the same afternoon, but no intimation of this was given to the prisoners and no public announcement was made until twentyfour hours later. In spite of the vindictive urgings of the Hollander newspaper, the Volksstem, few could believe tha the death sentence would be carried out and most people recognized that the ebullitions of that organ expressed the feelings of only a few rabid and witless individuals among the Hollanders themselves and were viewed with disgust by the great majority of them. At the same time the scene in court had been such as to show that the Government party— the officials and Boers then present-had not regarded the death sentence as a mere formality, but had, on the contrary, viewed it as a deliberate and final judgment. In such circumstances therefore it can be believed that the prisoners themselves were not without misgivings.

CHAPTER IX.

LIFE IN GAOL.

IN the Transvaal no distinction is made between ordinary criminals and those who in other countries are recognized as first-class misdemeanants. Consequently the Reformers, without regard to the nature of their offence, their habits, health, age, or condition, were handed over to the gaoler, Du Plessis, a relative of President Kruger, to be dealt with at his kind discretion. For two days the prisoners existed on the ordinary prison fare. The majority being men in the early prime of life and in excellent health, suffered no ill effects, preferring to do with little or no food rather than touch that which was doled out to them; but to the others it was a rather serious thing. There were several men between fifty and sixty years of age whose lives had been spent under favourable conditions. There were some suffering from consumption, one from diabetes, one from fever, one from dysentery, and several others from less dangerous but sufficiently serious complaints. All alike were compelled to sleep upon the floor, with two thin blankets for protection. They were locked in at 6 p.m., and allowed out at 6 a.m. Sanitary accommodation was represented by the presence of a couple of buckets in the sleeping room. The air-space per man worked out at 145 cubic feet as against 900 feet prescribed by English prison regulations. Ventilation was afforded on the one side by square holes cut in the corrugated iron walls of the shed, and on the other (the buildings being lean-to's against the This was done on the second day-after a night without any ventilation at all.

permanent prison buildings) by grated windows opening into the native cells. Needless to say, these grated windows were originally intended to afford ventilation to the native cells, but the buildings to accommodate the Reformers had been erected against the side-walls of the Kaffir quarters. The stench was indescribable. At 6 a.m. the prisoners were allowed out into the yard, where they had the option of exercising throughout the day. The lavatories and bathing arrangements consisted of a tap in the yard and an open furrow through which the town water ran, the lower end of which was used as a wash-place by prisoners, white and black alike. Within a foot or two of the furrow where alone washing of the person or of clothing was allowed stood the gaol urinals. There was neither adequate provision in this department nor any attempt at proper supervision, the result being that through irregularities, neglect, and defective arrangement the ground on both sides of the water-furrow for six or eight yards was horribly stained and saturated by leakage. Many of the prisoners could not approach this quarter without being physically ill. Without further detail it may be stated that there were at that time over 250 prisoners, about 100 of whom were white. There were three closets and six buckets for the accommodation of all, and removals took place sometimes once a day, sometimes once in every four days. Nothing but the horror of such conditions, and the fact that they prevail still in Pretoria Gaol, and presumably in other gaols more removed from critical supervision, could warrant allusions to such a disgusting state of affairs.

At 6.15 breakfast was served. A number of tin dishes, containing one pound of mealie-meal porridge (ground maize) each were placed in a row on the ground in the yard in the same manner as a dog's food might be set out. A bucket near by contained some coarse salt in the condition in which it was collected in the natural salt pans, the cubes varying from the size of peas to the size of acorns. No sugar, milk, tea, or coffee, was allowed. In order to utilize the salt the prisoners were obliged to crush it with rough stones on the cement steps. Needless to say, but few partook of this food. To those who had not tasted it before in the course of prospecting or up-country travelling where conditions are some