its charges on _ex parte_, groundless, and, in many
respects, false declarations of complainants who have been set in motion
by political hatred, and that it silently ignores the report of the
Commission."

[Sidenote: _b._ The Edgar Case.]

Mr. Chamberlain represented the Edgar case in the following way:--[45]
"But perhaps the most striking recent instance of arbitrary action by
officials, and of the support of such action by the Courts, is the
well-known Edgar case. The effect of the verdict of the jury, warmly
endorsed by the Judge, is that four policemen breaking into a man's
house at night without a warrant, on the mere statement of one person,
which subsequently turned out to be untrue, that the man had committed a
crime, are justified in killing him there and then because, according to
their own account, he hits one of them with a stick. If this is
justification, then almost any form of resistance to the police is
justification for the immediate killing of the person resisting, who may
be perfectly innocent of any offence. This would be an alarming doctrine
anywhere. It is peculiarly alarming when applied to a city like
Johannesburg, where a strong force of police armed with revolvers have
to deal with a large alien unarmed population, whose language in many
cases they do not understand. The emphatic affirmation of such a
doctrine by Judge and jury in the Edgar case cannot but increase the
general feeling of insecurity amongst the Uitlander population, and the
sense of injustice under which they labour. It may be pointed out that
the allegation that Edgar assaulted the police was emphatically denied
by his wife and others, and that the trial was conducted in a way that
would be considered quite irregular in this country, the witnesses for
the defence being called by the prosecution, and thereby escaping
cross-examination."

The answer of the Government of the South African Republic was:--[46]
"The Edgar case is referred to by your Government as the most striking
recent instance of arbitrary action by officials, and of the support of
such action by the Courts," and this case is quoted as a conclusive
test of the alleged judicial maladministration of this Republic; it
will, therefore, be of interest to pause for a moment and consider it.
What are the true facts?

"A certain Foster, 'an Englishman,' was assaulted and felled to the
ground, without any lawful cause, by a man named Edgar during the night
of the 18