called the Registrar.

In response these four were singled out from the rest of the prisoners
and conducted to the new dock.

It was the Registrar who again spoke.

'Lionel Phillips, have you any legal reasons to urge why sentence of
death should not be passed upon you, according to law?'

'No,' was the response.

This was followed by the sentence.

In like manner, Farrar and Rhodes were interrogated and sentenced.

Mr. Hammond was then called to his feet and the same formal question
asked.

Although pale and weak from protracted illness, Mr. Hammond responded
in a firm voice to the Registrar's question.

The Judge, then addressing the prisoner, said: 'John Hays Hammond, it
is my painful duty to pass sentence of death upon you.

'I am only applying the punishment which is meted out and laid down
according to law, leaving it to his Honour the State President, and
the Executive Council, to show you any mercy which may lie in their
power.

'May the magnanimity shown by his Honour the State President, and this
Government, to the whole world, during the recent painful events be
also shown to you.

'I have nothing to do with that, however.

'I can only say, that in any other country you would not have a claim
on their mercy. The sentence of the Court is, that you be taken from
this place where you are now, and be conveyed to the jail at Pretoria,
or any such other jail in this Republic as may be appointed by law, to
be kept there till a time and place of execution shall be appointed by
lawful authority, that you be taken to the place of execution to be
there hanged by the neck till you are dead.

'May Almighty God have mercy on your soul!'

Whilst the sentences were being passed upon the four leaders the
auditors were wrought up to the highest pitch; sobs were heard on
every side, tears were on many cheeks, and even stolid old Boers were
seen to weep. One man was carried from the room in a fit.

The four Reform leaders, who had borne themselves during this trying
time in a brave and fearless manner, then stepped out of the dock
firmly and unhesitatingly, and were taken to the Pretoria jail.

The other fifty-nine prisoners were then called to the bar and
sentenced each to pay a fine of ten thousand dollars, and to suffer
two years' imprisonment.

Thus ended this remarkable trial, a judicial trial unprecedented in
the annals of jurisprudence.

A mockery of justice and a travesty upon civilisation.[9]