to the side of
England, but at least to the side of that Empire-State of which
England was the head. With the Prime Minister went Sir Richard
Solomon, Mr. Herholdt, and one or two of the Afrikander rank and file.
Thus reinforced, the Progressives commanded a working majority in the
Legislative Assembly, and the ascendancy of the Afrikander party was
at an end.

Apart from the secession of Mr. Schreiner and his immediate followers,
the Parliamentary strength of the Afrikander party was lessened by
another circumstance, to which Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman referred
in the debate on the South African Settlement in the House of Commons
on July 25th. Certain members of the Cape Parliament, said the leader
of the Liberal Opposition, had been arrested for high treason, with
the result that the Afrikander party was deprived of their votes, and
the balance of power between that party and the Progressive party was
upset. And he protested against this manner of turning an Afrikander
majority into a minority. The reply which these remarks on the part of
this friend of the Afrikander party in England drew from the
Government is instructive:

"May I remind the right honourable gentleman," said Mr. Balfour,
"that the balance of parties was disturbed by another and
different cause on which he has made no protest? Some members of
that Parliament, not sharing the views of those who are
imprisoned, are now fighting at the front and risking their lives
in the defence of the Empire. Their party is deprived of their
services in the Cape Parliament, and I should have thought that
this would have affected the right honourable gentleman much more
than the absence of men who, under any circumstances, must be
supposed to be under the darkest suspicion as to their view and
policy respecting the country to which they owe allegiance."

The Cape Parliament met under the new Ministry in July, and the chief
business of the session, which lasted until the middle of October, was
the passing of the Treason Bill. On July 9th Lord Milner was able to
inform Mr. Chamberlain (by telegram) that the Bill had been prepared,
and to indicate the nature of its main provisions. These were: (1) An
indemnity for acts done under martial law; (2) the establishment of a
Special Court to try cases in which the Attorney-General might decide
to indict any person for high treason, such cases to be tried without
a jur