the date of the last
registration (1899). Apart from the unsatisfactory condition of the
voters' lists, there were other circumstances that made it undesirable
as well as difficult not merely to hold the elections necessary to
fill up the nine or ten vacant seats in the Legislative Assembly, but
even to summon Parliament. Locomotion in many parts of the Colony was
inconvenient, and sometimes dangerous. So large a proportion of the
members of both chambers were absent in Europe, or engaged either in
repelling the invaders or in repressing rebellion, that the remainder,
if assembled, would present a mere simulacrum of the actual
legislature of the Colony. Moreover, it was necessary that no fresh
opportunities for promoting disaffection should be provided by
discussions in Parliament or contested elections. The "carnival of
mendacity" which, culminating in the Worcester Congress, was mainly
responsible for the second invasion of the Colony, had been
inaugurated by the inflammatory speeches delivered in the last session
of Parliament by the Afrikander members during the debates on the
Treason Bill. The spirit of malevolence displayed at this period by
the anti-British Press, whether printed in Dutch or in English, may be
inferred from the list of convictions reported on April 19th by Sir W.
Hely-Hutchinson to the Colonial Office. Mr. Albert Cartwright, editor
of _The South African News_ (the reputed organ of Mr. Merriman and Mr.
Sauer), was found guilty of a defamatory libel on Lord Kitchener, and
sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment without hard labour. Mr.
Advocate Malan, editor of _Ons Land_ (the reputed organ of Mr.
Hofmeyr), was found guilty of a defamatory libel on General French,
and sentenced to a similar term of imprisonment. Mr. de Jong, editor
of _The Worcester Advertiser_, and Mr. Vosloo, editor of _Het Oosten_,
were both convicted of the same offence as Mr. Malan, and sentenced to
six months' imprisonment without hard labour, while the former was
further charged with a seditious libel attributing atrocities to the
British troops, in respect of which he was convicted and sentenced to
a fine of L100 or two months' imprisonment.[278]

[Footnote 278: Cd. 903.]

The extension of martial law in January (1901) had made such excesses,
whether on the platform or in the Press, no longer possible. But the
Afrikander nationalists in the ports, and especially in Capetown,
continued to render assistance to th