asserts that a
great number of persons have been prevented from signing the petition,
although they approve of it, by fear of the "Bond boycott," adding,
"Some of the Bond members have already remarked, 'Now martial law is
on we are not in it; but wait until it's removed, then it will be our
turn.'"[280]

[Footnote 280: Cd. 903.]

The collapse of the system of responsible government in the Cape
Colony was complete. The truth upon which Lord Durham insisted in his
famous Report on Canada, that responsible government is only possible
where an effective majority of the inhabitants are British, was once
more demonstrated. In the granting of supplies, the characteristic
function of the lower chamber, the authority of the Governor was now
substituted for that of Parliament. The endeavour to check the
rebellion by the agency of the civil courts had been already
abandoned. The lenient penalties of the Treason Bill had produced a
large increase of disaffection. On April 6th, 1901, a notice was
issued by the Attorney-General warning the public that "any act of
treason or rebellion and any crime of a political character" committed
after the 12th instant would be brought no longer before the Special
Tribunals, with their mitigated penalties created by the Act of 1900,
but dealt with by the ordinary courts, and punishable by the severe
penalties of the common law of the Colony. But this warning of the
Attorney-General was superseded a fortnight later (April 22nd), by a
notice, issued by Lord Kitchener and published by the Cape
Government, under which it was declared that--

[Sidenote: The military courts.]

"All subjects of His[281] Majesty and all persons residing in the
Cape Colony who shall, in districts thereof in which martial law
prevails, be actively in arms against His Majesty, or who shall
directly invite others to take up arms against him, or who shall
actively aid or assist the enemy or commit any overt act by which
the safety of His Majesty's forces or subjects is endangered,
shall immediately on arrest be tried by court martial, convened
by my authority, and shall on conviction be liable to the
severest penalties of the law."

[Footnote 281: Queen Victoria died January 22nd, 1901.]

The decision to deal with such cases by military courts was taken by
Lord Kitchener, after consultation with Lord Milner, on the ground
that the state of the midland and