be tried
in Pretoria, with a result which he feared would be deplorable. To
this Mr. Chamberlain replied:

Astonished that Council should hesitate to fulfil the engagement
which we understood was made by President with you, and confirmed by
the Queen, on the faith of which you secured disarmament of
Johannesburg. Any delay will produce worst impression here, and may
lead to serious consequences. I have already promised that all the
leaders shall be brought to trial immediately; but it would be absurd
to try the rank and file, who only obeyed orders which they could not
refuse. If desired we may however engage to bring to England all who
are not domiciled in South Africa; but we cannot undertake to bring
all the rank and file to trial, for that would make a farce of the
whole proceedings, and is contrary to the practice of all civilized
Governments. As regards a pledge that they shall be punished, the
President will see on consideration that although a Government can
order a prosecution, it cannot in any free country compel a
conviction. You may remind him that the murderers of Major Elliott,
who were tried in the Transvaal in 1881, were acquitted by a jury of
burghers. Compare also the treatment by us of Stellaland and other
freebooters.

The result of this communication was that the President drew in his
horns and agreed that if the prisoners were deported to England he
would be satisfied to let the British Government decide which of them
should be prosecuted.

The success of his diplomatic methods had whetted his appetite, it
would appear. He was not content with the conditional surrender of
Dr. Jameson, nor--having suppressed the fact that it was
conditional--with having used him for the purpose of disarming
Johannesburg; but, having achieved both purposes, Mr. Kruger was
still desirous of keeping him in hand. This however was a length to
which the British Government did not see fit to go; but there is no
evidence in the correspondence which has passed tending to show that
even then Sir Hercules Robinson perceived how he was being made use
of and played with by the President.

On the night of the 9th and the morning of the 10th, the members of
the Reform Committee to the number of about sixty were arrested and
lodged in gaol; and from this moment the High Commissioner appears to
have erased them from the tablets of his memory. On January 14 he
telegraphed to Mr. Chamberlain as follows:

I have received a let