purchased from
the owner of a farm at Cookhouse Drift the beam from which the five
Boers had been hanged at Slagter's Nek for rebellion in the year
1816. Reference has already been made in the first chapter to this
deplorable affair. The beam (which had been built into the house) was
brought up by the purchaser to Pretoria. He states, and no doubt
truly, that he obtained the historical relic for the purpose of
adding it to the National Museum; but it must be added that the time
was not well chosen unless the intention was to rouse feeling. The
_Volksstem_, the Hollander-Boer organ, in an extremely violent
article, described in detail the Slagter's Nek executions, and called
upon the burghers to avenge on the persons of the Reformers their
murdered countrymen; and it is a fact vouched for by persons by no
means friendly to the Uitlander that certain Boers approached
President Kruger, intimating to him that the beam had arrived, that
it would not be necessary to bother about a trial, but that the four
men should be hanged out of hand from the same scaffold which had
served for their compatriots. It is but right to say that President
Kruger's reply was a severe reprimand, and a reminder that they were
not a barbarous people, but should comply with the law. The matter
having been brought to the notice of Mr. Chamberlain, strong
representations were made upon the subject, to which the Transvaal
Government replied (forgetful apparently of the fact that the
President had frequently urged his inability to control his burghers)
that the Transvaal was a civilized State, that the burghers were
law-abiding and peaceful people, and that their Government was at all
times able to control them. It was interesting to see the argument of
the burghers getting out of hand, which was used with such effect in
the case of Dr. Jameson and quoted by Sir Hercules Robinson, recoil
upon the head of its originator.

A final effort was made by the people of Johannesburg to obtain the
release on bail of the four prisoners. A petition bearing the
signatures of 20,000 persons was presented; the gentlemen bearing the
petition were informed that it could not be received; that they must
call again. Having called again and again, the petition was at last
accepted and placed before the Government; but no reply was ever
vouchsafed. The treatment of this memorial is in sharp contrast
with that accorded to the one presented by a score or so of the
President