confiscation of their property
would be one for the Executive to deal with.

The action of Mr. Gregorowski has been variously described, but at no
time more graphically than at the time of the sentence, when a
sergeant of police who was guarding the prisoners exclaimed in the
peculiar Dutch idiom: 'My God! he is like a dog: he has bitten and
chewed and guzzled!'

After passing the minor sentences the judge gave a short address to
the burghers, in which he thanked them for their attendance and made
allusion with evident signs of satisfaction to the manner in which
the trial had been brought to a conclusion. A long delay followed
during which the judge proceeded to note his judgments. Once his
attention was drawn by a remark of an official to which he replied
promptly, at the same time breaking into a broad smile, but suddenly
recollecting the circumstances and the presence of the men sentenced
to death, placed his hand over his mouth and wiped the smile away.
The incident was of course noticed by many people in Court and helped
to strengthen the impression which a limited but sufficient
experience of Mr. Gregorowski had already created.

If the belief which now obtains, that the Reformers were enticed to
plead guilty and misled as to the probable consequences of that plea,
should outlive personal feelings and leave a permanent mark in South
African history, it will be because it survives a searching test. In
South Africa--as in many other countries--it is the invariable
practice of the Courts to decline to accept the plea of guilty to a
capital charge. The prisoner is informed that as the plea involves
capital punishment it will not be accepted; and a formal trial and
sufficient evidence of the crime are required by the Court. That is
done even in cases where the prisoner knows what the punishment will
be! In the case of the Reformers the State Attorney had, it is true,
informed Mr. Wessels that he would be obliged _pro forma_ to put in
certain evidence, but the reason was not given, and Mr. Wessels
regarded it merely as the _quid pro quo_ for accepting unquestioned
the written statement of the four accused! Mr. Gregorowski in
defending his sentence has stated that under Roman-Dutch law he had
no option but to pass sentence of death. Yet contrary to the custom
with which seventeen years' practice had made him familiar he
accepted the plea of guilty--and accepted it without a word of
explanation or of warning! Is it s