and the landdrost of Pretoria,
and had induced the assistant-gaoler and warders to support their
representations, but all without avail. The result of the inquiry was
to lay partial blame upon the doctor and to acquit everybody else--a
result which the public have been used to expect in the Transvaal. It
is somewhat difficult to see how the decision was arrived at, seeing
that in the offices there was the record of a special pass granted
to the unfortunate man's wife to visit him and remain with him for a
considerable period on the previous day in order to cheer him up
and avert serious consequences. The incident told severely upon the
nerves of those who were not themselves in the best of health, and
it was found necessary immediately to release or remove others among
the prisoners for fear of similar results.

The Government seemed to realize that it was incumbent upon them to
do something in order to allay the feeling of indignation which was
being roused throughout South Africa at their manner of treating the
prisoners, so a further instalment of magnanimity was decided upon.
On the day of the unfortunate affair the manager of the Government
newspaper, _The Press_, was authorized by President Kruger and other
members of the Executive to inform the prisoners that they would have
to make modified personal statements of the nature previously
indicated, and if these petitions were presented to the Executive
Council by 8 a.m. on the following Monday (the prisoners would then
have been three weeks in gaol) orders for their release would be
issued by Monday night. In order to secure a favourable reception of
this suggestion it was arranged that the clergyman who was to conduct
Divine service on Sunday in the gaol would deliver this message from
the President to the prisoners at the conclusion of the service, and
urge the men for their own sakes and for the sake of their families
and of their friends to abandon the position which they had taken up
and to sign declarations of the nature required, and so secure their
release. Nor was this all. Outside the gaol the wives of those men
who stood out against the petition movement were informed by
Government officials that unless the demands of the Government were
complied with by their husbands they would serve the full period of
their sentence. Pressure was brought to bear upon these ladies and
special facilities were given them to visit the gaol, avowedly in
order to bring abo