throughout South
Africa, which was quite unexpected and which greatly embarrassed
the Boer Government, tended to bring matters to a head. Mr. Rose
Innes, who had so generously and constantly exerted himself in
Pretoria in order to obtain some amelioration of the condition of the
prisoners, and who had in his official capacity as watching the case
for the Imperial Government made a very strong report to the Colonial
Office, did not content himself with these exertions. Upon his return
to Capetown he suggested and organized the getting up of a monster
petition to the President and Executive, urging upon them in the
interests of the peace of South Africa to release the imprisoned men.
The petitions were to represent the views of every town and village
in South Africa, and were to be presented by the mayors or municipal
heads of the communities. In this movement Mr. Rose Innes was most
ably seconded by Mr. Edmund Garrett, the editor of the _Cape Times,_
and other prominent men. A movement of this nature naturally excited
considerable attention in Pretoria; but the success of it was wholly
unexpected. The President and his party had played to the South
African gallery, and they had not yet realized that they had in any
way overdone the theatrical part. They had no suspicion of the real
feeling with which the sentences were regarded, nor of the extent to
which they had alienated sympathy by that and the subsequent
'magnanimous' action. 'Magnanimity by inches' had been placarded
throughout South Africa, and the whole game was characterized as one
of cat and mouse, in which the President was playing with his victims
with indifference to the demands of justice and humanity, partly with
a view to wringing concessions from the British Government, and
partly from a mistaken idea that by such a course he would obtain
credit at each step afresh for dealing generously with those who were
at his mercy.

The movement had been well organized. The resolution had been passed
in every town in South Africa, even including the towns of the Free
State. The mayors (over 200 in number) were on their way to Pretoria,
when the President, with his back against the wall, realized for the
first time that he had overshot the mark and that unless he released
the men before the arrival of the deputies he would either have to
do so apparently at their instance, or refuse to do so and risk
rousing a dangerous feeling. He chose the former course; he relea