country. They were disarmed and
placed at the mercy of the Boer Government by the action of England's
Representative. To decline to give the pledge required would entail
banishment, which would in many cases mean ruin to them and in all
cases would remove them from the sphere in which they might yet
contribute to the attainment of the ends they had in view. The only
compensating consideration possible in such a course would be that
the redress desired would be effected through the influence of the
Imperial Government; but since the Imperial Government had shown
that under the circumstances they were neither willing nor able to
maintain to a logical conclusion the position which they took up when
they secured disarmament, the Reformers concluded that their obvious
course was to give the required undertaking. It is true that several
among them did decline to give this undertaking, saying that they
would prefer to serve their terms of imprisonment; but they received
the answer that after the term of two years' imprisonment the
Government would still require the undertaking or enforce the
banishment clause, so that it appeared to them there was no way out
of it but to sign what was required and wait patiently.

It is perfectly obvious that one of two alternatives will present
itself. Either the Government will come to regard this provision as a
dead letter, and wholly ignore it; or some of the men, in the course
of their business and in dealing with economic questions such as they
are morally entitled to discuss will fall foul of the 'opinion of the
Executive.' The issue will then be a very clear one, and many of
those who were strongly opposed to the Reformers on the premisses on
which they started will find themselves in cordial agreement with
them in later developments.{40}

The Reform movement closed for the time being with the release of the
leaders. Sixty-four men had been committed for trial. From four of
them the Government had received L100,000, and from fifty-six others
L112,000. One was dead; one had fallen so seriously ill before the
trial that he was unable to present himself with the rest, but on
recovering and announcing his intention to plead 'Not guilty' and
fight it out, the case against him was withdrawn.

There remained two men, Messrs. Sampson and Davies, whose case the
Government had refused to consider because they declined to appeal.
They had been sentenced on April 28 to two years' imprisonment a