uger's three years' ban.

The year 1896 was a very bad one for the whole of South Africa.
Besides the Raid and the suspense and disorganization entailed by the
prolonged trial, the terrible dynamite explosion in Johannesburg,{44}
the still more terrible rebellion and massacre in Rhodesia, and the
crushing visitation of the great cattle scourge, the Rinderpest,
helped to produce a deplorable state of affairs in the Transvaal.

Then there was another thing which rankled badly: Messrs. Sampson and
Davies were still in gaol.{45} The feeling throughout South Africa
was reflected in the monotonous announcement which appeared in the
_Cape Times_ week by week for thirteen months:--'To-day Messrs.
Sampson and Davies complete the--week of their imprisonment in
Pretoria gaol for the crime of not signing a petition.' It seemed
scarcely credible that the President should still harbour any
illusions about his magnanimity; nevertheless, for some weeks before
the celebration of the Queen's Record reign it was rumoured that the
two prisoners were to be released upon that occasion as a mark of his
Honour's sympathy. Opinion had not been unanimous upon the attitude
of either the President or the prisoners; but an ugly incident
silenced most of the President's apologists. Gold stealing and the
purchase of stolen gold were being carried on such a scale and with
such impunity that at last, in desperation, the directors and
officials of one of the big mining companies (the City and Suburban
G.M. Co.), at the risk of being shot by desperadoes, took upon
themselves the functions of the detectives and police. They caught
'red-handed' two notorious characters and delivered them over, with
the gold in their possession, to the authorities. The thieves
actually boasted then that nothing would happen to them as they had
'made it all right;' and a few days later one of them was allowed to
escape out of the Court-house buildings which stand in the middle of
a large square. The other was convicted and sentenced to six months'
imprisonment. He was a criminal of a bad and dangerous type, the head
of a gang known to be concerned in gold stealing and burglary as a
profession. The penalty was regarded by all parties as most
inadequate and the judge himself commented adversely upon the
drafting of the law which tended to screen the prisoner. Not one
mitigating circumstance was forthcoming! And yet, whilst ignoring a
fresh outburst of protest against the det