now appear in public as the leaders have demanded amendments from me in a time and manner which they should not have dared to use in their own country out of fear of the penal law.  Through this it was made impossible for me and my burghers, the founders of this Republic, to take your proposals into consideration.  It is my intention to submit a draft law at the first ordinary session of the Volksraad, whereby a municipality with a Mayor at its head will be appointed for Johannesburg, to whom the whole municipal government of this town will be entrusted.  According to all constitutional principles, such a municipal council should be appointed by the election of the inhabitants.  I ask you earnestly, with your hand upon your heart, to answer me this question:  Dare I, and should I, after all that has happened, propose such to the Volksraad?  What I myself answer to this question is, I know that there are thousands in Johannesburg to whom I can with confidence entrust this right to vote in municipal matters.  Inhabitants of Johannesburg, make it possible for the Government to appear before the Volksraad with the motto, ‘Forget and Forgive.’

  (Signed) S.J.P.  KRUGER,
        State President.

One would think that anyone gifted with even a moderate sense of humour would have been restrained by it from issuing a second proclamation on top of the elaborate fooling of the first.  Is it possible to imagine any other community or any other Government in the world in which the ruler could seriously set to work to promulgate two such proclamations, sandwiching as they did those acts which may be regarded as the practical expression—­diametrically opposed to the published expression—­of his intentions?

In the meantime the negotiations concerning Dr. Jameson were dragging on.  After securing the disarmament of Johannesburg and getting rid of the troublesome question of the disposal of Jameson, and after refusing for several days (to quote the gist of the High Commissioner’s telegram, Blue Book No. 125 [C-7933]) to allow the necessary arrangements for the deportation of the men to be made, Mr. Kruger suddenly called upon the High Commissioner to have them removed at once, intimating at the same time that it was the decision of the Executive that all the prisoners, except the Transvaal and Free State subjects, whom he would retain, should be sent to England to be tried according to English law.  It was pointed out that it was only contemplated to send the officers for trial.  To this Mr. Kruger replied:  ‘In such case the whole question must be reconsidered.’  The High Commissioner at once telegraphed for the decision of Her Majesty’s Government, stating that it was the opinion of Sir Jacobus de Wet and Sir Graham Bower, who had represented him at the interview with the Transvaal Government, that, if the whole lot were not sent home to be dealt with according to English law, they would be tried in Pretoria, with a result which he feared would be deplorable.  To this Mr. Chamberlain replied: