very nearly resulted in asphyxiation.  With an inhumanity almost incredible, in one instance one of the prisoners, suffering from fever and dysentery, was locked up for twelve hours with four others in such a cell without any sanitary provisions whatever.  Friends in Pretoria induced the authorities, by means not unpopular in that place, to admit a better class of food than that allowed to the ordinary prisoners; and it is stated that the first meal enjoyed by the Reformers cost close upon L100 for introduction.  Day by day fresh concessions were obtained in a similar manner, with the result that before long the prisoners were allowed to have their own clothing and beds and such food as they chose to order.  Nothing however could alter the indescribable sanitary conditions, nor compensate for the fact that the cells occupied by these men were in many cases swarming with vermin.

The climate in Pretoria in January is almost tropical, and the sufferings of many of the older and less robust men under such circumstances were very considerable.  On the eleventh day of incarceration the majority of the prisoners were let out on bail of L2,000 each; in the cases of two or three bail of L4,000 each was required; but bail was refused to Colonel Rhodes, Messrs. Phillips, Farrar, Hammond (the signatories to the letter), and J.P.  FitzPatrick, the secretary of the Reform Committee.  These five continued to occupy the undesirable premises for four weeks more, at the end of which time, owing to the serious effect upon their health which imprisonment under these conditions had produced, and owing to the repeated representations within the Transvaal and from the British Government as well, an alteration was made under somewhat novel conditions.

It was notified to the public that the Government had graciously consented to admit the prisoners to bail.  The terms, however, were not at the time publicly announced.  First and foremost it was required of them that they should deposit L10,000 in sovereigns each as security that they would not break the conditions of their altered imprisonment.  They were to reside in a cottage in Pretoria under strong guard, and they were to pay the whole of the costs of their detention, including the salary and living expenses of the officer and guard placed over them.  The cost, including interest upon the money deposited, was upwards of L1,000 a month.

The preliminary examination into the charges against the Reformers began on February 3, and lasted about a month.  It resulted in the committal for trial, on the charge of high treason, of all those arrested.  The Imperial Government having decided to send a representative to watch the trial on behalf of the British, American and Belgian subjects, Mr. J. Rose Innes, Q.C., the leader of the Bar in Cape Colony, attended on their behalf.  It was intimated to the Transvaal Government that Mr. Innes would represent the Imperial Government; but objection was made to this on the grounds that