to represent the man’s case so as to have him released, but without success.  It need only be added that the unfortunate man did not serve his entire term, the first act of the first released Reformers being to pay up the surety required and provide him with funds to leave the country.  Grant may have been as guilty and offensive as eccentricity can make a man, but nothing can justify the manner in which he was treated.

The stocks in the hands of Du Plessis were not the mild corrective instrument which they are sometimes considered to be.  According to this authority the stocks can be made to inflict various degrees of punishment.  Du Plessis states that when he took over the gaol he found that the custom was to place men in the stocks within a cell and to trust to the irksomeness of the position and the solitary confinement to bring about a better frame of mind; but he soon found that this system was capable of improvement.  His first act was to place the prisoners white or black in the stocks in the middle of the yard, so that they should be exposed to the observation and remarks of all the officials and visitors and their fellow-prisoners.  In explaining the reasons for this change, he said that he found that in a cool cell a man could be tolerably comfortable and that even the most hardened of them preferred not to be seen in the stocks by others; whereas in the yard they were obliged to sit on the uneven gravel and to endure the heat of the sun as well as being ’the cynosure of every eye.’  But this did not satisfy the ingenious Du Plessis.  The yard of the Pretoria gaol inclines from south to north about one foot in four, and Du Plessis’ observant eye detected that the prisoners invariably sat facing down the slope—­for of course they were not allowed to lie down while in the stocks, this being too comfortable a position.  Upon studying the question he found that in this way much more ease was experienced owing to the more obtuse angle thus formed by the body and the legs.  This did not suit him and he issued further orders that in future all prisoners in the stocks should be obliged to sit facing uphill, and that they should not be allowed to hold on to the stocks in order to maintain themselves in this position but should have to preserve the upright posture of the body by means of the exertion of the muscles of the back alone.  Needless to say the maintenance of such a position for hours at a time caused an agony of aches which many prisoners were quite unable to endure, and frequently the men were seen to throw themselves back and lie down at the risk of being kicked up by the vigilant Du Plessis and confined in the stocks for a longer period than was originally intended.  Nor did this complete the list of Mr. Du Plessis’ ingenuities.  The stocks had been built to accommodate several persons at the same time, and he found that by inserting the legs in the alternate holes, instead of in the pair as designed by the architect of the stocks, the increased spread of the legs caused still greater strain upon his victim.  This was reserved for special cases—­say one in every four or five.