y; (3) the establishment of a Special Commission to "deal with
rebels not so indicted and to punish all found guilty with
disfranchisement for five years from the date of conviction"; and (4)
the legalisation of the already existing Compensation Commission. In a
despatch dated July 26th--the day after the Settlement debate in the
House of Commons--Mr. Chamberlain replied at length to the arguments
put forward by the Schreiner Ministry in favour of a general amnesty,
and exposed in particular the historical inaccuracy of the appeal to
the "Canadian precedent." At the same time he stated that Her
Majesty's Government, while they could not be a consenting party to a
policy condoning adhesion to the enemy in the field, had no doubt that
"such a measure of penalty as the mass of loyal opinion in the Colony
considered adequate would meet with their concurrence." That is to
say, the proposal of the Home Government for disfranchisement for life
was not pressed, but was abandoned in favour of the lenient penalty
originally proposed by Sir Richard Solomon, independently of any
consideration of the views of the Colonial Office, and now adopted by
the Progressive Ministry.

[Sidenote: The treason bill.]

In spite of its leniency, the Treason Bill met with the violent and
protracted resistance of the Afrikander party in the Legislative
Assembly. The opportunity thus afforded for the delivery of fierce
invectives against the Imperial authorities was utilised to the full,
and the fires of disaffection lighted by the "Conciliation" meetings
were kindled anew into the second and more disastrous conflagration
that culminated in the proceedings of the Worcester Conference
(December 6th). In the Cape Parliamentary Reports the picture of this
nightmare session is to be found faithfully presented in all its ugly
and grotesque details. Two facts will serve to show to what a degree
the members of the Legislative Assembly of this British colony had
identified themselves with the cause of the enemy. The first is the
circumstance that it was a common practice of the Afrikander members
to refer in Parliament to the military successes of the Boers with
pride as "our" victories. The second is the fact that Mr. Sauer, only
three months ago a minister of the Crown, declared, in opposing the
second reading of the Bill, that "a time would come when there would
be very few Dutchmen who would not blush when they told their children
that they had not hel