is lost; but the true worth of it all is only
appreciated when one realizes that the first proclamation extending
the time for disarmament, and promising amnesty to all except the
leaders, was not issued until two days after the Government had
satisfied themselves that the disarmament had been completed, and
that it was deliberately held back until the police and burghers were
in the outskirts of the town ready to pounce upon the men with whom
they had been treating. It is an absolute fact that the Reform
Committee-men, who had offered to effect the peaceful settlement
seemingly desired by all parties, who had used every means in their
power to convince the Government that disarming was being effected in
a _bona fide_ and complete manner, and who had themselves supplied
the Government in good faith with any documents they had showing the
number of guns and the amount of ammunition which had been at the
disposal of the Reform Committee, had not the remotest suspicion that
an act of treachery was in contemplation, nor any hint that the
Government did not regard them as amnestied by virtue of the
negotiations; and it is a fact that when the proclamation of the 9th
was issued the detectives were waiting at the clubs, hotels and
houses to arrest the members of the Reform Committee, and that
the Reformers did not know of the proclamation exempting them from
the 'Forgive and Forget' until after they had been seized.

On the 10th the address promised to the inhabitants of Johannesburg
duly appeared.

After reviewing recent events, it concluded with this appeal:

Now I address you with full confidence! Strengthen the hands of the
Government, and work together with them to make this Republic a
country where all inhabitants, so to say, live fraternally together.
For months and months I have thought which alterations and
emendations would be desirable in the Government of this State, but
the unwarrantable instigations, especially of the Press, have kept me
back. The same men who 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