in the Transvaal since 1884, and lastly as Secretary of the Reform
Committee, felt impelled to do this, but suffered under the
disability of President Kruger's three years' ban; and although it
might possibly have been urged that a plain statement of facts and
explanations of past actions could not be fairly regarded as a
deliberate interference in politics, the facts themselves when set
out appeared to constitute an indictment so strong as to make it
worth while considering whether the Government of the Transvaal would
not regard it as sufficient excuse to put in force the sentence of
banishment. The postponement of publication which was then decided
upon for a period of three years appeared to be tantamount to the
abandonment of the original purpose, and the work was continued with
the intention of making it a private record to be printed at the
expiry of the term of silence, and to be privately circulated among
those who were personally concerned or interested; a record which
might perhaps be of service some day in filling in a page of South
African history.

The private circulation of that work during June of the present
year led to suggestions from many quarters that it should be
supplemented by a chapter or two dealing with later events and
published; and the present volume is the outcome of these
suggestions.

It is realized that much of what might properly appear in a private
record will be considered rather superfluous in a book designed for
wider circulation. For instance, a good deal of space is given to
details of the trial and the prison life of the Reformers, which are
of no interest whatever to the public, although they form a record
which the men themselves may like to preserve. These might have been