set at liberty on bail being found for £200 unpaid.


3.--_The Uitlanders' Petition._

These proceedings only resulted in more signatures to the petition
addressed to the Queen. When Sir Alfred Milner, March 28th, 1899,
forwarded a copy to Mr. Chamberlain it contained 21,684 signatures. Sir
Alfred Milner did not undertake to guarantee the authenticity of them
all, but gave reasons for considering the greater number as _bonâ fide_.

Mr. Wybergh in a letter of April 10th, to the British Vice-Consul,
explains the measures that had been taken to collect and verify the
signatures. They were such as to inspire confidence. He states that
among the whole number, only 700 are of illiterate or coloured people;
and adds, that after the dispatch of the petition 1,300 other signatures
were sent in, thus raising the total to 23,000.

The Government of Pretoria, after a lapse of more than a month succeeded
in raising a counter-petition addressed to itself, which, at first, it
stated, contained 9,000 signatures; some time later, on the 30th of May,
the British Government was informed that it numbered 23,000 signatures.
Krüger wished to prove that he had at least the same number of
partisans.

Only he had out-witted himself in the drawing up of this
counter-petition. His signatories affirmed that security of property
and individuals was assured in the Transvaal. Pangloss, himself, would
not have gone so far.