The record-union., 1896-04-30
What the Punishment Will be Not as
Yet Made Public.
The Judge in Passing Judgment Said
He Hoped the Executive Would
Exercise the Same Degree OF
Clemency Toward the Prisoners
Which He Had Shown at the Begin
ming of the Year-MOnster petitions
Being Signed at Pretoria for the
Pardon of the Men.

PRETORIA, AprlI A9-DI. Icy u.s.
Secretary of State of the South African
Republic, informed Sir Jacobus A
DeWet the British Diplomatic Agent,
to-day that the death penalties imposed
upon John Hays Hammond, CORONER
Rhodes and others had been commuteu'
but that it had not been decided Wnat
form of punishment should be subStl-
tuted.
The Executive Council is now in ses-
sion, considering all the sentences I'M
rosed by the court yesterday
In passing judgment upon the pr1s-
pners the Judge said it was his palnful
duty to impose the extreme sentence,
but he hoped that the Executive would
authorize the same degree of clemency
toward the prisoners he had shown at
the beginning of the year.
Monster petitions are being s1gneH
here and in johannesburg asking the
President to pardon Hammond and his
associates The Boer jurors, before
whom the condemned would have been
tried had they not pleaded guilty, also
signed a memorial asking Executive
clemency.
BARNATO SELLING OUT.
JOHANNESBURG, April -. The
s'Diggers' News says: Barney Barnato,
the Kaffir King. is very bitter concern
ing the sentences imposed upon Rhodes,
Hammond and others at Pretoria, and
is showing his resentment by closing
all his mines, and selling all his landed
properties in the Rand. The people are
paralyzed at the prospect, as the clos
ing of the Barnato mines will throw
thousands of men into the already
overflowing ranks of the unemployed.
OLNEY GETS THE NEWS.
WASHINGTON, April 29.-Secretary
Olney this morning received the follow
ing cablegram from Vice-Consul knight
at Cape Town relative to John Hays
Hammond: Have been informed that
the sentence of death has been COM
muted. Further particulars will be
wired
Secretary Olney has been in tele-
graphic communication with the Brit
ish Foreign Office to-day in regard to
securing the most favorable treatment
to Hammond by the Boer authorities.
This line of action is made necessary
by the fact that the United States Gov
ernment has no diplomatic officers near
the South African Republic, its only
at johannesburg and Consul at Cape
Town. Vice-Consul knight wired that
he would send further particulars of the
Communication of the death sentence, but
did not do so, for the reason, undoubt-
edly, as shown in these United Press
dispatches, that the clemency granted
was indefinite, and does not indicate
how far the Communication went
PRISONERS BADLY ADVISED.
LONDON, April 29.-The Daily
Telegraph tomorrow will publish a
dispatch from Pretoria, dated April
2Sth, saying that the accused reform
leaders without exception received their
sentences with dignity. John Hays
Hammond after being sentenced col
lapsed, and was taken Immediately to
the Jail, where he was placed under the
care of a doctor and the chief jailer
The bitterest feeling exists among a
majority of the prisoners, who consider
that they were badly advised in plead
ing guilty. Fully forty of the prisoners
avow that they could have proved their
innocence except so far as joining in
the movement constituted guilt.
PRETORIA. April 29.-The State
Attorney has officially denied the state
1nent that any agreement had been
made in accordance with which lighter
penalties would be imposed upon the
leaders in the reform movement in con-
sideration of their pleading guilty to the
charges against them.
WAS THE RAID PREARRANGED2 .
PARIS, April 29.-The Temps" pub
fishes a dispatch from Pretoria saving
that the Government of the Transvaal
Republic intends to publish documents
proving that an understanding ex-
listed between the Chartered Companv
and the johannesburg Reform Commit
tee fully four days previous to the time
of DR.. Jameson's starting on his raid
into the South African republic
Numerous kilograms in cipher and a
code for their translation were found
among DR.. Jameson's personal effects.
and several communications are al
legged to have passed between a prom
inent London financier and Lionel Phil
lips, one of the leaders in the reform
movement, in regard to the projected
revolution. These show that the com
pany had opened an account to the
amount of 100000 to the credit of Col
onel Rhodes, with which to pay for
stores and provisions which were to be
collected at johannesburg for Jane
son and his forces.
1t is also alleged that Cecil Rhodes
had personally instructed jameson how