Press and on the platform assume, first, that they are to cease to be Republics, and, secondly, that sooner or later the burghers will acquiesce, sullenly or otherwise, in the extinction of their nationality. The evidence for the latter assumption is not exactly visible to the naked eye. Our rule in the Republics will extend, no doubt, as far as the range of our guns, and if we cover the whole country, which is larger than France, with a permanent garrison, we can, of course, burn and slay, as we are doing now, indefinitely. But that there will be any acquiescence in our authority, any recognition that we are other than lawless invaders, whom every burgher will regard as Englishmen would regard a French conqueror in Kent, remains to be proved. The Dutch are a stubborn race. The African veldt is wide, and, excepting the Rand, there is nothing in it that our people would regard as worth holding. They may wear us out yet, as their ancestors wore out the Spaniards three centuries since. The optimists have always been wrong so far, and it is at least possible they are not right now.

Congresses were held which affirmed in most emphatic fashion their unalterable repugnance to the extinction of the Republics. More significant still, the Schreiner Ministry has fallen at last; its disappearance being due to the reluctance of the Dutch Cape Colonists to allow a Ministry which they had constituted to be used as the instrument for punishing "rebels." It is surprising that the Bond tolerated so long the way in which Mr. Schreiner played into the hands of Sir Alfred Milner. Mr. Schreiner no doubt acted from the noblest motives, but as a matter of fact he sacrificed the situation. Imagine an Australian Prime Minister in his position! The fact is, the Dutch of the Cape are only beginning to wake up to the strength of the position of a majority in a self-governing colony. And when they do discover it they will use it to make the government of South Africa impossible until the Republics regain their independence.

The New Cape Cabinet.

Sir Gordon Sprigg and Mr. Rose Innes form the head and the backbone of the new Cabinet. Mr. Rhodes is in Rhodesia, but two of the new Cabinet Ministers, Smart and Faure, are supposed to do his bidding. This is a mistake. Mr. Rhodes is no advocate for harrying the Dutch. He knows that South Africa is lost to the Empire unless the Dutch are conciliated, and unless the so-called Rhodesites wish to be sharply called to heel they will do well to think twice and even thrice before they do anything that will make it difficult for Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Hofmeyr to come together again. On the other hand, the Dutch would do well to remember that it is no use cutting off your nose to spite your face. Whatever grudge they may have against Mr. Rhodes for the Raid-which would never have taken place if Mr. Chamberlain had not messed things by his self-seeking intervention-Mr. Rhodes is the only Englishman in the country who is at once strong enough and intelligent enough to help them through their present trouble. No doubt they will pull things right by themselves in time. But it will be a long time, and the indulgence of a personal grudge is dearly bought at the price of the postponement for years of the recognition of their rightful position at the Cape.

were

to

par excellence of the old individualistic Liberalism of the Manchester school, was ready to go over to the Socialists if, as he feared time might show, they were the only real opponents of Militarism. The significance of that declaration has been very strangely overlooked. It will be better appreciated twelve months hence. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman made a long speech at Glasgow on the future settlement, in which there were too many "ifs" and "ans." said the Liberal leader, Lord Salisbury If, to be taken seriously when he declared not a shadow of independent self-government was be left to the Boers, then he, Sir Henry, would become an anti-annexationist. But he did not believe Lord Salisbury meant what he said. Therefore, etc., etc. This kind of thing plays Old Harry with the Liberal party. What is the use of being an Opposition if, whenever the Government makes a declaration absolutely opposed to Liberal principles, you refuse to oppose them because you cannot believe that they mean what they say? We are surely entitled to insist that they shall be judged by their own words. The fact is, the Opposition leaders, one and all of them, have forgotten that the business of an Opposition is to oppose. They are all associating themselves with the responsibilities of the Government in the name of patriotic Imperialism. It is very pretty, but it does not work. Let the cobbler stick to his last. The responsibilities of the Government are on the shoulders of the Government, not on those of C. B., J. M. & Co.

How the War

is

being Waged.

Some things worth noting have been published last month on the war. Chief amongst them are the letters which Mr. Michael Davitt has contributed to the Freeman's Journal from the seat of war in South Africa. They are the first really serious attempts that have been made to describe the Burghers' War of Independence from the Boers' point of view. I have republished the substance of them in the current number of "War against War in South Africa," a copy of which will be sent to any address on receipt of 1d. in stamps. Two significant passages may be quoted from the special correspondence on the other side. One is from Mr. Stuart's letter in the Morning Post describing the temper of the troops and men camp followers who took part in the relief of Mafeking :

"Again," says Mr. Stuart, "I had the joy of seeing the smoke of a rebel's house ascending." "These human vermin," he calls the rebels. 66 A beast of a rebel was getting his deserts "-and so on in many passages which

15

we have no space to quote. Mr. Stuart says, Mahon, however, objected to this sort of thing, and, Colonel greatly to our sorrow, forbade any more burnings. Looting was also forbidden."

Strange to say the Westminster Gazette solemnly rebukes the Morning Post for giving us even this stray glimpse of the devil's work we South Africa. Some things the Westminster Gazette are doing in seems to think are too bad to be spoken of. they are not too bad to be done by British troops But if with the enthusiastic applause of British special correspondents, why should we wince when they are chronicled? The other passage occurs in a letter from Mr. Hales, the famous Australian special correspondent, which the Daily News published on June 19th. Mr. Hales says:

are

Mr. Kipling and Mr. Dooley.

His

Among the comic writers of the day, Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Mr. Dooley distinguished themselves last month. As a serious storyteller, Mr. Kipling is proving every day in the columns of the Express that he no longer exists. But stray flashes of insight occur even in the dull and dreary copy which he is turning out about the South African War. picture of the imbecility and arrogance, the ignorance and incompetence of the army officer who despises "shop," puts on "side," and declasses all the rest of mankind who do not belong to his small social set as "outsiders-rank outsiders," is worthy to stand beside Mr. Rhodes's famous criticism of our generals after the relief of Kimberley. In the sketch of "The Outsider" we have a picture of a British officer well on his way to the pinnacle of ignorant self-sufficiency and tragic incompetence which the Chinese officer has hitherto been left to occupy alone. The other writer who has made a notable contribution to the war literature of the month is the humorous Mr. Dooley, who hit off with cruel fidelity the contrast between the exuberance of

American enthusiasm for the cause of the South African Republic and the studious cold shoulder with which the Boer delegates were treated by Mr. McKinley and official Americans :-

Th' amount iv sympathy that goes out fr a sthrugglin' people is reg'lated, Hinnissy, be th' amount iv sthrugglin' th' people can do. Th' wurruld, me la-ad, is with th' undher dog on'y as long as he has a good hold an' a chanst to tur❜rn over.

"Ivrywhere th' dillygates tur-rns they see th' sign: This is me busy day.' An' whin they get back home they can tell th' people they found th' United States exudin' sympathy at ivry pore-marked private.'"

"Don't ye think th' United States is enthusyastic f'r th' Boers? asked the innocent Hennessy.

"It was," said Mr. Dooley. "But in th' las few weeks it's had so manny things to think iv. Th' enthusyasm iv this counthry, Hinnissy, always makes me think iv a bonfire on an icefloe. It burns bright so long as ye feed it, an' it looks good, but it don't take hold, somehow, on th' ice."

nominated Mr. McKinley for a second Presidential term, with Colonel Roosevelt, the popular Rough Rider and Governor of the State of New York, as Republican candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The second name on the ticket is much more popular than the first, and if Mr. McKinley could but promise to go to heaven at Christmas the Republican ticket would stand a fair chance of being accepted with acclamation in November. As no such guarantee is forthcoming, Mr. Roosevelt will have to wait for the Presidency till 1905, when the ordinary swing of the pendulum should bring the Republicans back to power if the McKinley ticket is defeated this year. Mr. W. J. Bryan will be re-nominated as Democratic candidate before these pages are printed, and it will be bad luck for him if he is not elected in November. It is time the Democrats had a turn. Mr. Bryan has grown in wisdom and in popularity since last election, and his return would signify that the American democracy is in no mood to add to its Imperial responsibilities over sea. The silver issue is practically dead. The battle will rage round two questions, and two questions only-Trusts and Imperialism. Mr. Bryan is against both.

Warning

to

very

Lord Salisbury made one Lord Salisbury's remarkable speech in the month of June. Addressing a missionary the Missionaries. meeting at Exeter Hall, he seized the opportunity to implore the missionaries of the Cross to moderate their propagandist ardour. It was all very well for the early Christian apostles to go forth and preach to the heathen, knowing that they would have to pay with their lives for the liberty of their tongues. But we have changed all that. Nowadays, when the heathen slay a missionary, the missionary's Government seize a province. The missionary has become not so much a John the Baptist of the Gospel as an avant-courier of the General and the gunboat :

The Chinese and other nations (said Lord Salisbury) have got the idea that missionary work is a mere instrument of the secular Government in order to achieve the objects it has in view. That is a most dangerous and terrible snare.

Therefore he implored missionaries to temper their enthusiasm with Christian prudence if they would avoid the discredit of being regarded as "an instrument of territorial greed and a weapon in the warfare which one secular power wages against another." Lord Salisbury went on to say that many warnings had reached him as to the danger of lighting a flame in Mahomedan countries which it might be hard to

suppress. In the lands of Islam he bade the missionaries remember

you are dealing with a force which a pure, though mistaken, theism gives to a vast population. I think that your chances of conversion as proved by our experience are infinitely small compared to the danger of creating great perils and of producing serious convulsions and, maybe, of causing bloodshed, which will be a serious and permanent obstacle to that Christian religion which we desire above all things to preach. Of which "great and serious danger" it behoves all men to take good heed.

The

New Ministry in Italy.

The General Election in Italy has been speedily followed by a change of Ministry. The new Italian Parlia ment met on the 17th ult., and although the Speaker proposed by the Government was elected by 242 to 212 votes, General Pelloux on the following day announced the resignation of the Cabinet. After considerable negotiation a new Ministry was got together under Signor Giuseppe Sarocco. It is Moderate Liberal in its composition, retaining Signor Venosta in his place at the Foreign Office. On the 27th the new Cabinet laid its programme before the Chamber in terms which might be repeated with advantage by the next British Ministry. This, said Signor Sarocco, is not the moment for vast programmes. National economy he put in the forefront, for, he declared "we firmly believe that the

discontent of the population is due to an economic malaise. Our first duty therefore will be to produce proposals calculated to alleviate their sufferings." We do not feel the pinch of poverty yet. But we are drawing bills on the future, and incurring new liabilities every year without increasing our resources. When the inevitable depression of trade comes we shall cry out for a Sarocco programme.

The Menace to Our Naval Supremacy.

While the Italians have elected a new Chamber, whose first act has been to instal a Ministry pledged to economy and the alleviation of the sufferings of the people, the German and French Governments vie with our own in the extravagance of their naval expenditure. Despite all opposition, the German Naval Bill-that most deliberate menace to our naval supremacy-has been carried triumphantly through the Reichstag to the no small delight of the Kaiser. The French, not to be behindhand, have been discussing naval estimates which entail an annual shipbuilding outlay in outlay in construction of £4,000,000. The debaters in the French Chamber do not in the least deny that they have England in their mind's eye, and that the increase of the navy is expressly designed in order to enable them to hold their own if they were threatened with another Fashoda. The French, however, like ourselves, will have to reckon with the revolt of the conquered races,` and China may give us all too much to do to leave us any leisure to quarrel amongst ourselves.

The Revolt of the

The news from Ashanti has got steadily worse and worse. The Coloured World. whole confederacy of tribes formerly dominated by the Ashantis appears to have rallied under the leadership of a female relative of King Prempeh, with the definite object of expelling the Pale-faces from the country beyond the Prah. The relieving columns, chiefly composed of black troops, have been beaten back. The Governor and his small garrison have been closely shut up in Kumasi by an overwhelming force of the tribesmen, and when we go to press the chances seem heavy that he and all his men have perished in a desperate effort to cut their way to the coast. The incident is serious in itself, but much more serious for what it implies. It fits in only too well with the much more formidable revolt in China. The coloured races have got tired of being bossed by a handful of whites. They are arming themselves with the white man's weapons, and although they may in the end be beaten by the superior intelligence of the minority, the majority means to have another try for indepen

The Australian Federation Bill.

dence. What that means to us with India on our hands who can imagine? This is not the time of all times for squandering the resources of the Empire. After much negotiation Mr. Chamberlain has at last adopted the Melbourne Argus compromise, with which the delegates have expressed themselves content. On the 18th ult. he proposed a new clause which laid down that no appeal should be permitted to the Queen in Council from a decision of the High Court of the Commonwealth upon any question as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of the Commonwealth and those of any State, or as to the limits inter se of the constitutional powers of any two States, unless the High Court should certify that the question was one which ought to be determined by the Privy Council. Upon the question as to whether or not a power had been delegated, there would be an appeal as of right. The Opposition made some demur, but with the exception of Queensland it would seem as if the Australian Governments were prepared to accept the Argus compromise. Note, however, that the New Zealand Government have just declared in the opening of the new Parliament that they deem it " undesirable and inopportune" to federate for the present. While they object to federate they are willing to annex, and are preparing the public for such an extension of the boundaries of the colonies as would include various unappropriated islands of the southern seas.

Parliament and the Thieves.

Parliament re-assembled on the 14th ult. after the Whitsun recess. Its proceedings have been followed with little interest save for the Ministerial replies as to the course of events in China. The Duke of Devonshire introduced the Secondary Education Bill into the House of Lords on Monday, June 25th, but as he said he did not expect to pass it this year, it may be noted in passing only as an indication of the indifference with which the public regards the peril which menaces our industrial supremacy. Two other measures which have made some progress show a glimmering perception of the need for creating fresh safeguards against the criminal practices by which smart men of business are able to swindle the public without bringing themselves within the scope of the law. Mr. Ritchie's Companies Bill contains a multitude of provisions all aimed at safeguarding the pockets of the investing public from the fingers of the fraudulent promoter. The Bill deals with the position of directors who acted without a qualification or took gifts of paid-up shares, and