he night. Sir George Colley stood still, and was shot down
at close range as the men ran down the hill.

This was the only affair in which the Naval Brigade were engaged during
the war, as, shortly afterwards, just as they were hoping to retrieve
the disasters which had befallen the force,--the reinforcements from
England having now come up to the spot,--peace was made, the Transvaal
was surrendered to the Boers, and the sacrifices made and the blood
which had been shed were shown to have been spent in vain. The intense
disappointment of the troops at this summary and unexpected termination
of the campaign was fully shared by the bluejackets and marines.

The defeat at Majuba Hill was a great blow to British prestige, but it
was one that, in the course of the war which all the world expected to
follow, could have been speedily retrieved, but the effect upon the
Dutch must have remained. It seemed, indeed, as if in fighting for
freedom they were truly invincible, and as if they could withstand the
power of Great Britain, and defeat it, just as their fathers, a few
hundred in number, had withstood Dingaan and defeated his thousands of
warriors. This impression was greatly strengthened by the action of the
British Government.

The Liberal party in England had undertaken the war with very little
fervour, to many the cause of the Boer was the cause of freedom, and the
sight of a small peasant nation, armed as it then was only with rifles,
rising against the power of Great Britain, appealed to the sentiment of
many people, to whom the great popular orator had repeatedly declared
that the act of annexation was an act of tyranny.

Still the war was the act of their great leader, and had therefore been
supported; moreover, regarded as a military matter only, the defeat was
of no importance; the various British garrisons in the country were
manfully holding their own; Sir Evelyn Wood was gathering sufficient
force to take action; he held, he said, the Boers in the hollow of his
hand,--so the war must go on, and Sir F (now Lord) Roberts was sent out
to take command.

Mr Gladstone now suddenly changed his mind; further prosecution of the
war, he said, would be "sheer blood-guiltiness."

He gave the Boers their independence, but they and all the world noted
that he did not discover the blood-guiltiness of the war before the
defeat, and they drew their inferences; and to their dislike of British
rule, added a contempt for B