ss severely tested. Here and there there was a
momentary failure, but as a whole the men did superbly. Multitudes of
the Colonials, who on completing their first term of service, returned
to Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, actually re-enlisted for a
second term, and in several cases paid their own passage to the Cape
in order to rejoin. The Colonials are incomparably keener Imperialists
than we ourselves claim to be. Some of the officers of these Irregular
troops were themselves of a most irregular type, and in the case of
town, or mine, or cattle, Guards were occasionally chosen, not with
reference to any martial fitness they might possess, but because of
their knowledge of and influence over the men they now commanded, and
previously in civilian life had probably employed. One of these called
his men to "fall in--_two thick_!" and another, when he wanted to halt
his Guards, is reported to have thrown up his arms and said, "Whoa!
Stop!" None need wonder if troops so handled sometimes found
themselves in a tight corner. Yet of these newly recruited Irregulars,
as of the most staid Reservists, there was good reason to be proud;
and as concerning his own Irregulars in the Peninsular War Wellington
said that with them he could go anywhere or do anything, so were these
also as a whole entitled to similar confidence and to a similar
tribute.

[Sidenote: _The Testimony of the Cemetery._]

How fully these citizen soldiers hazarded their lives for the empire
every cemetery in South Africa bears sad and silent witness, including
the one I know so well in Pretoria. Indeed that particular
burial-place is to me the most pathetic spot on earth, and enshrines
in striking fashion the whole history of the Transvaal, whereof only
one or two illustrations can here be given. In a tiny walled
enclosure--a cemetery within a cemetery--filled with the soldier
victims of our earlier wars, I found a slab whereon was this
inscription:--

"To the memory of Corporal Henry Watson,
Who died at Pretoria 17th May 1877; aged 25 years.
He was the first British Soldier to give up his
life in the service of his Country, _on the annexation_
of the Transvaal Republic!"

Near by on another slab I read:--

"In loving memory of John Mitchell Elliott
Aged 37. Captain and Paymaster of the 94th Regiment,
Who was killed for Queen and Country