n and pointed expression, however, of
his disinclination to submit to Muscovite duplicity or to "pin-pricks"
or "unmannerliness" from France was criticized on the score of
discretion by a wider circle than that of his political adversaries.

During the progress of the Boer War from 1899 to 1902, Mr Chamberlain,
as the statesman who had represented the cabinet in the negotiations
which led to it, remained the object of constant attacks from his
Radical opponents--the "little Englanders" and "Pro-Boers," as he called
them--and he was supported by the Imperialist and Unionist party with at
least equal ardour. But as colonial secretary, except in so far as his
consistent support of Lord Milner and his enthusiastic encouragement of
colonial assistance were concerned, he naturally played only a
subordinate part during the carrying out of the military operations.
Among domestic statesmen he was felt, however, to be the backbone of the
party in power. He was the hero of the one side, just as he was the
bugbear of the other. On the 13th of February 1902 he was presented with
an address in a gold casket by the city corporation, and entertained at
luncheon at the Mansion House, an honour not unconnected with the strong
feeling recently aroused by his firm reply (at Birmingham, January 11)
to some remarks made by Count von Bullow, the German chancellor, in the
Reichstag (January 8), reflecting the offensive allegations current in
Germany against the conduct of the army in South Africa. Mr
Chamberlain's speech, in answer to what had been intended as a
contemptuous rebuke, was universally applauded. His own imperialism was
intensified by the way in which England's difficulties resulted in
calling forth colonial assistance and so cementing the bonds of empire.
The domestic crisis, and the sharp cleavage between parties at home, had
driven the bent of his mind and policy further and further away from the
purely municipal and national ideals which he had followed so keenly
before he became colonial minister. The problems of empire engrossed
him, and a new enthusiasm for imperial projects arose in the Unionist
party under his inspiration. No English statesman probably has ever
been, at different times in his career, so able an advocate of
absolutely contradictory policies, and his opponents were not slow to
taunt him with quotations from his earlier speeches. As the war drew to
its end, new plans for imperial consolidation were maturing i