oncerned, and by formally declaring that the Secretary of
State could please himself whether he followed the advice of the
Commander-in-Chief. Thus the Nation in its indifference allowed the fate
of its next war to be entrusted to hands not qualified to direct a war,
and allowed itself to be deprived of the means of knowing whose advice
was being followed in regard to the preparation of its defences. At the
same time a Committee of Defence was formed of members of the Cabinet, a
committee of untrained men, to settle the broad lines of the Nation's
preparations for the maintenance of the Empire. The results of these
remarkable arrangements are now manifest, and yet the cry is that there
is to be no change in the Government.

But unless there is a thorough change as soon as possible, unless steps
are taken to find a man competent in the management of war and to give
him a place in the Cabinet, where he can keep the naval and military
preparations abreast of the policy, or check, a policy for the execution
of which adequate preparation cannot be made, what guarantee can the
Nation have that it will not shortly have a second war on its hands, or
that the war now begun will be brought to a successful end?

But if war as a branch of the Nation's affairs ought to be entrusted to
a man competent in that branch, what about the tradition that any
politician of eminence in the party is fit to be the Cabinet Minister at
the head of any branch of the public service? Is it not the truth that
this tradition is bad and should be got rid of, and that every branch of
the Nation's business has suffered from the practice of giving authority
for its direction to a minister who has not been trained to understand
it? The war will have been a great benefit if it leads to the universal
recognition of the plain fact that Jack of all trades is master of
none, and that no branch of the public service can possibly be well
directed unless its director is thoroughly conversant with the business
with which he is entrusted. So soon as the Nation grasps the idea that
democracy can fulfil its mission only when the electors are resolved to
choose leaders by their qualification for the work they have to do, the
British Nation will resume the lead among the nations of the world.

WANTED, THE MAN

_January 5th_, 1900

There has been no substantial, visible change in the military situation
since the battle of Colenso on December 15th. The actions of