ca, to be followed possibly by an ultimatum from a
foreign coalition. In that event the Nation will have to choose between
abandoning its Empire in obedience to foreign dictation, an abandonment
which would mean National ruin, and a war for existence, a war for which
no preparation has been made, which the Government is incompetent to
conduct, and which would begin by a naval conflict during which it would
be impossible to assist the Army in South Africa. That is the situation.
It may take a turn for better; you cannot be quite sure that a storm
which you see brewing may not pass off, but the probabilities are that
the struggle for existence is at hand. What then is our duty, the duty
of every one of us? To support the Government which cannot govern? Not
for a moment, but to get rid of it as soon as possible and to make at
once a Government that will try. Lord Rosebery at least sees the
situation and understands the position. There is no other public man who
commands such general confidence, and it is practically certain that if
the Cabinet were compelled to resign by an adverse vote of the House of
Commons Lord Rosebery would be the first statesman to be consulted by
the Queen. Lord Rosebery could make a Government to-morrow if he would
ignore parties and pick out the competent men wherever they are to be
found. Any new Cabinet, except one containing Mr. Morley or Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, would be given a chance. The House of Commons would
wait a few weeks to see how it bore itself. If there were prompt
evidences of knowledge and will in the measures adopted, even though
half the Ministers or all of them except Lord Rosebery were new men,
there would soon be a feeling of confidence, and the Nation, knowing
that it was led, would respond with enthusiasm. In that case Great
Britain might make a good fight, though no one who knows the state of
our preparations and those of the rest of the world will make a sanguine
prediction as to the result.

TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN

_February 8th_, 1900

Sir Redvers Buller on Monday set out on his third attempt to relieve
Ladysmith. He appears to have made a feint against the Boer position
north of Potgieter's Drift, and, while there attracting the attention of
the Boers by the concentrated fire of many guns, to have pushed a force
of infantry and artillery across the river to the right of Potgieter's
Drift. This force, of which the infantry belongs to Lyttelton's brigade,
ca