rect condemnation of the South African
policy of the Government. In the course of the year 1901 he reiterated
two charges with increasing vehemence. The conduct of the war was
inhuman; and the Government, by refusing to offer any terms to the
republican leaders inconsistent with the decision to incorporate the
Republics into the Empire, were exacting the unnecessary humiliation
of an unconditional surrender from a gallant foe. These injurious
utterances at length provoked Lord Salisbury's indignant comment:
"England is, I believe, the only country in which, during a great war,
eminent men write and speak publicly as if they belonged to the
enemy;" and elicited from Lord Rosebery, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Asquith,
Mr. Haldane, and Sir Henry Fowler, the assurance that the
determination of the British people to "see the war through" had in no
way weakened. But, in spite of these patriotic utterances on the part
of the Liberal Imperialists, the fact remains that, throughout the
whole period of the guerilla war, the Boer commandos were encouraged
to resist the Imperial troops by the knowledge that prominent members
of the Liberal party in England had declared themselves to be opposed
to what they termed the "suppression" of the Boer people,[235] and
were condemning in unmeasured terms the British military authorities
for employing the sole methods by which the guerilla leaders could be
encountered on equal terms, and the disarmament of the Dutch
population could be accomplished.

[Sidenote: Peace party among the Boers.]

There is another element in the attitude of the burgher population at
this critical period, a knowledge of which is essential to a correct
understanding of the methods and conditions of the guerilla war. The
existence among the republican Dutch of a considerable body of opinion
in favour of submission was a circumstance of which the Imperial
authorities were aware, and one of which they desired, naturally
enough, to take the fullest advantage. It was known also to the
militant Boer leaders; and it is obvious that any estimate of the
degree in which these leaders are to be held directly responsible for
the loss and suffering entailed by the decision to continue the war,
will depend largely upon the manner in which they dealt with those
members of their own community who were prepared, after Lord
Roberts's victories, to become peaceable citizens of the British
Empire.

[Footnote 235: "This war no long