pected phenomenon merely surprised the British people,
then it pained them, and, finally, after two years of it, it has roused
a deep and enduring anger in their minds. There is a rumour which crops
up from time to time, and which appears to have some foundation, that
there is a secret agreement by which the Triple Alliance can, under
certain circumstances, claim the use of the British fleet. There are,
probably, only a few men in Europe who know whether this is so or not.
But if it is, it would be only fair to denounce such a treaty as soon as
may be, for very many years must pass before it would be possible for
the public to forget and forgive the action of Germany. Nor can we
entirely exonerate the German Government, for we know the Germans to be
a well-disciplined people; and we cannot believe that Anglophobia could
have reached the point of mania without some official encouragement--or,
at least, in the face of any official discouragement.

The agitation reached its climax in the uproar over the reference which
Mr. Chamberlain made to the war of 1870 in his speech at Edinburgh. In
this speech Mr. Chamberlain very justly remarked that we could find
precedents for any severe measures which we might be compelled to take
against the guerillas, in the history of previous campaigns--those of
the French in Algiers, the Russians in the Caucasus, the Austrians in
Bosnia, and the Germans in France. Such a remark implied, of course, no
blame upon these respective countries, but pointed out the martial
precedents which justify such measures. It is true that the Germans in
France never found any reason to lay the country waste, for they were
never faced with a universal guerilla warfare as we have been, but they
gave the _franc-tireur_, or the man who was found cutting the wire of
the line, very short shrift; whereas we have never put to death a single
_bona-fide_ Boer for this offence. Possibly it was not that the Germans
were too severe, but that we were too lax. In any case, it is evident
that there was nothing offensive in the statement, and those who have
been well informed as to the doings of the British soldiers in the war
will know that any troops in the world might be proud to be classed with
them, either in valour or humanity.

But the agitators did not even trouble to ascertain the words which Mr.
Chamberlain had used--though they might have seen them in the original
on the table of the _Lesezimmer_ of the nearest ho