tel. On the strength
of a garbled report a tumult arose over the whole country and many
indignation meetings were held. Six hundred and eighty clergymen were
found whose hearts and heads were soft enough to be imposed upon by
absurd tales of British atrocities, and these reverend gentlemen
subscribed an insulting protest against them. The whole movement was so
obviously artificial--or at least based upon misapprehension--that it
excited as much amusement as anger in this country; but still the honour
of our Army is very dear to us, and the continued attacks upon it have
left an enduring feeling of resentment amongst us, which will not, and
should not, die away in this generation. It is not too much to say that
five years ago a complete defeat by Germany in a European war would have
certainly caused British intervention. Public sentiment and racial
affinity would never have allowed us to see her really go to the wall.
And now it is certain that in our lifetime no British guinea and no
soldier's life would under any circumstances be spent for such an end.
That is one strange result of the Boer war, and in the long run it is
possible that it may prove not the least important.

Yet some allowance must be made for people who for years have had only
one side of the question laid before them, and have had that one side
supported by every sort of malignant invention and misrepresentation.
Surely the day will come when truth will prevail, if only for the reason
that the sources of corruption will run dry. It is difficult to imagine
that any permanent policy can ever be upheld by falsehood. When that day
does come, and the nations of Europe see how they have been hoodwinked
and made tools of by a few artful and unscrupulous men, it is possible
that a tardy justice will be done to the dignity and inflexible
resolution which Great Britain has shown throughout. Until the dawn
breaks we can but go upon our way, looking neither to the right nor to
the left, but keeping our eyes fixed ever upon one great object--a South
Africa in which there shall never again be strife, and in which Boer and
Briton shall enjoy the same rights and the same liberties, with a common
law to shield them and a common love of their own fatherland to weld
them into one united nation.

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW STREET SQUARE
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***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA***

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