ENGLAND’S HARD LESSON.
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Dbaerratlona of “One of the Moat
Celebratedtor*Experienced Ob- '
' War.”
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The characteristic weakness in the
presen I campaign fs'the old, vicious evil
of insular arrogance and habitual con
tempt pf others, of which it sometimes
seems that Englishmen will never be
cured" until they have received a per
manently sobering lesson at the hands
of some European adversary. YVe have
been demoralized by victories over coh
ored races, forgetting that war is like
music, where bad practice is worse than
none. . Which of those who are attack
ing the War office and giving generals
the benefit of all the obvious ideas of
the armchair were in favor of the gov
ernment sending out more than 40,000
men to South Africa six months ago?
The Boers had to be dealt with, but they
were not for that reason to be despised,
1 have hardly ever known an English
man from South Africa who was not
confident that the Boers w?ere “stink
ing cowards,” and the rest of it, who
would never stand up against British
troops in the field.
We had exactly the same opinion of
the American colonists, and. when
lieorge III. thought that a few regi
ments would be enough to bring them
to subjection he only showed that he
was a most typical Briton. Before the
Boer War nothing would induce British
officers to believe that these unkempt,
frowsy farmers could fight trained
troops in uniform, and that loose shirts
and patched breeches might have a
good account of pipe-clay. The, most
formidable British forces ever put intc >
the field, blocked or surrounded in.
every direction by a rough colonial
militia—there has never been anything
like it in history ! It is nearly certain
that the forces with which the enemy is >
holding us in check are far smaller than
we have recently, tried to believe.
This is a situation that ought to cure
us of the complaint of blind nationhi
egoism. But 1 fear that even yet the
tendency of public opinion is to’ believe
thay everything would have been easy
if the war office had only gone right
“Wellington did not make those moun
tains,” said Massena at Torres Vedras
The War office did not sow South Af
rica’With the kopjes which are the al
most infernal feature of that country.
With the quality of our opponents and
the immense difficulty of the ground
we Shall be fortunate if we escape a
urther and a final awakening.—N. Y.
World.
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