28th Nov.
THE news from the seat of war is getting better, as we hoped. The Boers whom Lord Methuen routed at Belmont seem to have reformed at Grasspan, which is the next station towards Kimberley after Belmont, and here they have had another defeat, suffering a heavy loss. It is to be hoped that Lord Methuen is not to be forced to fight a battle at every station between Grasspan and Kimberley, but that the Boers will begin to get discouraged. The arrival of Sir Redvers Buller at Pietermaritzburg has evidently reacted favourably on General Joubert, who is retiring northward, and he would appear to be already' between Estcourt and Ladysmith, and would seem as if our men ought to be able to get him between two fires. At any rate Estcourt is no longer isolated from Durban, No sympathy can be felt for the farmers who have broken into the magazine at Bai East—which is nearly 80 miles east of Burghersdorp—and stolen the rifles and ammunition, if Sir Redvers Buller. brings them by and by to a drum-head court-martial, for they can have no grievance whatever against Great Bri Their action is flat rebellion against the Queen without excuse.
29th Now.
Tue news that we publish this morning shows that the process of rolling back the Boers is being begun by Sir Redvers Buller. The railway" has been reopened as far as Frere, which is a station about ten miles south of Colenso, and we may expect soon to hear of the concentration of troops at Colenso, ready for the relief of Ladysmith. It may be doubted whether General Joubert will risk another battle at Ladysmith, and it is more likely that he will continue northward in the hope of drawing the British forces after him but Sir Redvers Buller has more perience of fighting Boers than Si George White had when he allowed himself to be outgeneralled. There Stormberg, a point on the East London Railway, northwest of Queens town, whence a branch line goes westward to Rosmead: and it appears that there is a good deal of disaffection in this part of Cape Colony where the Dutch colonists, according to the genial chronicler in the Zeho de Chine, are ground down under the iron hand of Great Britain..So utterly ignorant of the real condition of things at the Cape is the person who signs himself " Y.K." that he does not know that the majority in the Cape Parliament and the Prime Minister, among others, belong to the Dutch party in the Colony. Kuruman, where there has been a protracted skirmish, is in the Bechuanaland Where General Gatacre is we do not know. There t Bushman's Nek where the boundaries of Natal, Protectorate, about 120 miles north-Basutoland, and Griqualand East meet, west of Kimberley. but it is so far from Queenstown, where General Gatacre was last heard Seth Nov. of, that it does not seem as if that 'THERE is very little news in this could be the place. brought by the mail there are various morning's telegrams. In the papers It will no doubt be noticed that a public meeting for the inauguration rumours "about forthcoming naval of a Patrioti ud was to be held in events in the Mediterranean, in Hongkong. British subjects here take which it is expected that Lord as deep an interest in the doings of Charles Beresford will bear a hand, our troops as they do in Hongkong, and it will be seen that the Channel and it seems to us time for the lea-Squadron has been ordered to ders of the British community here Gibraltar, which has lately been put to call a meeting for the same pur-in a very perfect condition of defence. pose in Shanghai.
The recent negotiations between Russia and Spain are supposed to point to the desire of Russia to get
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.