Everyone in this country is delighted with the Marquis of Lansdowne's reply to the Dutch Peace Proposals. Even the "Daily News" admits that it was irre-preachable in tone and temper, and it was certainlySnot lacking in firmness. Tt has had on the whole an admirable effect on the Continent, for it has done much to dispel the widespread notion abroad, that Great Britain was so sick of the war that she would clutch at any straw to end it. At the same time the very ce terms-in which Lord Lansdo the government of Holland that this country adhered to its determination not to} accept foreign intervention was regarded in some quarters as a sign of weakness, and it was this fact, probably, which induced Lord Salisbury to deliver the speech he did at the Junior Constitutional Club on the following evening. The bluntness of that speech was in marked contrast to the suavity of Lord Lansdowne's dispatch. The Prime Minister pointed out that the Boer delegates had denounced the action of the government as absurd, and hinted pretty clearly that he concurred in that opin fe suggested that Dr. de Kuyper had been made the tool of the English Pro-Boers, and went on to urge that no sentimental considerations of magnanimity to a fillen foe must be allowed to influence the South African settlement. That settlement must he one which will give us security, which will advance the interests of the Empire and destroy the machinations of its enemies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.