20th September.
We cannot doubt that the English people are beginning to think that jthe enthusiasm with which they reeted the Boer Generals Botha, Belarey, and Dewet, was a little premature and exaggerated. It is by no means certain that these gentlemen entirely changed their skin when they took the oath of allegiance \to King Edward, for they seem to have let their true feelings peep out in their recent manifesto to all nations. The free grant by Great Britain of three_millions sterling to the distressed Boers to put thei back on their farms, a piece of generosity almost quixotic, instead of being gratefully received by these moble warriors, is treated as if it were a gradging and utterly inadequate dole, and the world is unblushingly informed that a grant of thirty millions sterling would still be adequate, It reminds us again of Canning's celebrated dispatch to the British Minis er at the Hague:—"In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch giving too little and asking too much"...
When it is remembered that it was the Boers who began the war by their invasion of Natal; who went into it lightheartedly because they decided at the joint meeting of the leaders of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State that under no circumstances could Great Britain send more than sixty thousand men to South Africa; and that they are known as devoted students of the Bible which shows no pity for those who go into a war without counting the cost; it is a little grotesque to see these Generals professing to expect Great Britain to male up the whole of the losses they have suffered from their own temerity and ignorance, and their reliance on the lies on which they were fed by the Boer Committee in Holland, The English, as we have said, seem to usto have been little premature in concluding that the Boer Generals have so entirely changed their skins. It would be more prudent notto forget altogether what is the real character of sttch a hero as Dewet. We take the following from an article in the Jatest issue of " Blackwood," " On the Heeds of De Wet." The incident relates to some English prisoners:—"These _meo, having been pilfered of much of their wearing apparel, including boots, could only with the greatest difficalty Keep pace with the rapid movements of their captors..... Half way through an exhausting march—flight would perhaps better describe the nature of the movement—these wretched prisoners lay down, and refused to move another foot. The threats and chiding of their escort were in vain. Then some one rode forward and informed De Wet. The black-haired guerilla galloped back to the tail of the column. and, worked up into a paroxysm of rage, demanded the senior officer amongst the British prisoners. 'A tall English gentleman stepped for wai Ta a moment the guerilla's arm was raised, and the cruel sjambok of rhinoceros-hide fell across the Englishman's face, leaving The arm was raised for a Second blow: but the Englishman, prisoner unarmed though he was, and, though his life hung in the balance, closed with his pratal captor. Other Boers, doubtless feel~ ing the sting of the blow as_keonly as the recipient, separated the pair before the unarmed Englishman fouud the ruffian's throat, But the blow had been_struck,—unarmed prisoners, even of officer rank, rank with the cold-blooded murder of an had been chastred, an act of savagery fit to envoy. Yet the day will doubtless come When ignorant English people will vie, with each other to do honour to the man who struck the miscreant blow."
It may very well be doubted whether the immense sum that the Boer Generals hope to raise by their begging tour through the civilised world is intended for the relief of the rained Boers and their families. The doubt may seem ungenerous, bub ip is inevitably inspired by' the state-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.