THE LAST YEARS OF QUEEN VICTORIA, 1886-1901--THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR,
1899-1902.
In August, 1886, Lord Salisbury took office, with the most powerful
majority at his back that any minister had enjoyed since the days of
Lord Grey and the Reform Bill. He was supported by 316 Conservatives
and aided by 78 Liberal Unionists, while the Gladstonian Liberals had
shrunk to 191, so that the Parnellites with their 85 votes no longer
had the balance of power in their hands.
Some political prophets had expected that the return of a majority
pledged to resist Home Rule to the death would render the situation
in Ireland more hopeless than ever, and lead to a general outburst
of riot and assassination. The reverse was the case. A distinct
improvement was perceptible after the fall of the Gladstone ministry,
and in 1887-8 matters began to quiet down. The Parnellites indeed tried
to embitter matters by a scheme called the "Plan of Campaign," by
which the peasantry were to refuse to pay more rent than they thought
proper. But it failed, and a stringent Coercion Bill, passed in July,
1887, did much to repress disorder. A Land Bill which accompanied the
Coercion Act was less successful; it pleased neither landlords nor
tenants, and had no appreciable result, good or bad. But on the whole,
Mr. Arthur Balfour, the new Secretary for Ireland, had a far more
prosperous career than any of his predecessors. He was one of the very
few politicians who gained rather than lost credit while holding the
unenviable post now assigned to him.
In 1887 the Irish question began at last to recede into the background,
and ceased to monopolize public attention. In that year occurred the
Queen's first Jubilee (June 21); the celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of her accession was taken as the opportunity for a great
imperial pageant, in which representatives drawn not only from the
United Kingdom, but from India and all the colonies, did homage to
their admirable sovereign. The display of respect and love for the
Queen, reported from every corner of her dominions, showed that the
crown, when placed on a worthy head, might be not the least of the
links which bind the empire together.
Foreign politics during the first Salisbury administration sometimes
looked threatening, but never reached any dangerous crisis. There was
occasional friction with France concerning the question of Egypt; Mr.
Gladstone had unwisely promised to evacuate that country when peace was
restored, and the French Government repeatedly hinted that the time had
arrived. Fortunately, the continued existence of the Mahdi's savage
hordes on the Upper Nile, and their frequent attempts to penetrate
down stream, supplied a sufficient reason for the continuation of the
British protectorate, and the retention of the British garrison. But
with Germany our relations were also sometimes very delicate. This was
due to that wholesale annexation of unoccupied corners of the earth,
which was the main feature of German colonial policy between 1885
and 1891. The regions (generally most uninviting in character) which
Germany annexed were in close proximity to old British settlements both
in Africa and Australasia, and lay in some cases in quarters where
British influence had hitherto been paramount. Much friction ensued,
and ultimately (as we shall see in our colonial chapter) complicated
exchanges and delimitations of territory had to be carried out. This
was the period in which we first discovered that Germany, no less than
France, was for the future to be a rival in colonial expansion.
Meanwhile continental politics were suffering radical changes, which
had to be carefully watched. With the death of the aged Emperor
William of Germany in 1888, and the dismissal of Prince Bismarck from
office in 1890, the old conditions of the balance of power in Europe
were altered. The Czar Alexander III. was no friend to Germany, and
the young Kaiser William II. did not share his grandfather's regard
for Russia. For the "league of the three emperors" (Russia, Germany,
Austria), which had been the predominant fact in the seventies and
early eighties, there was substituted a new system of alliances.
Germany and Austria took Italy into partnership, while Russia drew
nearer to France, when it was seen that there was some stability in
the republic--a fact that was not certain until the ridiculous fiasco
of the theatrical adventurer General Boulanger in 1888. By 1891, in
the later days of the first Salisbury ministry, this new arrangement
of the powers of Europe was definitely established. It had for Great
Britain the advantage that the two leagues balanced each other, and
that it was unlikely that both at once would take a hostile attitude
towards us. The wisdom of that policy of neutrality and of abstention
from interference in purely continental affairs, which had long been
our practice, became under the circumstances more obvious than ever.
The danger for the future lay in colonial questions rather than in the
internal politics of Europe.
The domestic policy of the Salisbury cabinet followed the lines that
Lord Beaconsfield had laid down in 1874-80, the aim of the ministers
being to show that the Conservative party could be as fruitful in
measures of practical reform as their predecessors. To this period
belong the Local Government Bill of 1888, creating the "County
Councils," which have worked so well ever since, the Free Education Act
of 1891, and the great conversion of the National Debt. By this latter
measure Mr. Goschen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, reduced the 3 per
cent. interest on the National Debt to 2-3/4 per cent., paying off in
ready money the few creditors of the nation who refused to accept the
reduction. Thus £1,400,000 a year was saved, and the new stock, till
the financial disturbance caused by the late South African war, was
generally worth in the market more than the old 3 per cents.
[Sidenote: =Fall of Parnell.=]
The chief event in home politics during the later years of the
Salisbury ministry, was the disappearance of Parnell, the dominating
spirit of the Irish party for the last ten years. In 1889 he had
triumphantly vindicated himself from a charge of having approved
the Phoenix Park murders, and had obtained £5000 damages from the
_Times_ newspaper for having circulated the charge, on the authority
of a forger named Piggott. But less than a year later he appeared as
defendant, and not as plaintiff, in the law courts, in the unenviable
capacity of co-respondent in a discreditable divorce case. The time
has long gone by when a notorious evil liver can be accepted as the
leader of a great party. Mr. Gladstone announced to the Irish members
that they must depose their chief; the majority consented, but Parnell,
supported by a few of his followers, refused to accept "British
dictation," or to bow before the "Nonconformist conscience." The Irish
party split up into the fiercely opposed factions of "Parnellites" and
"Anti-Parnellites," whose abuse of each other did much to disgust their
Liberal allies. Parnell himself died in 1891, but the schism continued
and lasted for nearly ten years, destroying much of the power of the
Home Rule movement and the Irish party.
Nine months after Parnell's death, Lord Salisbury dissolved Parliament
(July, 1892). At the General Election which followed there was visible
that "swing of the pendulum" which has usually been a feature of such
times during the nineteenth century. An outgoing government has always
offended some interests, and disappointed others. There are always a
certain number of voters who think it fair "to give the other side
a chance," and vote for the opposition, whoever may be the "ins" or
the "outs." Though the Salisbury ministry had not been conspicuously
unsuccessful at home or abroad, it found itself left in a minority when
the elections were over.
The Queen therefore sent for Mr. Gladstone and bade him form a
Liberal ministry. He had to face a difficult situation, for his
majority was small, and composed entirely of the Irish, very exacting,
untrustworthy, and reckless supporters. The new parliament showed 274
Gladstonians and 81 Irish Home Rulers, 269 Conservatives and 46 Liberal
Unionists. Being compelled to rely on the Irish for his majority,
Gladstone had to make Home Rule the main plank of his party platform.
This was not at all to the taste of many of his British followers,
who would have liked to give precedence to their own particular
schemes--for the abolition of the House of Lords, the disestablishment
of the Welsh and Scottish Churches, the introduction of Temperance
Legislation, of Universal Suffrage, and of numberless other local and
sectional projects.
[Sidenote: =The second Home Rule Bill.=]
In February, 1893, Mr. Gladstone produced his second Home Rule Bill,
which differed from the first mainly in providing Ireland with two,
instead of one, Houses of Parliament, and in leaving at Westminster
eighty Irish members, who were to vote on imperial, but not on purely
British, concerns. Essentially it was the same as its predecessor of
1885. The measure was debated with great fierceness, and at enormous
length; it occupied the House of Commons from February to September,
and was only carried finally when the discussion of many clauses had
been stifled by the use of the "closure." The third reading passed on
September 1 by a majority of 34--301 to 267 votes. The Bill then went
up to the House of Lords, who made short work of it, casting it out on
September 8 by a majority of ten to one (419 to 41).
The Conservative leaders had taken this bold step because they
believed that the country at large was profoundly uninterested in the
bill, and would view its rejection with equanimity. If it had been
really a popular measure, the House of Lords would not have dared to
deal with it in such a drastic fashion. By their abrupt action they
challenged Mr. Gladstone to a second appeal to the nation; if he chose
to dissolve parliament, held another general election, and was once
more triumphant, the peers would have to bow to the general wish of
the country. But Gladstone and his colleagues had no desire to try
the experiment: while professing much righteous indignation, they
proclaimed their determination to put Home Rule aside for the moment,
and to proceed to the introduction of other measures of radical reform.
This resolve incensed the Irish, on whom the Government's majority
depended, while the English Radicals were so much split up into cliques
with different ideals, that it was hard to keep them together. The
Gladstone Government passed nothing but a "Parish Councils Bill," which
extended to small communities that same power of governing themselves
by elective boards which the late Conservative ministry had granted to
the counties.
[Sidenote: =Lord Rosebery Premier.=]
In March, 1894, the premier announced that he was compelled to retire
from office by his increasing physical infirmities. Even his splendid
constitution was at last giving way, and with no immediate prospect
of carrying out any great measure before him, he had resolved to
retire from public life. He was succeeded by Lord Rosebery, his
Foreign Secretary, who was rather a type of the Whig than of the
Radical. He had ably managed the external relations of Great Britain,
and had shown himself an exponent of colonial expansion rather than
an "anti-imperialist." Like many a Whig statesman of the eighteenth
century, he was a keen lover of sport, and alone among British premiers
has run winners for the Derby. He had never professed any great belief
in, or love for, Home Rule. His character and his views seemed little
adapted to make him an appropriate leader for the Gladstonian party:
but as its ablest man he was charged with the formation of the new
ministry.
His tenure of power lasted for sixteen months (March, 1894-June,
1895). It was mainly filled by a record of Bills introduced, but never
carried: a Welsh Disestablishment Act, an Irish Land Act, and a "Local
Option" Act to please the Temperance party, were all brought forward,
but none reached fruition. The votaries of each measure hindered
the progress of the others, in disgust that their own was not given
priority. The party was rent by feuds and intrigues, and in disgust
at the situation Lord Rosebery took the opportunity of a casual vote
on a small military matter, which had gone against the ministry, and
dissolved parliament.
[Sidenote: =Lord Salisbury's Second Ministry.=]
The ensuing General Election resulted in the complete rout of the
Liberal party; they had been in power for three years, but had
accomplished nothing, owing to their internal divisions and the
necessary dependence on the Irish vote, which hampered all their
enterprises. Tired of their futile proceedings, the electors made a
clean sweep of them, and gave Lord Salisbury a majority even larger
than he had possessed in 1886. The new House of Commons of August,
1895, showed 340 Conservatives and 71 Liberal Unionists, but only
177 Liberals, with 70 Anti-Parnellite and 12 Parnellite Home Rulers.
Lord Salisbury's second ministry was differentiated from his first
by the fact that it opened its ranks to the Liberal Unionists.
Mr. Chamberlain, representing the Radicals, and Lord Hartington,
representing the Whig wings of that party, received cabinet office, and
minor posts went to their followers.
This ministry was destined to see the century out, to survive the
venerable Queen Victoria, and to face with success the ordeal of a
general election, which no cabinet had done since Lord Palmerston's
day. Its record has been a stormy one, mainly because it has carried
out the mandate given to it in 1895, by taking in hand a strong
imperial and colonial policy. In its first year it became involved
in a noisy quarrel with the President of the United States, who had
interfered with language of an unnecessarily brusque and provocative
kind in a frontier dispute concerning boundaries in Guiana, which had
been forced upon Britain by the republic of Venezuela. Fortunately the
cabinet kept cool, American feeling calmed down, and the dispute ended
in a satisfactory arbitration, which gave us practically all that we
had ever claimed.
[Sidenote: =Jameson's Raid.=]
This dispute was in full career when a much more dangerous question
was opened, by the mad and piratical "Jameson raid." Ever since Mr.
Gladstone had granted independence to the Transvaal Boers, after the
defeat of Majuba Hill,[67] the condition of affairs in South Africa
had grown progressively worse. The two races of white settlers in
that region nourished incompatible ambitions. To the British colonist
it seemed natural and proper that all the southern end of the "Dark
Continent" should some day federate itself under the Union Jack. The
Dutch had another ideal, that of a Republican South Africa, in which
their own nationality should be dominant. It was shared not only by
the burghers of the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State, but by
the larger part of the Dutch-born inhabitants of Cape Colony. These
rival ideals were inevitably bound to lead to a collision. The Boers
were much incensed at our annexations to the north of their homes,
which in 1889 made Matabeleland and Mashonaland British, and cut off
from them the power of expanding towards the interior. The main agent
in this advance had been Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the "British
South African Company" which first seized and exploited the coveted
territories: this brought upon him much indignation from the Boers,
and he was soon to merit more. Meanwhile the British section in South
Africa also had its grievances. The discovery of rich gold-reefs in
the Transvaal brought to that land a large mining population, mainly
of British extraction, and led to the founding of the "golden city"
of Johannesburg. Willing to profit from the discovery of the mines,
but frightened and angered by the influx of aliens, the Transvaal
Government refused the settlers any of the duties and privileges of
citizenship. Their autocratic ruler, President Kruger, a clever but
narrow-minded and unscrupulous old man, made it the keystone of his
policy to keep down the miners and refuse them all political rights.
His corrupt and retrograde government irritated the "Uitlanders,"
and in 1895 they formed a conspiracy to rise at Johannesburg and win
their desire by armed rebellion. When the plot had come to a head,
Dr. Jameson, a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Rhodes, crossed the British
frontier with five hundred mounted police, and dashed for Johannesburg.
He was surrounded, beaten, and captured with all his followers,
whereupon the "Uitlander" malcontents also laid down their arms. On
inquiry, it was found that Mr. Rhodes himself had a guilty knowledge
of the plan, a thing utterly incompatible with his position as British
premier of Cape Colony. President Kruger imprisoned his captives for
some time, and then fined them and let them go. The British Government
cashiered the officers concerned in the plot, but did nothing to
Rhodes, though he soon lost his premiership at the Cape. An unwisely
worded telegram of congratulation sent by the German Emperor to Mr.
Kruger caused considerable indignation in England, and led to a
temporary coolness between Berlin and London. But this was the smallest
of the evil results of the "Jameson Raid," which embittered to an
intolerable degree the already existing feud between the British and
the Dutch inhabitants of South Africa. Yet it was to be nearly four
years more before this deep-lying hatred led to open war.
Meanwhile there was a delusive interval of quiet, during which there
took place the second "Jubilee" of Queen Victoria, who had now reached
the sixtieth year of her reign and the seventy-eighth of her life.
It was celebrated (June 20, 1897) with the deepest personal devotion
to the aged sovereign, and with an even greater display of imperial
sentiment all round the British world than had been seen in 1887. Ere
three years had elapsed, it was to be proved that this display of
loyalty to the crown and the empire from the British colonies was no
vain show, but the manifestation of a very real solidarity of sentiment
and interests.
[Sidenote: =Death of Mr. Gladstone.=]
Domestic politics meanwhile remained barren and uninteresting; the
Government carried through nothing more than a few small measures of
social reform, and an Irish Local Government Act (1898) of doubtful
expediency. But their opponents showed no rallying power. Mr. Gladstone
died on May 19, 1898, at the great age of eighty-eight: after his
decease his late followers were more divided than ever, and seemed
unable to formulate any common political programme, or to discover any
means of appealing to popular sentiment. The Radical party changed its
leader twice in three years, and could never make up its mind whether
"Home Rule was dead," or whether it had to be resuscitated as a war-cry
with which Irish allies might be lured back to the fold.
[Sidenote: =Reconquest of the Soudan.=]
[Sidenote: =The Fashoda incident.=]
Meanwhile foreign affairs once more grew threatening, and in 1898 we
were to be upon the brink of a struggle with our nearest European
neighbour. Ever since the Gladstone ministry in 1885 abandoned the
Soudan to the fanatical followers of the Mahdi[68] the southern
frontier of Egypt had been exposed to the raids of the wild Soudanese.
To end this nuisance the Salisbury Government resolved to undertake
the reconquest of Khartoum and the destruction of the Mahdist power.
In 1896 the first step was taken, when Sir Herbert Kitchener subdued
Dongola and the northern provinces which obeyed the "Khalifa" Abdullah,
the successor of the Mahdi. In 1898 an Egyptian army, strengthened by a
large British contingent, marched under the same commander to complete
the work. In a great battle outside Omdurman the hordes of the Khalifa
were routed, and he himself forced to fly into the desert, where he
perished a year later in a small skirmish. But when Kitchener took over
the administration of the reconquered lands, he was surprised to find
a French force on the Upper Nile, at Fashoda, above Khartoum. A small
expedition under a Major Marchand had pushed across from the Congo, and
established itself in the middle of one of the old Egyptian provinces,
where the tricolour had been hoisted, apparently with the intention
of setting up a claim to territorial acquisitions in the Soudan. The
French Government had been warned long before that an invasion of this
region would be regarded as an unfriendly act. It was now summoned to
withdraw Marchand or face the consequences. For a moment war seemed
probable, but fortunately the ministers of the republic faltered and
withdrew their claim. This was a happy chance, as Great Britain a year
later was to be engaged in another struggle, which would have taken a
very different turn if we had already been engaged in hostilities with
a great European power.
In 1899 the South African problem, which had been growing more and
more dangerous since the "Jameson Raid," came to a head. President
Kruger had spent the time in accumulating enormous stores of arms
and munitions of war from Europe, in concluding an offensive and
defensive alliance with his neighbours of the Orange Free State,
and in establishing relations with the discontented Dutch colonists
of the Cape. This last was the most disquieting feature of the
situation: an association called the "Africander Bond" organized the
Colonial burghers into almost openly avowed hostility to the British
connection, and manifested effusive sympathy with Kruger's policy. The
old president's rule over the Uitlanders had become more oppressive
than ever since the "Raid:" he very naturally regarded these aliens
as enemies, refused them any concessions, and maddened them with
monopolies, corrupt legislation, and insulting speeches. In April,
1899, a great petition signed by 21,000 British subjects in the
Transvaal was sent to the Queen, setting forth their unhappy condition,
and begging that an inquiry might be made into their wrongs.
[Sidenote: =The Bloemfontein Conference.=]
This appeal led to the "Bloemfontein Conference" of May, 1899, in which
Sir Alfred Milner met President Kruger, and tried to induce him to
grant the Uitlanders the power of obtaining civic rights after five
years' residence in the Transvaal. The president not only refused
this, but disputed the existence of the British suzerainty over the
Republic established by the convention of 1882. The negotiators parted
in a state of mutual exasperation, Milner reporting to London that the
British suzerainty was in danger, and that he could only get the most
vague and illusory promises of concession for the Uitlanders; while
Kruger told his _Raad_ that "though he did not desire war, he could not
give way an inch."
From this moment armed strife was inevitable, though the British
Government and nation do not seem to have realized the fact. Mr.
Chamberlain kept making proposals for a resumption of negotiations
during the summer, but, after long delays, received in September
nothing but a formal notice that the President disowned any British
suzerainty over the Transvaal. This looked ominous, and the cabinet
resolved to reinforce the garrisons of the Cape and Natal, where in
August there were in all only 6000 troops. By September this force
was nearly tripled by battalions sent in from India and from the home
stations.
[Sidenote: =Kruger declares war.=]
Then followed, to the intense surprise of all who had not been studying
African politics very closely, an insulting ultimatum from Pretoria,
to the effect that if the reinforcements were not at once withdrawn,
a declaration of war would follow in twenty-four hours (October 9,
1899). Next day hostilities began, and the Boer army, which had been
mobilizing for many days, crossed the frontier of Natal. The Orange
River Free State declared war on the same day.
The strength of the two republics had been utterly miscalculated by
the home authorities, even when they saw war impending. The Burghers
could put 70,000 well-armed mounted riflemen into the field, and were
supplied with superabundant stores of modern cannon and munitions. They
were also relying on the support of a general rebellion of the Cape
Dutch, who had been secretly armed and organized during the preceding
months.
[Sidenote: =Siege of Ladysmith.=]
It was fortunate for Britain that the Boers' strategy was very bad:
instead of entering Cape Colony, where they could have raised the
whole countryside in their aid, they sent their main army into Natal,
and most of their other forces to besiege the outlying garrisons of
Mafeking and Kimberley. This misdirection of their energy saved the
British domination in South Africa. After a few preliminary skirmishes,
the burghers beat Sir George White, our commander in Natal, at the
battle of Lombard's Kop (October 30). He retired into a fortified
position at Ladysmith, trusting that the enemy would gather round him
instead of pushing further into British territory. This expectation
was correct: the burghers surrounded the 12,000 men concentrated at
Ladysmith, built lines to shut them in, and worried them by a fruitless
bombardment; but they did not attempt to close, or to destroy the
army by a general assault. The same took place in the other centres of
strife: both at Mafeking and Kimberley the enemy wasted their strength
in tedious blockades, while the time of their predominance was passing
away. During the first two months of the war, they had a threefold
superiority of numbers, and only used it in shutting up the three
garrisons.
The British military authorities, still gravely underrating their
adversaries, had despatched in November an army corps of 40,000
men, which they thought sufficient to end the war. There was such a
misconception of the numbers and fighting power of the Boers, that when
the colonies began to offer aid, the War Office actually told them
that "infantry would be preferred," for a campaign in which the enemy
consisted entirely of lightly moving mounted riflemen! The command was
given to Sir Redvers Buller, a veteran of the Zulu and Soudan wars, of
whom much was expected.
[Sidenote: =The "Black Week."=]
Buller went to Natal himself with 18,000 men, sending the rest of his
troops to Cape Colony, where one column under Lord Methuen marched to
relieve Kimberley, while another under General Gatacre moved up to
suppress the rebellion already springing up in the northern parts of
Cape Colony. Then followed the "Black Week" of December 9-16, 1899.
The force under Lord Methuen forced its way almost to Kimberley,
after severe fighting, but on December 11 was beaten back with great
loss from an attempt to storm by night the lines of Magersfontein. At
the same time the column under Gatacre was routed by the rebels at
Stormberg. But the worst disaster was suffered by Buller himself. He
found the main Boer army still round Ladysmith, with a "covering force"
arranged behind the Tugela in the lines of Colenso. In an attempt to
break through, by a reckless and unskilful frontal attack, he suffered
a complete defeat, losing ten guns and 1000 men. So entirely was his
confidence destroyed, that he suggested to Sir George White that he
might have to surrender Ladysmith, and reported that the Colenso
position could not be forced.
Fortunately, the enemy did not take the offensive. Both at
Magersfontein and at Colenso they remained passive in their lines, and
allowed the British to rally and reform. The only wise move which
they made was to begin to send considerable forces into Cape Colony,
where many districts at once rose in rebellion to aid them. But their
main strength still lay round in the beleaguered towns of Ladysmith,
Mafeking, and Kimberley, where they accomplished nothing.
[Illustration: THEATRE OF
THE SOUTH AFRICAN
WAR
OF 1899-1902.]
The disasters of December caused intense dismay in England. But
the cabinet and the nation faced the situation with coolness and
determination; there was no panic, but only a resolve that the full
force of the empire should be turned upon South Africa. Not only were
the few remaining regular battalions from the home stations sent out,
and the militia mobilized for garrison duty, but a general appeal was
made for volunteers both in Britain and in the colonies. It was at last
realized that mounted men were required: the mother country gave 12,000
"yeomanry" at the first summons, but the colonies did even more, both
Canada and Australia contributing men and horses with a liberality that
was absolutely astounding. The Australian colonies and New Zealand
sent to South Africa, in the space of two years, no less than 22,000
mounted rifles; the South African loyalists gave 12,000, Canada 6000,
and other colonies smaller numbers.
[Sidenote: =Victories of Lord Roberts.=]
But a new commander was even more needed than new troops. Lord Roberts,
the hero of the Cabul-Candahar march, was sent out to take charge of
the war, with Lord Kitchener, the victor of Omdurman, as his chief of
the staff. Even before the bulk of the reinforcements had arrived,
the change in the direction of affairs was soon marked by a turn in
the tide of success. Lord Roberts massed 35,000 men on the western
line of advance, where Methuen was still standing at bay opposite the
entrenchments of Magersfontein. By a sudden flank march he evicted the
Boers from this position, relieved Kimberley, and captured General
Cronje and 4000 of the late besiegers at Paardeberg (February 27). Then
moving into the heart of the Orange Free State, he swept aside all
opposition and occupied Bloemfontein, its capital (March 11, 1900).
Buller meanwhile, with the army of Natal, made two more ill-managed
attempts to relieve Ladysmith. They failed, but a third assault was
more successful, and the Boer lines were pierced after much hard
fighting, ending in the battle of Pieter's Hill. The enemy withdrew to
defend the Transvaal, and Sir George White's garrison was relieved when
it had been reduced to starvation point, and was at the very end of its
resources (February 29, 1900).
[Sidenote: =The march to Pretoria.=]
The second period of the war had now arrived, in which the British
could take the offensive. They had by this time a vast superiority of
force, having 200,000 men in South Africa, while the Cape rebels had
mostly surrendered, and many even of the burghers of the two republics
had retired to their homes in despair. Lord Roberts brought the regular
fighting to an end in two campaigns: during the first (April-May, 1900)
he fought his way to Johannesburg and Pretoria, and captured both
places. After a short rest he marched against the main Boer army, which
had rallied in the Eastern Transvaal, and forced it to disperse or to
retire over the Portuguese frontier (August-September, 1900). President
Kruger fled to Europe with the state-chest of the republic, and devoted
himself to the task of stirring up public opinion on the Continent
against Great Britain--a task in which he had only too much success.
[Sidenote: =Guerilla warfare.=]
It had been hoped that when the regular resistance of the Boers ceased,
the war would come to a speedy end. After Lord Roberts returned to
England, the impression was strengthened almost to certainty. But a
bitter disappointment awaited the British cabinet and nation. Instead
of surrendering, the enemy broke up into guerilla bands, which rode
through the country cutting railways, capturing convoys, and destroying
isolated detachments and small garrisons. There were still 40,000 of
them in arms, and such a force ranging over a country as large as
France and Germany put together, was most difficult to deal with. They
maintained their desperate struggle for no less than nineteen months
(October, 1900-April, 1902). Lord Kitchener finally had to subdue
them by the "method of attrition." It was only by constant "drives,"
in which large numbers of mounted troops scoured the countryside to
catch the bands, and by the building of lines of block-houses across
their favourite spheres of action, that the burghers were finally
worn down. They displayed an enterprise and a reckless courage in
these last months of the war which they had been far from showing
at its commencement. But at last even their stubborn spirits were
humbled to the idea of surrender: after more than half of them had
been captured or slain, and when all their families had been removed
to "concentration camps," they opened negotiations (May, 1902), and
finally laid down their arms to the number of 21,000 men.
Under a wise and conciliatory government there seems no reason to
doubt that they may ultimately become useful and trustworthy citizens
of the British empire. But it will try all the wisdom of the able
administrator who now presides over all South Africa, from Cape Town
to the Zambesi, to settle the multifarious problems which the war
has left behind it. Meanwhile Britain is quit of the most dangerous
war which she has waged since Waterloo, a war which brought to light
many faults in her military system, and much incompetence among her
generals, but which also revealed that the heart of her people was
sound and the unity of her empire solid. It was a most reassuring sign
that the nation paid no attention to the desperate attempts made to
exploit the early disasters of the war for party purposes, and to get
up an agitation against the Government. The movement fell flat, and
at the General Election, which occurred in the middle of the war, the
Salisbury cabinet was replaced in power with a very large majority.
Still more notable was the splendid loyalty with which the colonies
rallied round the mother-country in her day of need, and poured in
their best fighting men for an imperial war, in which it might have
been pleaded that they were not directly concerned. Not even the
blindest observer can fail to see that it is futile to doubt any longer
the existence of the "imperial sentiment."
[Sidenote: =Death of Queen Victoria.=]
It was a source of regret to every loyal inhabitant of the British
dominions that the aged sovereign under whom the war began did not
survive to see its victorious termination, and to close her eyes on
a world at peace. But Queen Victoria, whose powers had been slowly
failing for the last year of her life, only just lived to see the new
century, and expired on the 22nd of January, 1901. She was followed
to the grave by the regrets of a people who realized fully what they
owed to one who had been the model of constitutional sovereigns, and
had set so high the standard of public as well of domestic duty.
Personally she had done more to secure the perpetuation of the British
monarchy than even the most sanguine observer could have hoped, when
she came to the throne, an unexperienced girl of eighteen, in the year
1837. Surveying her eventful reign of sixty-four years--the longest in
English history--with all its progress and endeavour, we trust that our
descendants may look upon the "Victorian Age" as not the least glorious
period in our country's annals.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] See p. 713.
[68] See p. 715.