Lord Milner, replying to the toast of his health at
a banquet given by the Johannesburg Town Council on Wednesday. took a decidedly hopeful view of the situation. This view was justified, he said, not merely by the improved external conditions, but by the feeling that the storm-cloud bad burst, and though not completely over, had cleared the air. " The great cataclysm is behind not before us ; it would need an almost inconceivable degree of folly and mis- management ever to lead South Africa to such another disaster:' The post-Majuba settlement still had its admirers, but the British nation was not going over to the Pro-Boers, who had encouraged the enemy and lent support to the campaign of calumny directed against us abroad and at home, who darkened counsel and to some extent even weakened our policy, but who made no durable or effective
impression on British public feeling. That, he said, was- as sound as ever about South Africa,—hating war, regretting but recognising its necessity, and determined not to be cheated of its result. We may add that the Times corre- spondent, who has returned to Johannesburg after eight months' absence, speaks of the progress that has taken place in the interval as astonishing.
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