Lord Kitchener was presented with the freedom of the City
on Friday week, in a speech of wearisome length from the City Chamberlain, and was subsequently entertained at the Ilansion House. In the speeches Lord Rosebery surpassed himself and overpassed the truth by declaring the campaign "the most consummate which has occurred in English military .history for eighty years," "one more far-reaching and benefi- -cent in its results than any of which history has any record." -Exaggeration like that, which makes Omdurman more impor- tant than Plessey, and the Sirdar a greater soldier than Lord -Roberts, should be left by statesmen to the daily papers. Lord Lansdowne was wiser when, in his speech, he spoke of " a certain exuberance in the public imagination," and com- filimented Lord Kitchener upon having exhibited in a special way the English power of inspiring races other than their own with military qualities. And Lord Salisbury was wiser still when he referred to the "wonderful discoveries and com- binations of science which had supported the gallantry and well-tried strategy of a British leader." And Lord Kitchener was wisest of all when he attributed much of his success to the specially able body of officers by whom he was surrounded, and made the grand point of hi speech not his victory, but his administrative success. He had spent £2,500,000, and for that we have seven hundred and sixty miles of rail- way, two thousand miles of telegraph line, six new gun- boats, besides bargee and sailing craft—and the Soudan. Lord Kitchener understands Englishmen well.
