NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LORD ROBERTS'S admirable strategy, the speed with which General French moves his cavalry, and their own losses in all close engagements, have apparently weakened the nerve of the Boers. While their leaders at Pretoria were describing their resistance as not only heroic but successful, they were in fall flight from the district between Osfontein and the capital of the Free State. General Joubert, who with three thousand men hoped to garrison the city, was stopped by our blowing up his railway line, and Lord Roberts therefore entered Bloemfontein in force on March 13th without any further fighting. The Boers. indeed, at the last moment made a merit of necessity. Mr. Fraser, recently candidate for the Presidency, the Mayor, the Secretary to the " late " Govern- ment, the Landrost, and other officials, met the British Commander-in-Chief two miles from the town, and having no gate keys to deliver, tendered him the keys of the public offices. The British flag was raised over the Presidency, and the inhabitants passed with at least apparent cheerfulness under British authority. The State Government goes, it is believed, to Kroonstad, but in reality it is merged into that of the Transvaal at Pretoria, which from the first has considered itself supreme. It will be difficult even for the Pretorians, with their splendid capacity for misrepresentation, to explain away the capture of Bloemfontein, and its effect on opinion throughout South Africa will be great. The Orange Free State as an organised entity disappears, and is replaced by the British Province of Orange.
