THE WAR FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HISTORY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR .1
venture to think that it may be of interest and value to call special attention to the following admirable judgment pronounced by Lord Dufferin in his Rectorial address at Edinburgh on the 14th inst. :—
" Consider for a moment some of those problems in which you yourselves will probably soon begin to take an intelligent interest. The first which may occur to your minds is the settle- ment of South Africa. Though the war has entailed the sacrifice of so considerable a number of valuable lives, and has been signalised by as much gallantry and endurance as has ever been exhibited by Britons; though it has coat us and is costing us millions, and is employing a larger army than has ever been transported across the ocean by any nation; I do not think it will be classed by history as other than a military episode. In our eyes the casualties assume terrible proportions, because the telegraph and the daily papers are perpetually presenting them to our notice; but Wellington in his assaults on Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo lost, in a few hours, almost as many men as have been sacrificed during a whole year of this African war. Indeed, I am convinced that if the telegraph, war correspondents, and the present paraphernalia of sensational newspapers had then existed, he might never have been allowed to finish his Peninsular campaign, and certainly after Burgos there would have been wild clamours for his recall."
—I am, Sir, &c., C. T. KNALTS.
Bradford.
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