On Wednesday Lord Roberts telegraphed that Genera Buller bad returned
to Lydenburg, having reached and taken Pilgrim's Rest. Buller's force brought back with it 600 cattle, 4,000 sheep, 150 waggon-loads of supplies, 184,000 rounds of ammunition, and over 100 prisoners. General Hart has also made some very large captures in the Kra geradorp re- gion. With that exception there is this week little SouthAfrican news to be chronicled, but all the signs indicate that the resist- ance of the Boers is surely, if slowly, dying out. One curious rumour is to the effect that the Boers regarded it as a point of honour to keep up the fighting for a year, but that when October 13th is reached large numbers of those still in the field will surrender. Meantime, the troops are beginning to come home, the C.I.V's. as a purely Volunteer corps rightly getting the first place. On Wednesday Lord Roberts reviewed them before their departure, and praised them in one of his felicitously worded and yet perfectly sincere speeches. Bat while he congratulated them on their flue record, he bade them remember to let the people of England know of "the bravery, the endurance, and the gentleness of the regular British soldier." That was well said, for in praising our Volunteers we must not forget the simple private, and lay ourselves open to the retort of the American Linesman to the gashing young lady : "Beg pardon, Miss, I aint no hero ; I'm only a Regular." The C.I.V.'s went out 1,741 strong, and have lost 131 per cent, of their, force in casualties. They have done more than fight well. They have shown how foolish and unjust is the old War Office tradition of despising the citizen soldier, and talking nonsense about the weakest Line regiment being worth two brigades of Volunteers.
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