In the House of Commons on Friday week 'Mr. Chamber.
lain made a characteristically fighting speech, and equally characteristic interjections, in the course of the Colonial Office vote, which gave his opponents the opportunity to raise the question of his personal administration. Though we share the indignation which all honourable and patriotic men must feel in regard to the grossly unfair attacks made on Mr. Chamberlain by the baser sort of his opponents, we cannot help thinking it a pity that he should bring these petty and malignant detractors into notice by "scoring of" them as he does. Perhaps the explanation is-to be found in the fact that Mr. Chamberlain does not play games, and that he finds the pleasure in neatly "laying out" his assailants in Parka- went which other men find in winning a match at golf, or billiards, or tennis. The political fact of most importance in Mr. Chamberlain's speech was his statement that the Government had telegraphed instructions that any Boers found guilty of shooting natives in British employ were to suffer the penalty of death. That it was our right, nay, our duty, to issue that order seems to us to be a matter about which there cannot be two opinions.
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