Lord Hartington also moved a vote of £750,000 for the
Expedition to Bechuanaland, which will be stronger than was expected. In the discussion which followed, the critics confined themselves mainly to attacks on the vacillation of the Govern- ment; but Mr. Chamberlain came out in a somewhat new character. He said he believed that many Boers had mis- taken the action of the Government after the battle on Majnba Hill, and that whether under a false impression from that event or not, they had distinctly violated a Conven- tion which could not be set aside. We were, therefore, un- mistakably in the right; and although he would not defend Bechuanaland merely to protect the route to the interior of Africa, that being the business of the Cape Colony itself, he would pro- tect the Chiefs with whom we had made contracts. It was necessary to use irresistible force against the filibusters ; and he was satisfied that an adequate expedition would be more peace- ful and successful than a little one, and prevent the dispute from growing to larger dimensions. That is sound sense of a kind which Tories scarcely expect from Birmingham. They have an unintelligible fancy that business-men always like inefficiency in war.
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