NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE news from the front during the past week has been for the most part bad. We have dealt below with General Gatacre's unfortunate failure in his night attack at Stormberg, in which our loss was very severe. Still heavier was the injury inflicted on Lord Methuen's command in his unsuccessful attempt to carry the Boer entrenchments at Magersfontein. On Sunday afternoon a portion of Lord Methnen's artillery—a howitzer battery and the Naval Brigade—heavily shelled the line of kopjes in which the enemy were posted, and in the early hours of Monday morn- ing our infantry, consisting of the Highland Brigade, moved out to attack the position. As was necessary in a six-mile march in darkness, the troops moved in quarter column. Unfortunately the Highlanders came upon the enemy's trenches before they expected to do so, and were thus exposed while in close order to a terrible fire from the Boers, who, fully aware of the intended attack, were waiting in concealed trenches. Under such circumstances our men had no choice but to fall back exposed to a cross-fire, which, 'poured into them, in the darkness and confusion, caused terrible losses. It was here, says the correspondent of the Standard, whose account of the battle is an excellent piece of work, that General Wanchope and many of the officers fell.
"The disaster," he adds, " was the more exasperating for the consciousness that, had the Brigade been extended in order of attack,.with bayonets ready fixed, the trenches might have been successfully rushed, with far lees sacrifice of life than actually attended the failure of the movement."
