TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD MILNER'S SPEECH. -FIORD 11:17LNER'S speech at Mr. Chamberlain's 'luncheon last Saturday will, we think, considerably raise even his reputation with judicious men. The position was so nearly impossible, and it was so ably met. The speaker had to express, and express warmly, his thanks for his reception, one almost unprecedented in English official history, for the British Viceroy, once away from his king- dom, is usually left among the crowd ; to justify that reception, not by the usual conventionalisms, but by a definite and adequate reason of State ; to avoid politics and yet to convey in a few words an important political declaration. That he did all these things successfully will be to most Englishmen, who are in their silence keen critics of the • spoken word, sufficient proof that Lord Milner adds to his many other qualifications for rule the power of dignified and weighty speech. His thanks were most warm yet not unctuous ; his reason for his reception —viz., the necessity of convincing his foes that he enjoyed the full favour of the Crown—was final ; and his promise of gentleness for all after submission has been made was a declaration that the local authority approved entirely the decision of the Imperial Government. Even Lord Miler's deadly . foes—and no English Proconsul, except perhaps Warren Hastings, has ever had foes more bitter—can find in -his. short deliverance only one sentence on which to Wien., that he was asked to "conciliate panoplied hatred, iiiieusate ambitions, and invincible ignorance." We give ip the word "panoplied," for "the hatred which takes to the rifle" would have been simpler ; but, apart from that poetical adjective; is not the sentence true ? The difficulty, the "single difficulty, in the way of the gentlest :treatment of the' Boeri,, treatment like that we give Scotsmen, which includes, besides political equality, hearty appreciation, is -that 'they are in • arms, that they do desire to terminate British rule, and that they are too ignorant tO understand the plainest facts. It is easy .to say they are justified in fighting—but still one does not conciliate ,invading armies ; or that their ambition is not insensate,-but it is thus we should describe the ambition of 'terriers who tried to drive a bull out of his pasture ; or that.the ignorance is not invincible—but by what other term can it_be described ? Oris it the word "hatred" itself -lhich is (leen-led, objectionable ? Fighting is no proof of haired, but a campaign of calumny. is, and that many Boer leaders have engaged in such a campaign would be acknow- ledgedin a[momenf of confidence by Mr. Steyn himself or the Daily -News. Lord Milner was simply stating the broadlacts of the case which it is necessary the English people should. know, and to object that in stating them he reveals his own knowledge, and so shows his own bias, seems to us as futile as to say the same thing when a Judge in his charge quotes a forgotten fact. For the rest, the note of Lord Miler's speech is calm and brave en- durance, to be maintained until peace, which can be pro- duced.at once by the submission of the aggressors, 'enables the victors to be "gentle," that is. in words which we like better, to concede a just equality to all who will obey the law. Lord Milner 'does not delude himself with appear- ances. He expects great., and above all tedious, diffi- culties, but he is certain of the end; and that once attained he is prepared to govern South Africa in the slow, undramatic, law-ab,iding way which has made of all our other white colonists free men. There is not a trace of hatred, though there is in one sentence of, anger, in the entire speech, any more than there is in.the minds of the English people: Who hates the Boers. or why should they be hated ? They have made. a stupidly bold spring for empire, and they must be defeated, but .the responsible speaker who advocates that when once they • acknowledge defeat they should be punished, or even .humiliated, except by events, is still to be discovered. Certainly he will not be discovered in .Lord Milner, though • he, of all men, has reason for the rancour which he either does not feel, or suppresses completely by dwelling on more statesmanlike considerations.
That the speech will give pleasure all through the country as.well as in ,South Africa is certain, for it is in exact harmony with the domina.nt feeling that there is nothing for it but to go on quietly but steadily "warring down the proud." That was the decision after the first disasters, and, as Monmouth and Oswestry show, it has never changed. Our countrymen naturally are interested first of all in dramatic incidents, which prove their kins- folk's valour, and in the incessant refilling of the battalions, which demonstrates their own resources. A skirmish in which fifty have driven off five hundred is to them an exciting story, and they hail every despatch of fresh forces, especially from the Colonies, with a Lind of sur- prised delight ; but to men of more reflective temper the most pleasurable symptom evolved in the whole dreary struggle is the steadiness of the democratic mind. In this country it has never been tested in difficult wars till now, and many were apprehensive of the result, for in what we may call copybook teaching, the kind of teaching without chapter and verse which so deeply influences us all, women and democracies are said to be always fickle, always liable to change, always, when an indifferent word is used, supremely "mobile." The aristocracy which fought Napoleon could not have been less mobile . than the democracy which is fighting the Boers. The people were told when the disasters came that they were defeated, and they replied : "Then we must begin again." They were assured that their soldiers were too few, and they responded: "Then we must volunteer." They were informed that the expense would be frightful, and they said : "Then we must pay." And lastly, worst of all, they were threatened that the war must drag for years, and they answered : "We can wait." They have all shown them- selves Stephensons, determined to fill Chat Moss ; and though it seems to swallow mountains, the quagmire will be filled. We are not saying this to flatter a people which sometimes in its stolidity would provoke a saint, but because this firmness is of the highest and most immediate political moment. The democracy reigns ; and if, as so many suppose, a democracy always wobbles, there is little hope left for us. We have never quite believed in the taunt, thinking we saw in Roman history, in English history, even in French history, evidence in the masses of stubbornness such as is rarely given to the great, who have too much to lose to be stubborn, and certainly the history of this war sustains our doubt. The people were shocked by the first phase of the war, 'disappointed by the second phase—for they thought Cronje's surrender equivalent to victory—and bored to suffocation by the third phase, which has not yet ended, but their decision has been unchanging that the war must be fought out, not to the bitter, but to the gentle end. There is scarcely a house in England where peace would not be welcomed, but the two Front Benches together could not grant independence to the South African Republics. That spirit is, we take it, also Lord Miler's, and it is because they perceive this that stories of his recall have been so sharply resented, and that his reception alike by King, statesmen, and people will give to those who doubt of England so much consolation.
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