[Ti) THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Mr. Alex. Mackennal in
the Spectator of February 17th has entirely mistaken the reserve with which Christian men pray: they do not wish to dictate to the Almighty, but to learn to accept His will ; while they tell Him as simply as they can their desires. In South Africa we are fighting for British supremacy : we have believed for several generations that it is ours : we are not going to let the Dutch Republics take it from us, if we can help it. God formed the British race after the overrunning of these islands by Celt, Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman : there is much that seems cruel and hard in the working out of all natural laws : the law of the survival of the fittest as applied to nations seems to us often very strange ; as is that other law, endorsed by our Lord, "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly." Our position on considerable but not very large islands makes us especially liable to overcrowding. When overcrowded we must swarm, like bees do when similarly placed. These wise insects have a way of carrying their laws and constitution with them to their new homes ; so have we. Every London clergyman, nay, every London working man, knows that we are overcrowded; there are too many of us; we must go somewhere. We are not going to be kept out of South Africa, if we can help it, because President Kruger does not like our ways. When I was a Cornish clergyman, hundreds of the best miners in the parish went to work in the Transvaal ; they often returned after a year or two with a good deal of money saved, and always with bitter feelings against the Boers. They often spent money earned in South Africa in emigrating to Australia or New Zealand, because they would not stand the restrictions, political and social, in the land they would otherwise have made their home. These men always felt aggrieved that all white men had not equal rights in a country where England's honour was, as they thought, pledged to ensure it. I have felt for years that this state of things, Englishmen being as they are, must ultimately end in war. So with much in me which makes me sad and even ashamed that twta Christian peoples should fight wars at all; with very much again which makes me hate and be ashamed of the methods of "the controversy which led us into the present strife " ; I pray for and I expect the success of our arms: while I pray, too, that the discipline our heavenly Father has given to us may yield "peaceable fruits"; making us a nobler, more united, and a more Christian people, and so fitted to be used by God for the improvement of the world, we and our daughter nations being the home and the examples of freedom, kindly commerce, and the gifts of peace.—I am, Sir, &c., J. ANDREWES REEVE. The Rectory, Lambeth, S.E.
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