We have written of the elections elsewhere, and need only
say here that English observers should beware of taking au pied de la lettre charges of disloyalty to the Constitution and to the British attachment. Of course, certain policies might easily do a very ill service to both, and result in undoing all the good that has been done since the war ; but now that we have entrusted South Africa with self-govern- ment we must judge party recriminations by the same standard as we employ here. If Mr. Balfour charges Mr. Asquith with, let us say, disloyalty to the Empire, we know what value to attach to the words ; we understand that Mr. Balfour thinks inadequate the naval construction which Mr. Asquith thinks adequate. Mr. Balfour may be perfectly right, and Mr. Asquith may truly be following a policy which would end in disaster, but at all events we do not suspect Mr. Asquith of sedition and treachery. We would suggest that this difference between the direct and indirect meaning of words should be borne in mind. It appears to escape a great many people when they read telegrams from South Africa. And yet the South Africans are conducting their elections very much as we conduct our own here-
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