Lord Rosebery made an admirable speech on the war and
its lessons at the opening of a new Town Hall at Chatham on Tuesday. In a review of the losses which we had sustained —losses which were painful but transient incidents in the history of a country like ours—he drew an ingenious parallel between our struggle with the Boers and that waged by a great military Empire like Austria when it took over Bosnia and Herzegovina. We had undoubtedly lost prestige, but that prestige could be easily recovered, in view of our two "supreme assets," our Navy and our capital, and, above all, of the character of our people, which had already been braced and tested by adversity. For his own part, he had never been so proud of his country as at the end of the week following the reverse at Colenso. But the war had not only tested the national character, it had proved the Empire to be a fact,—the help of the Colonies was not the work of Govern- ments, but the spontaneous impulse of the people them- selves. Lastly, he Insisted on the need for scientific methods in commerce, education, and war. Lord Rosebery's remarks were received, as they deserved, with great cordiality. He has made many more elaborate speeches, but none more com- pletely in harmony with the needs of the situation.
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