At the public banquet given at Portsmouth on Tuesday to
Captain Lambton and the officers and men of the Powerful,' Sir George White paid a handsome tribute to the services of the Naval Brigade. Had it not been for their guns, the guns of the Boers would have been brought up to positions very much nearer to the defences of Ladysmith, and would have enormously embarrassed his powers of resistance and have enormously increased the mortality of the garrison. He fully endorsed what Captain Lambton had said as to the absence of sadness in the Ladysmith garrison, though he himself had one or two very sad nights after Nicholson's Nek. There was anxiety, but their confidence was never shaken. "There are," said Sir George, "instincts in our natures stronger than reason, and I could not bring myself to believe that the Ruler of the universe, who had ordained the centuries to succeed each other in ordered succession, would, after the dawn of the twentieth century, hurl that loyal, that self-helpful, and that progressive Colony of Natal into that seventeenth century of darkness and bigotry which is represented by Boer rule. Nor did I believe that I had before me so miserable a fate as to be the principal actor in a tragedy which would have caused such humiliation to my country- men and to that august lady whose long and prosperous reign has been the realisation of her name of victory, and who has united the name of England with Empire." That is finely said, and helps us to understand how, under such a commander, the garrison of Ladysmith never lost heart.
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