The Natal Campaign. By J. Bennet Burleigh. (Chapman and Hall.
Gs.)—Mr. Bennet Burleigh dates his first letter from Ladysmith, October, 6th, 1899, and tells the story of a journey made before the war actually broke out through the Orange Free State and the TransvaaL The second letter, also dated in October, from Ladysmith, was written after the campaign had commenced. Again we hear of the " great conspiracy," about which Mr. Burleigh evidently feels no kind of doubt. After this, we hear about Dundee, Elandslaagte (we notice one or two inaccuracies, as, e.g., Colonel Schiel spoken of as killed), Esteourt, the camp at Frere, Buller's unsuccessful attempts to advance, down to Spion Kop. By the time that Ladysmith was relievel Mr. Burleigh had gone elsewhere, and this incident is very briefly told in an epilogue. Nothing in the volume is more interesting than the narrative by Mr. P. C. McHugh of the Boer assault on Ladysmith. He tells us that one hundred and thirty-three bodies were handed over at nightfall to the Boers, and that this was but a small pro- portion of the total of the killed and drowned, for the day wes a day of heavy rains, and numbers were swept away by streams swollen into raging torrents.—With this may be mentioned Towards Pretoria, by Julian Ralph (C. Arthur Pearson, Gs.) Mr. Ralph, who is a correspondent of the Daily Mail, does not plunge in medias res. It is not till we reach chap. 7 that we find ourselves at Natal and Ladysmith, and even then our guide is, we imagine, relating at second hand. Chap. 8 brings him to the actual front. We need not follow his narrative. Indeed, books of this kind, published to meet an immediate demand, de not call for criticism. In the newspapers the telegrams overshadow the letters. We pass by what happened last month, however brilliantly described, for what happened yesterday ; yet the letters deserve reading. Only it must be remembered that they are not history.
Previous page
