The Morning Post of Tuesday contains a very strange letter
from Mr. Channing, who, in effect, wants to give iu and end the war because we have found that the fighting Boer is such a fine fellow. Were not the Southerners fine fellows and full of religious and patriotic enthusiasm as well as of courage ? Was that a reason for yield,ng to them? If it was right to resist the Boers when they invaded our territory, or, let us say, to do the things which led to that invasion, it is right to go on fighting now. Mr. Charming proceeds to assume that we are fighting to destroy self-government in the Transvaal, and apparently in South Africa generally. On what ground, we wonder, does he base that assertion ? The Prime Minister, who is surely likely to be better informed than he is, has distinctly stated that we shall, if we are successful in the war, apply our traditional Colonial policy, which is that of self-government. It is much truer to say that we are fighting for the application of self-government to South Africa than for its destruction. What feeling for self-government have the Boers who rule Johannesburg as it is ruled ? Mr. (Manning talks of exterminating the Boers and saigner a blanc and t he like, but that is the rhetorical talk of the excited. Perhaps we shall not win, but if we do, and we certainly do not mean to give up till we have tried for a couple of years or so, we venture to assert (1) that the Boers will not be ex- terminated, or even have lost 20 per cent. of their people, and (2) that the Boers will settle down without any very great difficulty.
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