opportunity of defending himself against newspaper attacks. Military
success amid the surroundings of a South African campaign is often so
difficult: criticism in Fleet Street is so easy! Very frequently the
same man who cheers wildly at Waterloo and labels the outgoing General's
luggage "To Pretoria" is the first to vituperate the same officer if
amid the vicissitudes of warfare some measure of defeat falls to his
lot. Military success does not depend entirely on the devotion or
capacity of a commander. How cruel were those of the paragraphs which we
read directed against our own General, Lord Methuen--the only British
commander who had, if we except Elandslaagte, won any successes up to
the present. Let the public wait before they so freely condemn a General
who drove back the enemy in three successive engagements. That
Magersfontein was a bad reverse is patent to everybody, but the causes
of that defeat are not nearly so apparent.[C] It is disgraceful that
English newspapers should, during the progress of a campaign, print
letters from soldiers at the front which asperse the character and
conduct of their commanding officers. Publicity of this sort strikes at
the root of military discipline and common fairness too, for the public
can scarcely expect a British General to reply in the public Press to
the letter of a private serving under him!

The bells of the Cathedral tolled mournfully as the old year died. Would
that its bitter memories could have perished with it! And then from
steeple and steamship, locomotive and factory, a babel of sound burst
forth as sirens and bells and whistles welcomed the birth of 1900. Yet,
as the shrill greetings died away, one heard the tramp of infantry
through the streets. The Capetown Highlanders--a volunteer
battalion--were under arms all that night, as a rising of the Dutch had
been anticipated on New Year's Day. May the new year see the end of this
cruel strife, and the sun of righteousness arise upon this unhappy land