with a silly lisp or an inane drawl. Therefore, the useless fellows whom
Britain trusted with the important task of watching him and sizing him up
counted him as a boor as well as a Boer--a mere country clod. But now, from
the rocky hills, these clods, these sons of semi-white savages, laugh at us
derisively, and answer our jeers with rifles that know how to speak in a
language that even the bravest of our troops have learnt to understand--and
respect.

I have a keen recollection of the last Franco-Prussian War. I remember how
the English newspapers ridiculed the French military authorities because,
whilst the Germans had accurate maps of every province within the French
borders, the French themselves were grossly ignorant of their own
territory. Now we can eat our own sarcasms and enjoy the bitter fruit of
our own irony, for, thanks to the Intelligence Department connected with
the War Office in Great Britain, we to-day stand precisely in the same
position towards our African enemy as France did towards Prussia. A glance
at the country through which I have recently passed shows only too clearly
that, whilst Paul Kruger and his advisers knew our full strength to a man,
we, on our part, knew nothing about him or the men, money, or ordnance at
his command. We knew nothing of the country which had been patiently
fortified by the best skilled military engineers in Europe. We know nothing
of his rocky, well-fortified country, which lies behind that which we have
already attacked. Our generals, instead of being supplied with maps
covering every inch of country within the enemy's borders, have to gather
information at the bayonet's point at a loss to the Empire in men, money,
and in prestige. If our commanders blunder, who is to blame but the
criminally negligent officials who have supplied them with false or foolish
data to work upon? The Empire has been betrayed, either wilfully or through
crass idleness upon the part of men who have dipped deeply into the
Empire's coffers, and the nation should demand their impeachment, apart