The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-11-06

and his colleagues, though VIGOROUSLY men
Of peace. have been led by JOSEPH CHAM
BERLAIN into approving measures which
inevitably tended to war, and war has come.
Worse than this, the war has come, as IL
did in 1854, with Great Britain only par
TALLY prepared for 1t, and the consequences
have been similar.
The mismanagement OF the invasion OF
the Crimea, the military failures that
attended its early stages, and the sufIcrings
OF the army encamped around Sebastopol
so aroused the anger and the Indignation OF
the British people that Lord ABERDEEN's
Ministry was compelled to resign and to
allow that Of Lord PAJMERsToN to succeed
1t. The result was, as we know the capture
OF Sebastopol and the acknowledgment by
the Emperor Of Russia of his defeat. Will
the Encouragement OF the present Ministry
and. the reverses sustained In South Africn
lead to q like resignation by Lord SAILS
BURY and his colleagues, and will 1t be
followed by more energetic and successful
conduct Of the war against the Beers?
The British press is already giving utter
ance to the discomfort OF the people with the
Salisbury ministry. II is beginning to
be seen that Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN has been
allowed altogether too free hand in his
dealings with President KRtaER. which
have soaded the Beers into a declaration OF
war. and that he either was ignorant OF tho
military strength OF the Transvaal, or
egregiously moderated 1t. His colleague,
Lord LANsDowNE, the Secretary for War,
would seem from his speech at Sheffield, last
Thursday, to have been equally ignorant
and equally deceived. He excused his want
OF readiness for the war by asserting that
while diplomacy was conducted by wire
troops could be moved only in steamers
Hence, he said. in effect, that war could not
be matter OF word and blow, with the
blow first but that the word must neces-
sarily precede the blow long enough for its
intended object to prepare to receive It,
The Beers have shown the fallacy OF this
view OF the matter. 1t now appears that,
months before they began negotiating with
Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN. they had amply pro-
vided themselves with arms and ammun.
ton, and got their army ready. so that the
blow which they threatened came as quickly
es did the word that accompanied it.
Besides all this, the British people will
soon be asking themselves, as some OF the
leaders Of the Opposition have already
asked, why the war was provoked at all
So far rs can be judged from tho facts
known, no necessity existed for precipl-
tating a solution Of the controversy with
tho Beers over the franchise for the
Uitlanders. In the natural course Of events
the solution would have come peaceably by
tho increase in numbers of the Tit.
landers, and the Beers would have
had TO grant them their demands
1t looks rs though Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN had
aimed more at his own glorihcation as the
champion OF Great Britain and the polit-
ical distinction that would follow his
coercion OF the Transvaal, than the real
interests Of the nation. Heappears to have
counted upon speedy submission Q; the
Boer Government to a show OF force, and
to have been caught in trap OF his own
contriving. When the mourners for the
killed shall have grown from hun
dreds to thousands. and when the taxes
to pay for the war mount into the millions,
he will be the most execrated man in the
Empire, and his colleagues, II no signal vic
tories come speedily to rescue them, will
share in the hatred he will inspire
Not the British Empire. but the British
Ministry, Ia now in peril. Whether or not
they will escape 1t events only will show.