The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-01-26
1T WILL SURELY COME,

In opening a new town hall at Chat
! ham, in England, last Monday, the Earl
OF Rosebcrry said:
In such Il war we must have bad mo-
ments But l trust that, in the prori-
dence Of God, we are striking balance
Of the evil Great Britain has undergone
and the good derived, and l do not think
the balance is much against Great BIS
tain.
was never so proud Of my country
as during the week following the battle
of the Tugela River. when party politics
disappeared absolutely, and gave way
to passionate resolve to pour out the
last shilling and the last man to assist
the country in her hour Of need. What
ever foreigners may say, they have not
got to the bottom of old England yet.
This test Of the character of the British
people will alone counterbalance our
losses. The reverses of the war have
taught the country that the empire is a
united empire. The war will be cheap If
It teaches the nation that it has lived too
much from hand TO mouth. and that it
must place things on a scientific Or
me,hodical basis. In commerce, education.
and. war Great Britain is not nisthodiCal
and not scientific.
The task ahead is the greatest which
over lay before a nation, and will occupy
the present government and many fu-
ture governments But it will have to
be faced The country has yet to brins:
the war TO a triumphant conclusion.
When that is done it must set to work
to put the empire on business footing,
and strive to make it realize the British
ideal of an empire, without menace, with
out opprcssion--a model State ruled by
model institutions and inhabited by a
model race
There was much need in England for
just this sort Of talk from one Of her
representative public men. and we have
no doubt that this speech of Lord Rose
berry has set the key for all public ut
terances until the reforms that he sug-
sests are made in the political economy
Of the empire.
The perfectly free trade England has
enjoyed for the past fifty years has
made her citizens immensely wealthy.
They are trading in every quarter of the
earth, and there Is scarcely a locality
but what an Bnglishman holds bonds
that are a mortgage upon the choicest
resources of it. But Notwithstanding.
this immense wealth of the citizens of
: - q =
England. she is not a powerful empire
except in her ability to become powerful
when Ter resources are properly market
able. They have never been properly
marketable yet. Her navy is a scientific
Z organization. and upon the sea the valo1
of her sons and the character of her war
vessels mako her supreme. But her
army, though composed Of as brave men
as the world ever saw, is ,disjointed,
immobile, composite mass that lacks true
order. 1t is honeycon1bed and overlaid
by oftice-hplders and red-tape until it IS
far from being the machine that the:
army of such a Power ought to be.
Fut England's true power lies in the
disposition OF all of her educated men
10 have the rule of justice and liberty to-
prevail wherever her flag. flies, and this
state actually exists. though Lord Rose
berry thinks the ideal empire is yet to
( be constructed. The ideal empire ac>i
tuallys exists now In this spirit ruling
all British institutions everywhere.
We are disposed to think that Edmund
Burke is tho greatest Enslishman that.
ever lived. Other Englishmen have per-
formed deeds that resounded over the!
earth more widely than anything he.
ever did When tbs Duke OF Marlborough