The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-30

tiago.
Copyrighted by Associated Press.J
London. January 27-Though crit
cism OF the government and it's me, 4
DDS OF handling the war is unahat
II is safe 10 say that when parliarng Z
meets. Tuesday next. nothing serk :
will result. There will be the us,,s.
motions Of censure with. perhaps. no !.
than usually impassioned denuciatk :
OF. the various departments Of tha a.
ministration. especially the VAR al
the colonial offices; but such is the
patriotism Of the average Engiishm- IA
and the strength OF the conservative
organization that il will be surprisinc
if Lord Salisbury's majority Il even
appreciably weakened. This mer. al
ly of votes, however, must not h. CON
strued as real index OF national fees-
ing, for many man will 90 u the gov
ernment lobby, who, outside, has pri-
Vately declared some one ought To 10
hanged for administration. and
that il Lord Salisbury did not Gis2sso-
ociate himself from the system or cut
prints responsible for the national hu-
initiation he must eventually take the
consequences. The inner circles IF the
government are perfectly well aware
of such an eventuality, but they have
no fears for the immediate future. nm
plicitly believing in a successful CHI
max of the war and trusting II win
Offset the initial blunders. Another
cogent reason for prophesying that the
| session will be barren OF changes af-
fecting the balance OF power IS IhaI the
| opposition, apparently, is hopeles~ v
! divided. Nothing showed this be tsg
| than Mr.. John Morley's speech at For
| far. January oath when. for the frat
| time. he publicly sneered at Lord Rose
berry, who numbers among his devoted
| adherentS such brilliant liberals as
1 Mr.. H. III. Asquith and Sir Edward
Grey.
Lord Rosebery's magnificent sreech
| this week and the speeches which he
has recently delivered have been con
vincing men of all parties OF his .axoep-
| tfonal breadth of mind, patriotism and
ability to face a national crisis saneiy
and, perhaps it is not stretching the
| bow to say he today commands Brit
iSh confidence to a greater extent than
Lord Salisbury. Yet it is Impossible
| for the liberals to unite on him. and
as The Saturday Review says: He
| is so admirable ou. of office that B<
one would risk putting him in" With
Mr.. Morely so bitterly opposed 20 the
| ROsebery section of the liberals NJ
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerma s. T.
| a non-committal nonentity that his o.
party press scarcely ever refers to h, -'
the liberals have no leader upon VII.
to unite, even should they cohese 81
ficiently TO make a determined atteu
to oust the government.
SO it is probable the opposition. $
tactics will be of the guerilla order
contending themselves with put, ling E
Sir Charles Dixie and others L. critt
else individual points, and while not
directly challenging a vote upon the
morality of the war and the govern
ment's waging Of il for fear OF incurr-
ing the accusation of being unpatriot-
ic, achieving the same end by vigorous
| academic criticism of the ante belIuu,
| diplomacy, bringing up the Jameson
raid skeleton and demanding the pro-
duction Of the withheld correspond
ence which was referred to by Mr. B
F. Hawksley, counsel for Mr. CecS'
| Rhodes in the letters recently p.IbIish-
ed by The Independence Beige
This line of policy. however, VIII NOT
| prevent the Irish members and mos;
of the advanced liberals from bringfn.
to vote most swerving measures of cen
sure; but the liberal leaders of a. sec
! tions are likely 70 abstain iron SUB
porting the war itself which has no.y
and the British position is worse than
| when parliament was hastily assem-
bled to grant supplies.
| An eminent British general. review
! ing the campaign to a representative
of the Associated Press, thus summed
| il up:
| First Of all, we underestimate. the
enemy; secondly, we knew nothing Of
| the power Of modern weapons when op-
| posed to each other in the HAMS toi-
erably equal; thirdly, we d, serted
| strategy to satisfy sentiment By.
| that 1 mean Ladysmith and Kimberley
| appealed TO us, and we answered as
quickly and as unthinkingiy as does
| an electric receiver to a transmitter.
| I'VE have learned many things. but,
chiefly, we have learned that lonx
| range guns and rifles minimize ire
mendously the advantage which FORM
| erly accrued TO the aggressor Yet ]
| thorougly believe. and l am not speak
ing without experience, that had any
| continental nation undertaken the
same task with the same force IL vould
by this time have been wiped out
There are lot Of things which mieh1
have been learned had We watched
your land fighting at Santiago: but we
did not. AS result we did not have
| nippers TO cut wire and We knew moth
| ing about Aausers; but the apprecia-
ton OF our shortcomings only makes
US the more determined 1t may b<
SIX months and II may be a year: bui
| We snail achieve our object