Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-01-19
THE A IN AFRICA.


England is at war, at war with a
republic, the defeat of which
will he small honor to her, but which
to be defeated by, in any %protracted
series of engagements. will dim English
lustre. The war was illtimed and use
less, it will always have in it the ring
OF robbery, and nothing can divorce
from it the idea of plumber and aggres-
sion. These 4uiet Dutch people were
pursuing their avocations mOlesting
no one and leading frugal and honest
lives. Cecil Rhodes, a schemer and
fortune kunter, saw the rich posses
sions they owned, and plotted for
them. He has drawn England into n
war on this account which must tar
nish her fame, 10 matter how soon she
conquers, or how rapid and brilliant
her yet to be achieved victories. No
sensible, unbiased person can look COM
placently on this struggle nor can he
put aside a secret feeling of sympathy
for the Beers in their heroic struggle
for freedom. The excuse made by
England for this war is that the Kru-
ger government would not allow Eng
llshmen to become naturalized citizens
under seven years of residence, but
the Beers knew this was q scheme to
steal their country and answered by
saying, You Englishmen do not wish
in good faith to become citizens of our
little republic. You do not intend in
good faith to expatriate yourselves
from a vast empire like Great Britain
for such a country as ours. You have
designs On US. But why indeed
should an Englishman become a citizen
of u country on a short residence
when if one of us went to England, he
would be obliged to live there TWELVE
YEARS, and then could aspire to no
higher Office than the House of Com
MONS" The argument vas unanswer-
able. England with her wonted ar-
rOgance, replied in substance: ENG
land gives no reasons for what she
demands. What she does is right and
her reason for so doing shall not be
questioned; submit to our demands or
take the consequences" With just
such right on her side, has she begun
this bloody and unholy strife, and
while the lockers on must see that the
Beers must succumb in time to the
inevitable, stillsuch knowledge neither
lessons ones sympathy for the oppress-
ed, nor augments ones admiration for
the Oppressor. But this war has caus-
ed an examination of England's histo-
ry as a warlike nation. 1t must be
remembered that England has never
fought any great nation or country
single handed. Her modern wars have
been with her colOnists or among her
own people, or if ON the continent,
joined with allied armies of other ma
lions. She has never had such a war
as the FrancO-Prussian war where sim
gle handed and alone she faced the
armies of her peer in warlike strength.
hence her standing as a military nation
has never been accurately tested. In
true Roosevelt style, however, has she
blown herhorn especiallywhen fighting
in company with allies. In the PENN
sular wars, at Waterloo, and at Sebas-
topol, England never retreated after
the victory. 1t is history that Soult
in Spain Was Wellington's equal, and
even at Waterloo, which victory no
English historian fails to ascribe al
most exclusively to Wellington and
where the armies of all Europe were
aiding him. that general was known to
have cried for might or Butcher" 1t
is therefore doubtful just what .esti-
mate must be put on England's mill
tary arm, all admitting that her navy
has been and possibly nov is master of
the seas. Our estimate of English
LOU SlCaGiJ HCiSuteucO vi
as snobbish as her cockney's
usually are, as limitless as is the wis
of the average subject of the
as exclusive as me Lud" ac-
customs himself to be, still nOtwith-
standing his haughtiness and his
implacable and supreme contempt for
America and Americans we ''raWther'
liked it, him, or them, and but for this
late step in his old track might in
time have become all Anglo-naniac.
Now We must pause for a time at
east, and see how he behaves himself
n this Transvaal war, and whether,
when he conquers, as We suppose he
will. be will shoot bis prisoners as
or treat them as prisoners of