Smyrna times., 1900-01-03
A Menarce to Civilization.

The reverses with which Great
Britain has met in her war against the
BOer republics cannot be lightly viewed
on this side of the water. Not only
our nearest kin and our friends in
need are stricken, but the work which
the English have done in the
tropics is threatened. We can
not face this fact with a light and
careless heart. Whether we think the
war against the Beers was unjust or
for the welfare of civilization, what
sympathies we have to express to-day
should be for the sufferings of the
mother country. We may deplore the
attack as one upon the essential princi-
pie of self-government; we may ques-
tion the motive of the statesman who
compelled it; we may point ont that in
general the evils of blood d-thirstiness
are, in this stage of the worlds pro-
gress, those of the victims own need
less making; we may dwell philoso-
phIcally upon this new evidence, un-
derscored by BOer rifles, that in land
ruled by the highest civilization and
the most intelligent righteousness, and
where reign justice and fair dealing,
the aptitude for war is disappearing;
but we cannot lose sight of the stu
pendOus fact that British prestige is in
mortal danger; nor can we fail, if we
have proper pride of race, or decent
sense of gratitude, or consciousness
of what the English have accomplished
in the homes of the savage races, to
mourn over these disasters.
The Continental powers, our enc
mics as we'll as England's, are rejoic-
ing over the defeats of the English
forces under Butler, Methuen, White,
and Gatacre, and they are predicting
that the magnificent empire of Great
Britain is to fall They were never
more mistaken. Even if Great Britain
should unfortunately lose South At
rica and India-an almost incredible
supposition-and should be driven out
of Egypt, the empire would still exist
And England, with Australasia and
Canada, and with the friendship of
this country, which will grow
warmer as time goes on, would remain
for many years to become greater in
everything that goes to the making of
great nations, unless it may be in
mere military power, than any of her
Continental rivals; for what the future
has in store for the Russian mystery
no one can predict Its future, how
ever, seems to lie in the Orient, and it
may eventually go to it's doom in the
tropics; but meantime the world of
thought and of peaceful enterprise is
to be dominated by the Teutonic races,
chief among which will probably re-
main those people whom we loosely
call Anglo-Saxons.
Nevertheless, though it is idle to
talk of the fall of the empire, as if the
dominance of the English speaking
| people would be overthrown by the
loss to Great Britain of South Africa,
or even of India, those losses would
amount to a great disaster to human
ity. 1t is true that they are imminent.
The English people are rising under
the inspiration of danger. There is no
question of their patriotism. There is
no doubt of their ability to raise great
armies-at least armies great in num-
ber. The enormous wealth of the
country is at the command of the gov
ernment The empires resources in
men and riches, compared with those
of the two republics, are so immense
that ultimate defeat seems impossible.
-Harper's Weekly.