The Irish standard., 1901-10-26

submission has borne no such fruit as
was expected. AS the war department
in London is able to show, dt has not
been for want of men that the English
general has failed to bring his under
taking to an end. He has had all the
men he asked for, and the country is
feeding and paying an army in South
Africa such as it never sent out
against any other enemy.
Some Of the new recruits, it ds admit
ted, were not what they ought to have
been, but shilling a day does not
draw the pick of the land now, and
the Irish, and even the Scotch are slow
to enlist, being in their sympathies on
the Boer side in this war. So the mar
row -chested and spindle -shanked towns
people of the English cities have been
welcomed into service to which they
never were eligible before; and some
Of them have had to come back almost
as soon as they reached Cape Town,
because they were found to have heart
disease, or something equally disquali-
flying for service Still, such as these
recruits are, England has no better to
send, and she has sent them in abund-
ance, as if to make up in quantity
what is lacking in quality.
The Boer, however, will not take his
beating in regular form, and give up
the fight when he cannot appear in
force equal to that of the enemy. GAS
for me-" he says, "give me liberty, or
give me death!' There was a time
when at such words all America would
have thrilled with sympathy, such as
we gave the Greeks when they fought
against vast odds to liherate their
country from the Turks; and we gave
the Hungarians, who fell before the
overwhelming forces of Russia and
Austria; and we gave the Poles, when
they rose against their Muscovite ty-
rants. We did not ask these people
to calculate the chances of the strug-
gle for their country. We cheered
them as they fought, and mourned
them when they fell. Shall we give
less to the brave men who in South
Africa have faced overwhelming odds
for more than two years, and are as
unconquerable today as when they
first took arms? Shall we not rejoice
dn the power they have shown to inflict
severe blows on, their enemy, long
after he had declared they had ceased
The English newspapers which
to be respectable as military force?
reached us by the last mails are
stepped in blue. They admit that their
recent reverses have gone to their
hearts, and that they know not what
to think of such a situation. They
have done everything possible for the
success of their armies; they are roll
ing up vast burden Of debt; they
have as good as abandoned their place
and influence in the politics of the
world for the sake Of this petty war.
They find that so far from having brok-
en- their enemy's power of resistance,
it is more formidable than ever. Their
generals are outwitted. their cavalry
outmarched, their troops driven to
flight or brought to surrender.
And the area of resistance, already
too large for them to handle, has ex-
tended itself. The Beers have invaded
Natal, with the help and sympathy of
part Of its population, and to the
sorrow of the rest Cape Colony, which
was expected to remain passive, is now
inspired by the spectacle Of Boer hero
ism to take part in the struggle, and it
is necessary to proclaim martial law
throughout its area, the hanging Of
young Cape Colonists who were found
in arms having proved an ancitement
to others to avenge them. In fact,
these executions, in view Of the temper
of the people of South Africa, was the
most arrant folly. It was repetition
Of the hangings at Butchers Neck"
which led to the Great Trek, and which
has cost England thousand lives for
every victim Of that piece Of iwanton
barbarity.
& ~