The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-15

3
English in land, in population, in real
wealth, as opposed to the mercantile
simulacra of wealth, in position to COM
mand the seas. compared with the drown
ing soil where the broad ocean leans
upon the land which the Hollanders
had redeemed with an incredible toll,
rough, poor, content, ungoVernably bold.
In the heroism of that fatal strife lie
all its dignity and honor.
without straining parallels too far
there now began situation like that
which we see today on smaller scale
between English and Dutch. Neither
people has changed its temper, or laid
aside its deepest passions
1t is surely most agreeable to see a
great English Review rising so much
above national prejudice and greed for
power, as to tell the story of spoliation
and conquest with such an equal and
just hand. 1t goes even farther and
tells how the Hollanders (the ancestors
of the Dutch Boers) sought peace with
England, and all in vain. We quote:
All the grievances, therefore, of fifty
years were gathered by the English in
one black list. The Dutch sent en-
bassies to treat in the very spirit of
Kruger-'All, all, all, except the freedom
of my country They offered the fullest
commercial union instead of a political
alliance. They promised to give an in
demnity for the Ambovna massacres
thirty years before; to dip their flag in
English waters; to pay a fair sum for
the damage done in battle with Tromp"
The British intended to wipe them out.
1t is most touching to read the earnest,
Christian-like plea of the Netherlands
for peace. But England, under Crom-
well, was inexorably bent, on subjugation
as now, and blood. The Nineteenth
Century and After" gives this disgust
ing, doleful damaging story Eve only
copy part):
Cromwell in his war with the Dutch,
for the possession of trade. opened the
series of commercial struggles by which
Europe is still rent asunder.
'After a years war the English pro-
posed to extinguish the Provinces as an
Independent State. and absorb Holland
into England as one people and COM
monwealth:' no alliance, they explained,
but the making of two sovereign States
one, under one supreme power High
in spirit and courage, they believed
themselves strong enough to enforce any
demands they chose to make But they
had not reckoned with the temper of
Holland. The Dutch answer was given
in the battle of the Texel % Lord
prayed the elder Tromp struck down by
a bullet, be merciful to me and Thy
poor people, The fleet had lost over
5000 men, but not man in the States
would hear of the extinction of his coun-
try
There are many other most interesting
pages, but I can not continue to quote.
1t is record of crime and persecution
and death on the part of Spain and
England. We close this glance at a
chapter or two of English history that is
black with crime and horror and re-
morseless blood shedding, with the men
ton that the British historian, Archibald
Alison, severely condemns Britain's
course in the early part of the nineteenth
century. 1t is branded by him as a
'perfideous betrayal of the Dutch peo-
pie. The recent war of devastation and
cruelty has been almost one of exter-
mination. 1t is repetition of the same
old nefarious game of Britain in the
past and the enforcement of the old
satanic principle of wrong that might
makes right The British Review pro-
phetically writes, and it is quite year
since: There still remains to the Dutch
the freedom of their country. to be de-
Tended against the scheme of universal
dominion, which they probably will con-
test in the spirit of William the Third,
when he said. 4 may fall. but 1 shall
fiOht ditch die in hn last -
Since preparing the above we have
learned that an eminent, highly gifted
Irishman, Michael Davitt, has published
a work-large octave, 603 pages, price
81, Funk & Wagnalls, publishers, New
York-entitled THE Boer Fight for Free
DOM" We refer to it to copy
a part of paragraph concerning
one of the most remarkable and internal
wars in all modern history. Mr.. Davitt,
in his last chapter says:
England not only poured her count
less thousands of troops into South
Africa, armed savages in her service, and
burned Boer homes: she took the most
unfair advantage of her puny antagonist
which a spirit of vindictive malice could
suggest. She had control of the cables,
the ports, and the press (having ordered
the correspondents of independent papers
out OF the theatre of operations), and
thus, secure against either Boer or inn
partial testimony, her officers and news
agencies commenced an ignoble campaign
of calumny against the foemen who had
won a worlds kindly interest in a cause
so splendidly upheld. 1t was to
deaden or to kill the universal sympathy
felt for the fate of the republics by be-
smirching the fame and the reputation
of the men who had at Dundee, Nichol-
sons Neck, Stormberg, Magersfontein,
Colenso, Spion Kop, and hundred other
engagements humbled British arms in the
dust, and exhibited to the great Powers
the weakness of England's boosted mill
tary might in the capacity of her officers
and the fighting qualities of her troops. -
THEODORE BRYANT KINGSBURY.
Wilmington, N c., June II, 1902
E. c. Beddingfeld for