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admiration, but could not dispel serious misgivings as to the possible duration of that most spirited resistance.
While things were so, and it was certain that none of the beleaguered garrisons could be relieved for weeks to come, the satisfaction with which the bulk of the press of almost all the greater continental States, with the partial exception of Italy, received all news of British misfortunes, and anticipated worse, was an extremely disagreeable accompaniment to a sufficiently trying general situation. All the more helpful were the stimu- lating utterances delivered some days before the isolation of Ladysmith, but with wise foresight of impending causes of anxiety, by Lord Eosebery and Sir Edward Grey. The younger of these statesmen used language in addressing a students' meeting at Glasgow on October 25 which was well calculated to dispel any lingering misgivings as to the righteousness of the war. After the most careful study of the blue books, he said that he was convinced that the war was inevitable, that it was not sought by us, and that it was forced upon us by the Govern- ment of the Transvaal. People said that the Government had made mistakes. This was, in his opinion, true. He was not at all in love with the new diplomacy, and he meant to criticise it at the proper time. But he did not believe that the mistakes of the Government had been the cause of the war. We had trouble now, not because Mr. Gladstone's policy was unworthy, but because it was too worthy.
Two days later, speaking at Bath, Lord Eosebery utilised the splendid lessons of the life and spirit of the elder Pitt, who represented that city in the House of Commons, as the founda- tion of an appeal for national union in presence of danger. He had, he said, "a motive for laying to-day a wreath on the tomb of Mr. Pitt. I regard Mr. Pitt as the first Liberal Imperialist. ... I venture to think — I may be wrong — that in ten years, perhaps, you will remember my prophecy. I believe the party of Liberal Imperialism is destined to control the destinies of this country.' ' No doubt, he continued, they were thinking of the war they were now engaged in, not a small war, remembering the liabilities to which it might expose the country, and, secondly, that, to judge from the press, the sympathies of the whole of Europe were against us. Was that the fault of the diplomatic correspondence published? He thought not himself, though he doubted whether it had put matters as clearly as had been advisable, but this was not the time to consider such things when war had broken out. "You do well to trust the man at the helm when you are passing through a storm. You do well to present a united front to the enemy, and it will be time enough, when the war is over, to examine the questions of correspondence and of preparations that may then present themselves. To my mind all those questions were wiped out by the ultimatum received from the Boers." As to the peace after Majuba Hill, it was Dj a d " sublime ex-
