"JOHN'S WAY."

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 12, 15 January 1900, Page 4

"JOHN'S WAY."

To-day we learn that the Unionist press of tho United Kingdom is making strong attacks upon the Imperial Government, charging it with mismanagement of the South African war. The Morning Post, which is an ultra-Conservative organ, is particularly vehement— perhaps in part because it has never acknowledged more than a half-hearted, grudging acceptance of the quondam Radical, " Joe " Chamberlain, of Birmingham — and it emphatically demands the dismissal of the Government. Thero is, it must be admitted, good ground for severe criticism, if it be true that Sir W. F. Butler, the late Commander of the Forces at the Cape, advised the War Office to employ 120,000 troops in case of hostilities. Sir W. F. Butter was known to have pro-Boer sympathies, and the Imperial authorities possibly thought that those sympathies predisposed him to take a gloomy view of the task of subduing the Boers. The event proves that Sir VV. F. Butler under-estimated rather than over-estimat-ed the requirements of the situation, and the Government is certainly open to censure for its want of preparation. But if tho Ministry' ( be dismissed, us the Morning Post desires, what is lo replace it? Will there be any advantage in handing over the prosecution of the war to Sir Henry Canipbeil-Banncman, Sir mlliam Harcourb, and Mr. Motley, men inspired with the feelings and principles that brought about the unfortunai, even if magnanimous, surrender after Majuba HU? They and their followers, it must also be remembered, were mainly responsible for the Government's hesitation to send reinforcements to South Africa earlier in the crisis. They talked about irritating the Boers and goading them into war by totally unnecessary military demonstrations, and they gave vent to many other sentiments of the like character, even going so far as to raise difficulties over the slight additions to the South African garrison provided for in last year's Estimates. Surely it would be strange and wondrous to dismiss the present Government for want of foresight and energy, and then to place in power men such as the anti-imperialistic wing of tho Liberal Party. Even Lord Rosebery would have to allot portfolios to that wing if he again became a Liberal Premier. Anomalous as such a change of Government would be at the present time, the British nation is quite capable of it. British pride has been wounded by the reverses that have befallen the troops in South Africa. The average Briton has an ineradicable faith in the invincibility of his countrymen whenever it comes to .the test of fighting, he isamazed at certain incidents of the present campaign, and he is beginning to have an uneasy leeling that official mismanagement must be at the bottom of it all, for otherwise the Boers could not have secured the advantages they have. The British elector still holds that belief which an old-time Admiral endeavoured to instil into evety newly- joined " middy "— namely, that one Englishman is worth three Frenchmen, Frenchmen standing in this case for the best and most formidable of foreigners. It is not to be wondeied at, therefore, that the people of the Old Country are growing restive, that the press is beginning to formulate the ideas of the "dumb multitude," and that the Salisbury Cabinet is running dead for the centre of a big storm. If John Bull is "knocked out" in the first few rounds of a struggle ho is fully persuaded that the fault is not his own, not due to hie want of brawn or his want of science. It must, therfore, be due to the errors of his trainer or manager. He ab once jumps to the conclusion that that functionary should bo dismissed for his outrageous neglect to make the very best of John Bull's magnificent natural powers. It is not impossible that the Unionist Cabinet may yet owe its downfall to this war, and it is quite evident that it would have to go almost at once if there were another . Ministry that could be trusted to carry out tho Imperialistic policy the nation is bent on. The Crimean War broke up tho Aberdeen Ministry, which was accused of negligence similar to that now alleged against its latter-day successor. The Beaconsfield Government was signally defeated at the polls in 1880 mainly because of the Afghan and Zu.u Wars. In Great Britain war is usually fatal to a Ministry. The Government is made the scapegoat for everything. We do not deny for a moment that the Salisbury Government, true to British precedents, omitted to get ready for this war. and when it did come looked too lightly upon the foe; but if it receives its dismissal from King Demos, it will no doubt correctly feel that it is only "John's way."