Sheng, the taotai (mayor) of Shanghai, and Chou-Fu, former Chinese minister to Korea, to aid in the negotiations. There are reports that Earl Li is again dangerously ill.

The request of Prince Ching and Earl Li for transfer of the Forbidden City to the Chinese in order to prepare for the Emperor's return, was referred by the generals to the ministers. They replied that they saw no reason to alter their previous determination that before any concessions could be granted, the Chinese government must show deeds proving their desire to comply with the demands of the protocol. Military arrangements would depend on the promptitude with which China executes her engagements.

THE BOER WAR.

The end of the first week in December presented a continuance of the scene of preceding weeks-sudden dashes by bands of Boers on isolated posts, surprising the small garrisons and occasionally capturing cattle and military supplies. Such prisoners as were taken-no large number except in two or three instances-the Boers usually found it necessary to release after a few days, as they could not spare food for them or lacked the men requisite to guard them. Delarey was operating far to the north in the Vaal River Colony westward from Pretoria. At the south, De Wet, the dashing guerilla chief, was appearing and vanishing in the region of the Orange river, making occasional captures on a small scale, but chiefly causing discomfort by menacing an invasion of Cape Colony. This menace excited alarm in the towns of the north; and precautions of various kinds were taken even as far southward as Cape Town-the fear at that time being not so much the fighting which De Wet's roving bands might do, as what might be the effect of his bold movement in inspiriting to insurrection the large

Dutch element in many parts of the colony. Lieutenant-General Lord Kitchener, who as acting general in South Africa had succeeded Field Marshal Earl Roberts as commanderin-chief, showed no apprehension of this kind, though the columns of several English papers were tremulous with alarm. Either he felt assured that the Cape Dutch would not rise, or he knew of adequate provisions already made for quelling such a rising.

A Possible Dutch Uprising.

The workings of the Boer mind, as recent events have shown, are not to be predicted according to standards customary in modern Europe; wherefore it must suffice here to say that among those most conversant with present conditions in Cape Colony the expectation of a Dutch rising did not long prevail. The reasons for this judgment may be stated as follows. The British rule in Cape Colony, if ever deemed oppressive, is no longer deemed so even by those elements of the population whose radical sympathies are with the Boers, inasmuch as English laws in that colony have long upheld and guaranteed a liberty and a political equality which the burghers in the Transvaal steadily refused to other civilized inhabitants-even closing all negotiations to that end with a sudden ultimatum threatening to open war with Britain at the end of twenty-four hours. While their friends in Cape Colony are to be respected in their natural sympathy with them. they cannot be expected to follow hem into a war which at this stage ould bring only destruction of their property and homes with no possible help to their burgher friends in the two northern colonies. England has now pledged herself to the world to carry the war through with the whole power of the empire. And it has now become abundantly evident that no nation on earth will intervene. Yet it must be granted as possible that war

which began contrary to wise predictions may also violate predictions by extending to the Cape. For, war is a fire.

The Chase of DeWet.

The elusive De Wet was vigorously pursued, with efforts to check his entrance into Cape Colony or to cut off his retreat. While this soon compelled him with his 2,500 or 3,000 men to turn back from his attempt at invasion, it failed to capture him in his rapid turnings and doublings on his own track for several days amid the numerous passes in the rough country around the Caledon river and in his subsequent retreat northeastward. Failing in his attack on Commassie bridge he was compelled to abandon 500 horses and many carts. On December 12 General Knox was chasing him in a running fight toward Thaba Nehu, capturing a Krupp gun and fifteen wagons with ammunition and stores. At this point it appears that the Boer caief made his escape northward. His attempt cost him three guns, about fifty killed, and a large amount of ammunition.

Various Conflicts.

The Boers, in the remoter north, 3,000 to 5,000, under Delarey and others, gained a decided success, December 13, at Nooitgedacht on the Magaliesberg range southwest of Pretoria, where they attacked General Clements, whose inferior force was compelled to retire. The British lost fourteen killed and 573 missing (wounded and prisoners), also a considerable amount of transport. The Boers reported their loss in killed as very heavy: later statements showed it as exceeding the British loss in killed. Two days afterward, 315 of the British prisoners came into camp. having been released. The Boers captured no guns or ammunition. A few days later, December 19-22, General Clements and General French drove

the enemy from all that region in a series of attacks in which the reported losses were-British, two killed, fourteen wounded; Boers, twenty killed, and total loss 130.

On December 10 the Boers attacked Vryheid, and were repulsed with loss of about 100 killed and wounded: British loss, six killed, nineteen wounded, thirty missing. Three days later, in the same region, the Boers suffered a heavy loss in men and supplies. December 13, Lord Methuen attacked and captured the Boer position at Ottoshoop, taking fifteen wagons, 15,000 rounds of ammunition, 1,460 cattle, and 2,000 sheep. (See map, Vol. 10, p. 323.)

CAPE COLONY INVADED.

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Lord Kitchener, December 22, reported an invasion of Cape Colony by two bands of Boers-500 to 800 crossing Orange river at Rhenoster Hoek. and another party westward. few days both forces were headed off and broken into small bands. There was no movement of the Cape Colony Dutch to join or to aid them. captured several small posts, tore up railways, looted many farms, and disgusted the Dutch farmers and even the members of the Afrikander Bond, who judged them to be mere marauders. Martial law was declared in all the disturbed districts. Bands of Boers were roving also through the northwestern portions of Cape Colony near the border, around Vryburg; and for several days no mails reached Kimberley. A very valuable British convoy of twenty-six wagons with various military supplies, which left Vryburg, was captured. December 23— a heavy loss for the British. Lord Kitchener, however, seems not to have permitted these annoying and rambling invasions to disarrange or change his general plan of campaign. The arrival of considerable British reinforcements was reported; and on January 23, Kitchener was said to be disposing large forces in a

the Boers retiring. The damage recently done by them to mines and machinery in the Rand was estimated at $1,500,000.

In this general view of the military situation through January, many minor conflicts and movements are not chronicled, and of those here noted scarcely any, even of those really grievous to the English, had any bearing on the result. The scene generally presented is first a series of harassing guerilla attacks aimed at the surprise or capture of small isolated posts or detachments. These were attacked by roving bands led by daring and resourceful men who, where no armed force is encountered, derail engines, destroy railway culverts and bridges, plunder trains, and loot farms and villages whose people are not upholders of the Boer claims. Later, by reason of the development of General Kitchener's plans in certain districts for concentrating and feeding in great camps the sparse population, and for massing troops to control the more important lines of communication, the Boers-except the scattering and halforganized bands that by latest accounts are roaming somewhat aimlessly in the less populated regionshave done some good fighting in attacks on fortified posts at the north. There is no sign thus far of any disarrangement of Kitchener's general plan; meanwhile the mounted force which he so greatly needs has been steadily in preparation to take its place in the campaign.

The Fall of DeWet.

This active and able warrior, who has evaded either capture or defeat, and whose daring and resource have given him renown, has had a fall, inasmuch as he has given the English nation a shock of disappointment surpassing that occasioned by his successful raids. Perhaps there is no other people so prompt as the English to recognize and to admire intrepidity and tenacity in a man who is fighting them fairly; so for many weeks

VOL 11-2.

the Englishman of average standing has been applauding De Wet: had that slippery Boer been caught and brought to London he might have been made the victim of a popular ovation. But he is no longer their hero, having broken the rules of the great game of war, and indeed shown himself a savage, to be hanged if caught. If credible accounts are true, including General Kitchener's dispatches, three regularly appointed agents of the Burghers' Central Peace Committee who came to a Boer laager near Lindley, January 10, with appeals for ending the fighting, were by his orders severely flogged, and one of them, named Morgan Daal, a subject of Queen Victoria, after being flogged, was shot. Another peace envoy, Wessels. was by De Wet's orders shot at Klipfontein, January 28

The Afrikander Congress. This convention of men and women, born (or resident) in South Africa of European descent, favoring an independent nationality under Dutch or Boer rule (Vol. 9, p. 802), met in Worcester, Cape Colony, December 6.

It adopted resolutions demanding termination of the war, and "the retention by the republics of their independence;" pledging "labor in a constitutional way" for these objects; and condemning "the policy and the attitude" of the British governor and high commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner. A deputation conveyed their resolutions to the governor, who promised to send them to the home government with an expression of his emphatic dissent. This indicates the liberty which obtains under English laws in South Africa.

After a few days the municipalities throughout Cape Colony were heard from, repudiating the censure passed on Sir Alfred Milner.

The British Intentions.

Noticeable as tending toward pacification was Mr. Chamberlain's statement in parliament, December 7, as to the government's proposals for the South African colonies. This state

ment was in response to Lord Rosebery's severe criticism of the methods of the government, and Lord Kimberley's demand for a definite pronouncement of policy. The plan outlined by the colonial secretary showed an unexpected moderation and liberality, and appears to have been cordially welcomed in parliament by even the Opposition people.

members and by the

A disclaimer of vindictiveness against the men in arms, he said, was to be made known by issue of proclamations in English and in Dutch. The government's object was-first, to end the guerilla war; then, immediately to institute a crown

MAJ.-GEN. SIR HENRY COLVILLE, FORMERLY COMMANDING THE FIRST (GUARDS) BRIGADE IN THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICAN FIELD FORCE.

government; and ultimately to make the colonies self-governing. Regarding the proposed plan for a civil government, he declared that as soon as possible municipalities with all municipal privileges would be created at such places as Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Johannesburg. As far as practicable, Afrikanders would be made officials, and for every man, Roer or Britain, laws and privileges should be equal.

Though this official announcement was not in terms a peace proposal, it was of peaceful tendency as contradicting the inflammatory declarations reported to have been widely circulated in South Africa by the Boer leaders, that the establishing of British authority would bring to all who had upheld the burghers in their re

sistance-or at least to the hundreds of their leaders-imprisonment or banishment, with confiscation of homes and property; while the whole country would be subjected to degrading tyranny which would crush out all civil rights and liberties.

Burghers' Peace Committee. About December 15 several prominent burghers in the Pretoria district. including a number of former members of the Transvaal Volksraad, formed a peace committee which resolved to attempt an opening of negotiations. At their suggestion Lord Kitchener addressed a meeting of this committee, December 21, and showed a temperateness and a spirit of conciliation which had never before in South Africa or in the campaign in Egypt been supposed to have place in his character.

He enlarged on Mr. Chamberlain's statements in parliament, declaring that while these showed the impossibility that the Boer government should ever be reestablished, they clearly showed a purpose to avoid oppressing the burghers. and a plan to form in South Africa a government in which the burghers themselves would have a prominent share, ensuring not only the rights of property and full civil liberty, but also preservation of the ancient laws and customs of the country. He declared that the two Boer governments having been disintegrated in the war which they began, the continuance of the present struggle was inhuman, being utterly hopeless. There was no longer the excuse that it might bring intervention: the powers had definitely refused Mr. Kruger's request for that. The burghers had made strong fight, but they had been overpowered, and it would be no dishoner to the leaders to recognize that fact. Hosts of Boer prisoners were waiting to be restored to their families. He said that in case of submission no one who had fought fairly should be banished from the country; moreover, all such. including the leaders, would receive the consideration due their rank. Lord Kitchener declared his wish to finish the war by the most humane means possible, and promised that if he should be compelled to abandon conciliatory for harsher measures the committee should have notice from him.

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