The

ended there will be in round figures a revenue of $640,000,000 and an expenditure of $600,000,000, showing a surplus of $40,000,000. postal service has reached a point where income and outgo almost exactly balance, the amount received and paid out being in round figures $100,000,000. If this item were omitted from both sides, it would be found that in round figures it now takes from $500,000,000 to $600,000,000 to pay Uncle Sam's annual bills, and that he is looking to the custom-houses for from $200,000,000 to $230,000,000 a year income and to the internal revenue system for anywhere from $275,000,000 to $300,000,000, miscellanesources bringing in about $25,000,000. The interest-bearing debt of the United States now amounts to a little over $1,000,000,000. Mr. Gage calls attention to the phenomenal development of our exports, with the result that the past year has witnessed a larger volume of foreign trade than any previous one. The unprecedentedly large amount of gold in the Treasury is regarded by Mr. Gage as making it especially opportune for Congress to push to conclusion the gold standard

ous

measure now

pending. The report is particularly full and able in its discussion of the history and problems of American banking.

Secretary Root's Report.

Mr. Root's annual report as Secretary of War is a document of immense interest, comprising as it does a history of the operations in the Philippines, an account of what has been done under our military occupation of Cuba, a statement of the administrative work that has been done in Porto Rico, and many other matters of the utmost current im. portance. Among the chief recommendations are those for the improvement of the army organ. ization, which call for a radical change in the existing staff system, and the establishment of a war college for the training of officers in the practical business of modern warfare. Mr. Root is able to make a gratifying report upon the health of the troops, and his statistics show that from the opening of the past year up to November 1 the total loss of life among our men in the Philippines had been 843, of whom 366 had died of disease, 477 having been killed in battle or hav ing died from wounds or other injuries.

ing programme of the immediate future is to take the direction of swift cruisers and numerous small and inexpensive vessels, rather than that of battleships. The Postmaster-General, Hon. Charles Emory Smith, makes a report which shows not only expansion in our domestic postal service, but interesting developments in the islands which have now come under our jurisdic. tion. The new experiment of the free-delivery system in the country districts has resulted well enough to justify the Postmaster-General in recommending the rapid extension of the plan. The strongest part of the report is that which deals with the abuses of the "second-class " privilege, by which the Government loses many millions of dollars a year on matter which ought not to be carried at pound rates. The report of Mr. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, dis. cusses various topics of great importance, such as the management of the public lands, forest reserves, the Patent Office, and the Pension Bureau.

Mr. Chamber

It had been the confident boast of the

lain's War in British promoters of the war in South Africa. South Africa that their troops would eat their Christmas dinners at Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Bloemfontein. The Tory press of England spoke of the Boer as a mere fly on the wheel of the chariot of Progress, to be crushed at a single turn. It was Mr. Chamberlain's opinion, undoubtedly, that the Boers would not fight. As we explained at the time, Mr. Chamberlain never dreamed of bringing a hideous war upon England, being confident in the potency of those methods of his that had for some time been lauded by his admirers as the "new diplomacy." His theory was that the way to get all you want in dealing with a small power is to invent pretexts for a quarrel, appear to have serious grievances, enter upon a course of evershifting and increasing demands, and, while negotiations are still pending, to ship troops and make all the appearance of preparation for war. To Mr. Chamberlain's great surprise, the small nation of like blood with the men who under William of Orange fought so gloriously against the army of the Spanish Inquisition spoiled the game of the new diplomacy by preferring to fight against incomparable odds rather than to do the obliging and logical thing and permit themselves to be bluffed. Before marching to Bloemfontein and Pretoria, General Buller's fine army had to perform what the average Englishman supposed would be the merest holiday diversion of relieving General White's troops penned up at Ladysmith, in the upper part of Natal, and the smaller British garrisons under siege at Kimberley and Mafeking.

Reverse

Upon Reverse.

When the war opened every skirmish was reported to the British press through the War Office at London as a magnificent victory for the Queen's forces. But at length it became impossible to conceal the fact that the untrained Boer farmers were fighting just as bravely as the most famous regiments of British regulars, and that the big-booted, fullbearded farmers who commanded the Boers were far better generals, in so far as strategy and modern tactics are concerned, than the magnificently uniformed and much-vaunted generals of the British army. The formidable brigades pushing up the westward line to relieve Kimberley had met with reverse after reverse and had been compelled to fall back upon the defensive, even while within sight of the flash-light signals of the Kimberley garrison. Meanwhile the still more formidable army under the personal command of Gen. Sir Redvers Buller himself had been trying to get across the Tugela River, at or near Colenso, in order to advance to the relief of Ladysmith. It was scarcely to be supposed that the Boers were strong enough in that neighborhood to be able to keep General White's forces penned up at Ladysmith, while also effectively checking General Buller's army at the Tugela River. But the unexpected happened with a vengeance at that point on December 15

There were two fordable places about Buller's two miles apart. At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 15th General Buller

Disaster.

advanced his entire army with the intention of crossing the Tugela at one or the other of these fords. His forces were grouped in three brigades, on of which was to try the right-hand ford, another the left-hand ford, and the

third brigade to take a central position, in or der to support either or both of the two other forces as might

PROPHETIC.

GENERAL BULLER: "I thought I told you to give him battle?"

SIR GEORGE WHITE: "So I did, and you see the result. When he gets at you it will be the same way."

be necessary. Early in the day From the Novoe Vremya (St. PetersBuller found

burg).

A BRITISH NAVAL GUN IN ACTION NEAR THE TUGELA.

that General Hart, who was commanding the brigade on the left, was meeting with such deadly resistance that he could not possibly force a passage, and Buller accordingly instructed him to withdraw. At the same time Buller ordered General Hildyard, who was on the road leading to the right or east ford to advance quickly. At the same time he sent some twelve pieces of artillery to support the attack, these guns being under command of Colonel Long. This artillery officer, in his zeal to secure an advantageous position with short and effective range against the enemy on the other side of the stream, advanced with all his guns close to the river; whereupon he found that he had gone into a Boer ambush. Most of the artillery horses were immediately killed, and the gunners were either captured, killed, wounded, or driven away. out of twelve pieces of artillery were abandoned, and one other piece was lost in the course of the day's fighting. It was useless to try to drive General Hildyard's brigade, no longer supported by artillery, against the shell fire from the Boer batteries on the other side of the ford; and so the whole British army fell back to its camp at Cheveley. Our map on the following page shows clearly the localities named.

Agitation

in London.

Ten

The first reports gave no idea of the extent of the British loss of men, although the tone of Buller's dispatch led the London press to the conclusion that British arms had suffered no such reverse since the time of the great Indian mutiny, more than forty years ago. One paper indeed declared that nothing so bad had happened since the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown-an affair, by the way, that is most notably described in Mr. Paul Leicester Ford's new novel, Janice Meredith." Some editors were demanding that Lord Kitchener be sent to South Africa, and others were spread

DEPARTURE FROM WELLINGTON OF A NEW ZEALAND CONTINGENT FOR SOUTH AFRICAN SERVICE.

ing the rumor that Lord Wolseley himself would embark to lead the troops to victory. Predictions were freely made that the Tory government which had allowed Chamberlain to plunge the country into a war for which it was so ill prepared would certainly be overthrown, while the newspapers of all parties congratulated the British empire upon the magnificent courage it was showing in its grim determination to go on with the war in spite of reverses and disasters Meanwhile the War Office was accepting with pathetic gratitude the cabled offers of Australia and Canada to send further succor to the hard-pressed mother land. But for the grief and dismay in English homes and the genuine grit and manhood of the men fighting in far-off Africa, there would have been a ludicrous aspect to the heroics and hysterics of the London press. All the Boers, of both republics-men, women, and children combinedhardly begin to equal in number the population of the obscure suburban town of West Ham, near London. Yet the very same London papers which a few days ago thought the Boers could not and would not fight, and that a few British regiments could go to Pretoria without firing a shot, had now gone to the opposite extreme of regarding the Boer armies as the most formidable ever known in the history of warfare, and were begging their readers to consider that the British empire was engaged in a life-and-death struggle.

few more weeks or months can hammer and blunder their way through to Pretoria, for the simple reason that they have money, ships, and guns without limit. They can, if need be, transport a million fighting men to Natal and Cape Colony, while the whole Boer nation is already in the field, so far as the two republics are concerned, and the prospect of assistance from any outside quarter is too remote to be seriously considered. The war against the American colonies was a shameful thing for England, and about the only Englishmen who have come out of it de. cently on the page of history are the Chathams, Foxes, and Burkes, who saw the truth and spoke it with courage. England lost in that war, and her Burgoynes, Howes, and Cornwallises won no glory for themselves or their country. England will win in the present war, but it will be Com. mandants Joubert, Cronje, and the other Boer

pected by England to push straight into Kimberley without much further delay. Imagine, therefore, the disappointment at the War Office in London when the news of Gatacre's defeat on the 9th was followed by a dispatch from Lord Methuen, sent on the 12th, telling of a fearful and unsuccessful battle beginning on Sunday night, the 10th, and continuing well through Monday, the 11th, at Magersfontein, which lies near the railroad line, some four miles north of the Modder River, toward Kimberley. The Boers had carefully intrenched themselves along one of those little eminences known as a "kopje." They were extraordinarily successful several times during Monday in drawing the British forces up to within a few hundred feet of the trench lines, covered with leaves or otherwise obscured, with the consequence of an irresistibly deadly fire from the Boer rifles. A day or two later it was reported that General Methuen's loss was 832 and that the Boer casualties were almost as great. The most notable per

GENERAL GATACRE.

was endeavoring to relieve Kimberley under Lord Methuen, and the further humiliation of the loss of several regiments in the northern part of Cape Colony under General Gatacre's command. The Boers were becoming very active in the upper districts of Cape Colony, and General Gatacre, with about 4,000 troops, was in command of British interests along the Orange River. On Saturday, December 9, General Gatacre marched from his camp at Malteno to attack a Boer station at Stormberg, some thirteen miles distant. His spies had reported to him that the enemy's force was weak and could be readily surprised and captured. He marched forth accordingly, with fine British confidence, straight into the Boer ambush to which he had been invited. He left behind him about 700 men, nearly all of whom happily were not killed, but taken prisoners.

Lord Methuen's

While Gatacre was thus suffering in Defeat at his attempt to keep open the line of Magersfontein. communication between Lord Methuen's army and its large base of supplies at De Aar-and in general to protect the upper part of Cape Colony from the hordes of Orange Free Staters-Lord Methuen, with his main force of perhaps 12,000 men, having fought every inch of the way from the Orange River to the Modder River, and having crossed that stream, was ex

GENERAL LORD METHUEN.

sonage who fell in that battle was Brigadier-General Wauchope, who led the Highland brigade. In commenting on this disastrous affair, which so decisively checked Lord Methuen just as it was supposed that he was about to relieve Kimberley, the sentiment of the London press was well expressed by the Westminster Gazette, which declared: If England ever needed a victory, it is now; and it is to Buller, the soldier, strong,