series of engagements, never has one so disgracefully ended as that of Majuba Hill. In other battles your hopes have been cast down; in this dreadful affair your honour itself was-if only to be at last regained-lost, shamefully lost. And what is a soldier without honour? To men like you it must and does ever come before life itself! You have been taunted by a German woman, the mouthpiece of President Krüger, in this crisis, as hirelings, whose mercenary feet contaminate the South African soil. It was well that, from such a source, a taunt so vile should proceed. In such lips the lying, base name of hireling is well applied-to men who fight for their native land alone, and for one-quarter of the wage which is given to artificers and labourers. I know you well, for I have many friends among you; and I know how that for eighteen years every man of you, from general to private, has hoped for the day when the name of Majuba Hill, as a word of disgrace, should be sponged from the records of the British army. Many times, many times, have men wearing your glorious uniform driven others doggedly from the tops of hills and mountains; but, oh! not before have there lived enemies who could say that they have swarmed up a hillside and flung you from the top-you, English soldiers! But all dishonours and reproaches can be expiated; as the reproach of KHARTOUM was, a little time ago, expiated by your brave companions and their allies under General Kitchener; and you shall expiate even this. I say to you: Remember Majuba Hill! Rulers of England! The great body of Englishmen are with me, when I pray you to put a manlike end to the tyranny, the broken faith, and the craft of this Paul Krüger, whose Government has defied and insulted you so long. When you waited, and were patient, we supported you, because we believed that, when the hour should come, your deeds would be those of wise and unflinching statesmen, lovers and protectors of their country. The hour has at last arrived. Your waiting has been almost perilously long; wait, then, no longer! Take the right, firm steps to set our countrymen free, and our grateful hearts will be with you. Englishmen citizens of the Empire!-support your rulers in this course, and in none other! Let your spirits be united, and your voices be raised for justice; so that the nations of the world shall respect once more the steadfast front of Englishmen, without regard to sect, or religion, or party, in the cause of right and liberty; so that all the inhabitants of the earth shall reverence the name, the counsels, and the acts of the Parliament and the English People. Englishwomen!-be with your men in this struggle! I know your tenderness, your love, and your self-sacrifice. And I know that, as the honour and courage of your fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons is the most loved possession of your heart, you will be brave as they, for the sake of your country. If this war come and I see not how it can be avoided-give your soldiers the word of the ancient Greek and Roman matrons, "Return from this war with honour, or return not at all!" Dreadful and desolating as war may be, the weakness and cowardice of Englishmen would be more dreadful and desolating still. Think of the long weary years through which your countrymen and countrywomen in the Transvaal have looked back yearningly to England, and have wondered if ever the might of their native land should be put forward to save them. Think of that day when the people of Johannesburg, having suffered much for their love of liberty, shall weep with tumultuous joy to see in the streets and market-places of their town the faces of their countrymen who have come to set them free! Even now their despair is vanishing, and wild hopes are rising in their hearts! Even now they seem to hear, dimly and afar off-as the beleagured men and women of Lucknow heard faintly, in the distance, the skirling of the pipers of Havelock -the eager tramp and the fiery shout of English soldiers making war. Pray, English women, that rank injustice shall continue no longer, and that God's right at last shall conquer! Pray in the words of Isaiah, the old prophet, who had seen many wrongs flourish boldly for a space, to wither in the end and sink, hated and ignominious, into the dust, that your soldiers shall be a power “to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free." As for you, PAUL KRUGER!—ruinous, ruined leader of a vainglorious and oppressive people know this! that our sweet England is set up in the world as a towering rock, to be a refuge for the distressed and overburdened, and a strong fort for the foes and haters of iniquity. And, God being with it, no power on earth shall prevail against its might; for in defence of justice it is unconquered and impregnable. And know this, rash, stiff-necked men, who seem about to take up arms against it, that your madness shall be your own destruction; for "WHOSOEVER SHALL FALL UPON THAT ROCK SHALL BE BROKEN; BUT ON WHOMSOEVER IT SHALL FALL, IT SHALL GRIND HIM TO POWDER!" |