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the national indifference to such things during peace time which prepares the result; and, when it occurs, there are loud complaints that everything is not perfect. Perfection cannot be attained without long previous preparation. In another matter which is of the very greatest importance, the country has been half-hearted until war has come. In all directions and in each district the Government has been endeavouring to obtain proper rifle ranges for the practice both of the volunteers, the militia, and the army. There has been the greatest difficulty in getting them. Not a few militia regiments that are now embodied have never had the opportunity of practising at ranges of more than two hundred yards. It is simple murder to send such men into the field to face shots so skilful as the Boers.

We have spoken so far mainly of the disasters connected with the campaign, for unfortunately these have been the most notable events, and it is well to lay their lessons to heart; but we have no occasion to speak in a lugubrious tone of this period of the war. We have to carry through a more severe struggle than the country at large anticipated. We have miscalculated our enemies' resources, and have suffered some serious defeats. Nevertheless, the achievements of the campaign, so far as it has gone, are in several respects matter for honest congratulation. No other nation in the world's history has ever sent—it is more than doubtful whether any other could now send-so large a body of troops in so short a time to so great a distance from home. In no campaign have our troops fought with greater valour; in no campaign have all the several departments, medical, commissariat, and others, worked with greater smoothness and efficiency. And if we have undergone some serious reverses, the enemies' plan of campaign as originally conceived has been completely frustrated. There are good grounds for believing that they calculated on being able to sweep into the sea the small number of troops that were endeavouring to hold them in check, before the larger part of the army could arrive. If we allow that, for the reason we gave at an early period of the article, it was not possible or at least not advisable for the Government to declare war or to throw an army corps into South Africa, with another army corps behind it ready to move, so early as last August, it follows that nothing could have prevented the enemy from having at least six weeks' start of us, whenever and by whichever party war might be declared, and from largely outnumbering our troops then in Natal and Cape Colony. This initial advantage they have used to good purpose, but the balance has

now been restored, and every succeeding week should turn the chances more and more in our favour.

Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that it is possible that we have not yet seen the end of our misfortunes. Ladysmith and the other beleaguered fortresses are still in danger, and we cannot tell how near they are to the end of their resources. It is possible that they may fall, or that in the attempt to cut their way out their garrisons may suffer losses to which our previous disasters will seem mere flea-bites. This is clearly possible; we do not say it is probable, but we should be prepared to meet such a blow should it come. What is not possible is that we should recede from the position that we have taken up, or abandon the conflict till we have brought it to a successful and satisfactory conclusion.

The danger is that, when the end has been attained, the nation will fall back into that apathetic mood regarding military matters which in time of peace is too habitual to it, and that, forgetting the earlier stages of the war, it will rest satisfied with a final success. Against such a state of mind it will be the duty of all men of foresight, who can see the possibility of far greater conflicts in the near future, energetically and continually to protest. Some such war as this was needed in order that the country might realise both its strength and its weakness. It has shown us how effective is the reserve of eighty thousand men whom we owe to the short service system. It has shown us the magnificent loyalty of our colonies and the splendid reserve of men that we possess in the patriotism alike of the Old Country and distant parts of the Empire. It has shown us that the Colonial forces which the daughter-states have sent to the assistance of the mothercountry are able to hold their own along with the best that Great Britain herself can put into the field. It has shown the immense resources of our mercantile marine, and at the same time has proved how entirely we depend upon that marine for the effective use of our army abroad. On the other hand, the war has shown the points of weakness that, as commonly happens, lie so close to the source of our strength. It has brought to light the danger of being unprepared in those important respects which we have noted above. It has proved the enormous importance of artillery in modern warfare, and has shown that we are insufficiently provided with this arm in regard to quantity, and in some respects even as to quality. Above all it has, we may hope, brought home not only to our statesmen but to the nation at large the dangerous insufficiency of our military forces in general, the fact that our army is Vol. 191.-No. 381.

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not nearly large enough for our imperial needs. The thought of what might have happened had dangerous complications occurred simultaneously elsewhere, of what might still happen were Russia, for example, to threaten us in India while the whole of our available force is locked up in South Africa, is enough to make the most thoughtless resolve that such a state of things must no longer exist. The fact is that we have been trying to run a gigantic concern with a capital utterly inadequate to the calls that may be made upon it, and to shut our eyes to this is to court disaster.

Taking all these things into consideration, we think that we may fairly hope that the misfortunes of the campaign, such as they have been, will turn out to be blessings in disguise, and that, if now we set our house in order, we shall find ourselves far stronger than we have ever been in the past. That the war will be rapidly concluded we do not expect; with the example of the American Secession War before us we cannot hope for a very speedy end. But when we have brought it to a successful conclusion, as we have every reason to anticipate, we shall find ourselves with an army not only effective in all its parts, but strengthened by an experience in the conditions of modern warfare brought about by the improvement in armament which has taken place during the last thirty years such as no other army in the world can possess.

In no spirit of boastfulness we may say, at all events, that this struggle has already tightened the bonds of imperial unity as nothing but the sense of common interest could have tightened them; and every member of the Empire may take legitimate pride in the reflection that never in its history has the nation shown a more united, a more determined, or a more patient attitude than it has shown so far throughout this struggle. We feel no doubt that that conduct will meet with its reward. We hope that our present attitude of determination will be maintained till the end of the struggle, and that certain discordant cries, for the most part based upon mere misunderstanding and ignorance, will not be allowed to disturb the carrying out of a resolution which the nation somewhat slowly and deliberately formed, and the fulfilment of which it rightly regards as essential not only to its welfare, but to its very existence as an Imperial State.

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.-A FORMER EDITOR.'

1. The Quarterly Review. London: John Murray, 1843-1885.

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HE Reverend Whitwell Elwin, who died at his rectory of Booton, in Norfolk, on the first day of the year 1900, aged eighty-three, succeeded Mr. John Gibson Lockhart as editor of the Quarterly Review in 1853, and resigned his editorship in 1860. He deserves particular mention here because, had it not been for the Quarterly Review, his extensive learning and admirable talents might never have delighted any larger world than his own circle of friends. No man was ever less anxious for public applause, or more determined not to seek, or even to accept when they were offered, such preferments as were the natural sequence of the public opinion of his virtues and abilities. He was of an ancient family in Norfolk, and was born at the family seat of Thurning in that county, February 26th, 1816. He was the third son of Marsham Elwin and his wife Emma Louisa Whitwell. The family was allied to many other well known Norfolk houses, through one of which, by the marriage of Peter Elwin of Thurning with Anne, heiress of Anthony Rolfe of Tuttington, they were directly descended from Pocahontas, the Virginian princess whose heroism is commemorated in marble at Washington, and forms part of the early knowledge of all American children. Her traditional name in the family was the Princess Powatan, and her original portrait, in a highcrowned hat and with a feather fan in her hand, was in Mr. Elwin's possession. At the time of his death it hung in his dining-room. The only other picture in the room was the portrait of Lockhart, whose literary attainments, able conversation, and kind heart caused Elwin to retain a regard for him throughout life.

Whitwell Elwin was admitted at Caius College, Cambridge, Vol. 191.-No. 382.

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June 26th, 1834. He married-June 18th, 1838-his cousin Frances, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Fountain Elwin, and, giving up all thought of academical honours, graduated B.A. in 1839. He was ordained deacon at Wells in the same year, and priest in 1840. Soon afterwards he became chaplain of the Bath Workhouse and curate of Hardington, in Somersetshire. While there he wrote part of an essay on the 'Histoire du Chien,' by Elzéar Blaze, which had appeared that year in Paris. He sent the paper to Lockhart, who returned it with a kindly note, saying that, if it ended as well as it had begun, the article would do very well for the Quarterly Review. It appeared in the number published in September 1843, and shows a wide knowledge of literature, as well as a warm feeling for the animal world. In 1849 Elwin succeeded to the family living of Booton, and returned, for the rest of his life, to his native county. The parish contains a very small village, a few outlying cottages, and three farms. One of these surrounds Booton Hall, once the property of Christopher Layer, but sold by him to an Elwin-his brother-in-law-ten years before the Jacobite plot which is known by his name and which cost him his life in 1723. There was no rectory, and the new rector proceeded to build himself a house, which, in fitness for its use, grace of form, and permanence, was like all the rest of his work. Soon after taking up his residence in it, with his wife and four sons, he became editor of the Quarterly Review. Lockhart had asked him to take his work while he went abroad for his health. The illness ended in death, and Elwin, without seeking the vacant place, stepped into it. He continued to live at Booton, coming up to London for about ten days to bring out each number of the Review. He used to stay at the Old Hummums, in Covent Garden, and at least one of his own articles was mainly written at the last moment in the coffeeroom of that hotel. He contributed about forty articles to the Review, and his hand may be detected by those familiar with his thoughts in many others to which he added long passages. His best essays are on the literature of the eighteenth century, and those on Johnson, Goldsmith, Fielding, Sterne, and Cowper are unsurpassed in their kind. The essays on Johnson will bear comparison with those of Macaulay or of Mr. Leslie Stephen; while those on Fielding and Sterne lose nothing when placed beside Thackeray's. The conclusion of his second essay on Johnson shows how profound was his veneration for that great character :

'Whether we desire an example to stimulate us to the acquisition of knowledge under difficulties, or the retention of uprightness under

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