Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/180

 172] ENGLISH HISTOBY. [auo.

CHAPTER V.

Public Interest in the Dreyfus Case— Church Troubles— Transvaal Blue-book- Colonial Sympathy with Government— Mr. Chamberlain's Highbury Speech —Boer Conditional Offer— British *« Qualified Acceptance "—Boer Withdrawal —British Despatch of September 8— Negative Boer Reply— Some Criticism, but General Support, of Government Policy — " Interim Despatch " of Septem- ber 23 — Mr. Balfour and the Duke of Devonshire on the Crisis— Last Hopes of Peace— Military Preparations — Boer Ultimatum — Autumn Session — Great Ministerial Majorities— Public Confidence about the War— Disappointments —Lord Rosebery's Stimulating Speeches — Ministers at the Mansion House — Speeches by Mr. Bryce, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, and Mr. Asquith — Lord Methuen's Successes — German Emperor's Visit — French Press Insults — Mr. Chamberlain's Leicester Speeches— Khalifa's defeat and Death— The ** Black Week" of Reverses — Patriotic Enthusiasm at Home and in the Colonies — Fresh Military Measures— Venezuelan Arbitration— Political Party Resolu- tions — Church Difficulties — Trade Prosperity.

The inability of the English people to think of more than one thing at a time, and their aptitude, little as they may be credited with it, for detachment from self-regarding preoccupations, have seldom been more remarkably illustrated than during the first few weeks of the recess of 1899. Parliament, as has been seen, had separated under circumstances pointing to a very grave danger of the outbreak of war in South Africa. The proportions that such a war would be likely to assume were, indeed, foreseen by only too few persons, but there was a pretty general recognition that the interracial animosities which it could not fail to bring to a head might involve this country in very anxious responsibilities, both military and political, for a long time to come. And yet the contemporary annalist is bound to record that, through the remainder of August and well into September, the subject on which the British public at home fixed their attention was not the diminishing likeli- hood of a pacific settlement of our controversy with President Kruger, but the varying probabilities of a verdict for or against Captain Dreyfus from the court-martial at Bennes.

The course and issue of the extraordinary proceedings before that tribunal were most interesting, but need not be reviewed here. Yet it is part of English history that all our chief news- papers for several consecutive weeks treated the Bennes trial as the predominant topic of interest. Daily they filled many columns, not only with reports of what the witnesses said, but with descriptions of how they looked at one another and at the prisoner and he at them, and being free from all danger of attachment for contempt, they allowed both their special corre- spondents and their leader writers to comment on the proceed- ings with the utmost freedom. From the outset there was a practically universal opinion in this country that Captain Dreyfus was the victim, in the first instance, if not of an actual conspiracy among highly placed members of the French headquarter staff, at any rate of a series of stupendous blunders, the parties to which afterwards stuck at nothing in order to protect themselves and one another from exposure. This view received much confirmation from the course of the trial at