Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/236

 228] ENGLISH HISTORY. [nov.

unnecessary. The task of the German Emperor, assuming him to be aiming at the maximum of accord with this country, was undoubtedly rendered more difficult, as indeed the entirely frigid tone of subsequent speeches by his ministers seemed to show. But the effect of the speech in America was, in some ways, the most unfortunate of all. The word " alliance " is almost anathema in the States, and though Mr. Chamberlain had explained it as meaning in his mind no more than an under- standing, it none the less roused widespread apprehension. Even the American journals most friendly to this country felt constrained to repudiate the idea of an alliance. And when President McKinley's Message to Congress appeared, as it did on December 5, this feeling received authoritative endorsement. Congress was assured that the United States Government would " remain faithful to the precept of avoiding entangling alliances/' and would maintain an attitude of neutrality in the " unfortunate contest in South Africa/' Nothing else was ever expected, but nothing, in the circumstances, chillier could well have been said. Mr. Chamberlain was not by any means spared the rod of candid criticism by the British Unionist journals in connection with his Leicester speech. From every point of view the pity was the greater as at the same place, the night before, he made an excellent speech on the war, pitched in a tone of lofty patriotism, well calculated to consolidate imperial feeling. In its course he paid a glowing tribute to the spirit shown in battle, side by side with our own splendid soldiers, by " the men of Natal and the men of the Band, who you have been told were all capitalists or millionaires.' ' He hoped that we in this country were not ungrateful, that we should never forget the loyalty and the courage which had been shown by Natal, and when the time came for a settlement he hoped that we should do what we could to show that we were not unmindful of the sacrifices she had made. Mr. Chamberlain went on to say that they must rejoice in the patriotism of the Canadian and Australasian colonies. The sympathy of these self-governing communities showed that this was not a matter of greed of gold ; and they also rejoiced in the sympathy of their kinsmen in the United States. And, lastly, they had great cause of pride in the support which several of the leaders of the other side had given. Mr. Chamberlain then replied to some of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's recent criticisms, and with regard to the peace after Majuba he differed strongly in his recollections from Lord Kimberley's as stated at Newcastle. He believed that the Transvaal Boers would without doubt have been com- pletely defeated in the next battle, and did not believe at all that their cause would then have been taken up by the Free State or the Cape Dutch. He himself and, as he believed, the Duke of Devonshire and other ministers were influenced by the belief that the annexation of the Transvaal was made under a misapprehension as to the wishes of the Boers, and that there-