AN AMERICAN ON THE BOER WAR.
Mu THE EDTTOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:I
Sre.,—As an Englishman resident in, and a naturalised citizen of, the United States, it has been a source of strength and comfort to me to have had access to the Spectator during the Boer War, for therein I have found such sane and courageous upholding of the British side as has given new stimulus to my own convictions as to the cause, conduct, and ultimate outcome of the war. Would it not be well to draw the atten- tion of Americans to the words of their own great sage, Emerson, who in regard to England gave utterance to these stirring sentences ?—" I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well remembering that she has seen dark days before ; indeed, with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day, and that in storm of battle and calamity she has a secret vigour and a pulse like a cannon. I see her in her old age, not decrepit, but young, and still daring to believe in her power of 'endurance and expansion."—(Speech at Manchester, 1847.) When prospects seemed to loom the blackest for England during the present war, and when the downfall of British power was by some gleefully predicted, it was my regret that I had forsworn allegiance to my native country, for I felt and declared I would rather go down with England than keep afloat with her enemies and detractors! And doubtless many another British-American experienced the same feeling.—
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