24 MARCH 1900, Page 13

THE PRESIDENTS' MESSAGE.

[To THZ EDITOR OF TIM "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—The Boer terms of peace have reminded me of a passage in the second chapter of " Pickwick." Speaking of the " mili- tary" in Rochester, Chatham, &c., Mr. Pickwick proceeds

Nothing can exceed their good humour. It was but the day before my arrival that one of them had been most grossly insulted in the house of a publican. The barmaid had positively refused to draw him any more liquor; in return for which he had (merely in playfulness) drawn his bayonet, and wounded the girl in the shoulder. And yet this fine fellow was the very first to go down to the house next morn- ing and express his readiness to overlook the matter, and forget what had occurred !" Could a closer analogy be