ters? Or, though chronicling a victory for British arms, will it be as costly and barren a triumph as that won at Bunker Hill, or in the Crimea ? The future will tell. What that verdict shall then be, we of to-day are determining now.

"

After twenty-seven months of fighting in South Africa, what is the actual situation confronting us there at the present moment? We need go no further than the recent speeches of Lord Salisbury and Mr. Brodrick to get an answer that should cause even "the man in the street to pause and consider. According to the Secretary for War, in a recent speech, we find that after all these weary months, after all the terrible cost in money and in blood, after all the specious assurances that "the war is over," British arms are to-day supreme in only one-eighth of the Transvaal, and in less than one-third of the Orange Free State! The regularly appointed governments of the two Republics - incorrectly called ex-Republics, for de facto governments still existare uncaptured, and continue to exercise jurisdiction; their daring commandants apparently move in whatever direction they choose, while the end of the war none can foresee. There have been many official predictions, but all these have been contradicted by the course of events. Could more damaging proof be given of the woful ineptitude, the hopeless lack of diplomacy and statesmanship, the culpable levity and self-complacency of the present Government? Proclamations, farm-burnings, banishment, confiscations, hangings, floggings, and concentration camps have all been tried, and tried in vain. Such measures with the exception of the concentration camps and banishment were also employed without success in the war with the American colonies. They had the same effect on the Americans that they have had on the Boers, simply stiffening the resistance of the people, and breeding a hatred that has not yet wholly died out.

- -

The only measures to end the war and bring about a lasting peace, namely, conciliation and generous terms, have been the very measures omitted. It is meaningless buncombe to assert, as has been asserted, that "the most generous terms ever offered to a beaten foe" have been held out to the Boers. Lord Kitchener knows better. Any thinking man knows better. Such an assertion is on a par with the reiterated declarations that "the war is over," or with the unctuous pharisaism that declares the concentration camps to be healthier places than the average Boer home before the war. The unreliability of such statements, to use a mild term, is self-evident and conspicuous. The deathrate in the concentration camps is over 250 in 1,000. The death-rate

in the Transvaal before the war was under 16 in 1,000. It is also instructive to note that of all the many thousands of prisoners taken by the Boers, 5,000 or 6,000 of whom were kept for many months before being released, less than 100 have died in captivity.

That the country is drifting all can see. But whither is it drifting? Taxes are mounting upward, and still upward, while trade is steadily going downward. The ship of state is in distress. A pilot is needed whose qualifications consist in something more than an ability to box the whole political compass.

In the war with America it took seven long years to bring Parliament to its senses. But in the end the right-seeing minority became the majority, and won the day. On March 4, 1782, General Conway moved and carried in Parliament, without a division, the motion that the House would consider as enemies to the Sovereign and the country all those who should advise the continued prosecution of the war. After this the way toward a treaty of peace was assured. What happened then may happen now. And yet, the war with America cost less than one-third of what the present deplorable struggle in South Africa has already swallowed up. The Americans, too, were revolted British subjects, while the citizens of neither of the Republics in South Africa could be so designated.

The Boers have made overtures for peace more than once. From the start they have invoked arbitration, and have declared themselves ready to abide by whatsoever verdict should be rendered. Can the cause of any nation be a just or righteous one that refuses to submit to this civilized and Christian method of settling disputes? Arbitration was successfully invoked in the case of Venezuela. Why should it not prove of equal potency in the present conflict? The door is still open for an honorable and lasting peace. But the negotiations must be put into trustworthy hands. No one on whom even the breath of suspicion rests should be entrusted with such a task. Can it be doubted that negotiators of the unquestioned honor, ability, and fairness of Mr. John Morley, Lord Coleridge, Mr. James Bryce, or Sir Robert Reid would still be able to bring order out of chaos, and peace out of internecine war? Men such as these are known and trusted by the Boers. Their word would be as good as their bond. Their promises, the Boers know, would be sacred, and carried out to the letter. Reliance could safely be put on such men, and on their knowledge of South African affairs as well.

A united opposition with a definite policy will use the opportunity presented by the reassembling of Parliament to direct the attention of

the people toward a sensible policy of conciliation. It will urge the offering of generous terms to an honorable foe, whose unpardonable crime, in the eyes of the present Government, is, that they prize their liberties and will maintain their rights, even to the last man, rather than submit to the disgraceful terms of "unconditional surrender." Englishmen would do the same under like circumstances. Cannot Englishmen, then, respect a brave enemy battling for something better than the total extinction of all national existence, and the abridgment of local self-government?

The Liberal party has to-day an opportunity such as comes but at rare intervals in a nation's history. It has the men, and it has the ability, to effect much. The questions that the country is anxiously waiting to see decided are: Will the Liberal party employ to the fullest extent the power and ability it possesses? Will it present a united front to its shaken and dispirited opponents? Will it, by taking a firm and unmistakable stand, compel the adoption of a policy that shall save the drifting ship of state from striking on the rocks that loom ahead?

ALAN P. GILMOUR.

THE SINKING FUND AND THE PUBLIC DEBT.

IN the vault of the Register of the Treasury at Washington there is preserved a thin, ledger-shaped volume of sixty pages, entitled: "An Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States commencing with the Establishment of the Treasury Department under the Present Government, and ending on the thirty-first day of December one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one." The book is time-worn and charred by fire, and was doubtless rescued from the flames that destroyed the Treasury Building on August 24, 1814. At the top of the fifty-fourth page, which is yellow and brittle with age, appears this statement in the account of the disbursements of the Treasury:

For the Reduction of the Public Debt.

For monies advanced to sundry persons Agents for the President of the Senate, the Chief Justice, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney-General, who, by virtue of the act entitled, "An act making provision for the Reduction of the Public Debt," are impowered to make purchases of the Debt of the United States.

1790. Dec. 15. To Samuel Meredith, Treasurer, Warrant No. 776.

$200,000

1791. Jan. 26. do.

do.

856.

50,000

This is the first entry of the long series of entries that tells the story of the borrowing and repayment by the United States, in original and refunding loans, of over fifteen billions of dollars in a little over one hundred years. This story has no parallel in the financial history of any other nation, either in the magnitude of the results accomplished or in the rapidity with which they were brought about. It is especially

interesting at this time when we are approaching the period which will witness the extinction of the last vestige of the enormous debt contracted during the Civil War.

While there is nothing more irritating and harassing to all honest men than the burden of private debts, there is nothing which gives the citizens of the United States less concern at the present time than do the public debt and the national obligation for its repayment. This apparent indifference is not due to any lack of integrity in the attitude of the people toward the national obligations, or to any desire to defer indefinitely the final discharge of the public debt; for, in the words of the late Senator Morrill, "The American people are emphatically a debtpaying people. They do not believe in perpetual mortgages." The prevailing feeling cannot be attributed to a falling-off in the zeal of our people in upholding the honor of our country, or to any failure to realize our duty to posterity in our present conduct of the affairs of the nation; for we have always believed with Jefferson that "the discharge of the debt is vital to the destinies of our government." Still less can the general indifference be ascribed to a disregard of the importance of maintaining unimpaired the credit of the nation; for we are still acting, as we always have done, upon the maxim of Hamilton, that "the creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment.”

The national debt gives us little or no concern at this time because the charges imposed by it upon the people are light and are rapidly diminishing, and because our abundant resources guarantee its prompt payment as it matures. The annual interest on the debt had fallen from over 143 millions in 1867 to less than 38 millions in 1898; and, notwithstanding the loan necessitated by the war with Spain, the present interest charge is only a little over 28 millions a year.

The principal reason why the national debt has ceased to vex the minds of men is because our people are conscious that the dream of the founder of our financial system has come true, that posterity would realize that he had solved the problem of rendering public credit immortal. Our interest-bearing debt is now about 940 millions, while the estimated revenues for the current year are 700 millions. Our twoper-cent bonds command a premium of over eight per cent in the open market. During the last four months the available cash balance in the Treasury has ranged from 160 millions to 190 millions. It is little wonder, then, that the question which now engages the attention of the legislative and administrative officers of the Government is not what we can do with the debt, but what we shall do with the surplus.