d be found either competent or
convenient. Consequently, the congestion at the docks, wharves, and
railroads was very great. Many ships were kept waiting two months, or
even more, for discharge; a fact which means not merely expense,
though that is bad enough, but delay in operations, which in turn may
be the loss of opportunity--and the equivalent of this again is
prolongation of war, loss of life, and other miseries.

The practical lesson of this embarrassment at Cape Town should not be
lost to those who {p.100} assume too lightly that the traffic of the
Suez Canal can in time of war be turned to the Cape route. The
question of necessity for coaling at Cape Town, and the facilities for
it should at least be exhaustively studied before accepting this
solution as final, or even probable. It is evident that, for the
operations of this war, the use of Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and
East London, although they have no docks at which steamers can lie and
discharge, would to some extent relieve Cape Town; but that such
relief should be effective at the front, it was necessary also that
the railroads from them should be securely held up to their junctions
with the main line. This was not the case at first.

It may be added, for the benefit of American readers, that this
question of local congestion, and of consequent dislocation and delay
of traffic and of transport, is worthy of consideration by those among
us who may think that the interruption of our coasting trade, or the
blockade of one or two principal harbours, can be met by transferring
the business, of the former to the railroads, of the {p.101} latter
to other ports not blockaded. This is not so, because the local
conveniences and methods, which have developed under the sifting tests
of experience and actual use, cannot be transferred at short notice;
and until such transfer has been made, distribution cannot proceed.
The body economic and commercial will be in the state of the body
physical whose liver is congested, whose blood therefore circulates
poorly, with consequent imperfect nutrition and general disorder of
the system; much where little ought to be, and little where much.

CHAPTER IV {p.102}

THE WESTERN FRONTIER TO MAGERSFONTEIN AND STORMBERG--OPERATIONS OF
GENERAL FRENCH ABOUT COLESBERG

As was the case a century ago, on the eve of the French Revolution,
Great Britain last year indulged too long her dream of peace, and
awaked from it too la