nt military exigency, but also the
considerations above mentioned, were present in his mind, as indeed
they could not fail to be with any instructed and intelligent officer.
"Natal was the object on which the Boers had set their hearts. It was
not only the actual point which they attacked, but it was also their
sentimental object. They had the idea that they had a right in Natal,
and their plan of campaign was framed from the very idea that they
should have the territory from Majuba to the sea. But Ladysmith stood
in their way, and he might say that Ladysmith was a most important
town in northern Natal. From its geographical position it became of
great strategical importance. It was at Ladysmith that {p.181} the
forces of the Transvaal, pouring over the northern and north-eastern
passes of Natal, first joined with the forces that came in from the
west and the Orange Free State, and there the two South African
Republics combined in their strength under the late Commandant-General
Joubert--a man who, he would like to say there, was a brave and a very
civilised man. Ladysmith was also a railway centre of great
importance, and it was therefore of great value to them to keep it out
of the possession of the enemy."[14]

[Footnote 14: London _Weekly Times_, May 18.]

Nor was this all, as touching the place itself. That similar
reasonings had led the Imperial authorities, antecedent to the
hostilities, to choose Ladysmith as a depot and _place d'armes_, is
shown by the reproaches addressed to the Government by the London
_Times_, November 21, 1899: "There is no need to inquire just now into
the balance of political and military considerations which determined
the policy of making a stand at Ladysmith. It is enough that that
policy was definitely adopted in ample time to allow of providing
Ladysmith with the long-range guns which its {p.182} position renders
peculiarly necessary, dominated as it is by hills on three sides. Why
were such guns not provided? Why was it left to fortunate accident to
furnish the garrison at the very last moment with the means of
defence"--by the arrival of the naval guns?

In like manner the prime minister of Natal, some months later,
challenged the following statement of the _Times_ in its issue of
March 2, 1900: "From November 2, when, owing to the subordination of
military to local political considerations, a British force of 10,000
fine soldiers was shut in Ladysmith, a grea