2} command in South Africa,
contributing simultaneously to harden determination and to swell
enthusiasm. Whatever may be thought of the judgment of the Ministry in
the first refusal, which but reflected the slowness with which both it
and the nation it represented aroused to the magnitude of their task,
there can be little doubt that the general outcome was favourable
beyond all antecedent probability to nurturing the growth of the
Imperial sentiment. In the second effort Canada sent 1,969 officers
and men, Australasia 1,843. From the number of horses accompanying
them it is evident that these were chiefly, if not all, mounted
troops; the kind especially needed for the seat of war.

The figures given yield a grand total of 6,352 sent from the Canadian
and Australasian colonies in the more formal organization. To these
are to be added from New Zealand and Australia some 2,700 irregular
horse, raised from among the men who live there in the open, not
previously enrolled, and corresponding in general characteristics to
the Rough Riders of our recent war in Cuba. India also sent a
contingent of 2,437 men and officers. {p.083} Up to this moment of
writing, no certain account of the number of colonial troops furnished
by the South African colonies has been accessible to me. Speaking in
public recently, Mr. Chamberlain has said that more than 30,000 men
had been offered by the self-governing colonies. Early in December it
was estimated that, including the forces in Kimberley, Mafeking, and
Rhodesia, Cape Colony had already 10,000 in service. In February, an
official, but incomplete, and therefore a minimum, list attributed
7,158 at that time to Natal. Combining these various statements, and
reckoning at 12,000 the contingents from the other self-governing
colonies (excluding India), at the time of Chamberlain's speech (May
11), it seems probable that British South Africa put into the field
from 20,000 to 25,000 men. This conclusion agrees substantially with
one furnished to the author from an independent source, using other
data.

In its entirety, the contribution of some 12,000 troops--more or
less[5]--from the greater remote {p.084} dependencies does not indeed
loom very large alongside the truly gigantic figure of 166,277
officers and men, who, between the 20th of October and the 31st of
March, were despatched for South Africa from the ports of the United
Kingdom; in which number are not included those drawn from India an