ge the energies of the State. Sir Redvers Buller's
army has met with another serious check in the attempt to relieve
Ladysmith. We have approached, tested, and assailed the Boer positions
beyond the Tugela, fighting more or less continuously for five days, and
the result is that we find they cannot be pierced from the direction of
Trichardt's Drift any more than at Colenso. With the loss of more than
two thousand men out of a small army, we find it necessary to recross
the, river and seek for some other line of attack; and meanwhile the
long and brave resistance of Ladysmith must be drawing to a close.
Indeed, it is the opinion of many good judges that further efforts to
relieve the town will only be attended with further loss. As to this I
do not pronounce, but I am certain of one thing--that further efforts
must be made, without regard to the loss of life which will attend them.

I have seen and heard a good deal of what has passed here. I have often
been blamed for the freedom with which I have written of other
operations and criticised their commanders. I respectfully submit that I
am as venomous an amateur strategist as exists at this time. It is very
easy--and much more easy than profitable--when freed from all
responsibility to make daring suggestions and express decided opinions.
I assert that I would not hesitate to criticise mercilessly if I was not
myself sobered by the full appreciation of the extraordinary
difficulties which the relief of Ladysmith presents; and if there be
anyone who has any confidence in my desire to write the truth I appeal
to him to be patient and calm, to recognise that perhaps the task before
Sir Redvers Buller and his subordinates is an actual impossibility, that
if these generals are not capable men--among the best that our times
produce--it is difficult to know where and how others may be obtained,
and finally to brutally face the fact that Sir George White and his
heroic garrison may be forced to become the prisoners of the Boers,
remembering always that nothing that happens, either victory or defeat,
in northern Natal can affect the ultimate result of the war. In a word,
let no one despair of the Empire because a few thousand soldiers are
killed, wounded, or captured Now for the story as plainly and briefly as
possible.

When Buller had arrived at Potgieter's he found himself confronted by a
horseshoe position of great strength, enclosing and closing the
debouches from the ford