nes are dangerous at dusk. The military situation is without
doubt at this moment most grave and critical. We have been at war three
weeks. The army that was to have defended Natal, and was indeed expected
to repulse the invaders with terrible loss, is blockaded and bombarded
in its fortified camp. At nearly every point along the circle of the
frontiers the Boers have advanced and the British retreated. Wherever we
have stood we have been surrounded. The losses in the fighting have not
been unequal--nor, considering the numbers engaged and the weapons
employed, have they been very severe. But the Boers hold more than 1,200
unwounded British prisoners, a number that bears a disgraceful
proportion to the casualty lists, and a very unsatisfactory relation to
the number of Dutchmen that we have taken. All this is mainly the result
of being unready. That we are unready is largely due to those in England
who have endeavoured by every means in their power to hamper and
obstruct the Government, who have scoffed at the possibility of the
Boers becoming the aggressors, and who have represented every precaution
for the defence of the colonies as a deliberate provocation to the
Transvaal State. It is also due to an extraordinary under-estimation of
the strength of the Boers. These military republics have been for ten
years cherishing vast ambitions, and for five years, enriched by the
gold mines, they have been arming and preparing for the struggle. They
have neglected nothing, and it is a very remarkable fact that these
ignorant peasant communities have had the wisdom and the enterprise to
possess themselves of good advisers, and to utilise the best expert
opinion in all matters of armament and war.

Their artillery is inferior in numbers, but in nothing else, to ours.
Yesterday I visited Colenso in the armoured train. In one of the
deserted British-built redoubts I found two boxes of shrapnel shells and
charges. The Boers had not troubled to touch them. Their guns were of a
later pattern, and fired powder and shell made up together like a great
rifle cartridge. The combination, made for the first time in the history
of war, of heavy artillery and swarms of mounted infantry is formidable
and effective. The enduring courage and confident spirit of the enemy
must also excite surprise. In short, we have grossly underrated their
fighting powers. Most people in England--I, among them--thought that
the Boer ultimatum was an act of despai