of the military Inferno. It is absolutely
impossible to attempt any comparative or quantitative estimate of the
number of women who have suffered wrong at the hands of our troops.'

Was ever such an argument adduced in this world upon a serious matter!
When stripped of its rhetoric it amounts to this, '250,000 men have
committed outrages. How do I prove it? Because they are 250,000 men,
and therefore _must_ commit outrages.' Putting all chivalry, sense of
duty, and every higher consideration upon one side, is Mr. Stead not
aware that if a soldier had done such a thing and if his victim could
have pointed him out, the man's life would be measured by the time that
was needed to collect a military court to try him? Is there a soldier
who does not know this? Is there a Boer who does not know it? It is the
one offence for which there would be no possible forgiveness. Are the
Boers so meek-spirited a race that they have no desire for vengeance?
Would any officer take the responsibility of not reporting a man who was
accused of such a crime? Where, then, are the lists of the men who must
have suffered if this cruel accusation were true? There are no such
lists, because such things have never occurred.

Leading up to the events of the trial, Mr. Stead curdles our blood by
talking of the eleven women who stood up upon oath to testify to the
ill-treatment which they had received at the hands of our troops. Taken
with the context, the casual reader would naturally imagine that these
eleven women were all complaining of some sexual ill-usage. In the very
next sentence he talks about 'such horrible and shameful incidents.' But
on examination it proves that eight out of the eleven cases have nothing
sexual or, indeed, in many of them, anything criminal in their
character. One is, that a coffin was dug up to see if there were arms in
it. On this occasion the search was a failure, though it has before now
been a success. Another was that the bed of a sick woman was
searched--without any suggestion of indelicacy. Two others, that women
had been confined while on the trek in wagons. 'The soldiers did not
bother the woman during or after the confinement. They did not peep into
the wagon,' said the witness. These are the trivialities which Mr. Stead
tries to bluff us into classifying as 'horrible and shameful incidents.'

But there were three alleged cases of assault upon women. One of them is
laid to the charge of a certain Mr. E----n, o