7. Still more remarkable was the effect which the need of the great mother had upon her sons in all parts of the empire. From Canada, from Australia, from New Zealand thousands of brave men hastened to the rescue, all sent off from their distant homes with the acclamations of enthusiastic crowds. Offers of help came from every corner of the empire; nor were such offers limited to men of British origin. Indian princes pressed their services on our acceptance, and the Maoris of New Zealand were as eager as any in their land to fight for the flag. But the British government wisely declined the services of all who were not of British blood. The war was a contest between the Boers and the British for supremacy in South Africa, and it was resolved to make it a fair stand-up fight between the two races.
8. The spirit in which our nation girded themselves for the fight, when the blows of misfortune fell hard upon them in that dark December week, is well exemplified in the prompt response of Lord Roberts to the call made upon his services, as commander-in-chief of our army in South Africa, at the very moment when he had received the crushing news of the death of his son, in a gallant attempt to rescue some guns after the battle of Colenso.
9. No need to tell of the splendid services Lord Roberts rendered at the seat of war, how, within six months from his departure from England, he led his army in triumph into the capitals of the two Boer states, and made their conquest in the end almost a certainty. In taking his farewell of the army, the general paid a well-deserved tribute of praise to our soldiers, who "by their pluck, endurance, discipline, and devotion to duty" had covered themselves with glory. "For months together," said their commander, "in fierce heat, in biting cold, in pouring rain, you have marched and fought without halt, and bivouacked without shelter... You have forced your way through dense jungles, over precipitous mountains, through and over which, with infinite labour, you have had to drag heavy guns and ox-waggons.... You have endured the suffering, inevitable in war, to sick and wounded men, without murmur, and even with cheerfulness."
10. And if any other testimony is needed in favour of "Tommy Atkins," as we fondly call our soldiers, we have it in the despatch of a German officer: "We can only marvel," he says, "at the heroism with which British troops in close order attempt to scale steep heights under a fierce hail of bullets. We can only marvel at the intrepidity with which they try to force a passage through narrow mountain passes where the enemy lie concealed."
11. A thrill of pride, then, may well go through the heart of every Briton when he thinks of the deeds of courage, the splendid resolution, and the cheerful patience of our troops in South Africa. The nation, too, has given full proof that the spirit of their fathers, the same old spirit that has carried the old flag through so many times of stress and strain, is still active as ever, that the fibre of our race is as hard and well-knit as in days of yore.
12. War is at best a great calamity, but the war we have waged with the Boers has brought us compensations. It has proved that our soldiers and sailors are as truly hearts of oak now as formerly, and that our brothers in the colonies are made of the same stuff as the best of ourselves. It has done still more in revealing to the whole world that the British Empire is not a mere name for a number of territories scattered over the globe, but that it is a living whole animated by one and the same spirit. All nations may now know that the honour and interests of the empire are dear not to Britain alone, but to the whole family of nations that have sprung from her; and that in any future contest with Great Britain they will have to reckon also with the Greater Britain beyond the seas. "Shoulder to shoulder, all for each, and each for all, we stand united before the world, and our children have shown that they are not unwilling to share with us the obligations as well as the dignity of the empire."
13. The union of the empire has now been cemented by the blood so freely shed by our kinsmen in South Africa. In confirmation of the hope that the bonds of that union will only grow stronger with the increasing years, we may mention the impressions that the Prince of Wales has brought home with him from his tour round the empire. "If asked," he says, "to specify any particular impressions derived from our journey, I should unhesitatingly place before all others that of loyalty to the Crown, and of attachment to the old country, which they invariably referred to as Home. And with this loyalty was unmistakable evidence of the consciousness of strength, of a true and living membership in the empire, and of power and readiness to share the burden and responsibility of that membership."
14. Everywhere the prince had evidence of that pride of race, that unity of sentiment and purpose, that feeling of common loyalty and obligation, that eager desire to claim their share in the glories of a great empire with a great past and, perchance, a greater future—in a word, that imperial patriotism, which keeps in view the welfare of the whole empire,—
"One with Britain, heart and soul!
One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne!"