In reference to our foreign policy, the General spoke in the highest terms of Lord Salisbury's dealing with the Soudan question, as compared with that of Mr. Gladstone's Government, when divisions in the Liberal party had led to so much loss of life and money without corresponding results. And in regard to the Transvaal question, then beginning once more to attract public attention, he insisted strongly that his great anxiety was that peace should be preserved. There was no man, he said, who was a greater lover of peace than he was, but he deprecated the vacillation and weakness and change of policy of 1881 that caused all the trouble then, and from which all the present trouble had arisen. What he wanted to see now was a strong and firm line taken, and he believed matters there would be put right. It could not be to the advantage of the Transvaal that British subjects should be treated as they were being treated now. What he wanted was that their people should be treated as human beings, and have the same voice in the government of the country as was given them in any other civilised country.' He admitted that the Jameson Raid was a most unwise and wicked proceeding, and had done a great deal to damage their relationship with the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the Dutch portion of South Africa; 'but although that was true, it did not remove the fact that the position of their countrymen in the Transvaal had not been improved. The great mass of them had nothing to do with the Jameson Raid. They were British subjects, who went out there under the ægis of the British Crown, and surely it was their bounden duty as a nation to see that their rights were respected.'
The poll was taken on 19th June, with the result that Mr. Dewar, the Liberal candidate, was returned with a majority of 831 over 4989 votes given for General Wauchope. The General in a manly speech at the close assured his supporters 'they had no cause to be discouraged, for they had only to gird up their loins, and victory would one day rest with them. He felt no bitterness whatever in regard to this fight. He was honoured by their call, and they had told him he had not dishonoured them. They had fought a square fight on both sides, and if he was right in his estimate of the citizens of South Edinburgh, they would very soon put matters right. It was only the difference of 400 men going from the one side to the other, and he would, so far as in him lay, do his very utmost at any time to stand by and aid them.'
It is due to Mr. Dewar to say that he looked upon the General as 'a foeman worthy of his steel.' In returning thanks to his supporters, he frankly acknowledged that 'we have won a victory against the strongest and most gallant opponent that could have been put in the field, and I rejoice to say that the contest has been carried on with the utmost courtesy and good feeling on both sides.' These words, spoken, as it were, in the very heat of the controversy, were more than confirmed some six months after, when the sad news of the General's death on the battlefield reached Edinburgh.
The annual meeting of the South Edinburgh Liberals—which was intended to be of a social as well as business character—was held on the evening of the 13th December, the very day on which the news came; but instead of going on with the programme of proceedings, it was resolved out of respect for the General's memory only to go through with the ordinary formal business and then adjourn, Mr. Dewar remarking, 'that having regard to the sad intelligence just received, it would be utterly out of place that anything in the nature of a social evening should be held.... When he stood before them in that hall a few months ago, he had told them he counted it an honour to be opposed by a soldier so distinguished, and a man so eminent and thoroughly respected as General Wauchope. As the election proceeded, their regard for him increased day by day, and now that he was dead he felt as if they were in the very presence of death; ... and every one would agree that the proper and respectful course to take was to give their last tribute to a man who was a gallant opponent of theirs, and who became their friend; and they should place upon his grave a wreath of respect and regard.' The chairman, in seconding the proposal, said 'he had frequently come in contact with General Wauchope at the election, and it was remarkable that during the whole contest, however keen it was, their opponent never uttered one single word he had cause to regret. No election,' he added, 'was ever fought with more good feeling than the contest between Mr. Dewar and General Wauchope.' And as showing the entire accord of the large meeting with what had been said, the audience in silence, and upstanding, signified their sympathy with the resolution, and quietly dispersed.
General Wauchope's political contests were thus characteristic of the man. There was the set purpose, the indomitable will; no shrinking from declaring what he thought was the truth, but an ever dauntless standing up for the right at any hazard, all combined with a modest diffidence of his own personal merits, and the utmost respect and courtesy for his opponents' opinions. It has been said, 'he makes no friend who never made a foe'; but the General had a happy way of turning his political foes into fast friends.
With him political opinion did not sever the ties of friendship. Personalities did not enter into his political life. He would hold his own tenaciously, and give blow for blow in fair fight, but there it ended. Meeting a number of friends at the Church Offices, 22 Queen Street, shortly after this election, who were sympathising with him on his defeat, he cheerily replied, 'Oh, I don't think much of a man if he can't take a beating.'
CHAPTER X
OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA—COMMAND OF THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE—DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH AFRICA—THE SITUATION—BATTLE OF MAGERSFONTEIN—DEATH—FUNERAL—AFTER THE BATTLE.