XLVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
general sympathy with the resolve—to have a Dutch-Boer Republic 
in South Africa, extending from the Zambesi to the Cape of Good Hope; 
and for this they have been making preparations for nearly twenty years. 
The Jameson Raid was in no sense the cause or origin of those warlike 
preparations. It was an effect, not a cause, an effect of the evil govern- 
ment of a corrupt obligarchy ; and however foolish and ill-advised the 
raid itself may have been, the movement out of which it sprang was 
altogether defensible. 
If ever a war was waged in the history of the world, just, necessary, 
and inevitable, this in South Africa is such a war. Men may object to 
war altogether, in any circumstances, and this is a perfectly intelligible 
position. We can understand the doctrine of Christian non-resistance, 
even if we do not practise it. But those who grant the lawfulness of 
war will find few wars waged in the history of the world so justifiable 
as that in which we are now engaged. 
We admit—it is obvious—that our sacrifices have been great, and 
that sacrifices no less great may be required at our hands; but we must 
remember that sacrifice has ever, in the history of man, been the condi- 
tion of progress ; and we are persuaded that the brave men who have 
shed their blood in this conflict have yielded their lives up cheerfully 
in the cause of humanity, for it is the progress of mankind that they are 
contending for ; and those who have yielded up their bravest and their 
best will yet thank God that they were permitted to suffer in such a cause. 
We might dwell for a moment—if no more—on the incidental 
advantages which have resulted, and will yet result, from the co-opera- 
tion of the British Colonies with the Mother Country in this great work. 
It cannot be doubted that by this means a sentiment of unity has been 
generated, which, otherwise, it might have taken decades or centuries 
to produce. The imperial idea which floated before us as an unem- 
hodied principle, has now entered into our heart and soul. We know 
that we are one, united under one benign rule, living and fighting under 
one flag. Nor may we forget—although we remember it in no spirit of 
boasting—the honourable, the glorious part borne in the conflict by the © 
sons of Canada. Looking onwards to the future, we seem to see the 
promise of settled peace within the Empire, when men shall devote all 
their energies and endeavours to the advancement of the cause of 
humanity, to the onward progress of civilization; for war, however just, 
however necessary, is after all but the way to peace. And that end will 
be reached in the right and appointed time. It may seem to tarry and 
to be long on the way ; but it will surely come—that time spoken of by 
holy men of old, when the nations of the earth “shall beat their swords 
