llerific of RfVieirs, I/GJ06. 



Leading Articles. 



487 



LORD MILNER ON SOUTH AFRICA. 



A Specimen of Unconscious Irony. 



In the National Rez'/cw for April Lord Milner 

 writes on " Great Britain and South Africa." With 

 unconscious irony the late High Commissioner lays 

 down as ends to be attained those things which he 

 more than any other man has ahriost put out of 

 our reach. For instance, he begins by saying, " The 

 South African question has now got into the ruts of 

 party. That is the worst thing that could have 

 befallen South Africa or Great Britain." 



Who is responsible for that ? 



Then again he says : — 



We are, I take it. all agreed that in the long i-uu South 

 Africa can only remain within the British family of 

 Stabea if the majority of her white inhabitants desire, or 

 at least acquiesce in, that position. It is not necessary 

 that they should all be fervently attached to Great Britain, 

 or even to the British connection. But it is necessary that 

 there should be a nucleus in whom that attachment is 

 really strong, and tiiat this nucleus should be powerful 

 enough to counterbalance any actively hostile elements, 

 and to leaven the more or less indifferent mass. My plea 

 ia for a policy on the part of this country which will 

 steadily tend to strengthen that nucleus. 



But who made the majoritv of the white inhabit 

 ants of South Africa regard Great Britain with 

 enmity, if it was not the man who devastated the 

 Republics ? 



In another place he says : — 



The Dutch are not going to feel any enthusiasm for the 

 union of South Africa under the British flag instead of 

 under their own. It is utterly unreasonable, it is a very 

 poor compliment to the Dutch themselves, to expect any- 

 thing of the kind. Not enthusiasm — but we may reasonably 

 hope acquiescence. 



This can be srot equally, and indeed better, if. while 

 treating the Dutch with perfect fairness, we at the same 

 time do all we can to strengthen and hearten the British 

 element, and to envelop South Africa, as far as possible, in 

 a British atmosphere. 



But when South Africa has been enveloped for 

 three years in a British atmosphere, in the fumes of 

 lyddite shells, even " acquiescence " is hardly to be 

 hoped for. Lord Milner warns us that: — 



When once self-government is granted, it would be vain, 

 it would even be detrimental to the British cause in 

 South Africa, to interfere in the local political struggle, 

 however deeply we may be interested in it. 



Let Downing-street only raise a finger and a 

 strong current of local feeling will itnmediately be 

 set flowing against the party which has Downing- 

 street for an ally. 



What a pity he did not remember this when he 

 set out to crush the Africanders, and again, at a 

 later date, when he threw all his influence into the 

 effort to suspend the Constitution of the Cape ! 



He proceeds ; — 



But the non-interference of the Britisli Government is 

 one thinsr. the indifference of the British people quite 

 another. It makes all the difference in the world to the 

 South African British whether we in this country recog- 

 nise or do not recosnise that in "keeping their end up" 

 Uiey are fighting not only their own battle, but ours. 

 Nolihine is calculated to encourage them more than such 

 recognition. And. on the other hand, nothing chills their 

 affection like being misunderstood or misrepresented at 



home- 



Therefore, Lord Milner does his best to clear the 

 financial magnates of any responsibility for the war. 

 He does not say, although he might say it truly. 

 •• Alone I did it." But what led to more " misun- 

 derstanding " at home than Lord Milner's own action 

 in sanctioning the flogging of the Chinese? 



His concluding words are full of gloom : — 



And if things are not to go from bad to worse we must 

 make liaste to revise our judgment and alter our attitude 

 towards our fellow-countrymen in South Africa. We are 

 losing friends everv dav. ami we cannot afford to lose 

 them" I look forward with confidence to the ultimate ver- 

 dict of history. But I own that I look forward with 

 alarm to the irrep-^rable mischief which may be done 

 tjefore that verdict is recorded. 



One consolation is that as none of the good 

 things Lord Milner thought he could secure have 

 been obtained, his gloomy forecast may be equally 

 falsified bv events. 



THE BLOOD-RELATIONSHIP OF MAN AND APES. 



A particularly interesting scientific article on this 

 subject appears in the Monthly Review, by Paul 

 Uhlenhuth. 



PEOVING THE PRESENCE OF BLOOD. 



The writer begins by an account of the Teich- 

 mann blood-test, enabling the presence of blood to 

 be known with absolute certainty. Mere proof of 

 its presence, however, is insufficient : some method 

 is required of answering an accused man who says 

 that the blood on his clothes is not a man's, but a 

 pig's or a dog's. Now it is known that human blood 

 corpuscles are round and coreless ; those of birds, 

 fishes, and certain animals are oval and haw a 

 core ; there are also differences in the lengths of 

 the corpuscles. By a process, of which he gives a 

 careful account. Dr. Uhlenhuth describes how he 

 has solved the question of nut merely proving the 

 presence of blood, but proving to which animal it 

 belonged, or whether it was human blood. His 

 experiments showed that " a rabbit treated with 

 human blood yielded a serum which produced pre- 

 cipitation only in human blood": — 



It occurred with constant regularity that the serum of 

 rabbits into which human or animal blood had lieen re- 

 peatedly injectei produced a sediment only in solu iocs of tlie 

 blood used in the treatment, eren when the blood had been 

 dried up tor decades past. 



These experiments have been tested over and 

 over again, sometimes on blood-stained objects 

 from old criminal trials, of which the experimenter 

 had no knowledge ; and never have they failed. 



DETECTING FRAUDS IN MEAT. 



This study of blood differentiation also enables 

 one to ascertain whether what is served as beef be 

 really beef or merely horse: — 



If the serum of a rabbit treated with horse's blood be 

 m'xed witii the suspicious specimens of meat, we can at 

 once discern, by the t'jrbidity which ensues, that it is 

 horseflesh, and it is immaterial for the result of the experi- 

 ment whether this is in the form of minced meat or sausage 

 or is in a pickled or smoked state. 



FFE'H PROOF OF THE DARWINIAN THEORY. 



Dr. Uhlenhuth says that, having proved that the 

 serum of a rabbit treated with a particular kind of 



