From the first the wisdom of "taking the bull by the horns," or attacking full in front the Boer positions, was questioned in England. It was asked why did not Lord Methuen, with quite three men to the enemy's one, surround them, or only make a demonstration in front while delivering his real attack from the flank. Again, if he determined to attack in front, it was questioned why he did not make a greater use of his artillery, instead of flinging his superb infantry upon an intact and entrenched enemy. By a fuller artillery preparation, it was said, many lives might have been saved, and not impossibly the Boers might have been dislodged with infinitesimal British losses. Some of these doubts have not yet been answered, but from Lord Methuen's own despatches it is clear that the frontal attack was not of his planning. He meant to fall upon the enemy's flank, but here, as at Stormberg, a succession of accidents prevented the general's original intentions from being carried out, and rendered the task of the infantry very much harder. In attacking, at all costs, when it was evident that the Boers were on the alert, and when the intended flank movement had failed, Lord Methuen wished to show the enemy that the British soldier was morally his superior; that no position of whatever strength could stop the British Army, and that an invisible foe, raining death upon our men in the open, was no terror. [Illustration: MAUSER CARTRIDGE. The charge is of "smokeless powder" (hornified nitro-cellulose).] [Illustration: LEE-ENFIELD CARTRIDGE. Charged with cordite (nitro-glycerine and guncotton).] [Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE "RIFLING" OF A LEE-ENFIELD RIFLE. The spiral grooves cause the bullet to rotate rapidly on leaving the barrel. The twist of the rifling in a Mauser runs the opposite way; this latter weapon weighs nearly ¾ lb. less than the British (Lee-Enfield) pattern, and the bullet leaves the muzzle at a velocity of 2,034 feet per second as against 2,000 feet, the speed in the case of the Lee-Enfield.] [Sidenote: [NOV. 23, 1899.] The moral effect upon the Boers was, in fact, considerable, though not, perhaps, so great as the British staff at the time supposed. A prisoner told the British soldiers that the Boers believed in their ability to hold their position against all the armies of the world. They had expected the arrival of General Cronje with four or five thousand Transvaalers from Mafeking, and were greatly incensed at his failure to put in an appearance. Official Boer accounts stated that twelve Boers only were killed and forty wounded. After its baptism in blood the British division marched back to camp, leaving behind it the battlefield over which the great vultures were already wheeling slowly, having gathered swiftly and strangely from all quarters. In camp Lord Methuen delivered to it a brief, soldierly, and sympathetic address:-- [Sidenote: Lord Methuen congratulates the troops.]