The news of the British reverses was expected by all the enemies of England--enemies within and without--to prove the final blow to the British Empire. "The British Colonies," said one of the more moderate French journals, "will certainly secede when disaster weakens the Mother country's grasp upon them." Mr. John Morley in his famous article, "On the Expansion of England," had argued before the war, in much the same style, that at the first sign of peril the Australians and Canadians would "cut the painter." "Is it possible to suppose," he had asked, "that Canadian lumbermen or Australian sheep farmers would contribute anything towards keeping Basutos and Zulus quiet?" The question was answered, and answered speedily and dramatically, when upon the top of the sad messages announcing from South Africa defeat upon defeat, came telegram after telegram from the great self-governing Colonies, offering far more than money--their own flesh and blood. Then it was seen and realised at last that the Empire was one and indivisible--that it was something which, like the Church, neither distance nor climate could disunite. Never before in history had the Colonies of a great state spontaneously offered for distant service thousands of men. And thus were triumphantly justified the foresight which had led England to concede to her settlers the largest measure of self-government and the new spirit of pride in the Empire which had first found definite expression in the celebrations of 1897. Then Colonial troops had marched in all the pomp of peace through the streets of the capital; now they were to march of their own free will to the bloody work of a desperate war. [Illustration: _Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, & Co._] 12-POUNDER GUN AND LIMBER. This gun is one of a battery presented to Lord Roberts by Lady Meux, manufactured at the Elswick Works and manned by Elswick Volunteers.] [Illustration: [_Copyright 1900 by Underwood & Underwood._ FOREIGN MILITARY ATTACHÉS. Commissioned to accompany the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa.] [Sidenote: Australian and Canadian contingents.] [Sidenote: [NOV.-DEC. 1899.]