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Zlic Cambrian.

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Zlic Cambrian. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1900. "A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A PROSPEROUS CENTURY Once again, and for the ninety-sixth time, The Cambrian wishes its readers, at home and abroad, A Happy and Prosperous New Year." A few more days, and the Nine- teenth Century will have joined the preceding centuries. It was a wonderful hundred years, and the sample about which we naturally have known the most. It contained in its ample margin the glorious reign of Queen Victoria; it saw England grow in power, greatness, and wealth, beyond all rivals it brought in its hands wonderful advancements for hu- manity. Albeit the approach to the new century is just here and now a little sombre and ill-lighted, we ought to eater it with high hearts and confident hopes, and use to each other on the memorable morning of Tuesday next none but words of good cheer and pleasant omen, since to be of courage and cheerful spirit is the heritage of Britishers, and since they cannot look back upon the glorious past of their race and nation without thankfulness to Almighty God as may well inspire them with trust in His favour and protection in the long future which must still be reserved for this our Imperial breed. False and unfaithful, in- deed, to the traditions of that breed we modern rrpresentatives should be if, with such an Empire to maintain, we failed to emulate the resolution, the serenity, and the self-command of those who founded it. Let us look back one hundred years, and think for a little what our forefathers had to face when they entered upon the century now in its last throes. In A.D. 1800 we had lately lost in the New World colonies which seemed indispensable to our national welfare. The Dutch and the Spaniards, joining France, were at war with us; while our deadliest and stealthiest enemy, Napoleoa Bonaparte, was beginning his brilliant career. The mutinies on board the Fleet at Spithead and the Nore had weakened us in a vital place Ireland was bitterly disaffected the Bank of England had stopped payment, and a French fleet, proceeding to Egypt, had taken possession of Malta by treachery of the Knights. In India we had a heavy conflict on our hands, against our dogged enemy, Tippo Sahib, and, although Austria was energetically helping us against Bonaparte, that master of war, in A.D. 1800, led his army across the Alps with amazing genius, and, winning a complete victory at Marengo, constrained Austria to submit shortly after- terwards at Hohenlinden to her conqueror's terms. Meanwhile, Paul of Russia had be- come the bitter foe of England, and had revived against her that hostile confederation which might have been fatal to us but for Lord Nelson's splendid triumph at Copen- hagen. Such was the general outlook which confronted our forefathers in this country when the dying century was born, and yet it was at that very epoch that the Legislative Union of the Kingdom was established, under one Imperial Parliament, and at the same epoch that our glorious Union Jack was first designed and run up to all mast- heads as the emblem of a realm conscious that it was growing and not decaying. What is there in any temporary troubles of the dear flag to be even named for anxiety or disappointment with such burdens as then lay upon throne, statesmen and people? All know how successfully those difficulties were surmounted how the dauntless spirit of the nation and its rulers u launched the thunderbolt of war on Egypt, Iiafnia, Traf- algar," aud how as the century rolled on fresh dangers were freshly overcome, until the reign of Queen Victoria, constantly triumphant, in accordance with her august n1\me, has rather spoiled us all with the habit of victory, so that nowadays reverses or even a momentary check come to our unused spirits with a shock of surprise. Yet, after all, what has happened in South Africa to touch the British Empire with more thsu a passing vexation If Too lightly undertaking 1 a new and difficult problem in warfare, we have been driven to gohstdei-ablg efforU aud cost by a stubborn breed of Dutch peasants. They have obliged us to make a bridge of transport ships across the ocean, and to de- port for a time a very large part of the Home Army. After a year of hard fighting and much bitter experience, the war at last Bhows signs of an early termination. Mean- while the Boers have been the unwilling means of showing England to the world united into one feeling and purpose as the colours are blended upon her Union Jack, the voice of faction almost silenced, the hearts of all beating with one pulse, and the Colonial children of the Great Mother ac- claiming and provifig their worth and loyalty. Such a spectacle at the beginning of the New Century is calculated in our judgment to warrant words of the highest confidence and of the brightest omen. The South African War. minor but costly, has taught us that the Commonwealth must be strong by land as well as by sea that ita the preparing of her defences no blunders and no ineptitude can be permitted or pardoned, and that, as she owes her present safety from interference to her own strength and the justice of her cause, so must she continue to rely upon these and not upon shifty alliances. The war has taught England what treasures, inexhaustible for her security, she possesses in the heroic spirit of her people, in the love I they have for their achieved liberties, and in the devotion of her Imperial offspring round the globe. These things, though they come from a cause to bo regretted, are not calam- ities, but blessings and benefits, such as are vouchsafed by Providence only to a nation destined for high deeds in the story of humanity. In the strength of them, without doubt or diffidence, we again venture to wish to all Britishers, A Happy New Year and a Prosperous Century."

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