The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-09-23 00:00:00

GUISAL BOTOLT.

The evil multi ist Comm dors Command 's ropu;so
Mt Ike Prah ba.. be.. vory pelmet 'ad.:ad. Tta,
coast to this weistwari ot Blebs hes rev,ltik., arid all
the tribes aloes it have jollied the Aistusraism te•141111.

Till PIXPAILATIOIR.

The military preparations both iu this country and
on the Gold Coast are below continued with vigour.
Several millions of buckshot cartel-Ines are tvini
Imade In tho Roy.l Ltboratory Dcpsztatttht, Royal
Arsenal, Woolatish, for dor expedition against tho
Ashanters.

The not kolas In Ihsaw mills and wpm:tars ahope
we employed tit; nine o'o'o4 y night In the manu-
facture of boats for the conveyance of the ammunition
to the Gold Coact

_
Barrack tables and other 'isometry furniture for the
use of the troors at the camp to b formed In the
neighbourhood of Accra are rrady for ambit/cation ; arid
a large quantity of ammunition for the supply of the
Catliug mitraillsuses, soot out some week' back, la being
packed in readineas to be shipped.
The t•at tarty of Royal Itheigeers, cheeen from
volustems, embarked for the Cole Coos on Thursday.
Two large traction engines, or steam sappers, as they
ere calls ddire to be seat oat to the Geld Coast. This.
ere easily converted into railway lommotives by the
substitution of flanged wheels.
Tho despatch of traction anginas aid the Neleatlon of
• considerable form of engineer., eapeilseoed a. engine
driver'', to take port in the expedition have been
isesumad, says the Timm, to "Mika the rumour that a
search te Coomaseis lea predetermined pert of Sir
Garnet Wolseley's offensive operations against the
Ashautee Klegdom. such °injecting, are, at any rate,
q.iAmernatette It is true, indeed, that the *Dogtrot:i-
ntro of • road running from the coast in the direction
of CAX4O Ili* hoe aireedy been c minivan ; but this,
whether Sir Garnet Wobeley should make nag of it or
not, may be serviceable ma • monism, tbe meaning of
which the Ashautees will easily understand. lii., of
course. oonosivable that circumstances may aria, in
which we might be forced to much against Competing,
but such ciretiontancog do not at prigeot exist. It le
not our Interest to break up the Ashentee Kingdom,
mbiali might es likely as not be the resnit of the implant
of Commune, even if we were quite sure of bong able
to accomplish the.e results without serious lames. Wo
want to restore order on the West AirlOS4 Coed, and
to do this we must beat the Ashantee Army, which is
now occupying the tenitory that Is oonsidergi subjeot
to our protection. lint we has* no ciongern with the
Asi.antoe Kingdom.
. . . . .

The differer:t rivers and streams whleh lie between
Cape Coast Castle Ilild COOO2IIOIO ars to bri mewl by
tomporary bridges. Materials for Mak soontruoillot,
and rostsom to form rafts have been resolved at VIII
Royal Arsenal. Woolwish.
At the Royal Animal, is rialto a largo earavan of tho
little haad tarts labeaded so carry the transport of
M.• expedition. The Mailing mitrailleure have arrivad
at C.spe Coast Castle.
The screw sorvette Rooonoter, Captain Bradshaw
left BpitLead tato on Friday evening for Cape Coss;
Omni& _

—The wares etemoship King Bonny, the fourth vessel
shortened by t*.o Government for lb* emtveyenoe of
lb. store. for the ancedltloc, Ii embarkiog bee oorge.
On Sunday monifieg the acrew eteamaltip Add., folly
laden, took her deportees from Woolwich, on bar these
weeks' voyage to tha Gold Coast.

A. an socurate knowledge of the history of our con-
nection with the Gold Coast is seenthil to arriving at
sound oonoluilons as to what oar line of policy should
be In regard to the urkas oomplleatious into which we
have thou, fallen, the following brief summary will bo
of us :
Our oonneotion with the G ,td Coast began by the
testebiebment of purely eominertiial ucciatioos of an
insignificant kind. In 1672 an important company, tho
Royal Afrioan, we. established, and in addition to Cape
Gut Catle, which had previously been built, they
acutructed forte at AOOll4 Dix Cove, itooond.o,
Arromobo,Oominendab, and Wilmot:fah, plum with the
namee of which wo are now unfortunately tolerably
(mum, mi. ,x,opiine wee evnotuelly distiolvod, and
it wee socauded in 1760 by another great African
Oemraty which issued down till 1811. These wimpulat
were generally ettlisidisod by the /neigh Government ;
and up to 1807 Racy were not only permitted, but
Intended, to trade in sluice at well as in gold and other
°"°c°oOltioot When tie slave trade was sbolislud the
subsidy wee terrorised to £20,000 • year, proutrulif to
recompense, the company for the be. of that particular
traria Daring this time, the Frew* Dutch, Danish.
and Portuanuo hod founded establishments also upon
the ( out, and the unapetition was keen between them.
So far, thlo_gt went tolerably well on the Oust. But in
IF2I one Government took the unfortunate stop of
prating these aett'emente under the Crown. From thnt
moment almost our troubles bum. The Government
of the Gold Coast war placed under the Sir Coadis
IrCarilly. Bat in thou dayr, when then was no slum
navigation, the distanoe between the two colonies was
too great to allow of their being effeetively governed
from one Untie, and in 1824 we had drifted Into our
first war with Aeltentee. . . .

The Ashanti's* are supposed originally to dare come
from numb farther inland than they are at present.
but it was not usWl about 1760 that they approsokaa
ne.r .rough t, the °oast to exelte apprebeaslooe
amoug the Europese traders there. They gradually
mat ',wards the Coast, subdulag the weaker tribes ou
their way, and in leo7 the whole country betweea the
Volts and tbe Astute, the* le to say, the present pro.
tootorate, had been misdeed by them, and they had
arau come to hostile control with the Zuropoans. At
"at tithe we had our first fight with the Ashantees.
Our lsilerr-oottetrymen best time off, but the moult
war that the oompeny agreed net to ambit the /setae'
agai oat the Labentsma These bad anerebed a angel
damp edam over all that regime er b. 181.7. ks ti•
sest seism, gaggagd gaae a may will time for

the proteation of the Fastens. This treaty wise
failure. The country was 'almost ruined, sad in 1821,
as we hare acid, the Imperial Government anummil
aireession of the Settlements. Sir Charles leCerthy
thought to deal with tile Ashantees by fore*. The
ear of 1824 began by the destruction of kimeelf and
hi, troops : but al terwarde we drove the Ashantees
out of the °Dooley, jest as we shall have to do again.
After the trouble, lee., disaster., and expense of this
Mamas, erre the Horne G 00000 meet seriously eon-
tete: lated entirely abandoning the Gold Coast, but the
merchants persuaded them to continue a nominal
g 'cerement of the Coed, leaving the aolual edminie-
t:ation to them. This was done, end the well-known
and able Mr. Maclean carted on the government of the
Settlements under fundamental rules 101 l down from
hone. It was Mr. Marlaim who, on behalf of the
Crown, obtained from the Blau of Mining's the treaty
of 1831, be which the indepexdrooe of the notate and
Other tribes was acknowledged, the rents were to he
open to all for G&W'S traMe, and all disputes were to
he referred to the linglish. This is the only treaty now
ruling. It worked very well fetr a long time ; and for
twelve yearr, or up to 1842, affairs on the Coast went
as smoothly, perhaps, se could be expected. Bat, on.
happily, tho British Government, under the advice of
the Committee of 1842, re•olved ones more to assume
the direct administration of the Settlements, and this
wee done in 1844. At first they were placed under the
jurisdiction of Sierra Leone, but In 1840 they were
lade into a distinct Government, with Legislative and
Eseentiee Council., and so forth, an arrangement that
continued until rather recently, when the Settlements
wire again placed under the Goat:meat of Sierra
Leone.

The neat Ashantee war occurred in 1863, tho rause
being that th.. Governor of the Gold Guest gave refuge
to. fugitive reliant of the King of Ashantee. Oa this
occasion the enemy simply withdrew Into the Interior
of the country, sod our expeditiou, being badly planned
as regards the season of lb. year. suffered severely from
siekons. but the enemy did not take advantage of that,
and until the present year remained at peen, with es.
And at pence ha would probably have remained wills us
bu• • ha• k. •in cc our Cloyenimeot could not leave
• o. T,,e scheme wee twooeived of sequirieg
Duo', S•ltlements. with the view of imposing
higher imago.. duties all along the Coast, so a. to make
the revenue* of the Settleineats more lenitive, and
of di in kWAI with the antagonism hotline the repro.
Pen tali, •of lb. out ourselves. 'lbus is 1871
Simi... linseed into our baud*. This oleos bed Pre-
viously bee,. the headquarters of the Ashman. *Gait
trade. Thither they bad been accustomed to °moo for
mioiy 7CO, aud hey had intimate relatkes with the
Ditch. Ili,. being metal obligations aod liabtliths
reeognised between them. When, however, we took
posseninn of lilmln• we ignored all there obligati*. s
and Itabiiitni. W 0 increased the duties, sod we wood
not allow the Althenteys to trade with and through
than they had been seouitoined to deal with. la fast,
we entirely eisturbod the trading and other arrange-
ments of the Asbanteas, and virtually stopped them
bovine that free 1100550 to the coast that we bad agreed
to give them by the Treaty of 1831. But even then
conflict might have been warded off had we acted with
pnidenoi VIA diplomitio courtesy. The King of
A.lmiaro aid Dot ievade us the moment we leterlered
wi•h hit lougoletablishe3 Place end arrangement. at
Eirnice. lie wrote to oar authorities, and he never was
properly answered. We seat him, as • kind of umbras-
ador, a ni.n who was notoriously his enemy. And.
In fact. whether we meant it or not, we did almost all
that Gould be done to provoke what has unueneettrily
and unfortunately happened.