The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-11 00:00:00

Vie ensreoo.

~
, .
TO CORK UPON DINTS. I
t MIMI Mime ef " TM Raptor; IMems evieleet '
v desetlo," MA pebled every Teasley me y eight. ptime
' i=/..t. taleided for'' TM Itz pros," lite 11~4 peper4
met lie Uts offilp. 10, Beeverie.serest, Wyr see e'elesk UR the
iii)lsfillollostlaa.

11108 WATKK I.UN DON BRIDGE
few lut—Weis. Ng, s ll+ us.
T..wmfamr--Ilarmag. M. Nw. ARNIM% lA.

.•

-----
LONDON, IVEDNESDAY, FEBAVrARrit.

THERM are two fleas' of 4cane,even.whatis
the pleasant and the agreeable ; the unpleasant and
the disagreeable—and of the latter Earl GRIT'S die-
putoh dismissing Sir HARRY Sserrtt from the go-
vernment of the Cape of Good Hope, is a perfect
specimen. It fully explain. the Duke • eulogium on
Sir llAuev's military merits. and Lord LONDON-
DERRY'S indignation that a mere civilian should treat
an old soldier so mourvily.
No one--except perhaps those two distinguished
peers—doubts that the time had come for the re-
call of Sir liseav Ssitrit. Wu all admire his
long and brilliant career; we all know ha
courage and gallantry ; and we shall never forget the
glory he achieved on the well fought field of Aliwal ;
for it is part and parcel of our national renown. We
cannot be too grateful to him for the skill with which
he assisted Lords oouoil and HARDINGE in repelling
the Sikh invasion of India. It was because of his
former experience of Kaffir wars, and of his Indian
fame, that Lord GREY (with tho applause of the
country) recommended .Sir HARRY SMITH to the
crown for the government of the Cape of Good Hope.
In that colony Sir HARRY has risked a constitution,
quarrelled with the colonists and got the nation into
another Kaffir war without being at all able to get
us out of it. Under these circumstances, his recall
became, not a matter of choice, but of necessity.
But Sir HARRY is an old soldier who in his time
" hath done the state some service ;" and even in
withdrawing him, he was entitled to kindly expres-
sions and to civil soothing words. Not a radical in
the colony would intentionally have hurt his feelings,
not a boy in the streets would willingly give him
offence. The proper way to recall him was civilly,
courteously, and politely to intimate that ho had failed
in terminatifig the war which had occupied him—
very much, perhaps, on account of the lack of troops.
The act itself, put it iu its gentlest, kindest form,
was censure and rebuke enough, without adding to
it the agony of reproaches and the severity of accu-
sations. Hut no. The Colonial-office, which had
fostered and encouraged, endorsed and supported
every inch of Sir HARRY'S proceedings up to the
31st December, 1831—which had repulsed and defied
all criticism on his policy, and treated with contempt
all remarks on his campaign—which was committed
and recommitted to all that he had done—this Colo-
nial-office, which by its own conduct on the convict
question had first jeopardised the success of
of the old man's administration- —the department,
on the 14th of January, 1832, fearful and apprehen-
sive of the responsibility which parliament might im-
pose on it, coolly and deliberately prepares a bill of
indictment against its own officer, addresses him in
terms of contumely and disgrace, accumulating its own
faults and errors upon his head ; treats him with all the
indignity official censure can convey; and,—unfairly
contrasting him and his conduct with that of Lieut.-
Governor rise in Natal,—coarsely and vindictively
dismisses him.

With his recall the public will be satisfied, hut of
the terms and the manlier in which the act was
completed by Earl GREY, no gentleman or man of feel-
ing can approve. It was idle to suppose Sir HARRY
SKIT!! could be kept doing little or nothing but
writing home self complacent despatches about a
war that was costing England at the rate of 120,0001.
a month, and entailing disgrace upon her arms. But
for Earl GREY, who knew his great age when he
appointed him—who was responsible for hia appoint-
ment—who had defended his whole career there—
to write an insulting letter of ignominious dis-
missal is " too bad,"—and a great deal " too
bad." And when the country compares this final
treatment of Sir HARRY SMITH—who has no rein
tieing in office, and who has risen from the ranks,—by
a SECRETARY of STATE, who, vrten recalling Lord
TORRINGTON, did so in an applaudatory despatch,
the public will feel, and feel deeply, that Lord GREY
has one measure of justice for kinsmen of the whig
house of BEDFORD, another and a very different one
for ordinary men. Yet this is the statesman who is
" indignant" with the press for calling M. BONAPARTE
a tyrant, and designating his rule of France ab-
solutism.

The Qexem—Lord JOHN Russ ELL has stated—never
saw this despatch. Of that we may be quite certain.
Bet her MAJESTY, he added, does not require to bo
acquainted with the contents of Colonial-office docu-
ments. This, we think, is very much to be regretted;
it is not complimentary to Englishmen, who are
extending the dominions of the British crown in
every part of the globe, to hear that tho British
court takes more interest in the gossip and the squab-
bles of every petty German court, than in colonial pro-
pees and welfare. It is not calculated to stimulate and
keep alive colonial loyalty, to learn that the events
of a disastrous war are only generally communicated
to royalty. It is not encouraging to the army to
know that Earl GREY can readily dismiss a general
without taking the assent of the Cluxxx to the un-
gracious language in which he does it.
In disclosing to parliament the Queues minute of
August, 1850, Lord JoHN Russet', opened a sub-
ject for much discussion of a kind calculated to tell
rather against•he court, and to encourage the old
feeling that the reigning family should not
meddle too much in the foreign policy of the
government. Having, however, made that Minute
public, further disclosures, such as that sought for
by Mr. J. WILLIAMS, were unavoidable ; and they are
not calculated to increase public respect for the in-
ternal working of our executive system. It was not
wise or prudent to risk soca revelations, at a time
when the 't Grenville Papers" and Lord ALBEMARLE'S
work are producing impressions unfavourable to the
active interference of royalty in the public business
of the country. Lord Joun RUSSELL has excited •
suspicion that will long survive even his 'd-
onut' stream.

MILITIA AND

FRENCH AND