The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-07 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
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art bo at He Wilk IQ. Boavorkbaticsk by Two o'clock 0$ tko
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LONDON, FRIDAY, MARC!! 7.

TILE unexpected intelligence received yesterday
from the Cape of Good Hope, will, we fear, exercise
no very agreeable influence over the financial medi-
tations of the Prime Minister. Already in the hot
breath of sudden and sanguinary insurrection the
glittering surplus of revenue seems to melt away.
Men read the sad details of unavailing bravery and
innocent suffering—of treacherous cruelty and deso-
' toting invasion, with mingled sentiments of selfish
vexation and generous resentment. The latter
prompts the thought of retribution ; the former asks
gloomily what is it likely to cost? The last affair
of arms in Calfraria cost us not much less than
2,000,000!. The accounts of the present outbreak,
so far as they have reached us, may be exaggerated
in some respects, and we are bound to hope the best ;
but already instructions have been given to send out
reinforcements from this country; and who will un-
dertake to say what amount of unlooked for expense
a six weeks campaign in such a country may
entail ?
We gave yesterday the circumstantial particulars
of the first few days struggle. The main features
are easily apprehended and appreciated. Two chief-
tains of the Gaika tribe having for several months
evinced feelings and designs hostile to the British
power in the colony had been summoned to meet
the governor, along with their equals and kinsmen,
on a given day, and at a place named of easy and
general access. All the Kaffir chiefs excepting ABTA
and SANDII.LI CAM; but they affecting to distrust
the intentions of Sir HARRY SMITII remained ab-
sent. Upon this they were deposed ; and an English
officer placed as political superintendent over the
native authorities appointed to exercise local jurisdic-
tion in their room. In this act all the rest appeared to
acquiesce; whereupon the governor seems to have
taken the resolution of attempting to arrest the de-
posed and still recusant chiefs. In order to effect
this purpose, a force of 600 men, commanded by
Colonel MACKINNON, was ordered to proceed in search
of SANDILLI ; and on the 24th of Direember, while
ascending the course of a mountain gorge, this de-
tachment was suddenly attacked by the enemy from
both sides of the ravine. With the loss of thirty-
eight men of all ranks, killed or wounded, the supe-
rior position of the assailants was forced; and Colo-
nel MACKINNON halted for the night at a missionary
station in the vicinity. But on the following day he
thought it prudent to abandon the object of his
march, and to make the best of his way back to Fort
Cox, where he had left the governor with a force
siaalkr than his own.
Meanwhile, along the frontier scenes still more
lamentable were enacted. While the unsuspecting
dwellers in the European settlements of Auckland,
Johannisberg, and Wuhan., were keeping the
Christmas festival, their homes were surrounded by
the invaders, and the inmates indiscriminately put
to the sword. A similar fate appears to have befallen
a small party which had been despatched on some
special service by the commandant of one of the
armed forts which constitute the chief defence of the
colony against the influx of the marauders. Finally,
an attempt made by Colonel SOMERSET, who was in
command at Fort blare, to open communications
with Sir IIARRY SMITH at Fort Cox. after some hours'
desultory fighting, was battled by the overwhelming
numbers of the insurgents.
Five days later the governor, finding himself sur-
rounded by large masses of the enemy, determined
to force a passage through their irregular host, and,
at whatever risk, to return to King Williams Town.
Escorted by 250 men he succeeded in doing so, appa-
rently without loss. and forthwith issued a procla-
mation declaring several districts to be subjected to
martial law. A letter from Cape Town, given else-
where, describes the sense entertained there of the
gravity of the occasion and the active measures that
had been adopted to reinforce the beleagured gar-
risons of the frontier forts. No cause for appre-
hension as to the safety of any of these outposts
was felt; but the prolongation of a wasting and
predatory warfare in a widely extended territory,
could not be looked upon with other feelings than
those of humiliation and sorrow; while it would
seem to be admitted that if the contagion of dis-
affection should extend to the Kaffir tribes hitherto
supposed to be faithful to the government, it was im-
possible to foresee by what means this state of things
could be put an end to, until the arrival of troops
from the 'Mauritius or from England.
From the observations which fell last night from
Earl GREY in the House of Lords, we gather that
the public are fully informed of the worst that
is to be known; and that already orders have
been issued for the purpose of hastening the
departure of additional troops for the Cape. Of
the policy or necessity of the steps about to be taken
it were premature to speak. We are willing to be-
lieve that the alarm and loss is chiefly attributable
to the suddenness of the irruption; and that its re-
volting enormities will be confined to the unfortunate
localities whose names we have noted. But even
thus we own we are tilled with misgivings as to the
it effect on our financial prospects for the year.

WE shall not be sorry to find to-night that minis-
toe are taking time to remodel their budget. The
success of this first of cabinet measures depends as
much on expectations excited, perhaps, as on the I
intrinsic merits of the scheme. And the longer the ,
delay at present, the more will public expectation be I
excited and aroused. We cannot but also conceive
hopes that the taxes on knowledge will have re-
passed under the consideration of the CHANCELLOR,
and that he will have been more disposncgdait:ry at-
tention to those commercial interests e in the
circulation of intelligence, which, above al others, a
government should respect.
There is no truth, no principle more irrefragable,
than that the people have a right to as cheap a press
as competition and ingenuity. can procure for them.
The essence of a newspaper is that it is a record of
daily events, of laws made, altered, or applied. It is,
in fact, the only instrument by which laws are pro-
mulgated, and the people informed about them. Mo-
rally, socially, commercially, politically, the newe-
-1 paper is an indispensable instrument to the formation
of public opinion. Newspaper and oral communica-
tion farms the very atmosphere of every day
knowledge with us. And as the English are neither
a carefully educated, nor a communicative people,
the newspaper has perhaps more influence than
in any other country. Undoubtedly, there-
fore, the press, like the postage. is one of those
things that a legislature should exert itself to
cheapen and render attainable, in order to remove
that inequality between rich and poor which operates
r so much to tho disadvantage and ignorance of the
I latter.

e therefore say, as strenuously as any, away
with the taxes on knowledge. Bat at the same
time we do not know that we either expect
or desire all thow results from such a merourc which

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were contemplated by the cookers on Wednesday In
the mecing of Long-acre. What we should desire
would be to see the first-rate records of events, now
enjsyed by the middle and upper classes—to see them
ren&red accessible to the leered class of readers.
But what some of the speakers in Long-acre desired
was, that the people and the lowest of the mid-
dle classes should have their own papers ; that is,
papers written in their interests and views, and that
' like some American journals, they should cost a
penny, nay, a halfpenny.