The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-08 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
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IVOR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
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Ta esamoir —Venom. Ili. 9.2. .Atterasea.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8.

THERE i, no portion of the public policy, no de-
psalm nt of state, that is not deeply affected by this
terrible Kaffrarian war. Whether it be considered
as a purely military question, affecting the security-
and honour of the empire, or a colonial question,
mixed up as it is with the prevalent die...vattd
and emmtitutional demands of the colonists, or
whether it be regarded as a mere financial
question, sums equal to the amount of
money of our most onerous taxes going
in the larger expenditure of hush fighting and wild
commissariat—it is the great question of the mo-
ment. More important than these, the management
of Cape affairs in general, and of the war in
.particu-
lar, may prove a stumbling-block to the whig admi-
nistration, and universally condemned as the Cape
policy of the government is likely to be by so many
parties in the House of Commons, it is to be feared
that what Ceylon nearly did, Katfraria will do com-
pletely.
There is. however, a higher consideration for the
British public than even all these; and that is, how
the war is to be terminated without deplorable weak-
nem or indelible disgruce. We cannot send 1(1,000
men and five millions a year to South Africa as the
French have ileac in North Africa. We believe it
was Bun Eater who said that no amount of
soldiers would entrilue tribes without towns, and
imbued with hereditary enmity and fanatic hate.
The only mode et conquering was to destroy the
means of subsistence of the fee ; and this pan alone
he effected by mitzias in harvest time. When the
Arab, found that they cannot reap and store because of
a French urine Bleu they would submit ; and they
have submit lid.
The Kathie do not sow and do not reap. Their
cattle are their provend. It is only by depriving them
of their cattle that they can be reduced.
And there is no use depriving them of their cattle,
when they can steal the same or as many. from the
settlers. It is a cruel thing to say, but it is only by
the destructien of their cattle that the Kaffire can lie
subdued, and by the colonists themselves—all who
are expneed to inroad—depending upon corn, and
nut herds, for sustenance. As to hoping that two
pastoral nations ran 'main at peace in juxtaposition,
the one retreating, the other advancing, is as utter
rm impossibility as could he imagined.
The war having been provoked, and been com-
menced, Sir Ilettite Salient was right certainly in
him attack on the Aniatolas, and the capture of his
enemies' heals. The fault lay in allowing the de-
feated Kaffir, to levy from the colonists the same
amount of cattle that-the troops had captured from
them. Since then the war has not advanced a step.
The Kaffir* bring their cattle to feed almost under
the noses of the British, and the either§ of the latter
make attempts to capture them, which give a pour
idea of their ,trategy and their talents.
Hear Colonel NIACIiINNON'S story:
On the nth I moved to Foonah's Kkinf. During the
march I saw, at • short distance to the left of the road, the
Kaffir. drive some cattle into a deep valley which leads
down to, the t ish river, and I made arrangements for at-
tempting their capture nevi moraine. tin the 9th I de-
tached Lieut. Colonel Mitchell with the nth Regiment,
Catty'. riflemen, Armstrong's horse, nail fifly of the levy,
to the right of the valley whirr I had seen the cattle, and
procreili‘l myself with two companies of the Queen'., the
oletarlimenta of the Vinl regionrot and Cape Corps, to the
tell of this valley. I detached Commandant hawks with the
hity of the levy and guides, supported by two hundred of the
guts n's under Cap! sin Oldham, to enter the valley and
follow the tree.. at the cattle. I watched their progress (or
WM' time, and saw them burn some huts at the upper
end nt the oath -y. Some hiring took place, but it ceased,
and the detachment a ntered the valley on the traces of the
rattle. I then pd.. II villa, hilt of the valley, intending to
gain a r t tt it grounol about two miles distant, front allich
point I evuld observe their progress..
_ .

So far, nothing could he better; Colonel Mae-
uast IN had ISO diVitletl lsis forces that both heights of
the %alley were severed, and u detachment was sent
ado it, to scour it throughout, width in case of
being attacked could either full back upon him or be
supported. lint although for years the Katfirs have
been, by a series of well-arranged stratagems, con-
stantly taking the British troops by surprise, Cap-
uto Ottotau s party was 'epoxied to be as it were
strolling through the valley for its amusement, and
Colonel M WAINNON, having caught sight of another
body of the enemy. forgets all about his intended
cattle expedition, ur the danger which the party in
quest of them would be subject to. and moves oft to
soother game. I, however. Noun
and
a large
body th of Kars at some distance, and moved to attack
them. . . . 1 then proceeded to the rising
ground. hut did not reach it till ten o'clock, when,
seeing nothing of the detachment, and hearing no
tiring, I rwaeht,hil thry hml scoured Me nifty, (awl
pined :%Icreitzt.t.." Truly it had
joined kleretirtt, or rather Itztailitt. had joined it,
at a most critical moment, it having lust two officers
and twenty-one men killed, one officer and twenty-
tour men wounded, or one-filth of the detachment.
It would have Ise,, thought that when Colonel
MAI'AINNIiN hail first heard the tiring in the valley,
lie would have us -11 his best endeavours to reach the
detachment, and see with whom such a handful of
men were engaged; but, attracted by what ap-
peared to him the larger bode, he marches off in
another direction, and wonders, on regaining his
former intended position, that no more tiring was
beard, as if it were so unlikely a thing that a detach-
ment should not have been hemmed in by hundred.
of grim savages concealed behind every bush.
As we have said before, the natives almost wor-
ship cattle; they are not only food to them, but
wealth and honours, and Colonel 31ACIi1NNON ought,
therefore, to have known that where the cattle was,
there would be found the main body of the enemy.
Any man who has read of war, much more so one
who has seen it, would be cautious of directing his
throe against an enemy on a point which could have
no interest for him. A feint is a common move in
chess; and if a child can learn that by attracting
the notice of his adversary to one corner of
the chess-board he can checkmate him unperceived,
is it improbable that the Kaffirs should attempt to
attract the attention of the British from their cattle,
by a body of men showing themselves in one direc-
tion and engaging him, whilst their much-loved
spoil is being quietly driven off in another? We
very much suspect that instead of Colonel Macetx-
mos having congratulated himself on the very clever
way in which he had attracted the Kaffirs out of the
Kloof, he ought to have expressed his very great re-
gret at having been so easily duped.
As it appears by this mail that the war is only
going to begin on the arrival of fresh reinforcements,
the last twelve months having merely been a little
series of skirmishes fur the amusement of both par-
ties, we trust that some more sensible heads will be
sent to superintend it, for instance, seine of those
young and clever men who are to be promoted next
brevet, and that we shall have no more occasion for
those little epigrams which Sir lIARItT Slirril found
it necessary to perpetrate on the return of this fa-
mous expedition to Fort Wiltshire. And might we
ask what has become of the Artillery. and where
were the howitzers which should have shelled these
savages out of their recesses and bush?

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. Hosrrr.u.—The Court of
Assistants of the Grocers' Comp Any, on the Ith inst.,
voted the sum of fifty pounds M aid of the foods of this
charity.

TILE POET MONTGOMEItY.—On Tuesday the ve-
nerable and much-esteemed poet, Jame Montgomery,
Esq., completed his SOth year. In celebration of the event
an oak tree was planted on the lawn in front of the Sheffield
Infirmary by. the venerable poet, whose name has been lett-
matcly associated with the annals of the institution since ft
was projected in 1792. The ladies of ShetSeld also pre-
sented Mr. Montgomery on his birthday with a " friendship
offering," consisting of a handsome easy chair, beautiful)
in y
carved walnut wood, with laurel leaves, and covered with
Utrecht velvet; a reading stand, with ulrrit for the book-
:ow, the rose, thistle, and shamrock entwmaug the pedestal,
with stir rest footstool ; together with a to be
=, his honoured and highly valued nano, to the
Wan i/Wdmray Society. A similar contribution was
awarded to the tild School or Dings foe sat annul
prim medal, to be designated " the Mestgowary Modal,"
end for fun pupils in Se sans inititsUon.

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