The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13.

Asa.'lit mail from South Africa. Another
month had t lapsed. and the state of affairs in British
Kalb-aria, and on the eastern frontier of the Cape
Colon remained unaltered. The Kaiffirs had nut
lost an inch of ground ; not one thief who had taken
part against us had proved unfaithful to his race ;
mutinous elcmonstrations continual among the !lot-
tcntalts, the extent and dangers of which the colo-
nists had pointed to themselves in exaggcmtexl co-
lours; and the Comwtxtarn-ix-entu still stood on
his defensive in King William's Town.
MI this tends to strengthen the opinion that Sir
Minn is not the man to put an stud to the
Kaffir war. Ile himself says nothing, but his
friend• and confidants are busily indcavouring to
!rate an impression that the war cannot be termi
natal hot be 1111.11 IN of great rt•infurccrncnts from
England. y are inertly saying what Sir ll►;'ur
11110 W% them, if not, indeed, what lw has incited them
to sas. Baffled by the rah• tactics of the Kuffirs,
unable to devise a plan for bringing them to subjec-
tion with the burgher levies and regular troops at
his disposal, he can imagine no other way to put
them down than to overwhelm them with a superior

tatce.
•• .11w game would not be worth the canclle."
The force he would require could, at the utmost', only
pat down for the present the hostile chiefs- a the
immediate theatre of war. iheir steejection by such
mean, WoUld :Ilford no guarantee for the continu-
ance of peals. :111er the extraordinary forte was re-
moved. It %outd afford no guarantee fur the con-
tinuance of irace throughout the immense region in
Boutlurn Africa over which the first straggling run-
ners of colonisation are, like MI manv strawlyrry
plants. striking rout. To send sucli an amount
of military form as is lavinning to be clamoured for
in South Africa to British Kafir-aria, would be to
place tirtat Britain in the ludierous and discredit-
able due aof putting forth, for the temporary
eduction of a few savages, military efforts great and
expensive enough to conquer a civilised kingdom.
Even thou 4h tranquillity and security could be
Ts:snarl' to the colonial frontier and to British
Kalfraria by such means, it is questionable whether
the present government would venture to employ
them. It is not that we believe they would hesitate
on the score of principle or national policy; it is
their fear of personal 11111%11111011:1214 that would di ter
them. They know that the expense would he ;mat,
and fear the discussion that might arise in parliament
when their bills were presented ; they know that
the whole of the friends of a pacific rificy —a touch
more numerous body than the avowed members of
the Peace Society—would be ready to assail them.
it tenure of office is not so secure, their popula-
rity not WI great, as to admit of their lightly pro-
voking new and increased hostility in so many
quarter,.
It is not likely that any great military fine will
be despatrhed to South Africa. Nor would a gnat
military forte in that quarter produce results ade-
quate to repay the expenditure of human life and
treason.. Still it is necessary that a termination
should be put, and that speedily, to the disturbances
on the eastern frontier of the Cape colony.
There are numerous elements of discord and con-

fn.i m in `ouch Africa. The .o-ealkal Kaffirs are but
the advanced g .;irol of a movement of warlike tribes
from South to No; th. 11-hen Europeans first visited
that region—and for long after—the llottentot tribes
extended as far ea-t ns Natal. They were gradually
driven leek lw the Kattirs as fur as to thewestuf

the (rat Fish River. The recent history of the in-
terior slims that this invasion was made (as has al-
ways littn the ease in great migrations of races).
sometimes by warlike tribes in search of better and
wider lands, sometimes by broken tribes flying from
a conqueror. The intruders upon the domains of the
old Itottentots wire pushed forward by an imna•nw
mass behind them moving in the same direction, and
the movement is still going on in the interior.
On the west side of the (:read Fish River the in-
truding Kaffir% were met by the equally intruding
hutch. The Eurtqsuns made no distinction among
the native trils": they regarded all of them as
inferior rums. tit onlv to he made slaves of, or driven
out and dispossessed The hutch and the Kahn
fought for the lands which both had wrested from
the Hottentot. The war wag of that desultory.
marauding eh-trader that scans interminable, and
often lasts for centuries. _ _

While it was in progress. the English came in.
The supercilious airs of the English officials. and the
stunly self-will of the Dutch settlers, soon led to a
formal quarrel. The interft mace of the missionaries
and the Anti-Slavery Society—most praiseworthy in
respect of its objet, must injudicious m the manner
in which it was set about—increased the animosity,
and compile-anal the disputes. The cause of the na-
tive races was urged in a partisan. unrettecting
spirit ; all their vices and weaknesses were extenu-
ated or elmetuled ; all the virtues of the dutch
were deniel The emancipation of the slaves, and
the impediments thrown in the way of the colonists
self-tlefc nee against marauding native tribes, lest it
should degenenite into nets of aggression, raised a
storm, of discontent, and led ultimately to the emi-
gration of the lwers. 'rho places left vacant by them
were tilled up by English emigrants. The Pnglish
goy, nonent pursued them to Natal, to the north of
the Orange river; and as they retreated further into
the interior to escape it. other European settlers
were allowed to Ilettlpy their Oases.
The state of affairs that has resulted from these
moiements may lie briefly di:scribed. From the
great lake. lately discovers:lL to the sea the ground-
work of the population consists of native, black
tribes. frequently at war among themselves and with
Europeans, among whom have arisen a succession
of ruthless conqueror chiefs. Scattered among
them in settlements of the emigrant inters, of mis-
sionaries, and of colonists retaining their allegiance
to the British ('roan. The limits of the Cape colony
me strictly defined, and society within them is com-
Nletely organised. 'I he limits of British ('atfraria,
atal: and the Orange River sovereignty are more
vaguely defined. and society is in them less com-
pletely organised. The land occupied by the Kaffir*
between British Kaffraria and Natal is exclusively
possessed by independent natives. The emigrant
Ivens have no newnisedlimits. and these settlers
are a law to themselves. Strong party spirit per-
vades all these classes; and in the rude imperfect
state of the laws and institutions force and violence
OW continually resorted to.
The gnat task to be accomplished in South Africa
is to reduce this social chaos to such a state of com-
parative order and regularity as pervades the terri-
tories belonging to the North American republic.
This can only be effected by the same means that
have been adopted in North America. There one
central government is reeognised ; that government
steadily perseveres in extinguishing the native title
and acquiring a proprietary right in all waste lands ;
these are disposed of to intending settlers by
salt : with the beginning of settlement in any
district begins the introduct ton of regular government ;
the rights of the local residents, and of the general
government being both sharply defined ; as settlement
t xtends. new provinces and states are called into
—sere can be no peace for South Africa
ugous system, adapted to the forms of
constitution, is introduced. Till then
,irbances, like that called the Kaffir
iv succeed each other in some part
Africa. Sir HENRY SNIRICS
in-
his inability to discern this
a man for the occasion, and
teared, may be said of those

the city

British empire which it, ex Necessitate, offered to
Paris. All three, no doubt, disagreeable and un-
pleasant incidents in the contemporaneous history
d London, but not, when made the most of, con-
elusive reasons in themselves fur the destruction of a
municipality which in its day has done liberty great
services. Better cause than this Mast be shown.
The Corporation of London has, however, fallen
from its high estate; it no longer contains, or truly
represents, the great interests .ofthe-eity • its Alder-
men are no inure the aristocracy of our trade ;
its Common Councillors have ceased to belong to
the grand commerce of the Thames, and are taken
front the shopkeepers of our streets and lawyers
who traffic in shrievalties ; and the delibe-
rations and acts of its courts are concerns
in which not a tenth of the city takes the smallest
interest. Bat these glaring defects of the Corpora-
tion it is powerless to correct; they are the growth
of time, the results of great changes in our social
habits, rather than instances of any perverted inten-
tions, bad faith, or malice prepense, on the part of
the municipality.
It nos formerly an object of ambition in a great
City house to have its head an alderman. But then
City men lived in great City mansions; thought and
talked, and were wrapped all in City politics; loved
its narrow, dirty, confined streets, and lanes
and courts, and were happy only eastward of
Temple Bar. All this is changed. The
number of great merchants is now small
in proportion to the growing wealth and trade of
London ; brokers, shipowners, and such other inter-
mediate division of labour in commerce have token
their places; banking-house after banking-house
has disappeared from Lombard-street, displaced by-
the greater facilities given by joint stock associations
and by sharp active money dealers. The few great •1
merchants anal bankers that are left take their places
amongst the aristocracy and the fashion of the west
end, or the piety of Clapham and Ilomerton. It is
there they are at home. And the flocks of busy
brokers, they follow the example of their superiors,
they seek health, pleasure, enjoyment, and amuse-
ment in the suburbs, in the minor streets of Bel-
cia, or the pretentious squares of Tyburnia ; at
M Mon or in Bloomsbury.
tor these classes there is City trade, City business,
City profits; but, in the old sense, City life there is
none. The City has become a place to make money,
to spend your businessmornings in, and to rush away
from at five o'clock—to forget by six. But these
classes, the mainstay of the City, its real worth and
wealth, in quitting their counting-houses, leave the
shops full behind them; and, in shaking the city
dust off their feet as they cuter their own distant
houses, they resign the conduct of its corporate
affairs to the care of those whom they deem beneath
them ; and it is by the shopkeepers of London, by
its respectable tradesmen, that these affairs are now

mana;ietl.
And they are, of course, managed in a retail
spirit. But, when the Corporation is condemned be-
cause of the hands into which it has fallen, and the
men who in their spheres act according to the best
of their judgment arc censured and abused as if they
were interlopers and intruders, the obvious facts of
the case are wilfully overlooked, and no little injus-
tice is inconsiderately inflicted. The necessity for
alteration and improvement in the Corporation may
arise out of these consequences of the changes in the
social state of the City; that is very passible; but to
stigmatize and proscribe the class into whose hands
municipal power has thus descended, instead of con-
ciliating and trying to carry it with us in the at-
tempt to provide the whole metropolis with the orga-
nisation of local government, augurs far more zeal
than discretion in the cause of corporation reform.
It may, moreover, be doubted whether that reform
which aims chiefly at re-catching the higher com-
mercial classes for municipal offices mid administra-
tion, is of a very sound or practical character. A
due and moderate sprinkling of such people in
the high places of our municipalities is no
doubt desirable—principally, however, by way
of blending all classes in one homogeneous
whole ; but we must claim for the middle
classes, for our tradesmen, shopkeepers, and smaller
commerce, a predominance in such institutions; if
only on the grounds of their numerical importance,
the greater advantages of providing them with the
means of taking part in public affairs, and for the
purpose of improving, what is their greatest defect,
thew tastes. The misfortune of the present composi,
tion of the Corporation of London is that there is a
monotony of position, an identity of feeling, and a
uniformity of level amongst its members. There is
every thing to depress, and nothing to elevate their
thoughts, notions, and objects.
And how, in the revolution of commercial life, can

it be otherwise' There is no large and varied field
of choice; and, if there were, there is no proper and
there can be formed no adequate constituency in the
City. Take the case of the present Mitt) Slevon ;
he Is a very respectable tradesman ; a successful auc-
tioneer; and by no means an unintelligent person.
But he is not, it must be confessed, exactly the gentle-
man that would have been seketed to represent Lon-
don before critical and sensitive Paris, had London had
any real choice in the matter. He was, by his very
j ignorance of the French language, well fitted to
confirm the Parisians in all their prejudices as to
English gentlemen ; but it would he difficult to say
I how he could convey any notion of the recent
im-
provements in the national character, on those very
points on which Paris is most misinformed. And
so, also, in the instances of the two last elected
! aldermen. Sir Ronritr C%tinss is a smartish
j stockbroker, up to all the dodges of his line
'of life, and Mr. C %nun is a sedate ambi-
tious ship-broker ; but neither is at all cal-
culated to illustrate the advantages of local govern-
ment. A real constituency would not, we know,
elect such men. But the constituency of the cor-
poration of London is a sham and a delusion; it is
made up of some few thousand names on paper, at
the disposal of some ward lawyer or deputy. We do
not blume aldermen, deputies, common councillors,
or electors, for this state of things; very probably
they make the best; at all events, they make the
most of it. But such is the plight of London. And
that it is which must be reformed.
Not, however, reformed to suit the Cif", for it is
only one-fifteenth of London. That won `t do. We
must in nny reform obliterate the City ; absorb and
engulf it in the metropolis ; take it up and use it for
higher and better purposes than those it is now de-
voted to. London requires some great and compre-
hensive scheme of municipality, or perhaps of muni-
cipalities, and, in prepariag such a scheme, Guild-
hall must nut be allowed to impede our progress.
This is, however, a great subject. requiring deep
thought. and, as yet, we are only beginning its
discussion.

TILE TOUTERS OF DOCTORS' COMMONS.

1 r --
----f
Southti
existence. There can be no peace or. rico
till some analogous system, adapted to the forms of
the British constitution, is introduced. Till then
• feuds and disturbances' like that called the Kaffir
war. will incessantly succeed each other in some part
I or other of South Africa. Sir HENRY SMITHS in-
competency arises from his inability to discern this
1 i truth. lie is too small a man for the occasion. and
the same, it is to be feared, may be said of those
f who employ him.
TUE Corporation of the city of London is in great
disfavour just now with an influential contemporary.
Its recent offences arc, the opposition it offered to the
removal of Smithfield Market ; the narrow and eon-
,
tractetl spirit in which it issued invitations for, and
1 ' the disorderly manner in which it conducted the
s royal festival at Guildhall; and the imperfect and
inadequate representation of do metropolis of the
1
1.