The Express.
London, England, 1848-12-02 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER it, 311!0.

004 • • -WV; owl
he the • • •
• •• P dltv=lir • -
soh upon
your own heads; and while my • ""rI exult
thin.
victory, I will weep, as you have seen` aux
b.
1"' ' 1;14::
fallen, the defeated, the deluded; your
wrested Irma you, your honesebia=ed, your herds
off, your own hearts by wicked in.
Bladtride, and your faithful, your purrs friend,
who has exerted himself for your exclusive benefit,
turned into the Avenger of Evil." In plain Eng-
lish, "if you won't accept, me for an angel. will
play the devil with you. ' And this English MA-
swum has been as good as his word.
Norther the Orange River Bir HENRY found an ex-
tensive district bounded by that stream, the Vaal
deer and the Brackenberg range. "Over the greater
I part of this tract of country," he says in a despatch to
Earl GREY, " oot a single native is to be seen, nor for
many years, if ever, has it been inhabited by one."
This district he found occupied, according to km most
recent estimate, by about 1,400 males bearing arms, say
a total population of 7,000. They possessed pretty
numerous herds but nothing else. He proclaimed the
country British territory. lie vested unlimited autbo-
:zr tl e inhabitants in a British resident and his
lie decreed that " every trader or other in-
dividual trafficking or engaged in commerce within
the territories aforesaid shall pay an annual license
of SO/." And by means of these licenses, of
gait rents, fines, &c., he calculated upon receiving
from 1,400 families an annual revenue of 5,0001. to
10,0001. Of this sum 4,5541. was to be spent upon the
officials he appointed, and the rest was to be appro-
priated " for the exclusive benefit of those who con-
tribute" indeed, but according to the judgment and
pleasure of the government. Was it to be expected
that men who had been living in tolerable comfort
and security under their own rude make-shift substi-
tute for a government, would bo pleased at being sub-
jected to such a costly and vexatious despotism ?
PIUKTOKIDO, am; some 800 of his rude despera-
does fromthe interior,having been induced by the dissa-
tisfaction of the settlers, to come am-ng them and tempt
some, and intimidate others, to renounce their
allegiance to the British governor, Sir HENRY, who is
as good a soldier as be is a bad politician,
pounced spen them at owe and crushed the
insurrection in the bud. After it was completely
subdued, when not au enemy remained in the field,
and all were hastening to make their submission, not
satisfied with the numbers who had fallen in battle, he
caused a farmer taken with arms in his hands to be shot
by order of a court-martial. And the Cape Town paper,
whic'i panegyriies all his actions, embraces the occa-
sion to declare that "a rebel has not even a right to a
court-inertial," that "he has not even a right to
quarter." Having done so, he erects a fortification
strong enough to stand a regular siege ; he leaves
there a strong detachment of cavalry and infantry,
with field-pieces; he proclaims, " I hereby prohibit all
public meetings, and I hold any one guilty of felony
who shall convene one;" and he loaves his secretary to
levy, by the aid of the soldiery, the exorbitant fees
for trading licenses and the quit rents he formerly
imposed, and to " sell confiscated property and levy
fines." All this he does while professing to believe
that the inhabitants of the district are loyally and
peaceably disposed, and that PitIETORIUS' band has
been finally broken up and dispersed.
Sir HENRY SMITH would seem to have studied
politics in those Orange lodges, where the
brethren are exhorted in the name of Christian
charity to " keep their powd. r dry." A go-
vernment of his fashion may snit Orientals who are
accustomed to confound religion and civil polity, and
see both promulgated by the sword. But among
people of European race this kind of rule can only
break their spirits altogether, or provoke rebellion
after rebellion; se has been lamentably: shown in the

history of Ireland.
Nor is the disaffection of the 1,400 families between
the Viai and Orange rivers to be lightly treated.
They are a sturdy race, and are related to the
Dutch families remaining within the original limits of
the colony. The settlers of Dutch race are considerably
more numerous than those of English race, and the
greater part of the land, and of the fixed and move-
able property on the land, is in their hands. Nor do
the English and Dutch races stand aloof from each
other ; they are connected by intermarriages and
community of industrial interests. The harsh treat-
ment of the emigrant Boers will excite the resentment
of all the European settlers in the colony. And a
simultaneous movement is at this moment in progress
throughout the colony, to obtain the substitution of
a constitutional representative government for the
present government by orders in council, and by a local
administration of crown nominees. This temper of
the public mind cannot but be dangerous, if it is met
by • determination on the part of the governor to
rule the whole colony, as he is attempting to rule the
recently-annexed territory, after the fashion of the
Caliphs.
To say nothing of the injustice, the experiment is
likely to prove a costly one to this country. For some
dozen years the home government has been trying to
rule the Cape by alternately coercing the Boers and
knocking the Kaffir. on the head. This system of po-
licy has—over and above an annual local expenditure
of 218,8161. (for a population of 158,000)—cost the
mother country upwards of two millions for military
operations in the emirs, of twelve years. This
outlay sill be increased rather than diminished
during the next twelve years if an attempt
is made to rule the colony on the principles which, to
judge by Sir HENRY 13111TR'E ravings and doings,
he deems the only basis of a wise and efficient
%liniment

Si? CULLING{ EARULEY, in hummus mood, con-
trasted himself and his competitor, quietly disputing
before the electors of Leeds, with the fierce spirit in
which General CAVAIONAC and Prince LOUIS BONA-
PARTE were disputing their claims to French sove-
reignty. The tory blood of Mr. DENIsoN was in-
stantly stirred by the comparison, and he declared
that " he was not like these publicans: he paid tithe
to Mother Church," andjeo on.
With all respect to Mr. llgrasores susceptibilities,
it is impossible to mark the two struggle., and the
candidatures in France and in England, recorded in
neighbouring columns of the same journals, without
instituting at least some slight comparison, and mark-
ing, though but for curiosity's sake, the coincidences
and the discrepancies.
There is one remarkable identit in the profession
of the French and English candidates for populas
choice in their respective countries, which is, that all
four are for peace and military retrenchment. We
beg Mr. DENISON'S pardon, be alone of the four is
not for military retrenchment. General CAVAIGNAC,
Louts NAPOLEON, and Sir Cut LIMO EARDLET all ad-
mit this great European necessity, but Mr. Demon
scouts it. He is more warlike more an army man,
than LOUIS NAPOLEON himself.
A of his candidature, General CAVAIGNAC
his war-budget to be brought forward on
Tuesday last. He admitted that this war-budget had
amounted to 17 millioas sterling for the army, artil-
lery, for, in fact, the land service, being one-half the
; expenditure of the country independent of the Tote-
- rest of the debt. This sum kept up an army of soo,ooo
men and 100,000 horses. General LAIMO,
7 alantz, as war minister, however, declared
that the military budget ought to be re-
-0
duced by six or seven millions sterling, and ought
It not to exceed between ten and eleven millions. This
8 force and this expense Gen.LAMORICIER6 thought stir-
. 3 ficient to render France strong enough to resist all the
powers and enmities of Europe, and of domestic
trouble. Now, this sum of between ten and eleven
millions, which will enable France to keep up 330,000
• • men, and which is considered by one of its ablest ge-
nerals sufficient to guarantee a country, which has
o some 600 leagues of open and land frontier, from in
vasion, is spent by the English government to keep
up an army of 100,000 men, whilst oar home and
g foreign territories are completely guarded, from even
the remote possibility of invasion, by the ocean and by
io our fleet, which are masters of it.
s We must admit therefore that Mr. DENISON is so
.2 far entitled to repudiate any resemblance between his
o rinciples and those of General CAVAIGNAC, or Louts
NAPOLEON. Both are pacific, economical, and anti-
milit ,ry politicians, compared with him, who will
not promise one iota of reduction, even in the face of
the immense diminution in their military force, stipu-
lated by the candidates for French sovereignty, to the
applause of the French press, public and electors.
What say the Frei ch candidates on the subject of
taxation? Three-fourths of the French revenue is
named, we know, by direct taxation, from those pos-
sessed of award property. It is in fact the land in