The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-14 00:00:00

eviTrMillft Cr
LONDON. SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 14, 1852.

Since our observations upon the very insulting
manner of Sir HARRY SMITH'S recal from the Cape
by her MAJESTY'S Colonial Secretary, we are gra-
tified to observe that the matter has been taken up in
a similar manner by the majority of our contempo-
raries. Reflection has served to convince others, be-
sides ourselves, that the proceeding in question. was
altogether, and in every way most unwarrantable—
unwarrantable in the fact and in the mode of its
announcement. Than the terms employed by Earl
GREY in that memorable dispatch, dated the
14th of last January, in which he informed
Sir HARRY of his abrupt and ignominious
degradation, none could by possibility have been
more intemperate or for that reason more removed
beyond the limits of justification. Forgetting, it
would seem, the dignity of his Ministerial position,
the Colonial Secretary appears, as far as we can
judge from this disgraceful document, to have exulted
in an opportunity of displaying his capacity as a
censorial rhetorician. Printed as that dispatch is
in extenso in the pages of the Parliamentary Blue
Book just published (pp. 253-256), it must for ever
remain against its author as a glaring witness of the
fallibility of his judgment and of the intemperance of
his language. What renders the matter in
question yet more serious cause for regret, is the
circumstance that in the very same Blue Book there
also appears (pp. 219, 220) a very remarkable com-
munication—a dispatch, dated the 18th of the pre-
ceding December, and addressed to Earl GREY by
his Excellency the Cape Governor—relating to
events which demonstrate beyond all contradiction
the cruel injustice of the censure pronounced within
four weeks afterwards (namely, before the receipt of
that important explanatory document) by the Noble
Earl the Chief Secretary of the Colonial Department.
If we had nothing else whereby to estimate the real
nature of the course pursued by Sir HARRY SMITH
in Kafirland, that dispatch alone would be sufficient
as a means of affording to his Excellency his full and
entire exoneration. Looking at this portion alone of
the correspondence referred to, we find therein ample
testimony that the eulogistic observations expressed
in regard to Sir HARRY by his Grace the COM-
MANDER IN-CHIEF were dictated, not by the parti-
ality inspired by his previous career on the field of
battle, but by a calm and unprejudiced inquiry into
his most recent proceedings. Speaking •in that very
sineular document, and one which appears to us to
have been hitherto very strangely overlooked, speak-
ing of the difficulties which bad to be encountered
by the notoriously inadequate forces at his disposal,
his Excellency remarked, that her MAJESTY'S troops
" had to carry on a desultory war over an extent
of country twice the size of Great Britain and Ire-
land, overrun by a moat enterprising horde of sa-
vages ; and they bad also to occupy twelve forts, the
maintenance of which was indispensable."
Having thus briefly but significantly alluded to the
obstacles in the way of a speedy subjugation
of the insurgents, Sir HARRY observes, " had one re-
trograde step been made, the whole population of
British Kafraria woald have. been in a blaze." He
was aware, therefore, from the first, of the fearful re-
sponsibilities devolving upon him as Governor. He
knew that the enormous extent of country already
specified must continue to be the seat of the war
which had broken out—a war, be it remembered,
which was wholly attributable to the policy of the
Colonial Secretary himself. Added to all which his
Excellency was perfectly well aware that one retreat-
ing movement alone on the part of our forces would be
the signal for a simultaneous rising of the entire po-
pulation. It was on account of his knowledge of all
that, that the Governor of the Cape still endeavoured
to maintain his position, although miserably crippled
by the want of additional troops, and although he
bad just been deprived of Hottentot levies to the
number of two thousand. The proceedings taken
by him under this emergency were inadequate and
blundering, according to the opinion of Earl GREY.
They were judicious and entitled to the very strongest
commendation, according to the opinion of the Duke
of 'WELLINGTON. Can there be a moment's question
as to which of the two judgments should be token as
the correct one—that of the Commander-in- Chief or
of the Colonial Secretary. The mere proposition is
in itself ridiculous. The opinion of Earl GREY even
when having reference to matters relating to the toils
of colonial government would be received, we
imagine, with no small degree of hesitation. Upon
military subjects we should feel disposed about as
readily to consult Mr. WIDDICOMB. Whereas an
encomium such as that pronounced the other
evening upon Sir HARRY SMITH in the House
of Lords by his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON
!nay be regarded as of itself a sufficient counterpoise
to a hundred dispatches such as the one written by
Earl GENF
on the 14th of January.
It Would be well, moreover, for all those interested
in the recent treatment of Sir HARRY by the mem-
bers of her MAJESTY'S Government to bear in recol-
lection that the mere circumstance of his recal from
the Cape is
no conclusiveas
evidence of any incapacity
OD his part either administrator or as commander.
Let it not be forgotten
how equally abrupt and
passion
a! first peremptory was the recal from of its
late Earl
o°rfe Et
OE:dB:1134)a i nit ° theseu g.
late Governor-General, the
conjectured. How
Prejudice and
much both bad to do with
. the removal of Sir HARRY
matters than may be
he Cape is shown clearly
Settili from t enough, we
conjecture, by
the insolent and overbearing dispatch
as first announced b
in which the fact w by Earl GREY
Painful, however, thto his ExcellencY• ough the
arrogant course of the Government must necessarily
of the Cape,
be to the late Governor the annoy.
ante occasioned to him by the conduct of Earl G REF,
must, we feel as.ured, be more than compensated by
the noble and timely panegyric pronounced upon
him as a military commander by his Grace the Duke
of WELLINGTON.

In another part of this (i;lT's
mpression will be
found the details of the New It eform Bill (! ! !), Co.
i
pi,:i f which
w're last night delivered to Members
r, ct e House of commons.
The prtion thereof
which WAS most anzioubi— Looked for was that cow.
tam rk tanning the names of the sixty-sev- boroughs to
J 1
which additions were to be made; but more
especially the nature and extent of these addi,
dons. It was shrewdly (impacted by those
who Whig pripensity for 1
wereincreasing
the
ewarre
Parliamentary
he
lizif
intentary
influence of the
peg, how profaning Whig PrillciPles that 4 were