The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-12 00:00:00

for so many years induced me to persevere in the pre- '
paratory steps I had taken for the expulsion, r
, from
certain strongholds within the colony, of the
Gaikas and Hottentots under the wily Chief MA•
COMO, a renegade from the authority of his para-
mount Chief SANDILLI." Such are the magnani-
mous acts and the no less magnanimous expressions
by which his Excellency Sir HARRY
sknowledged one of the most harsh and
mcirTunelhadocu-
ments ever directed officially to a brave old
officer, to one who had done good service in
his country's cause upon the foughten field, to one
who had again and again revealed his prowess on the
European, on the Asiatic, and on the African con-
tinents, who bad extorted the admiration of his co-
patriots by his brilliant charge at Aliwal, and who, in
addition to all this, in the very course condemned by
a civilian like Earl GREY, had elicited the approbation
of a military authority no less competent than Field-
Marshal his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON !
Aware of the intrinsic strength of his own
position in the judgment of his fellow-coun-
trymen—aware that ultimately a decision must
be pronounced in his favour, not merely by posterity
but by his very contemporaries—not merely by the
future annalist, but by those historians of the hour,
the public journalists—Sir HARRY SMITR could
well afford to pass by without further
comment than that comprised within this
very significant allusion, the petulant disapproval
of a policy previously applauded by the very states-
man giving utterance to its condemnation. Besides
informing her Maeeszv's Government of his deter-
mination, in spite of everything, to persist in his en-
deavours to expel the rebel Gaikas and Hottentots,
under Macomo, from certain strongholds in the co-
lony, his Excellency:adds that his purpose was, more-
over, to drive the Gaika tribes over the great Kei, and
thereby to rid of their presence the whole
of British Kafraria. With this resolve in
view, Sir HARRY thereupon informs Earl GREY that
he =lied several detachments to concentrate at his
head-quarters, the general rendezvous at Fort Beau-
fort. Subsequently he recounts how on the 4th of
March Major-General SOMERSET had a smart affair
with the enemy in the Water Kloof, where a hundred
head of cattle and forty horses were captured.
Afterwards, in pursuance of his original design, the
head quarters were removed from Fort Beaufort to
Blinkwater. Thence an advance movement was
made against the strong positions held by the rebels.
Upon this occasion, the 10th of last March, the
troops appear to have behaved gallantly through-
out, the officers in command displaying admirable
skill and courage in their operations. Lieutenant-
Colonel EYRE being posted at a densely wooded part
of the range called Fuller's Hoek, where MAcoMo's
" Den," so termed, was " so strongly situated in a
deep kloof as to be regarded almost inaccessible,"
moved upon the savages at the right time, and with
so much determination on the part of the troops, as
to carry everything before him—Captain FADDY, of the
Royal Artillery, causing four guns to be served with
admirable effect from a height to which they had been
dragged " with incredible exertion up a precipitous
ascent," while Captain CAMPBELL, of the 73d Regi-
ment, with a company of his own corps and two come
panies of the 43d Light Infantry, gallantly carried
a well-known and most difficult pass which had been
stoutly held by the enemy. Sir_Hanav's despatch
of the 17th of March then goes on to relate how on
the following day, namely, the 11 th of that same
month, the "Den" was triumphantly carried—a matter
of great importance, seeing that it was the stronghold
of Macomo, " the destruction of which," says his
Excellency, " I regarded as a great step towards the
humbling of the rebels; for although SANDILLI and
the Gaikas affected humility and a desire for peace, I
well knew that all eyes were intent on the result of
these operations." The subsequent events of this
important fif teen months' campaign are related with
admirable perspicuity in the remaining portions of
Sir HARRY'S despatch of the 17th of March, a docu-
ment which, to his honour, while it disdains to vin-
dicate his own reputation—notwithstanding that his
feelings must have been painfully wounded by the
unjustifiable tone of Lord GREY'S despatch
of the 14th of January—consists; fur the
most part of generous tributes to the cou-
rage and intelligence of those under his com-
mand, both officers and privates. "I am fully aware,"
says Sir HARRY SMITH, " that I have been accused
during the progress of this campaign of using the
language of hyperbole in describing the numerous
rencontres which have occurred, and in giving praise
to the gallant officers and troops as well as burghers.
Possessing, however, some experience in war, I must
maintain that such is not the case. Troops acting
in the open field expect not the stimulus of praise ;
the soldier sees his foe, and his British courage
rises at each s ; but he who, after
perhaps a night march of great length, has
to ascend mountains or penetrate dense bush
and ravines, filled probably with a daring
and intrepid enemy, as resolute as athletic,
ready to murder any one who may fall into
his hands, and whose warfare is of the most stealthy
Rai enterprising kind, appreciates the praise of his
commander, because when his acts are conspicuously
daring he is conscious he deserves it. He does his
duty; but human nature renders even the soldier's
intrepid heart sensible of the approbation of
his superior, which he is proud to know
may reach the eye of his parents and friends."
Immediately before relinquishing his command,
therefore, his Excellency deems it but right
that he should still testify his sense of this duty by
not shrinking from its performance. And so with
this magnanimous tribute to his brave soldiers, ends
Sir HARRY SMITR'S temperate
reply of the 17th of
March to Earl GREY'S most intemperate despatch of
the 14th of January.

Once more the public tine© has been occupied, and
the public mind disturbed, by the introduction of a
polemical question, calculated to excite sectarian ani-
mosities among all classes of her MAJESTY'S subject?,
and more particularly to fling the firebrand of reli-
gious discord into poor unhappy Ireland. It is per-
fectly manifest that no fairly conducted and bona fide
inquiry into the system of education carried on at the
College of Maynooth could be brought to a termi-
nation during the present session. it is equally
clear that a dissolution of Parliament, and an
appeal to the country, must take place the moment the
indispensable business can be completed, and it is
more than probable that several Members of any
Committee that could be nominated may not have
seats in the new Parliament. What, therefore, could
be the object of the elaborate motion of the Hon.
Gentleman the Member for North Warwickshire in
asking for a Select Committee ? What, in fact, could
it be, save to excite feelings of bigotry and intoler-
ance, and to get up a "No-Popery" cry, to divert
week
ho-atminded electors from the consideration of more
important questions.
If it were indeed desirable to institute a strict and
g investigation, with a view, not of destroy-
ing the establishment, but of improving the system
of education, and rendering it more in accordance
after the inauguration
principlesiil.:ii on which the grant was originally
s
sanctioned, opportunityu f the
u e w
r.
arl wouldiam eaur
ti
.s e untilß a t
desired
It was not
the motion
the improvement
forward in no such spirit.
of the institution
so far at least as the
that was
Honourable
withdrawal
its total abolition,
accomplish that
of the Parliamentary
Gentlemanthat object. The whole
grant could
speech of the
question was brought forward by whom the
indicated that steady,
settled purpose. It was one that
in
applause bygone e that might have elicited
ages, on the introduction of
soma new penal law, when it
was supposed to be the
duty of the State to control the
religious opinions of
the people, and to allow no dissent of any de-
scription from the doctrines cf the majority,
and to fine, imprison, banish, aye, and put
to death, those who presumed to think
for
themselves, and to worship their CREATOR in the
manner which they deemed to be most
acceptable to
the DEITY. Those who supported the motion must,
under the exceedingly peculiar circumstances of the
case, be presumed to participate in the same com-
mon purpose. Many of those who expressed
their intention of dividing in favour of Mr.
Spoo:vEa's proposition did SO OR ver9 different
grounds from those put forward by the Honourable
Gentleman. They did so, in some instances, as
challenging investigation, courting publicity, and
desirous of showing not only that there was nothing