The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-31 00:00:00

The Canadian Volunteers.

The bravery of the Canadian volunteers has been
now exemplified on two occasions, and their great
willingness to go to the front whenever their country
is threatened, cannot for a moment be questioned.
The courageous spirit with which - one hundred
men repulsed three times their number of the
would-be invaders a few days since, was before
instanced in 1866, when Major-General Napier was
concentrating the volunteers for the defence of Fort
Erie. On that occasion a company of the Queen's
Own Rifles, entirely composed of boy students from
the University of Toronto, came forward and re-
quested to be allowed to leave Port Colborne
with the service force. Seeing that the
lads were most of them under fourteen years of
age, the major-general in command felt constrained
to order them to fall out of the ranks. The young
fellows, it is said, became quite disheartened, and
even sullen, and the dismay depicted on their faces
was such as Major - General Napier says
he shall never forget. The zeal and
anxiety of the Canadians to act honourably
and with valour in the Fort Erie affair, was perhaps
more fully instanced by the fact that 6,000 of them,
armed and equipped, were waiting at Toronto for the
order to march, just fourteen hours after the
authorities had been informed that the Fenians had
crossed the frontier from Buffalo.
The Gambia Settlements.

- The River Gambia settlement, which has been a
colony of the English Crown for upwards of half a
century, is about to be transferred to the French,
in return for their possessions at Melicourie,
Forreecariah, and Scarcies, unless a peti-
tion, which is being prepared for transmis-
sion to Earl Granville, should be influential in
altering the order already issued on the subject.
An English colonist bitterly complains in the Times
of the summary and inconsiderate manner in which
the Home Government have slighted the feelings of
the colony, and allowed a French gunboat with tho
Minister of the Interior of Senegal on board to
formally claim Bathurst as the capital of the
new French colony, without the will of the residents
ever being thought of or asked for. The writer says
that on the arrival of Sir Arthur Kennedy, the Eng-
lish Governor-in-Chief, an explanation was demanded
by the English merchants and a large number of
loyal natives, when he made light of their indigna-
tion, and informed them that their " sentiment "
could not be taken into account fOr a moment. He
admitted, however, that if the colonists could
clearly show that the entire feeling of the place was
against the transfer, and that the people would con-
sent to maintain at their own cost a largely-increased
police-force, they might, perhaps, be left to them-
selves ; the English Government, at the same time,
entirely repudiating any responsibility on their
account. The " English Colonist "adds that the feeling
against a French Government is so strong that the
residents would submit to almost any taxation in
order to remain under . the British flag,
but he contends that in common fairness,
they ought to have a voice in the disposal of
this revenue. That reform is needed in the way the
money of the territory is distributed, is clearly shewn,
he points out, by the circumstance that out of a
revenue of about £15,000 nearly £ll,OOO is required
to pay the Executive.