The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-21 00:00:00

was shot through the palm of his left hand,
after which, it is said, he killed three of the
enemy, and whilst he was getting upon his horse
he was shot through the back ; his brother Her-
maims declared he would not stir from the side of his
brother, they having promised each other, he said, to
die together, and he would not leave him—force, it is
said, was attempted, but of no avail, he remained behind ;
J. S. Basson was shot through the back of the neck as
he was getting on his horse, and Haushamer's horse was
shot under him. He unfortunately concealed himself in
a bush, which was the last time he was observed by the
party. Many daring deeds are reported to have been
done by this brava little band of burghers, and we have
heard Mr. Bredenkamp, the adjutant, spoken of, amongst
others, as having shown great determination and pre-
sence of mind. He saw two Kafirs mounted on the
horses of the Messrs. Villiers, and watching his oppor-
tunity, he fired when they were abreast of each other,
and dropped them both ; it is also said that whilst he
was loading his gun, after having shot a Kafir, he heard
a rustling below him, and on looking down perceived a
Kafir on the low ground a few feet under him, in the act
of firing ; Bredenkamp immediately reversed his gun,
which nearly touched the Kafir's head, and blew out
his brains. Another man named Reid, late a private
in the 27th Regiment, who is trumpeter to this force,
was close to a Kafir, he snapped his gun at him,
which missed fire, and he instantly closed with the
Kafir, striking him with the butt. end of his
gun, which broke the stock ; Lieutenant Briers at the
same instant shot the Kafir with " loopers" in the
head. Many Kafirs must have been killed. The fol-
lowing persons had narrow escapes—Messrs. H. L. Bos-
man and A. P. Cilliers had balls through their hats, just
grazing their heads. The remaining ten men eventually
got out of the bush, literally fighting their way through
the Kafirs, leaving their dead behind. They went to the
camp for a reinforcement, and soon returned with 65
burghers and 27 Fingoes, with whom they proceeded to
the spot of the former conflict, where they found the
Kafirs still strongly posted, but the bodies of their com-
rades were removed. A fierce conflict again ensued, in
which many Kafirs were shot; 10, it is said, were seen
lying dead in one place, and 69 head of cattle and 10
horses re-captured. Amongst these cattle were 10 head
belonging to Messrs. Fichat and Lowen, which must have
been taken the previous evening by the very Kafirs from
whom the waggons belonging to those gentlemen were
re-captured by Messrs. Meurant and Roux. The same
evening Captain Neethling returned from the Zuurberg,
and instantly sent off an express to Commandant Onk-
ruydt, who had that morning just returned to Riebeek.
The gallant and worthy commandant, immediately upon
receipt of this dispatch (one o'clock Monday morning),
got his men saddled up, and proceeded to Niemand's
krall, where he arrived at daylight. A large
party went into the bush, but only saw five Kafirs,
upon whom they fired. They, however, suc-
ceeded in finding all the bodies of the unfortunate men
who had fallen. Haushamer appears to have been taken
alive, and had 22 assegaais stabs in his back ; Her-
manus Villiers' leg was broken, and he had received
several assegaai wounds ; the bodies were undressed,
and one man had a finger cut off, apparently to get a
ring ; another man, we think Piet Villiers, had his
sight arm dreadfully burnt, a fire having evidently been
made under his arm.
Informed that on Sunday evening, just before
sunset, a waggon belonging to Mr. Richard Simpson, on
its way from Fish River (Abraham Espag's) to town,
with furniture, which had been hid away before that
lager was burnt, was attacked by Kafirs about three-
quarters of a mile on this side De Bruin's poort. It is
most likely these were the Kafirs who had just been
driven out of Hell Poort, and were on their way through
De Bruin's at the time. The driver was knocked
down at the first volley, and Mr. R. Simpson and
another person escaped into the bush, seeing the
driver, as they imagined, killed. The leader had
his arm shattered by a ball just above the elbow joint,
and was seized by the Kafir who had shot him,
when the driver, recovering himself, ran to his assist-
ance and felled the Kafir with the butt end of his mus-
ket. One of the party then seized the leader and dragged
him away into the bush. These three were closely fol-
lowed by Kafirs, but managed to secrete themselves in
the bush, where they remained all night, being obliged
to cut the throat of their dog to prevent his barking, as
they could hear the Kafirs all round them during the
greater part of the night. Just before dawn they crept
along towards Niemand's Kraal, and on emerging from
the bush into the waggon road, they saw the Kafirs on
the ridge on the look-out for them. On reaching Onk-
ruidt's camp they were joined by Mr. Richard Simpson,
and his companion, who had also been all night con-
cealed in the bush. The Kafirs were seen to drive off
the waggon, which they had turned round, back again
towards De Brain's. The wounded man arrived in town
last night in the same waggon with the bodies of the
Stellenhosch Burghers. Mr. Simpson was also wounded
in the hand and leg with buck-shot. The party attacked
consisted only of four Europeans, Richard Simpson,
John Kemp, Lewis Boshof, and Benjamin King, and two
Hottentots. Four Kafirs were seen to drop.
TUESDAY.—Received information from Fort Beaufort,
that 1,400 sheep, belonging to Mr. B. Trollop, were taken
by Kafirs from Fort Beaufort, also thirty or forty cattle,
the property of the contractor, with a number of others
belonging to different people. A party was sent out the
sumo slay, and recovered 900 sheep, and a Fingo received
a severe assegaai wound in the beck. On Sunday about
forty head of cattle and 400 sheep were' on their way
from the Tarka to the contractor at Fort Beaufort, in
charge of six Hottentots. These men were waylaid by
Kafirs, at a drift near Hermann's Place, Blinkwater, who
fired a volley amongst them, but without effect. The
Kafirs afterwards surrounded them, and rushins, on
them with their assegaais killed four and woundeetwo.
One of the wounded men was pursued for some distance,
but fired on his pursuer and killed him. Another party
was sent out in pursuit of the marauders on Sunday.
Fort Beaufort is represented as being in a defenceless
state. A muid of meal lately fetched Si. 4s. 6d. on the
market. • . . At a late hour last night the bodies of
the five Stellenbosch Burghers who were killed on Sun-
day were brought into town by Lieut. Skead. The ex-
pense of their funeral will be defrayed by the public.
Their remains were borne this afternoon to their last
resting-place, the Episcopal churchyard, and were fol-
lowed by their respected Commandant, Mr. Onkruydt,
and their comrades, and a very numerous throng of the
townsmen, anxious to pay all possible honour to the
slain. The funeral procession consisted of at least 500
persons.

SPIRIT of th© PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—The notion of a dictatorship has been lately
revived and pushed to a considerable extremity by, those
who think only of the classical form, and who hail it as
an escape from the wise precautions of government, and
the safe delays of legislation. A crisis of unexampled
urgency has come upon us, if not unawares, at least
unprepared. It is an agreeable solution of the embar-
rassment to declare the whole commonweal bankrupt,
and resign all its affairs to some great official assignee,
some Cincinnatus, or even some Caesar, who, with a
slight amplification of the Roman precedent, shall take
and pay without limit or check, compel the benevolence
of the rich, and hear the prayers of the poor, and, pro
hac vice, do everything that the Constitution has hitherto
forbidden to be done. The storm once over, the dictator is
to retire, and all is to go on as before. The dictator is
to do for the emergency, while time is to corrects its own
evils. Nothing is more natural, nothing more comfort-
able, than such a dream. One thing only is wanting,
and that is something like a parallel in the circum-
stances of the two cases. If the potato blight was only
an invasion of the Volsci, and Celtic degradation was
only a Catilinarian conspiracy—if sixteen days would
suffice to rescue the state, or one glorious consulate to
reinstate and reform all the affairs of the empire—then
we might all take our rest while one mighty mind was
giving us a new lease of tranquillity, justice, and power.
But, unhappily, the evils which have now come to a head,
and which must and will be redressed, being partly the
growth of centuries, and partly common to all climes,
are such as cannot be stayed by a few Treasury
minutes, or any amount of mere pecuniary relief.
But the idea of a dictatorship is the natural fruit
of the crisis, and has a right to be gravely con-
sidered. How far does it apply to a great, an an-
cient, yet a complex, and to some extent an unsettled
constitution ? It indicates that something may and
must be done corresponding to the greatness and im-
portunity of the occasion—something which, though
always good, yet in ordinary times the state would
hardly be sufficiently trusted and supported to do. The
facts as well as the day prove as much. Starving mil-
lions present themselves before the officers of the Crown,
and demand a relief which cannot ba effected, even for
this once, without an enormous departure from usages
and even the every-day maxims of the state, but which
.it is evident must be granted, not only for this once, but
for all future time. A disorganised realm is reduced to
a multitude of heads. The historical kingdom of Ire-
land, with its plantations and pales, its vast :territo-
rial sovereigns, its absentee lords, its rapacious agents,
its hungry subdivisions, all seems to disappear before
the eye of the statesman, and a nation-of Irishmen is
to be provided for by any lawful or possible means.
The state, not to say the rights of property, must be
remodelled. The people stand first ; and, after them,
all that Providence or man has ordained for the people.
This is a simple account of the crisis, such as all parties
agree—nay, even vie, in describing it. The titled pro-
prietors of Ireland, the sworn maintainers of Protestant
ascendancy, the very men who are most forward to de-
mand the sword of the state to protect the rights of the
landlord and the sovereignty of religious truth, are now
coming forward and requiring that the state shall feed
that vast and fainting multitudelby a miracle of consti-
tutional power—by any sacrifices—at any expense—by
any precedent—with any stretch of authority—at any
danger to commercial prosperity—even at the risk of a
famine to the whole of these islands—at all events to
feed the people. What is this but a comprehensive
commission, after the Roman formula, "to see that
the commonweal suffer no harm ?" It proceeds
from those who have usually been thought most
deeply interested in the maintenance of existing in-
stitutions. The appeal embraces within the range of
the desired interference not merely those three or fear
millions, but all that inhabit these isles, every subject of
this empire—it embraces all who are affected by the
perils of the crisis, by the cost or the risk of the reme-
dies demanded. It is impossible to say how far the
scope of such a commission extends. But it clearly is
safe to make a large use, perilous to attempt a small use,
of so great a responsibility. As for the idea that the
state really can employ and feed so vast a population
from any inexhaustible resources involved in the fiction
of un overflowing treasury, that is as baseless as the
wealth of Aladdin's lamp, or any other childish fable.
The state has nothing of its own. It only exists as the
mediator between all the interests and resources of the
nation. The question simply is, on what men, on what
property is to be thrown the duty which must be dis-
charged both now and for many years to come, of main-
taining certain necessitous multitudes in Ireland and
Scotland ? Such, at least, is the present question—one
which has not been suggested by writers and parties, but
which Providence has thrust on the Legislature. Are
millions upon millions of Scotch and Irish paupers to be
thrown upon the Consolidated Fund ? Are the heredi-
tary tenants of the Dukes of Sutherland and Argyll to
be maintained, and a hundred Anglo-Irish potentates to
be supported by " public works," and fed on charity
wages by the industrious and orderly population of
England, in addition to its own proper burdens I' It is
unnecessary to argue against so absurd, so indecent a
proposal. It will not be done. It will not be attempted.
The proposal is only taken as an admission that some
fundamental change in the relations of the Scotch and
Irish poor to the laud on which they and their fathers
were born, and to the chiefs to whom they and their
fathers have paid tribute, is imperatively and instantly
required. We think we shall not err in describing the
great point to which the crisis and the importunities
roused by that crisis all tend ; the great point to
which the extraordinary responsibility and presumed
" dictatorship " of the Legislature should now be I
directed is such an amendment, and, if necessary, recon-
struction
of the rights of landed property, as shall most
encourage the investment and consequent production of
capital. It is impossible to feed without food, or to give
profitable employment without the existence of mercan-
tile and agricultural enterprise. If the Treasury were
ever so incontinent of its borrowed resources it could
not go on long affecting to provide for half the popula-
tion without taking some effectual steps to replenish the
store it was wasting. The land must be made to produce
all it can. Amongst too many other restrictions and
burdens on agricultural improvement, such hereditary
curses on the fruitfulness of the soil as that the opera-
tion of which our Scotch Commissioner this day
describes must be removed. Nearly half Scotland
is in bondage to a law which condemns the
soil to barrenness, the owners to poverty, and the
bulk of the inhabitants to degrading destitution.
'raking away all inducement and even all power to im-
prove, to build, to drain, to enclose, to manure, or to
bestow upon the soil the smallest aid of human industry
and skill, it accomplishes but the unnatural result of
leaving everything unaltered on the face of a world upon
which the Almighty has marked the destiny of perpe-
tual progress. Such is the inevitable operation of a law
which, four centuries ago, England found it her interest,
if not to repeal, at least to evade ; but which has only
been amended in Scotland to make it still more intole-
rable and ruinous. This is one of the reconstructions
which comes within the just authority and " dictator-
ship" of this crisis. The whole population is thrown
en masse on the state. Land, also, must now be regarded
as a whole. In a certain constitutional sense, it, must
be resumed by the state and granted anew to its pro-
prietors, newly enfranchised and conditioned. Starving
millions demand it, the common weal demands it, the
great body of landowners themselves virtually admit the
necessity.
HERALD.—The accounts from the naval ports speak
of sudden and urgent orders for the preparation of men-
of-war, small and large, for immediate service ; and
speculation is busy as to the objects of this heavy arma-
ment. Alarmists point to the Spanish marriages, and
hint at a possible rupture with France ; others of the
same nervous class strain their vision towards California,
and oracularly ask if it is likely that Lord Palmerston
will permit President Polk to take possession of that fine
country, and thereby acquire the power of controlling
the navigation of the Pacific ? We believe that we can
considerably moderate the fears of these sensitive
lookers-out for squalls. There is little danger of break-
in upon that entente cordiale which is so beneficial alike
to England and France ; or that we shall quarrel with
the United States about a naked and distant tract of
country, which, under existing circumstances, cannot
add strength to the aggressive republic, though it
might make a large addition to its permanent ex-
penditure. The last news from Portugal is evidently
the cause of our preparations. It is well known
that on the 12th instant the Cyclops war-steamer
hastily left the Tagus, and that Lord Howard de
Walden, the British Minister to the Court of Portugal,
came home in her. He has, of course, conferred with
Lord Palmerston since his arrival, and pointed out, pro-
bably, that the recent changes in Lisbon go a long way
towards a revolution. England, as the old and faithful
ally of Portugal, has a double duty to perform. She has
to protect her from self-violencn—that is to say, from
the madness of internal faction ; she has also to take
g
to say inll:snojust plea for interference. It is
that the Spanish Government has
elnottorrt,egttosiol:o rntNN S'un a disposition to busy itself inconveniently
with Portuguese affairs. A Spanish army is not very
formidable ; but were it once in occupation of the strong
positions which the country affords there might be some
difficulty in persuading it to retire. Prevention is always
better than cure. By a prompt demonstration England
will show at once to the internal and external enemies of
her .
ally that she as usual, quite ready for action. In
a word, that she will exert her power to prevent complies-
as a nation, our neglect of several
tions which might place the peace of Europe in jeopardy.
irthin our reach may well excite sur-
CHRONlCLE.—Considering our enterprising and
ever, is susceptible of explanation.
devoted to the study of what is
pyarllimu,commercialeao.bsltei metxleacrelifi:aliestestirtvsa,
exclusively
however,
called practical knowledge, we are apt to narrow the
signification of those terms, and content ourselves with
a very imperfect theory of what is practical and what is
not. Nations are often hard to move in proportion to
their power and grandeur, es bodies in proportion to
their bulk ; and the same remark should be applied to
the regulation of public opinion, the breadth and depth
of whose current may be said to indicate the Her-
culean labour of those who seek to impart to it a
new direction. We have already, on former occa-
sions, pointed out in what way, and by what means, the
new settlement on Pulo Labuan is likely to prove ser-
viceable to the trade of this country; and have hinted,
that among other good effects it is likely to produce is
the opening of the ports of. Japan, and of those vast end
itilishtnent of Singapore;
al
fertile regions extending from the Straits of' Malacca to
tl
expected these conse-
quences follow from
rrloencint.. the l‘
establishment
that event has exercised much
ti the
d confinesdir
directly
tl
influence over the predilections and traffic of the' Hindu •
Chinese nations. But commerce, like everything else,
has its caprices, and it may be inexplicable, according
y oor
to the ordinary laws of reasoning, why the inhabitants
of the states iu question prefer being cheated by the
Chinese to carrying on honest and gainful dealings with
other merchants. Events, however, of recent occurrence
in Siam, to which we shall barely allude at present,
scarcely allow of room for doubt that among the

first effects of hoisting the British flag at Liftman
will be the acquisition of large trading privileges
among the Hindu-Chinese communities, whose so-
vereigns, in imitation of Mohammed Ali, are desirous of
transforming themselves into merchants, and long for
the possession of steamers, to enable them to conduct
their operations with the greater rapidity and profit.
Hitherto Europeans have carried on little direct trade
with Bankock or Saiguu, though several attempts have
been made to overcome the prejudices of the people, or
the barbarous reluctance of the Governments to be en-
riched by the affluence of strangers. Among the causes
of failure may be reckoned the influence of the Chinese,
who, along many thousand miles of coast, have enjoyed
fur ages something like monopoly; and, like the Dutch
ut l`Tangasalsi, are beyond measure jealous of such Eng.
lish, French, or Americans as display an inclination to
interfere with their gains. For this reason little reli-
ance is to be placed on any information they may sup-
ply to our envoys or political agents, or even to our mer-
chants, in such matters less likely to be deluded. No-
thing more is needed to show the great value of
success in this quarter than a knowledge of the im-
mense number of junks which set sail thrice a year
from Hainan, Quangtung, Foquien, Chekiang, and other
maritime provinces of China, for Tonquin, Cochin Chine,
Cambodia, and Siam, where they easily dispose of their
rich cargoes at large profits; after which they return
home with the valuable and varied products of that im-
mense line of coast. On another occasion we may pass
in review the principal exports of these regions, which
have always been greatly coveted both in the East and
in the West. Here, formerly, the junks of Japan sought
ivory, and ebony, and camphor, and cinnamon, and
wood of aloes, and that precious perfume called Kalam-
balr, on which the grandees of the Celestial Empire still
set so high a value; and here also the European traders
of the seventeenth century habitually obtained many of
those costly commodities by which large fortunes were
realised in a few voyages. For many years past European
intercourse with these countries has been on the decline,
chiefly, as we have said, through the predominance of
Chinese influence, acquired for the most part through
intermarriages.
ADVERTISER.—The Bishop of London delivered
on Monday his triennial charge to the clergy of his
diocese. It is, we admit, an able address, but farther
than that our commendation cannot go. It is pervaded
by a controversial spirit, and goes out of its way to load
indirectly with obloquy all who venture to think that
good may be done beyond the pale of the Establishment.
The Right Rev. Prelate, we are bound to believe, is not
ignorant of that portion of revealed truth in which a
certain class of persons are cautioned against condemn-
ing in others the very things they have done themselves.
It were well if he were to take out the mote which is in
his own eye before referring to the mote that is in his
brother's eye. Dr. Blomfield arraigns the conduct of
those clergy in the Church who have, either by their
preaching or their practices, been parties to the seces-
sions from Angiflauism which have been so frequent of
late, and which, there is every reason to believe, will
ere long be of still more common occurrence. "Wherein,
in this matter, thou judgest another," may it please your
Lordship, " thou condemnest thyself." We boldly and
broadly assert that the Bishop of London has done more
to unsettle men's minds, and show them the high road
to Rome, than any other person of the present day, al-
ways excepting such men as Dr. Pusey and Mr. New-
man—men who have devoted the last twelve years of
their lives to the one great object of un-Protestant-
ising the Church of England, and prevailing on her
children to throw themselves unreservedly into the
embraces of Catholicism. Has the Prelatic Lord of
Fulham House forgotten his memorable charge in 1843?
Does he not remember what was the burthen of that
charge?—the great purpose, seemingly, for which it had
been prepared? The main object of that address ap-
peared to be to bring about a compromise between the
Church of England and the Church of Rome. In rail-
way phraseology, his Lordship sought, to all appearance,
to effect an " amalgamation" between the two Churches,
and thus to convert their past enmity into future amity.
And, to a great extent, Charles James succeeded—only
that the amity, like Irish reciprocity, was all on one
side. Rome neither felt, nor affected to feel, any friend-
ship for the Anglican Church; but the latter began to
form and cherish an intense friendship for the former.
On this point there was no room for doubt. The clergy
gave, in various instances, the best possible proof of the
sincerity and strength of their new-born friendship
for Rome, by throwing themselves into her arms.
But while the Right Reverend Prelate thus sent
numbers over to Catholicism, we have never heard of
any whom his "Charge" of 1843 prevailed upon to
quit the Romish territory, and take up their abode
within the pale of the Episcopal Establishment. He
cannot have forgotten his earnest recommendations to
them, amounting almost to imperative injunctions, to
recur to the forms of service which were observed in the
Church in the early part of the seventeenth century, and
how he expatiated on the solemn obligations under which
they lay to put on the surplice—to be especially parti-
cular as to the postures of their persons in the various
portions of the service—and on no account to neglect the
offertory, nor the prayer for the Church militant, as pre-
scribed by the rubrics. And yet the Right Rev. Prelate
now comes forward and declaims against Romanism and
every thing tending to Rome, just as if he had
not himself, three years ago, made virtual proposals for
a sort of semi-amalgamation with her. lie enjoins on
his clergy that they enter, in their pulpit ministrations,
into controversy with the Roman Catholics on the points
on which the two Churches differ. The deep earnestness
of his manner, and the great length at which he presses
the adoption of this course, would almost justify a sus-
picion that he is, in his heart, after all, still friendly to
the Church of Rome; for, undoubtedly, he could pre-
scribe no better method for thinning the ranks of Angli-
canism and swelling those of the Romish community.
Assaults on the Church of Rome from the pulpit, in con-
junction with the Exeter Hall onslaughts of the
M‘Neiles, the M'Ghees, and the Sullivans, have, we
verily believe, proved one of the principal causes of the
rapid spread of Catholicism during the last ten years.
If the clergy of the English Church would confine them-
selves to the simple preaching of the Gospel they would
soon find a great diminution in the number of " conver-
sions" to the Church of Rome.

THE CASINO, ADELAIDE
GALLERY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIII,—IR your paper of Thursday evening, under the
head of Pollee reports " Bow-street." A young man
applied to Mr. Hull for advice for being turned out of
the Adelaide Gallery by the check-taker, mad called a
thief and rogue, &c.; which report is incorrect. He
was removed by the police officer, and his money re-
turned. May L, therefore, request you will correct the
same as respects myself. Your compliance will oblige,
your obedient servant,
T. BENNETT, Check-taker.