The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-05 00:00:00

'740 TA-79 Au G U.sT 5, 1846.

they want wives, and must steal cattle to purchase them ;
they perceive their numbers increasing; they 4.btain
gutty and ammunition from the traders, who take in
return gum, hides, and ostrich feathers ' • and, looking
upon the flocks and herds of Al. any and Somerset, they
doubtless say, with al Blucher, lo,king down on
London, from St. Paul's,—" What a plunder !" Peace
and plunder would be their first wish ; but, if you will
not suffer them to combine these two, then, war and
plunder is wish the second. 'Co Young Kafirland"
the chiefs and counsellors have given way; and hence
we are cow fig,tuing.
The real grour.d of war then is, that the Kafirs,
whether by war or pence, will carry on depredations,
and that the colony will not put up with depredations in
peace. The only alternative is war.
One important point is to he borne in mind, as an in-
disputable fact, that, for the last seven years—l might
go turther back—but, for the last seven years, at all
events, no colonist, of any sort, size, or description has
committed any act of violetce or outrage in any part of
Kafir land.
The immediate ground of war was this:—,A Kafir,
within the colony, stole a hatchet, and, being caught,
was sent to jail. While on his way, under a small escort
of Hottentot constables, sixty or seventy armed Kafirs.
of Botman's tribe, burst into the colony, attacked the
escort, hurried over the boundary the rescued prisoner,
and a constable, to whom, for safety, he had been hand-
cuffed, severed the hand of the constable. is order to
free the prisoner from him, and then put the constable
to death with assegais. During the scuffle, a shot, from
one of the escort, killed one of the attacking party.
The gang belonged to Tola's people, who are again a
pari of Botman's tribe, who again recognise the para-
mount authority of Sandilli, the head of all the Gaika
Kafirs, son of Gaika, the late Chief, by his great. or
Tambookie, wife : and in right of that origin, superior
to his elder,' and far abler, brother, Macomo, the off-
spring of an inferior mother,. not of the aristocratic
'fambookie race.

Colonel Hare demanded the surrender and punish-
A—We '-iirdirrers from TrOft,- -Bottnati. 2,id San-
dilli. No Kafir ever gives a direct answer. But they
gave no satisfaction. An axe, they thou.-ht, was a
small thing to send a man to prison for. If one of our
people bad been killed so had one of their people, and
the dead men weighed equally heavy. They thought
that no more should be said upon the subject. They
neither promised nor pretended that they would comply
with our demands.

Recent events had tended to give significance to this
conduct. Sandilli, a feeble young man, with no capa-
city, a shrivelled arm, a crooked leg. and a crooked
temper, had lately performed some strange pranks. By
treaty, he was bound to protect traders sojourning in his
country ; but he had gone to a trader's store, forced
him to open it, struck him for being slow, and had then
taken away such goods as he thought proper to select.
The same chief had carried off cattle from a missionary
station, and flatly refused to give compensation to a far-
mer whose cattle had been carried, by the thieves, into
his country. The diplomatic agent for the Gaika tribes,
Mr. Shetch, sent for satisfaction for these injuries. His
messengers found the chief in a passion. The cause was
this :

Finding the water failing at Post Victoria. the Go-
vernor wished to change the site. Blockdrift, on the
Chumie Haver, was supposed to be an advantageous po
sition ; and, as it was beyond the ceded territory (where
we had, by treaty, a right to place forts) negotiations
were opened with Sandilli, for the purpose of obtaining
the necessary right. He proposed his terms. which
were under consideration, when the Governor considered
that a previous inspection, before closing the bargain,
would be desirable. By a misapprehension of orders,
what was intended for a mere inspection became a sur-
vey, by a small party. N. intimation of the thins• had
been given to Sandilli; who, therefore, had a right to
say, that, notwithstanding his offer, we had no authority
to view the offered property, without his permission.
Mr. Shetch's messengers arrived the day after the
surveying party. Sandilli received them at his Kraal,
or Great Place, which is close to the spot, and, having
heard them, returned a most insolent reply.—They
were to say, that the Governor was a rascal; that the
Lieutenant-Governor was a rascal ; and that Shetch

himself was a rascal. Traders and missionaries were
under his feet, and they must lie quiet there. He
would give no compensation for Ranbenheimer's cattle;
and if the Governor came to ask fir'. it, his answer would
be, " there are my warriors," Shetch, he said, must
not sleep, till ho had sent this message to the Governor.
And the tent there must go, and the party, also. There
must be no soldiers in his country; and Sheshago (Port
Victoria) also mu-t be quitted. *This was his word.
On hearing of this message, Col. Hare left Grahams-
town, and proceeded to Fort Beaufort, from whence he
sent a me-sage to Sandilli, to meet him, the next day,
at Blockdrift.,ln reply, the Chief sent him an apologetic
tne§sage-kaCk. His old eQunsellors were not with him
whetrhe had spoken foolishly to the former nwAsengers,
and with the young' men he had been a chirct'alnotig
children. He would come to the Lieutenant-Governor,
if.the latter would guarantee his personal safety. This
wag, of course, guaranteed.

Next morning came a message to his Honour, from
Sutu, Sandilli's mother. asking forgivenness for her son.
Colonel Hare, about three years ago, saved Sao's life.
Tyali, a halt-brother of Sandilli's, and a full brother
of Macomo's, had died. When a Chief dies, unless in
war, or great old age, his death is ascribed to witch-
craft. Under Macomo's patronage, a wi►chdance was
held; and the doctor, after snuffing about for the
party who had bewitched Tyali, ended by smeling
out Sutu, who had been Gaika's great Wife, and
was the mother of the paramount Chief. That Macomo
had managed the matter, for his own ends, no reasonable
doubt can be entertained. An informality in the cere-
monies required a new dance. In the mean time, Col.
Flare, contrary to Grotius and Vattel, and in derogation
of the independence of our allies, sent in troops, who
carried Sutu into the colony for safety, and thus saved
her from a lingering death. Some people blamed his in-
terference ; but, for my own part, I warmly approved of
it. It is terrible even to contemplate the torments of
those who are made the victims of that mixture of
trickery and superstition, compounded by the scoundrel
witch-doctors of Ksfirland ;—now devoured, by being
forced into a nest of red ants ; now roasted between red-
hot stones ; now subjected to yet more capricious cruel-
ties. Poor Sutu ! the idea of roasting her was too bad.
She is the fattest woman it, Kafraria ; and weigLs better

than five-and-twenty stone.
I have mentioned Macomo. William Howitt, if I re-
member rightly, in his book on colonisation, says,—
" This Macomo seems to be a very fine fellow." This is
a mere matter of taste. His wish to roast old Sutu I
have told you of. For the last seven years, he has been
dead drunk, in Fort Beaufort canteen fin much more
than half his time. A missionary, in his neighbourhood,
remonstrated with him for killing one of his wives, in a
fit of drunken fury. He professed sorrow—(not that he
ever pretends to be a Christian)—and was very anxious
to know from whom the missionary had learned
the fact. And then Macomo, sinking the fox. came out
the lion, and avowed that his object was to put to death
the author of the information. But while sober,
which he seldom is, his faculties are superior
to those of any other chief. I saw him in Fort
Beaufort, last year, looking well, and showing no
signs that constant drinking had destroyed his con-
stitution, or dimmed, in any way, his clear and cunning
eye. He, and the four or five wives who were with him,
begged from me at once, as all chiefs, great and small,
invariably do. My interpreter remarked a good-look-
ing Gonah girl as a new wife, and asked how much she
cost ? Macomo answered, six oxen. He said she was
cheap, and seemed well satisfied with his bargain.
But, to return to Sutu and her message. It was con-
ceived in the figurative language, which is their prose,
and our poetry. The Lieutenant-Governor was a great
father, Sandilli wal an erring child. The father might
be angry and punish ; but afterwards he would pity, and
protect. The Kafirs were very fearful about their land.
When Fort Wiltshire was built, in Gaika's time, it was
said that it was built to strengthen Gaika ; but, after-
wards, land was taken. The Lieutenant-Governor,
therefore, must have patience with Sandilli. This was
the word of Sutu. She sent it to save her child.

At tile place of meeting, at Blockdrift, Colonel Hare
assembled a considerable force of horse and foot, and
some field•pleces. light opposite advanced Sandilli, at
the head of 7,C00 Kafirs mounted and armed with guns,
and a great multitude of men on foot. Fearful of being
surrounded, Colonel Hare extended his line upon which
the Kafir horsemen extended line, as well. The con-
ference was long, and, it would appear, satisfactory to
his Honour. Judging from the report of it which I have
heard, I could not participate in this sentiment. The
insolence was, in part, disavowed ; but the refusal to
give compensation—the arrogant claim to treat traders
and missionaries as he phased—and the impudent de.
rimed, that no military post should remain even in the
ceded territory—wefe all maintained.
_ A difference of opinion exists as to the conduct of
Colonel Hare on this occasion. Some think that the
irregularity of our unlicensed survey demanded all pos-
sible forbearance from us. Others conceive, that San-
dines duplicity, upon the subject of his negotiation for
the site of a new post, only aggravated the insolence of
his general demeanour, and are of opinion that Colonel
Hare should have given him an hour to comply with his
demand for apology and redress, and, failing his com-
pliance, have sent some shells and the 7th Dragoons into
the midst of the masses collected, obviously for an osten-
tatious display of force. But others, viewing some late
passages in border war, arc of opinion that it was very
fortunate we made no movement at Blockdrift, as the
probabilities are, from the disparity of force, and
the unexpected determination now shown by the Kafirs,
that they would have been worsted, and pursued into the
colony by a furious throng of savages, flushed with
triumph, ready to disperse in plundering hordes, and to
spread ruin and devastation over a country wholly un-
prepared to resist such an invasion. lam one of those
who take this view.
These events left the minds of all in a very feverish
and unsettled state. The colonists, in alarm, were
arming, to detend themselves from an anticipated
attack. Thtre was a loud cry to the Government to
be firm ; and much was written and declaiteed ebout
energetic measures, and dignified attitudes, and God
knows what beside. And then, the Kafirs, seeing the
preparations in the colony, began to prepare, too. Guns,
ammunition, assegais, and Veldt-schoen (field shoes)
were purchased by them, in every quarter in which they
could be found. There was much usutual apprehension

PRICE SD.

and distrust. Sooner or later, it was clear, that war
must come. Hence the outrage which I have before
described, and the effect which, owing partly to its
own inherent grossness, and partly to the particular
time at which it was perpetrated, it instantly produced.
Colonel Hare then pulaliely announced his determine-
den to chastise our turbulent and faithless neighbours,
and vinciica.ed the insulted power of the colony.
The Qte en's troops on the frontier are somewhat
over three thousa-:d men. Colonel Hare devolved upon
a yeomanry force the defence of Grahamstown ; made
other arrangelnenta for relieving the regular forces, in
other places ; and, dividing the army into three divi-
sions—one at Fort Beaufort, one at Fort Peddle, and one
at the Kat River—reported himself reraly to move into
Kafirland, or, at least, into the ceded territory, and wrote
to the Governor, in Cape Town, to declare the war.
To conduct military operations, when you are six
hundred miles from the scene of action, is impossible.
Seventy five is late to take the field. But the Governor
at once recogni,ed the necessity of proceeding imme-
d,ately to the frontier, which he reached in the Admi-
ral's ship the President, placed at iris disposal.
In this hasty and imperfect sketch,l cannot stop to de-
scribe the events which have since occurred ; hut, I re-
gret to say, that their general result is unfavourable to
the colony. Our enemies are more numerous, more for-
midable, more active, and more determined, than had
been anticipated ; and our preparations for resisting
them have proved very incomplete.
I have already referred to our actual line of boundary,
the Great Fish River. Opposite Fort Beaufort, and in
that direction, are the Gaikas. the most warlike and
worst conducted of all the Kafir nation. Between the
Gaikas and the sea, down towards the mouth of the Fish
River, are the Tslambie and Congo tribes. On the other
side of the Gaikas, and stretching thence Eastward, lie
the Tambookies,—a numerous, but comparatively paci-
fic class. Crossing the Kye, and along its left bank, you
have Creili, the successor of the Hintze, the most power-
ful potentate amongst the whole of the Amakosa Kafirs;
and between Creili and our new settlement of Port Natal,
spreads nut a fine and fertile country, inhabited by
airliner branch of the Kafir family. under.Esku. With
all these Chiels the corny had treaties of friendshiii.and
alliaitee.

Our war was with the Gaikas. With none of the
others had we any ground of quarrel ' • and one of the
Gaika chiefs had long separated himself, by good
behaviour, from the rest, and had been admitted to a
separate treaty, at his own request. This was Eno, who
died since the war began, being, as is supposed, nearly
one hundred years of age. He was friendly to the last.
Shortly before his death, he paid Colonel Hare the
greatest compliment a dying chief could pay, by sending
a messenger to say that he trusted to him to see him
buried, and not to leave his body in the bush. Every
attention was paid to the old chief, by the colonial
authorities, civil and military, near his Kraal. He is
succeeded by his son Stock—called after Stockenstrom—
as the Kafirs pronounce his name.
For some days after they entered the ceded territory,
the troors, instead of meeting any opposition, did not
see a soul, save now and then a mounted Kafir,
engaged in reconnoitering. But, some mismanagement
gave a new turn to affairs. An immense train of
baggage waggons (the necessity of which I have
never heard explained) was brought through the bush,
stretching for miles, and guarded by a couple of
hundred soltliers at each end. One of the middle wag •
gons stuck in a drift or ford. and stopped the huge pro-
cession. Down rushed Kafirs in thousands, starting
from the bush, like the mountaineers of Roderick Dhu.
I The leaders, and drivers, and soldiers opened a fire; but
itvva.; soon silenced by the close and continuous rattle

.)f the Kafir musketry ; and the upshot was the capture
of between 50 and 60 valuable watzgons, with their oxen,
and much food and clothing, worth not less than 10,0001.
The enemy drove off the oxen, plundered the waggons,
and then burned them. Rescuing the ammunition wag-
gons with difficulty, the troops retreated, pursued and
harassed by the Kafirs to their very encampment. The
things captured were rare trophies. Sable gentlemen
arrayed themselves in mil;tary coats, and proud of their
upward spletdour, disdained to wear any other article of
clothing whatever. They attacked the medecine chest,
eating blistering plaster, and, it is said, swallowing the
laudanum. But, besides all these, there was not a little
food, which they carried off to their fastnesses in the
Amatola mountains.
Encouraged by this signal success, the enemy became
more darir g; and their greater daring led to more suc-
cesses. The troops, in fact, were outnumbered, and
brought to act on the defensive ; and then the Kafirs,
delayed by no commissariat, driving no huge train of
waggons, and greedy for he plunder of our scattered
homesteads, rushed in plundering parties into the colony,
cutting off aragglers, stopping the mails, and scattering
the contents, and sweeping off cattle with a celerity '
altogether wonderful. Farmers and their families were
soon flying for protection to all strong positions ; thei;
hou-3es were being burnt in all directions. With the elk
celytion of forts and towns and some well situated and`
strongly fortified farm-houses, the whole of Albany, and
much of Somerset and tritenhage, were in possession of
the enemy.

The effects of all this speedily became visible. The
war with the Gaikas is now a war with all Kafirland.
The Gaikas point to the plunder derived from the capture
of the waggons—to the droves of colonial cattle brought
in ; and incite the cupidity of the rest, by the spectacle
of their triumphs. It is not in Kafir nature to stand
this. The consequence is, that the war-cry has been
raised by Pato and the Tslarabies ; that the Tambookies
are wavering, almost certain to declare against us ; and
that Creili is rumoured to have entered into the con-
federacy.
To meet the mighty danger in which the colony is
placed, the most active measures have been resorted to.
Martial law has been proclaimed throughout the entire
colony. The Burgher force of every district, from
Colesberg to the Cape, has been called into the field.
All persons and all property are placed at the disposal of
the Government, in this great emergency. Now, in the
winter season, the farmers and their people are called
away, from sowing time, to march hundreds of miles to
the seat of war, receiving but scanty food, and sleeping
nightly in the open air. Horses, fire-arms, waggons,
&c.,—all are, under the pressure of necessity, seized, and
applied to the equipment and conveyance of the in-
habitants. It is a struggle tor life or death. To secure
a favourable termination of it, we require to array a
large proportion of our adult population on the frontier.
The Burghers are advancing; but, what with horses
and oxen knocking up, they are advancing but slowly.
When the present levy reaches the frontier, the Governor
will be at the head of the largest force ever assembled in
this colony—say, 12,000 inhabitants and 3,000 troops.
More of the latter are soon expected. The head-quar-
ters of the 90th, from Ceylon to England, put in for
water to Simon Bay, and were instantly sent round to
Algoa Bay. The other division is expected to touch;
and, if so, they will share the same fate; and the 45th
Regiment, from Rio Janeiro, is looked for daily.
OF the ultimate result I entertain no doubt. We
shall beat the enemy; but it will be at a cost to the
Home Government, to the Colonial Government, to the
frontier inhabitants, beggared by the invasion, to the

inhabitants generally, whose property has .been seized
for the public service, and to the colony at large, which
will suffer for want of hands to till the ground at this
the proper season of the year;—to all these interests
success will be purchased, at a cost which it is frightful
to contemplate. We must count it, not by thousands,
but by hundreds of thousands—perhaps by millions.
God grant us a good deliverance!
The loss of life on our side has not been great, whilst
the Kafirs have fallen in considerable numbers. Both
are consequences of one cause. Since the war of 1835,
the Kafir has changed his weapon. Then, he used the
assegai—now, he fights with the musket. But he has
rarely anything better than a Birmingham article—
made, like Hodege's razors, to sell, not shoot—with
which he blazes away, doing small damage, but dreaming
that he is doing wonders. Encouraged by this notion,
he is more daring than before; and is, therefore, more
frequently shot down. It may safely be asserted, that
more Kafirs have already fallen in this contest than fell
throughout the entire of the last war. When (as must
soon be the case) their ammunition fails, and they must
again have recourse to the assrgai, it may be expected
that their confidence in themselves will be lowered ;
while there can be little doubt, that our Burghers will
then proceed with more fearlessness through the bush
than they do at present.
I believe the Governor's plan to be, to await the
coming up of a large irregular force to support the
troops, then to divide the latter into two bodies—one,
under himself, to enter the ceded territory of Fort
Peddle, and the other, under Colonel Hare, to proceed
to Fort Beaufort. In the meantime, we see, by the last
arrival from Grahamstown, that Sir Andreas Stocken-
strom has been appointed Commandant-General of the
Burgher force—a nomination which has restored the
confidence of the public in the proper conduct of that
body. Leaving people enough to protect Albany and
Somerset from any flank march of the enemy, our forces
will penetrate the Amatola mountains, where the Gaika
and colonial cattle are, and where the enemy must be
found in masses, and must fight.
But, at present, all is despondency. Burning 'houses
literally redden, every night, the skies of Albany and
Somerset; and immense numbers of cattle are driven off
before the faces of our troops, too weak to turn out from
shelter. Not less than 60,000 head of cattle have been
thus carried away, whilst the destruction of sheep has
been immense. The enemy are cruel, always destroying
the wounded, and uniformly disfiguring the dead.
We soon hope for better things. Unlike the last war,
this war has no opponents. Mr. Fairbairn, son•in•law
of Dr. Philip, and proprietor of The Commercial Ad-
vertiser, a political writer of rare talents, who strenu-
ously opposed the last war, strenuously supports this ;
and the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland will be taken
as sufficient security for the necessity of the war, by a
large class in England, who might canvass the conduct
of another Governor with more severity. The prayer
of every one is, that this war, so disastrous, so expen-
sive, so harrassing, and so likely to prove protracted,
may so terminate as to prove to be the last of our con-
flicts with these people. A Kaffir war every ten years
would ruin us. As it is, this war will throw us back
five-and-twenty years.

The contemplated matrimonial alliance between the
Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, late Secretary at War, and
Miss A'Court, niece to Lord Heytesbury, is expected to be
solosiulsed at the close of the month.

. of stia.
le method
pnysics, the
apptie gation of natural
causes became ir,-itn a new path was opened to
the human mind. Huygens and Newton engaged them-
selves in it, and the developments which mechanics re-
ceived, in the discovery of the laws of universal attrac-
tion, still bear testimony to the power of their genius.
Then the world learned how the boundaries of ob-
servation and experience may be overleaped—
how, without their aid, the certain knowledge
of several series of (yet) unperceived pheno-
mena may be acquired. The example of Huygens and
Newton did not remain unfruitful, and on every side less
importance was attached to the seeking out of new phe-
nomena, than the laws of the phenomena formerly
known. Scientific men no longer waited for chance to
throw discoveries in their way ; they were led to them
by rigorous analogies. Involuntarily, and a it were,
in spite of ourselves, the more we meditate M. Lever-
rter's work on the motions of Uranus (Herschel), the
more our mind reverts to that celebrated period in the
annals of science and civilisation. Now, as then, analysis
transports us to the regions of the unknown ; and (a
certain guide) brings us back laden with the most
splendid discoveries. On the 13th of May, 1781,
Herschel was examining the little stars in the vicinity of
(ID Gemini ; one of these stars appeared to him to have
an unaccustomed diameter ; he made it out a comet.
Scarcely was the discovery of Mr. Herschel made known,
when the savans hastened to compare the position of the
new star with that of the fixed stars surrounding it.
They sought, thus, to determine the curve accordieg to
which its displacement was effected. Vain efforts
Useless trouble I Although the star moved slowly,
they never succeeded in representing the ensemble of its
positions. The observations of one month upset from
top to bottom those of the preceding month. At
length it was perceived that a circular orbit would
sufficiently satisfy all the observations recorded. The
most difficult step was then passed, and Uranus became
a pia: et. But the miscalculations expected by the
astronomers were not to stop here ; and, in' spite of
the persevering researches of M. Bouvard, Uranus every
day strays more and more from the route traced out for
him in the ephemerides. Instead of stopping, on ap-
proaching this problem, at the hypotheses, more or les
ingenious, which have hitherto been suggested to explai
these singular anomalies, M. Leverrier perceived that
there was no chance of attaining a satisfactory solution
except by resuming the theory of the planet in all its
elements; he therefore determined anew the perturbs-
fions exercised upon it by Jupiter and Saturn, carrying
the approximations as far as the square and the pro-
ducts of the masses, and reduced nearly 300 meridian
cesservntlures-of----Uresseereekeavaaaply -ftorAbis,labo_ar,
as repulsive from the length ot theTcalculations as it-Wait-
difficult from the invention of the methods, that
M. Leverrier was able to tell the Academy, " The
irregularities of Uranus are due to the action of a
planet as yet unknown, which, in January 1, 1847, will
pass by the 325th degree of heliocentric longitude."
No one will, we fancy, entertain the idea of wishing to
reduce our solar system to narrow limits, and thence to
draw a conclusion against the existence of the new star.
In this case, however," adds M. Leverrier, " I will
reply, that the same reasons might have been alleged
fur affirming in 1781 that Saturn was the last of the
planets, safe to be contradicted the next day by the dis-
covery of Uranus." The hypothesis that there exist
planets more remote from the sun than those we already
know, is not new. In 1758, the illustrious geometrician
Clairaut, declared, at the public sitting of the Academy
of Sciences, ( n the subject of the perturbations of Hal.
ley's comet, " that a body which traverses such remote
regions might be subject to forces totally unknown, such
as the action of planets too distant to be ever perceived."
Let us hope that the stars of which Clairaut speaks will
not all remain invisible, and that if chance discovered
Uranus, H e shall soon succeed in seeing the planet whose
position has been ascertained by M. Leverrier.—Constie
tationnel.

MILITARY FLOGGING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Stu,—ln your paper of yesterday, I see a statement con-
cerning military matters, which I am sorry to say is by no
means correct. In this you have been led away by the
paper you quote from, the Plymouth Journal, the editor of
which unluckily was not in possession of the facts of the case
when he published that paragraph—a proceeding, on his
part, that shows the truth of Mr. Fox Maule's observations
as to the incorrectness of a portion of the press. The facts
are these :—Private Higgins was sentenced, not for only
threatening, but for actually throwing a pair of boots at
Colour-Sergeant Williams, and violently striking him after-
wards. lie was perfectly sober at the time, and received no
provocation; far from it; the sergeant was giving him these
boots, he having made away with his others. He was taken
down after receiving 150 lashes, but it is contrary to the
regulations of the army that a man should be again brought
up to receive the remainder of a corporal punishment when
he has been considered by the surgeon as unfit to bear the
whole of it. Lee's offence was a similar one, striking a
sergeant, a crime now very frequent in the army, and striking
at the root of all military discipline; but in consequence of
his previous good character he was sentenced to four months
or 112 days' imprisonment, and no flogging, as the Plymouth
paper states.
In your well-known regard for justice you will not refuse
to put the truth before the public.
Aug. 2, 1846. A CONSTANT 'READER.

IRELAND.
Abi)itt. • SS Thrit‘TINP4JBEAT.PEEL.
DUBLIN, AUGUST, 2.—The following is a Copy of the
address forwarded from Belfast to Sir Robert Peel, and an-
nexed is his letter in reply to Mr. R. 31•Dowell, President of
the Chamber of Commerce, who forwarded the address:—
"TO TOR /SIGHT HON. SIR lIMIERT PEEL, BART., &C.
" Sir,—The Chamber of Commerce of Belfast. and the
other undersigned inhabitants of the town and its vicinity,
cannot permit you to retire from the helm of public affairs
without tendering to you their tribute of gratitude and
respect.

" During the time you have directed the public concerns
of this great empire, the measures which you have brought
forward have uniformly been directed to extend the influence
of British commerce and. manufactures, by ridding them
from many shackles that had previously impeded their full
development,
" It is our earnest hope that this system of commercial
freedom, auspiciously commenced, may extend to all civi-
lised nations, uniting them by the powerful bonds of mu-
tual advantage, and inducing them to cast aside those na-
tional prejudices which have hitherto obstructed the advance
of civilisation and happiness.
"Feeling satisfied, as we do, that the present era of rapid
communication will ultimately overturn commercial restric-
tions everywhere we admire and respect the wisdom and
firmness with which, in the midst of opposition, you have
made our country the leader in the great work of com-
mercial emancipation, and thus secured for her the glory of
fitting an example worthy of imitation to the civilised
world.

"Chamber of Commerce, Belfast, June 7, 1846."
" Whitehall, June 30, 1846.
" Sir,—The address which you have transmitted to me
from the Chamber of Commerce, and from many ishabitanta
of Belfast, has given me very great satisfaction.
" It has been my earnest desire, during my tenure of
injury offi-
cial power, to apply sound principles of commercial legisla-
tion with as much caution and as little to individual
interests as were consistent with the great object to be ulti-
mately attained.
" felt a strong confidence that a community so enlight-
ened, and so deeply interested in the removal of restrictions
from commerce, as that which I am now addressing, would
approve of the course which I have pursued—would give me
credit for being influenced by no other motive than the
desire to promote the general welfare, ariat would rely upon
their own skill, and industry, and enterprise for a pro-
tection from foreign competition more effectual than the
protection of prohibitory or exorbitant duties on imports
from abroad.

" It is highly gratifying to me to find that confidence so
amply confirmed by the address which you have been autho-
rised to convey to me.
" I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your faithful servant,
" ROBERT PEEL.
" President of the Chamber of Commerce, Belfast."

FATAL ACCIDENT.—(M Saturday morning, between
nine and ten o'clock, as a youth about eighteen or nineteen
Years of age was removing a lighter from the West India
Docks into the river, he tell into the water, and instantly
sunk. The drags were immediately procured, and the body
was some time afterwards recovered, but animation could not
be restored. The young man lost his father about three
weeks since only, and his mother was solely dependent on
his labour for her support.

ILLNESS OF• THE BISHOP OF KILDARE.—The Bishop
of Kildare had been seriously ill for some days past, with an
attack of indigenous cholera, now very prevalent. The Bi•
shop is a very old man.
Rear• Admiral the Hon. George Elliott is spoken of
as the successor of Rear-Admiral Sir S. Pym, the superin-
tendent of this dockyard.—Deoonport Telegraph.
ACCIDENT OFF NORTHFLEET HOPE.—A waterman
of Limehouse, Robert Wallis by name, in charge of a boat
belonging to Mr. Williams, of Limehouse, was lost off North-
fleet Hope, and the boat sunk. He put off to the Brodrene,
Neilsen, from Gatbenberg to London, and made fast along-
side. The boat filled with him on board, and sunk. Every
effort was made to save the man by the master and pilot of
the Brodrene. •
FIRE IN ST. KATHARINE'S DOCKS.—Monday Hight,
about ten o'clock, a fire broke out in a portion of the St. Ka.
tharine's Docks, which for a time threatened to be of the
most serious consequences. It appears that the fire broke
out in one of the workshops connected with the cooperage
(from what cause is at present unknown), but owing to the
prompt arrival of the several brigade (together with the
West of England and the County) engines, and a plentiful
supply of water, the flames were confined to the building in
which the fire originated; and by twelve o'clock all fears for
the surrounding buildings were allayed.
SAVINGS' BANKS.—Mr. Hume, by his repeated sen-
sible motions in the House of Commons relative to Savings'
Banks, deserves the lasting thanks of the industrious work-
ing classes. The reduction made by the late Government in
depositor's interest is anything but creditable to them; and
that persons well circumstanced in life— such as respectable
tradesmen, professional men, and men even having real pro-
perty depositing on their own account, or in their children's
names, though really their own money. is disgraceful; and
yet it exists to a considerable extent. The object of the Act
of 9th Geo. IV. was to provide for the safe custody and in-
crease of small savings belonging to the industrious classes;
to accumulate the produce at compound interest on Govern-
ment securities; and to return the whole, or any part of the
deposits, and the produce thereof.
It is stated that the First Lord of the Admiralty, and
some others of the Board, together with the secretary, will
be at Portsmouth on Wednesday next, to meet her Majesty,
who, with Prince Albert and the Royal Family, return to Os-
borne [louse on that day.
CONSISTENCY.—On Friday, the 24th instant, Lord
William Powlett, of this city, took the oaths and his seat for
the small borough of St. Ives ; and on the same day voted
with Lord George Bentinck on the Sugar Duties Bill, and,
of course, formed one of the minority of 38. On Tuesday
last he again voted with the minority on the same Bill. This
is admirably consistent with the declaration of his Lordshi2
on the hustings at St. Ives ; " I am a sincere advocate for au
artices of foreign import being introduced into thian _seco_ani7
at the lowest possible duty." This is the_ sne
OIL
want to represent Batht—what a pity it is th
agree with their proposals...7.27adal