The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-03 00:00:00

BENTLEY.

In the shape of a notice of the recently published au-
tobiography of Mr. R. P. Gillies, Bentley this month
gives us a most amusing history of the changes which li-
terature has undergone during the course of the last half
century, and how the seven volume works which in those
days issued from the press, longo intcrvallo, have been
superseded by the daily and weekly publication of
fly sheets of condensed information. We have two
articles on Kafir Land ; the first, a humorous
account of the adventures of a volunteer troop during
the course of the last war; the other a most va-
luable paper by Lieutenant-Colonel Napier, tracing
the history of the various Kafir eruptions (for
the Kafirs, and not ourselves, have been inva-
riably the invaders) upon the Hottentot territory,
until they came to the white man's territory, proving to
demonstration that the person really responsible for all
the blood that has been shed since 1846. the real au-
thor of those Kafir wars, is not Sir B. D'Urban nor Sir
Harry Smith, no, nor except secondarily, the Kafir
chiefs ; but the teal author of these Kafir wars is my
Lord Glenelg, who, misled by the gross misrepresenta-
tions of the missionaries, " with most incomprehensible
blindness," instead of supporting the energetic measures
adopted by the colonists, actually disapproved of them,
encouraged the savage Kafirs, and entered into a
treaty with them. Colonel Napier thus proceeds:—
" After such a specimen of childish policy on our part, it
was scarcely to be imagined by such as knew the nature of
the Kafir, that he would now long think proper to' sit still.'
" The ruinous war which unexpectedly' broke out in
1846, and took us, as usual, unprepared and unawares, was
still fresh in the recollection of all, when the last outrage, of
which we have so lately received the accounts, has afforded
another proof—if such were wanting—of the little reliance
to be placed on any' treaties' with these treacherous and
blood-thirsty barbarians, who, strange to say, still find ready
advocates amongst many of our fellow-countrymen at home.
It is, however, time that such delusions should have an end;
it is time that all mistaken leniency towards these murdering
robbers should be cast aside; that war should be carried on
to the very knife; that they should be hunted out like wild
beasts from their lairs, driven completly beyond, the Kye ;
and, if any fresh ' treaty' be entered into with suCh incorri-
gible ruffians, it must be of such a nature as clearly to make
them understand that a price will be put upon their heads,
and that they will be shot down without mercy, when-
ever, on whatever pretence, they may be caught within the
colonial boundaries."
It is a pleasant consideration, truly, for the overbur-
dened people of this country that they have already had
2,000,0001. to pay, and will probably have to pay
2,600,000/. more, merely for having procured Lord
Glenelg the satisfaction of having hybernated at the
Colonial. office for four years. Mr. Wolff continues his
amusing anecdotes of Spanish life, and Mr. Charles
Sumner contributes an excellent biography of the late
eminent Mr. Justice Story, of the United States. The
story of the execution of Fieschi is well told; but the
whole matter is of so disgusting a character that we
wonder the editor should have had the bad taste to give
the paper insertion. This, and the account of the death
of Balthazar Gerard, which also appears in this number,
must have beat intended originally for Reynolds's, rather
than for Bentley's, Miscellany.