The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-07 00:00:00

THE SUN,

counts do not proceed, so that we are left to conjecture
yet awhile the nature of the response made by
the people of the Cape to this energetic adjuration.
Of the ulterior result of the whole movement no
doubt whatever can, of course, be for one instant en-
tertained. Our only anxiety is in reference to the

probable rapidity of the triumph to be obtained over

the treacherous assailants of the colony. Upon this
subject it is impossible not to be peculiarly solicitous,

remembering the proofs already afforded us, and pre-
viously adverted to, of the costliness of warfare in
the provinces of Southern Africa. The recollected

payment of 2,000,0001. upon one item of this cha

racter is a fact not likely to inspire any
nation with sentiments of indifference. Eng-
land must, consequently, look with some real

anxiety to the next dispatches to be received from

the Cape of Good Hope. Under any circumstances
it will remain to be decided whether the mo-
ther country will be required to pay any-
thing whatever towards the liquidation of
the expense of the new conflict now

that the Imperial Parliament has granted
to the colonists the supreme rights of self-govern-
ment. With the acceptance of those rights it re-
mains to be resolved whether the population at the
Cape have not assumed to themselves the responsi-
bilities, and with the responsibilities the support of
their own Administration.

Implicit reliance is placed in the skill and valour of
the heroic Governor of th, Cape Colonists. Hitherto

be has shown himself to be not only lenient, but gene

. _
rous in his treatment of the Kafirs. He has now only
to display his 'vigour and hardihood in bringing
down upon their heads a sudden and terrible

retribution. England has confidence that in
doing this Sir HARRY SMITII will draw

out of existing difficulties a long-desired and per.
manent pacification. Her confidence in him wil

not be misplaced, for he has demonstrated by his
past achievements his right to the enjoyment of his
high and brilliant reputation.

If the British nation were animated by the spirit
of MARK TAPLEY, it would rejoice:at the resumption
of office by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That
tax-payer who could remain " jolly" with Sir
CHARLES WOOD at the head of the financial depart-
ment, and enabled to carry out all his " financial
crotchets" and all his "financial schemes," would in-
deed be entitled to no ordinary amount of credit.
He would exhibit his power of "coming out strong
under untoward circumstances," in the most brilliant
point of view, and as a model of exemplary patience,
he might hope that his name would become " a house-
hold word," until it even superseded that of the hero of
the " most ancient epic," that still survives the lapse of
years. It-would be difficult, perhaps, to construct a
Budget which should in every respect so completely
disappoint the reasonable expectations of the people as
the " PRECIOUS" production which chiefly led to the
resignation of the Government, and occasioned the
Ministerial crisis that has wasted a full fortnight of
the public time during the most valuable part of the
session. The best mode of misapplying a handsome
surplus of two and a half millions of pounds sterling
was a problem which Sir CHARLES WOOD must have
studied with uncommon assiduity before he
could have accomplished so admirable a solution
of the vexata questio. Its principal features were
perfect in their way; and whether we look to the
pretended abolition of the window duties, " two•
thirds of the impost being retained under another

name," a new class being brought under theothe
impost,
' which had previously been exempted, or t
cool-
ness with which he had " come ,
to thec
shouldon beelus
rated
ted
' that
a s
the precarious earnings of industry
highly as the rents or dividends of accumulated ande
realized property, or to the unction with which
Spoke of the 2,330,000/. which he had paid out of
the national debt, hoped to liquidate as much
more during the present year, and proposed to
continue various oppressive and inequitable taxes that
paralyze industry, fer the purpose of satisfying the
holders of Three per Cents. at par,—we must con-
fess that he has exhibited a degree of " sharpness, of
tar/Winn sharpness," that : might
put SCADDEIt
himself to the hlush. There is, however, some dif-
ference as to the result. SCADDER succeeded in ob-
-1 tamping the investment of British capital in the
Eden ; he was not found out until
his
had been achieved, and CHUZZLEWIT
swampob
object
at t
and Co.
ofDowning-street brought forward
completely defrauded. But although
the SCADDER e
his scheme with s,u
fficient solemnity, he could not
" bright eye"-on keep his
"-on the numerous Co's. who, in
the ehnpe of independent journals, watched over the

disbursements. Be tr. ind moreover, the cir-
cumstance that
..1.\.• .4.ended by us upon the
last Kafir war" eThtlx eac. . he " total " of the
surplus now in the hands of the Right lion. the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the news of a fresh
outbreak comes in the nick of time to damp the fer-
vour of our exultation at that rather unexpected ad-
vantage. It is, therefore, with feelings of genuine
chagrin that the information brought to us from
the Cape of Good Hope is commented upon by
the British journalist. Altogether, the intelli-
gence comes at such an unlucky moment—at a mo-
ment so peculiarly embarrassing—that we must
acknowledge ourselves to be naturally predisposed to
find fault with the line of policy pursued in recent
events by the local Government. Prejudiced against
them as we may be in this manner, it must never-
theless be avowed with all candour and emphasis that
even the most sinister suspicion fails to detect in their
conduct anything really or even apparently reprehen-
sible. The whole of the late bloodshed seems to be
attributable solely to the treachery of the savage
tribes, their antagonists. To dignify the proceedings
of the Kafirs by the title of diplomatic contrivances,
is nothing less monstrous or less extravagant than to
surround burglary and assassination with the attri-
butes of heroism. In every particular the Kafirs have
acted not with wily forethought, but with the most
dastardly cunning. They have found themselves con-
quered by the English, and, after binding themselves
to amity by the most solemn engagements, have seized
the very earliest opportunity to wreak a villanous and
execrable vengeance. They have shown that while
grasping the hands of the colonists with all the osten-
sible sincerity of reconciliation they were actually
cherishing in their hearts thoughts of the most ac-
cursed hatred, of the most odious revenge, of the
most implacable and fiendish turpitude.
Scarcely three days had elapsed after the confer-
ence between the English Governor and the chiefs of
the Kafirs, at which conference the latter consented,
with all seeming friendliness, to receive from the
former his appointment of a new sovereign, when
the weapons of war were again brandished, and the
surrounding country again devoted to the horrors of
massacre and conflagration. SANDILLI, their former
monarch, had bees formally deposed. His successor
had been as formally nominated, and the nomination
of the new potentate had been submissively and even
eagerly recognized. Yet the local rulers of the
English colony had hardly been allowed sufficient
time to appreciate the benefit accruing from these
arrangements, when their hopes of a permanent paci-
fication were dissipated by the sound of another and
a more barbarous assault than any they had already
experienced. This attack, made in the first instance
upon an isolated detachment under the command of
Colonel Macxxxisom, and shortly afterwards extended
further along the frontier, led to the killing and
wounding of three officers and sixteen men, to the
seizure of three villages, and to the butchering
of the inhabitants, amounting altogether to
about seventy individuals. Five days after
the commencement of these atrocities, namely, on
the 29th of December, Colonel SOMERSET appears to
have been violently driven back at the moment when
he was striving to effect an union between his own
troops and those stationed at an advanced post en-
titled Fort Cox, under the authority of Sir HARRY
SMITH himself, the Governor of the colony. En-
trapped, as it were, in this perilous predicament, Sir
HARRY nevertheless contrived to extricate him-
self and his forces from every immediate difficulty,
cutting his way boldly through the insurgent Kafirs,
who endeavoured to impede his movements,
and ultimately establishing the main portion
of his little army in a position of at
least comparative security. After the accom-
plishment of this preliminary enterprise, the veteran
Governor issued a stirring proclamation to the colo-
nists, calling upon them, in the strongest terms
imaginable, to arm themselves and rise en masse in
defence of their possessions. Further than this ac