21 MAY 1864, Page 2

England has been at war for some eighteen months without

knowing it. The King of Ashantee, it would seem, made a raid into the country called the British Protectorate, a vast tract on Cape Coast inhabited by tribes friendly to British rule. Mr. Richard Pine, Governor of Cape Coast, accordingly determined to punish the King, and sent two black regiments from the West

Indies to capture his capital. The King did not resist, but the climate is telling heavily in his favour, and 200 out of 400 men have been struck down with fever or dysentery, while out of 19 officers 15 have been invalided, The capital is not captured, and it seems not improbable that the whole force will wither away, while the expense, owing to the difficulty of transporting food, is .estimated at 1,000/. a day. Nobody, not even Mr. Cardwell, seems to know anything particular about the matter.