8 MARCH 1851, Page 7

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FRANCE.—The Assembly discussed on Saturday the proposition of M. Creton to repeal the law exiling the family of the Bourbons. M. Berryer opposed the motion on the principle which be now openly avows, that the Due de Chambdril is not an exiled Frenchman, but an extruded King of France; that sovereign could accept no permission to reenter his own hereditary dominions. M. Thiem and M. Piscatory supported the mo- tion; and the divergent policy of the supporters of the elder and younger branches of the exiled family was thought to signify that the breach be- tween the Legitimists and the Orleanists is still as wide as ever. M. Royer, the Minister of Justice, distinctly avowed that the Government is favourable to the principle of the bill, but deems the present moment inopportune for enacting it. The discussion seemed about to find an early and uninteresting ending, when an extraordinary provocative to interest was thrown in by M. Dufraisse, representative for the Dordogne, one of the most able and resolute of the members of the Mountain. M. Dufraisse declared that the laws of proscription are just, and ought to be maintained.

"The Revolution cannot ask pardon of the dynasties it has justly upset. Have the family of Orleans laid aside the claims of their birth ? Have they rendered homage to the sovereignty of the nation ? Do not the descendants of St. Louis continually dispute the independence and the conquests of the people? You tell us royalty never dies : we reply, nor does its punishment. If the principle of sovereignty is eternal, so shall its punishment be eternal. This is but logic. The law ought to chastise the voluntary representatives, the willing heirs, of a principle which the people have abolished. Unhappy princes! I mistrust your tenderness." M. Dufraisse by inference vindicated the decapitation of Louie the Sixteenth, anl then exclaimed, in fierce warn- ing to the Mountain, "The men of old who voted against the death of Louis the Sixteenth meditated a return to royalty." This defiance of the Legitimists and justification of regicide provoked a perfect storm of passion among the .Right. Members contended with fierce violence to occupy the tribune and denounce such detestable doc- trines, with the infamous wretch who uttered them. M. Berryer, trembling and pale with passion, declared that he and his party considered themselves as not free agents in deliberation, while such sentiments were uttered from the tribune. He proposed to adjourn the discussion for six months ; and though this course was strenuously opposed by M. Thiers and his party,

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it was carried. An eye-witness of the scene n the Assembly writes- ' The pale head, compressed lips, intense expression, and resolute accent -of the young lawyer of the Mountain, reminded the audience, not with- out a shudder, of such a thoroughbred Jacobin of '93 as St. Just, when, nothing daunted by the fists shaken in his face and the menaces threatened arcomd him he recalled to mind that the grandfather of the Princes whose banishment they wanted to repeal, had himself voted the King's death." On Tuesday, Paris was fully occupied in the out-of-door ceremonies and celebrations of the feast of Mardi-Gras ; which have gone off with far greater show and e 1.;oyment than oo either of the two preceding years of the Republic.

TORKEY AND EGYPT.—Neithee the latest news from Constantinople nor the newt froon Alexandria by the overland mail give any confirma- tion of the reports lately disseminated in Western Europe through the Austrian telegraph, of extraordinary demands by the Turkish Sultan on his feudatory the Pasha of Egypt. A letter from Constantinople, of the 17th of February, announces that time questions between the Austrian Government and the Ottoman Porte respecting the Hungarian refugees have received the following settlement.

"The Emperor of Austria has granted a full and entire amnesty to those refugees, on condition that they shall declare that they Will not make any

attempt to reenter Hungary. Eight of them, however, are excepted from this amnesty, and are to remain at Kutayeh until further orders. Amongst those excepted are Kossuth and Count Batbyany. The Porte is to Bend a commissary to that town, accompanied by M. Eder, an attacheof the Auso trian Legation, to identify those amnestied and to receive their declaration. Those persons are then to proceed to Moudania, where they will find a Turkish ship to convey them where they please. The Turkish Government will defray their expenses by sea and land. General Deuabinaki is expected daily at lonstantinople; where he is permittted to reside, under the protec- tion of the French Ambassador."

THH CA.FE OF Goon HOPE. —The anticipated Caffre outbreak has taken place and in its first violence has inflicted on the British arms a serious and disgraceful loss.

The assembly of chide summoned by Sir Harry Smith at King Was liam's Town in British Caffraria will be recollected, and the deposition of Sandilli on his wilful absence from that meeting. After deposing Flandilli,

appointing Mr. Brownlee to execute his duties, and receiving the sub- missive adherence of the other chiefs, Sir Harry Smith returned to Cape

Town. News soon came in that Sandilli was preparing to contest time

reality of his deposition. Sir Harry Smith hastened rapidly back to East London, and passed on to King William's Town in the centre of British Caffritria. On the 19th December, the T'Slambie chiefs assembled at Fort Murray, on the summons of Mr. M`Lean, the Commissioner of the T'Slambie tribes. The insincerity of the most influential men was

then very apparent : the capture of Sandilli was politely declined by all, as an attempt so impossible for the prowess of any of them as to be amusing to think of. At a meeting of the Gaikas, held on the same day by the Governor, at Fort Cox, Sutu, the mother of Sandilli, the " great widow" of Gaika, was appointed chief ruler of the tribe, in the place of Sandilli. In the three days following this meeting, information more and more definite was received through the Caffre Police, of the lurking-

place in which Sandilli was concealed. It was resolved to attempt a sudden blow by arresting him. Colonel Mackinnon was to march from

Fort Cox up the banks of the Keiskemma with six hundred troops, direct on Sandilli, while Lieutenant Eyre was to cut him off from re- treat into the strong holds of the Gaika tribe in the Amatola Moun- tains. Colonel Mackinnon started on the 24th December; his van-

guard being ninety-two of the Caffre Police before mentioned. While they were in a gorge, which shut in the swift river so closely that our men could only march in single file, a deadly fire was poured in upon every part of the force except the Caffie Police. It was with extreme difficulty that the defile was forced. The Graham's Town Journal states the disastrous loss sustained-

" Assistant-Surgeon Stuart, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, was killed, and Brigade-Major Bisset, of the same corps, was severely wounded. Lieutenant Catty, of the Sixth Regiment, was wounded, and it is generally reported that

he is since dead. One corporal and nine privates of the Sixth Regiment, and one corporal of the Seventy-third Regiment, were killed, and five men of the Sixth and two of the Seventy-third were wounded. Private letters add, what is not stated in the official report, that the baggage of the troops, in- cluding an ammunition-waggon, was lost, and that the dead were left an the ground."

Two singular facts in connexion with this engagement are, that Colonel Somerset states the Caffre Police behaved like the other troops, admira- bly; and yet that next day the whole body deserted, with their horses and arms, to the enemy. Since the events, it seems perfectly clear that to their deep treachery the whole disaster was due. Of course the expee

dition totally failed of its object against Sandilli: Colonel Mackinnon led his men by a long compass round to Fort White, where he arrived on the 25th December ; and he immediately sent orders to Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre to fall back with his intercepting force on William's Town. As soon as the Gaikas were in the open field, they hemmed in Sir Harry Smith at Fort Co; investing his hundreds of men

with more than as many thousands. Colonel Somerset, at Fort Hare, sent a body to his relief ; which was driven back. He him- self set out on the 29th, in much greater strength, to force the pas- sage. The Caffres attacked him in immense numbers, and with

most determined courage. They were well armed with guns and spears. After four hours of hard fighting, in the early part of which a small piece

of artillery was used with great effect, but the end of which was waged hand to hand, Colonel Somerset was compelled to withdraw from the con- test, to abandon the piece of artillery, and to retire to Fort Hare, whence

he started. Lieutenant Melvin and Lieutenant and Adjutant Gordon, of the Ninety-first Regiment, were killed ; and Ensign Borthwick, of the Ninety-first, was wounded. About twenty privates fell, and many more were wounded.

The struggle, thus disastrously commenced in two or three set engage- ments, was quickly carried on all along the Caffre frontier. The military villages of Woburn, Auckland, and Joannasburg, were attacked ; their male inhabitants, to the number of some seventy, butchered ; and their women and children carried offi or turned adrift nearly naked, to reach the Forts as they best could.

As the attempt by Colonel Somerset to communicate with Sir Harry Smith was so signally defeated, some anxiety was felt for Sir Harry in his

isolated position. On the 31st, however, he arrived safely at King William's

Town. Wearing the cap of a trooper to escape being made a target, he put himself at the head of two hundred and fifty men, and dashed through the masses of Caffres without any casualty. He had left a force at Fort Cox, well provisioned, and fully sufficient in numbers to maintain them- selves till reliefs could be brought up. Of course, the whole of the South African colony was in an extraordi- nary ferment of warlike preparation. The Eastern Districts of the colony, as well as British Caffraria, had been put under martial-law by Sir Harry Smith ; and he had proclaimed _a levy en masse of all persons between eighteen and fifty years of age, to "destroy and exterminate these most

barbarous and treacherous savages, who for the moment are formidable." Troops had already left Cape Town for the mouth of the Buffalo Rive; on which King William' a Town is situated; and levies of volunteers, promptly collected by the offer of liberal bounties, hastened to the scene of contest It is reiterated also in the latest accounts, that Palo with his important tribe is decidedly friendly to us; and it was expected that Native

aid would march down to our assistance from the Natal colony. There was an immense concourse of settlers, who have lost all their cattle and crops, at Graham's Town; and the Caffres had advanced in their depredations to within a mile and a half of that ton: but the general feeling was more revengeful than elevated; it we* thought that the greatest reverse MA already been suffered, and that "if the Burghers were allowed to act for themselves, they would settle the war for good."

The "Burgher Levies "—that is, the colonists who arc called upon by the Governor to rise on masse to aid her Majesty's troops—have an in- vincible repugnance to serve under the immediate command of military officers ; and the Committee of Public Safety of Port Elizabeth, with the principal inhabitants of that place, and of Mancazana, Somerset, and Uitenhage, have signed requisitions to Sir Andries Stockenstrom, calling upon him to return to the Frontier, which he had just left with the in- tention of proceeding on his mission to England, and to resume the office of General Commandant of all the "Burgher and Native Levies," in which capacity he performed signal service in the last Caffre war.

INDIA AND CRINA.—Letters by the overland mail from Bombay, of the 3d February, arrived in London on Tuesday. The intelligence is of a secondary and chiefly personal interest. Sir Charles Napier left Bombay by the steamer which brings the mail, and is by this time in the South of Europe on his way home : ho intended to leave Malta for Naples, instead of coming through France. From the Indian newspapers we learn that, in his farewell speeches at Kurrachee and Bombay, Sir Charles very ex- plicitly said why he resigned his command- " When he first was made Commander-in-chief, he thought he was to be Commander-in-chief in truth ; but he soon found out that lie was not to be Commander-in-chief at all, but only a sort of monster Adjutant. He had been dictated to on military matters by boy Politicals, who knew nothing whatever of military science." "It is this, gentlemen, this," said Sir Charles, "that has caused me to resign my command. I have been thus explicit with you because I am among my own Bombay officers once more. It is this, I repeat, that has caused me to resign." Assam and Scinde, on the Eastern and Western extremities of the em- pire, have both suffered from slight incursions of the adjacent predatory tribes. We lately sent a small force from Assam against the Agami Nag,as; this people lately retaliated by an incursion into our territory, in the course of which they "murdered three British subjects, and carried away twenty-seven men, women, and children." It was "supposed" that a force would be sent against them, under Colonel Lester, "as the troops already sent did not appear sufficient."

The affair in Scinde has been illustrated by a brilliant display of bravery by a party of the Scinde Horse ; a corps which some Indian writers maintain to be superior to British cavalry, the men being equal to English troopers in bravery and self-confidence, and superior to them in the management of their horses and weapons. "On the 24th of December, a party of mounted plunderers made a foray from the hills of the Western frontier, and carried off a few scores of camels. As soon as the intelligence of the incursion reached Kund Khote, Jemadar Doorga Singh, in command of the detachment of Scinde Horse stationed there, set off in pursuit, taking with him a Dufedar and fifteen troopers, with four Beloochee guides. After a long pursuit, during which several of their horses dropped from fatigue, the Jemadar and the few who had kept up with him got sight of the robbers, about fifteen in number ; who thereon abandoned their booty and took to flight, Doorga Singh mounting a fresh horse and continuing the pursuit. On reaching the foot of the hills, the robbers turned and showed front, having been reinforced by a fresh party of horsemen, and between thirty and forty armed foot, while all of Doorga Bingh's party that had been able to keep up with him were two of the Scinde Horse and one of the Beloochee guides. The latter recommended the Jema- dar to give up further pursuit ; but he replied, that the guide might go back if he was afraid, but that he himself could not face his commanding- officer if after sighting the robbers he did not attack and kill some of them. He then went at them, followed by his two Sewers and the Beloochee." His party was surrounded, and every one of them but the guide was cut to pieces. As the brave Jemadar fell mortally wounded, he had the presence of mind to call out "God be praised! here they come!" the robbers were panic-stricken, and decamped instantly, without an attempt to plunder the bodies or carry off the camels they had stolen. The guide survived to tell the story. The bodies were all recovered, and the booty recaptured.

The chronic ailments of the government of the Nizam continue to prey on the vitals of that state. The tone of the Indian press is one of impa- tient eagerness for the moment when the pear shall be ripe and real an- nexation be consummated. The authorities, however, seem in no haste. The Bombay correspondent of the Times writes- " No steps have as yet been taken by the Supreme Government for en- forcing its just claims on the Nizam. It is rumoured that the Board of Con- trol have for the present put a veto on the occupation of any portion of the Nizam's territory in satisfaction for the debt ; and it is surmised that Sir John Hobhouse would prefer a species of Commission (like the existing My- sore Commission) for regulating and settling the Nizam's affairs. It is cer- tain that no movements of troops have taken place such as would be re- quired for supporting a step of such gravity as the occupation of Berar. Meanwhile, the state of the country is becoming daily worse ; there is no Minister, and the Nizam secludes himself in his harem and indulges in strong drink to a very lamentable extent. An outbreak has occurred among the Rohilla prisoners confined in the Nizam's fort of Daroor. They have obtained possession of the fort. A force consisting of five breaching guns, 600 infantry, and 300 cavalry of the Contingent, has been sent against them."

The accounts from Hongkong bring news to the 29th December. Sick- ness still prevailed to a great extent among the troops ; "while the ship- ping and civil community continued remarkably healthy." Mr. Fast, a Swedish missionary, had been murdered by pirates in the Min River ; but the Chinese authorities, behaving with unwonted energy, had captured the offenders, and beheaded twenty-eight of them.