On Thursday, Lord Carnarvon asked a question of Lord Kimberley,
as to whether the recent accounts from the Gold Coast, published in the Times, were true. Two African steamers having gone to the bottom, the Colonial Secretary officially knew nothing, but admitted that he thought the accounts true, and intended to send some provisions and stores to Cape Coast Castle. We fear that amount of precaution will prove inadequate. As we understand the reports from the Coast, the - Ashantees are masters of Elmina, the town having been first burnt by Colonel Festing, and are besieging Elmina castle. - Moreover, the King of Asha.ntee in person, with an immense force, having totally defeated the -Fantees, is lying twelve miles from Cape Coast Castle, where the only water drinkable by Europeans has been reduced to a few inches in some tanks. If Lord Kimberley is not a little more energetic, we may have a catastrophe, which -would cost a war, and blow him instantly out of power. We have tried elsewhere to point out what an Indian Government, which can fight, would do in a contingency which appears too serious for our Departments.
