THE LITTLE WAR IN WEST AFRICA,
THE accounts from the Gold Coast are in one way cheering. It is quite evident that the superiority of the civilised over the uncivilised warrior still exists, and that we have officers and men, as in the days of Clive, who do not count numbers, or fear responsibilities, or whine about deficiencies in green peas. Colonel Festing, to begin with, is evidently an officer who, besides being a daring and alert man, can take a very heavy responsibility when necessary. After a dashing night march from Cape Coast Castle to Elmina, whither he arrived on Thursday, the 12th June, he found 3,000 Ashantees
now for the first time shown their steadiness under fire. It die, and why should they, more particularly while they have artillery, and mourns openly over two steel field-pieces still on battle, but he might have known that in an English regiment the sea, which would have tripled the slaughter, which equalled, sickness is prevented by the sound of the guns. There has as it was, the number of Europeans employed. evidently been an extraordinary amount of sanguineness at the All this is most satisfactory, and entirely in accordance Colonial Office, and there is now just that reluctance to spend with English precedent. The regular thing with the British a little money which, in the end, forces us into costly expedi- Government is to take possession of a new colony, or province, tions. Lord Kimberley may fancy that the public do not care, or island, and leave it without sufficient armed force, where- and would be content if we had to quit the Colony for a time, upon the colony or province being attacked by "Natives," a but he is utterly in the wrong. A distinct English defeat, few European officers and men are scraped together, dis- and especially a defeat by savages, would rouse England as affection is stamped out by some tremendous deed, the right nothing else could ; and it is quite possible, while preventing men turn up, and by reckless contempt of everything but the that, so to organise our West-Coast dominion as to render necessity of abolishing anybody who is firing on the flag— external attack simply impossible. If we do not do this, if dashing up, as Captain Fremantle did, within pistol-shot in we leave the King of Ashantee undestroyed, we shall, even if order to encourage the men—pull the Government out of its we escape from this scrape, in no long time have another scrape by the hair of the head, and then subside into the mass, Abyssinian Expedition on our hands.
apparently forgotten, but strictly remembered when the next The Colonial Office have appointed Mr. G. Berkeley hour of danger arrives. The skirmish of Effotoo was like one Governor-in-Chief of the Coast, a selection which may be wise of our early Indian exploits, the actual victory being due to or foolish, but cannot be as wise as the selection of a good one Lieutenant Lewis F. Wells, who, not having had the original Indian soldier. Any civilian must be out of place in the fire quite taken out of him by red-tape, on his own judgment and position for the next five years, for he can only give advice, not without orders flung his 275 men upon some 2,000 Ashantees, direct orders to the troops and men-of-war. At least the old exactly at the moment and in the style required, taking Indian etiquette of adding the commission of Captain-General, advantage, even while charging, of any shelter open for not to be produced except in the last emergency, should have his men. He would have done it just as coolly if the been followed, on a coast where a colonel of marines and a Ashantees had been, like Olive's opponents, 100,000 strong. post-captain congratulate each other on their harmony. It The early chroniclers of the Indian Empire tell us would, however, be wiser to send an Indian, and we gladly dozens of such stories ; but pleasant as they are, they throw our vote, as the Times and Pall Mall have done, for do not, in this instance, quite remove our sense of Colonel Gordon, with the local rank of General.
danger. The Ashantees fought well, though daunted by the new weapons ; they have not retired to any distance ; and Captain Fremantle has had to send the Seagull THE EDUCATION ACT AMENDMENT BILL. to protect Disco, a small station and fort on the Coast, MR. FAWCETT was the Parliamentary hero of Thursday
threatened by 3,06 more of the barbarians. Colonel Festing night. He seems to us to have taken a large and has asked for reinforcements from Cape' Coast Castle, and statesmanlike view of every question involved in the amend- from this latter place we have no information whatever. It ment of the Education Act, and his opinion is the better was exposed at the date of the latest information to attacks worth having, that he confesses himself abstractedly a seen- from the King himself, who commands the main body of the lariat, though compelled by historical and economical
besieging Elmina Castle, and supported by the inhabitants of army of which the forces at Elmina and Discove are detach- the "King's Quarter " of Elmina, who have always since the ments, who can ensure a stubbornness in his men not shown cession been more or less disaffected. They were ordered to at Elmina, who cannot retreat to his own territory without a surrender their arms, under a regular decree from the Adminis- fight, and who obviously intends to try an assault by swarming trator, but their chiefs after a personal interview with Colonel up scaling ladders,—possibly at night, when his followers Festing distinctly refused, and after repeated warnings to the cannot see their own losses. The Ashantees fighting singly inhabitants orders were issued for the most serious of all are most formidable men, and their King may have—a local operations, the destruction of a British town by bombardment. writer says he has—with his guard a small supply of revolvers. In a quarter of an hour the town was destroyed, and Colonel There must be a fierce struggle there before the affair ter- Festing agreed with Captain Fremantle to meet the Ashantees minates, and as the Himalaya was not expected for weeks, where Asiatics and Africans should always be met, in the and it must be long before the Simoom arrives, it may Open, and with 104 Marines and the 250 men of the Barra- yet go hard with a garrison which has not only to couta and other vessels, supported by an unknown police force keep itself alive, but to protect as far as it can the of busses, under Mr. Loggie, Inspector of Police, armed with 30,000 friendly Fantees, who, though defeated, have the Snider, they attacked the enemy. The Ashantees, after a been loyal, and who ought not to be deserted. We pre- stout resistance, finding the Snider too powerful, retreated in same that both men and guns have been forwarded to Cape confusion, and the affair was supposed to be over, when the Coast Castle before this, and in quantities ; but they may still Ashantees, who appear to have been much better led than be too late, and the public has still an account to demand of usual, attacked Effotoo, a suburb of Elmina, in full force, the Colonial Office. They must have known, for every Mission- thinking apparently, as Colonel Festing had no guns, to creep ary on the Coast knew, that the annexation would annoy both towards him under cover. The British, however, though the King of Ashantee, who used to compromise with the terribly weary,—for all this occurred under an African sun in Dutch, but knew his English foes too well, and the Elminas, June—immediately advanced again, but being outflanked by who would be interrupted in many most objectionable dealings. the Ashantees, could scarcely move, when the kind of man They knew, or ought to have known, that an insurrection was who always makes his appearance in these scrimmages sud- possible, and why did they not provide against it I We do not denly turned up. " The Barracouta's men came up on our ask them, and nobody else will, to send a European regiment
right, and Lieutenant Wells saw our opponents, who were too into a station where it might gradually wither away, and busily engaged with us to observe his approach. He extended where officers and men alike would succumb to the ennui which
his men in skirmishing order and quickly drove their skirmishers the African climate produces when there is no work at hand ; out of a large garden, where they were establishing themselves, but it would have been easy to send stores, to increase the num- and advanced to the shelter of a wall about four feet high, ber of the police, who turned their Sniders to such account, from which he poured a heavy fire into their retreating and above all, to have developed the Fantee Militia. There
skirmishers and their main body, which was then massed on are 120,000 fighting men to be had within our own dominion. the plain. The enemy were outflanked and staggered by this Twenty officers, two per thousand, and perhaps twenty thou-
unexpected attack, when Colonel Festing ordered a general sand rifles, and one battery of light artillery, would have advance, arid a running fight ensued across the salt plain (the been all that would have been required, would even now be enemy attempting to make a stand occasionally), past a village all that is required, to settle for ever the question with the called Achimum till they were completely defeated and driven Ashantees. They could march on Coomassie, execute the into the bush, leaving the plain strewed with their dead." King, and release the tribes held down by his atrocious The Ashantees were commanded by distinguished chiefs, and sovereignty. If officers cannot be expended in such service, fought with unusual gallantry, re-forming three times ; but they ask for non-commissioned officers who have been acclimatised could not stand either the Snider or the sailors, most of whom in India, and who would be delighted with local commissions, we hope are our new A.B.'s, once ragged schoolboys, who have whatever the chance of death might be. Mr. Loggie does not
was a most gallant piece of work, and deserves all the more exciting work to do g Capt. Fremantle, evidently an excellent credit because Colonel Festing had not received any pieces of officer, seems to have served out quinine even while going into
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