The 7Vmes of Friday publishes an immense letter from a
corre- spondent who, inJuly, was in the Kraton of Acheen, giving a full ac- count of the position of the Dutch. It is not, on the whole, favour- able. The Acheenese, he says, are braver than any other coloured race, except perhaps the Sikhs ; are always ready for a hand-to- hand fight, and have "any quantity" of iron muzzle-loading cannon,—most of them, it is imagined, cast in the country itself. They will fight to the death, and are by no means cast down as to the course of -the war. On the other hand, the correspondent hints, the General is not quite up to his work, does not hit hard enough or frequently enough, and is too much inclined to a policy of conciliation. He is assured that Holland has not the force to do more than keep on pegging away, but remarks that in this case the Government of the Hague had better wait till it has con- centrated its resources. At present, though much money is spent, the reinforcements do not quite supply the waste from sickness. The account reacts truthful, and is evidently intended to warn the Dutch Parliament, but perhaps the,writer is hardly aware how swiftly resistance in the East sometimes collapses. The Acheenese may die fighting, but they may also retreat into the interior, and carve out a new State for themselves.
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