THE ASHANTEE WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4125, 10 June 1874, Page 3

THE ASHANTEE WAR.

The following is an American view of the last days of the Ashautee war. It is that of Mr. J. M. Stanley, the well-known correspondent of the New York Z/c/’rtW—who accompanied General Napier in the Abyssinia war, tlie finder of Livingstone, and the New York Herald's correspondent on the Gold Const—ami was published iu that journal in the course of April last : —• THY KINGDOM IS PASSED AWAY. The Ashautee Kingdom has collapsed like the bladder to which it was aptly compared. There were six groat tributary kings, who were the main props of Ashautee proper. One has died, and las people are scattered. The Kings of r/wabin and Adansi have expressed their willingness to surrender, and have abjured their allegiance to Ashautee. The supreme King is a fugitive, hurrying with a disorganised army towards some point in the North ; Coomassie is a mere smoking ruin, and Ashautee is henceforth but a name. These arc groat indisputable facts, which go far to amend Sir Garnet V/olselcy’s faults and failings as Since all lias ended well, promising a still better end, it is hardly worth while to criticise one who I have no doubt in England will bo henceforth lauded most handKMiuoly, and who as a soldier has distinguished himself worthily. WOLHKLEY AH A COMMANDER. I know I shall run counter to the majority in my opinion of Sir Garnet, but my duty does not lie in following the views of the majority, but in expressing what I think of Sir Garnet’s conduct iu this campaign, and my reasons fur this view of him. I make the following charges against him :—• First —He did not pay attention to the control department of his expedition .sufficient to save it from the constant series of failures which must bo attributed to' it, which on a campaign so peculiar as this ought to have had his continual and unceasing care and attention. Haro ad —lie ■was too vacillating in his demands upon the King, entertained too serious a regard for what Fxotcr Hall might say, to the detriment of the mission imposed on him. Third —He frittered away his time when the King’s treachery was evident, in seeking to recall and win him to friendly alliance by treaty with him, when he should have directed a watchful eye upon the enemy’s capital, wliich Jay, to use Jus own •words, at Ills mercy. Fourth, —He did not adopt the usual precautions of guarding the capital from night attack, fire or plunder, \intil the city had been fired and almost wholly plundered by the retreating enemy. Fifth , —He gave no orders prolubiting plunder by Ins own troops until one was already caught iu the act, and most cruelly strangled as an example, when it might have been prevented by a timely proclamation and adopting proper precaution. Hhih. —Owing to the failure of his transport lie was obJiged to retreat from Coomassie before Lis full duty was accomplished. No one Is positively sure that Coomassic was cn- , tircly burned (except Captain Sartoiius, who

came in five days afterwards), as we could not wait to witness the effect of the conflagration or the mines. Seventh. —The most important place of all, viz., the Bantammah, or tho sacred city—the Mecca of Ashauteo, distant a mile or so from Coomassie was not even visited, nor was Aminecha, tho King’s country residence, touched, though it was so near. Kijhtli. —Tire most serious next to the seventh mistake Sir Garnet committed was tho permission he gave the Ashautucs to leave Coomassie with arms in their hands before he had come to any terms whatever with them. 0 IiNEUAL COXCI.USIOS.S. But all these errors and omissions, which are only enumerated in order that you may be able to judge Sir Garnet accurately, are made to appear small by the series of things which have happened since Sir Garnet’s hasty rctro.it from Coomassie, over which Sir Garnet personally had no control, hut were the happy results of the perpetual defeats the Ashautees had suffered at the hands of British troops in the battles preceding the fall of Coomassie. These happy accidents, all tending to crown a successful campaign witli glory, may, therefore, iu a great measure atone for the faults and failings of the General commanding. The desired end lias been attained—The Ashauteo power lias been crushed, I thoroughly believe, irrevocably, and this was the object of the British expedition to Coomassie. But supposing, as cadi of us had a right to suppose, judging from what an astute and stubborn enemy might have done, that the Ashautee spies had dogged the footsteps of the rapidly retreating British army, and the King had set to work to surround and destroy Glover with the guns which Sir Garnet permitted the Ashautees to hear away from Coomassie, what would the world have said of a General who had cruelly and needlessly abandoned such a gallant fellow as Captain Glover to his fate ? Supposing that the Ashautees had, upon the retreat of tho British army, immediately taken it into their heads to rebuild Coomassie, which they could easily do within a week, and had begun to inaugurate a new era of conquest on the Eautees and their neighbors, and were congratulating themselves that, though defeated, they were not crushed ; that, though Coomassie had been destroyed, tho sacred city had not been touched, what would the world have said of a general who, entrusted with such a cosily expedition, did not make his work thorough while lie had them at his mercy ? But why need we go further ? The Ashautee expedition is at an cud. By a scries of accidents it has ended happily, and Sir Garnet Wolseley and the Government of Great Britain may congratulate themselves heartily and with good reason, that “ All’s well that ends well.”