The Government has decided, as we stated a fortnight since,
on finally destroying the Ashantee power. Captain Glover has already sailed to commence the organisation of the native force, and will be followed by twenty picked officers, who by December will have their troops in some kind of order. Operations will then commence, the existing force being headed if necessary by fifteen hundred additional European troops. The objects of the expe- dition are to defeat the Ashantee army, which is actually plant- ing the fields of our subjects, the Fantees ; to make a swift march upon Coomassie, destroy the city, and capture the King ; and finally, to rescue the whole coast from Ashantee attacks. The Government appear to be convinced that the Chief of Ashantee, who every twenty-one days murders a certain number of per- sons, is at war with us for the whole Coast, that he believes he can take our fortresses, and that a complete revolution is essen- tial to our very existence in West Africa. Is it impossible, with the time Lord Kitnberley has at his disposal, to add a few elephants ? They do not die in nutlarious jungle, they can go where nothing else can, and they can carry half-a-dozen guns larger than can be carried either on mules or horses.
