Lord Grey on Friday published a letter in the Times
on the Ashantee war which, after the feeble rubbish talked by some of our statesmen and by the Times itself on this question, is like a refreshing breeze. He holds that England should hold the forts on the Gold Coast by English troops ; should make a Sepoy army of Houma ; should enforce, wherever necessary, peace and order, and should levy a revenue of their own. He declines to admit that our responsibility is all to our own pockets, with none to Africa ; avers that our trade might be indefinitely increased if we but kept order, and asks if the work costs lives, how they can be better spent :—" Nor yet are those who die early in the brave discharge of their duty, while carrying forward measures having for their object the good of an unhappy and degraded race, any objects of compassion. Far more to be pitied are those who, content with their selfish enjoyment of the comforts of civilised life in this luxurious age and country, drag on useless lives to the longest term of years allotted to man."
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