enclosed for your Lordship's information), and the members of that body, who will require to be re-sworn under my Commission before they can resume their legislative functions, cannot be convened until after the departure of the packet.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) GEO. CATHCART.

DESPATCH from Governor Lieut.-General the Hon. GEORGE CATHCART to Earl GREY.

Government House, Cape of Good Hope, April 5, 1852.

MY LORD,-When I wrote to your Lordship within fourand-twenty hours after my landing on the 31st March, which I was obliged to do, as the mail was on the point of departure, and the formal completion of the Ordinance could not be accomplished in any event in sufficient time to warrant the detention of the packet, I was principally influenced, necessarily, by the opinions of Lieut.-Governor Darling, who had arrived a week before me, and had consequently an advantage in point of time for gaining information.

*

2. The necessity for caution, under existing circumstances, even at the expense of further delay in the course I should adopt with reference to giving my sanction to the Ordinance which had passed the Legislative Council, in consequence of certain material alterations which had been made in it, were strongly urged by him.

3. I, however, lost no time, and spared no pains in personally investigating the subject, in all its bearings, to the best of my abilities.

4. I found that, after much angry debating and some change of opinion, the clauses, in which the qualification and franchise were raised to higher rates than had been contemplated, have

Having sailed in the "Harbinger" a week after the "Hydra" with General Cathcart.

been agreed to by a majority, and that the Ordinance had been thus passed by the Legislative Council.

5. I found that some serious doubts had been started by the members of the Council, as to the effect of my arrival in that stage of the business, and whether it would be good in point of law if I were to give my assent to an Ordinance which had been matured and brought to its last stage, as far as they were concerned, by a Council constituted under the patent and instructions addressed to my predecessor.

6. On consulting the Attorney-General on this point, although he expressed his own opinion that the objection would not be valid, he knew of no precedent, and thought the question might admit of debate.

7. I found that there was alleged to be much dissatisfaction, and some mischievous agitation on foot, with reference to the question of an increased scale of franchise and qualification, which procrastination and suspense might render dangerous; it appeared also that two members, who reside on the eastern frontier, were on the point of taking their departure, and that the general feeling was, that the session was virtually at an end.

8. Under these circumstances I reflected that, with regard to the objectionable clauses of the Ordinance, it would be still practicable, and a measure tending rather to remove than occasion any risk of permanent inconvenience and general dissatisfaction, were they to be lowered, if, when finally considered by Her Majesty in Council, they should be deemed too high; or even subsequently by Act of the future Colonial Parliament, with Her Majesty's confirmation, it would always be practicable to lower them, whilst it would be difficult, if not impossible, in either case, to raise the franchise or qualification, if once finally enacted on too low a scale.

9. Further, I duly considered the 34th clause of your Lordship's Letter of Instruction to my predecessor, dated 15th September, 1851, in which it is positively enjoined that when these Ordinances have been passed by the Legislative Council they shall be transmitted to your Lordship, with a view to their

being altered where necessary, and then finally confirmed by an Order in Council.

With these views, therefore, I determined to make no hindrance to the progress of the Ordinance, but, on the contrary, to endeavour to remove any obstacle that might be thrown in its way. Accordingly, after having, on the 2nd instant, assembled the Legislative Council for the purpose of swearing in the members, including his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, and for other necessary business of routine, I again called them together the following day for the purpose of going through the several stages of the Ordinance de novo at one sitting, with a view to removing all possibility of doubt as to the point of form in respect of my signature, and thereby place these Ordinances in the same relation towards me which they previously bore to my predecessor; and in doing so, I had ascertained that this was in accordance with the views of all the members of the Legislative Council, and had been so expressed by them before my arrival.

10. Lieutenant-Governor Darling, for reasons which he will no doubt himself explain, in the propriety of which I fully concur, did not attend this Council; but the business introduced, on my authority, by the Honourable Mr. Montague, who presided as Chairman, was carried through without any alteration at one sitting without difficulty, and in a satisfactory manner.

11. As I intend to embark this afternoon on board Her Majesty's steam ship "Styx," to proceed to the Buffalo, and thence to King William's Town, where Sir H. Smith awaits my arrival, I trust to Lieutenant-Governor Darling to give your Lordship all further details, together with the debates and minutes, and explain his own views relative to this subject. Although, immediately on landing, Mr. Darling's views and arguments were so strongly in support of a necessity for an attempt to obtain a modification of the Ordinance, as to cause me for a moment to hesitate; he now, on more mature consideration, coincides with me as to its propriety; and it is a further satisfaction to me, that no delay was occasioned by the impossibility of my ob

taining sufficient data to form my own judgment, and act upon it with confidence, before the departure of the mail on the 1st instant, as the Ordinances were not in a sufficient state of completion, from not being reprinted, to have sent them home by that opportunity, even had the packet been detained to any warrantable time.

I have, &c.,

(Signed)

GEO. CATHCART, Governor.

REPORT to the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, prepared, according to Earl GREY's instructions, by the Hon. Lieut.-General G. CATHCART,* for the information of Her Majesty's Government and Parliament.

King William's Town, February 11, 1853. SIR,-In the report I now make of the affairs and conduct of the frontier war of rebellion in Her Majesty's South African possessions, from the time I assumed the command, on the 9th April last, to this date, I will first advert to

1st. The state of things as I found them.

2nd. The course pursued for the gradual but systematic, and, I trust, effectual removal of all obstacles, as far as in my power, to a restoration of a permanent state of peace.

3rd. The actual state of things; and

Lastly. My own views, founded on recent experience and careful consideration of the best measures calculated to prevent recurrence of the evils with which we have had to contend.

First, then, in April, 1852, when I assumed the command, the real state of things as I found them was as follows:

The Gaika Chief Sandilli, and his associate chieftains, with their numerous followers, though somewhat disheartened by recent active and successful operations, and less well provided with ammunition than they had been at the beginning of the war, were all still in occupation of their several locations, and

* See Earl Grey's Despatch in Appendix to Minute, presented to Legisla tive Council, Letter A.

though repeated patrols had passed through them, the rebels had been chased about from one haunt to another, but had never been driven out of their forest haunts; their gardens and crops of Indian corn had been partially destroyed, but so early in the season that a second crop, it appears, had sprung up, which natural consequence was artfully taken advantage of by the Prophet Umlanjeni, who claimed the fact as a miracle worked by his power, and by which ruse his influence was greatly enhanced.

In like manner, although the well-known mountain district of the Kroome range, in which the Waterkloof is only one of six or seven deeply and densely wooded concentric ravines, each several miles in length, radiating to all points of the compass, had been several times gallantly patrolled through, with more or less effect and loss on each occasion, the obstinate Chief Macomo and his two or three thousand Kafir followers had never been expelled from the district, but had dodged from one kloof to another, and re-occupied their former positions as soon as the troops had been withdrawn.

At the time the command was delivered over to me, that obstinate and crafty chief had associated with him the Tambook Chief Quesha, with numerous followers, as well as a very considerable body of rebel Hottentots, well mounted and armed, who were the terror of the colony far within the boundary. These, in mixed bands of from 50 to 100 Kafirs and Hottentots, issuing forth from their secure haunts on marauding forays, plundered the flocks and herds of the surrounding districts to a great amount; and in spite of all precautions, and not without severe encounters and loss of life on both sides, too often carried off their booty and lodged it in security, beyond the possibility of rescue, in their impenetrable receptacles for such stolen property.

At the same time, further south, and also within the colony, the petty Chiefs Seyolo, Stock, and Botman, each at the head of daring followers-among whom were many rebel Hottentotswere lurking in the Keiskamma kloofs and Fish River bush,