CHAPTER XVII. IN ENGLAND SINCE THE EXPEDITION. CAUSES OF CONFUSION AS TO SOME OF THE FACTS-THE ADMINISTRATOR AND GENERAL-THE DOUBLE EXPEDI TION WAS THE ASHANTEE WAR UNNECESSARY AND AFTER all, the true object of writing is not merely to place on paper a statement of certain facts, but if possible to convey the truth as to those facts to the reader. It has happened oddly enough from a variety of circumstances, that there has been in relation to the Ashantee War a hitch in this respect due to some very curious circumstances. For one thing, we at the Gold Coast proposed to send home certain information, but the winds and waves, the telegraph, and, generally speaking, an incalculably erratic mail service, disposed of what we sent in the funniest way. Every one knows how tantalizing is the process of waiting from month to month for the parts of an exciting novel coming out in a magazine. But how if the February number came out before the January, and the March number appeared so quickly after the January that, the February number being quite forgotten, the March events were supposed to be a sort of direct continuance of the January! How if, moreover, as fast as one number appeared all the earlier ones were for practical purposes lost and forgotten, and this kind of hodge-podge was all the while going on? Supposing, now, the novel were republished in connected and complete form, what would happen? Would not all those who had read it in its earlier stage be apt to skim the pages which they fancied that they knew, and therefore to derive their chief impression of the whole purport and gist of the story from the confused muddle of the earlier form of the tale ? Now that is very much indeed what has happened this time, not in relation to any one of those accounts of the war which have been sent home, but in relation to the general upshot and idea of the war as it has reached England. The official despatches appear to have arrived in an even more hopelessly inconsequent order than the newspaper letters. It is really almost pathetic to look at the way in which the despatches arranged in the order of their reaching England fit in crossways upon one another. The entanglement is something amazing. Hence I have ventured to give this chapter the heading of "In England since the Expedition," because gradually since our return we have found out what the errors were which have become current in consequence of this erratic communication and of some other causes, and may hope to point out more effectually what the truth is, now that we know them. A GENERAL "WITHOUT INSTRUCTIONS." 385 The means that one has of knowing what people are thinking generally at home are very complex. The ordinary talk of society; the broad assumptions of newspapers, &c., &c. One is necessarily dealing with the ephemeral, and must therefore allude to ephemeral matter which is usually supposed to die away at once-a supposition which, in so far as its effects are concerned, I believe contains an enormous exaggeration. First, then, to deal with a mistaken assumption of very great importance, which has strangely attained currency, but the currency of which is not attributable to our erratic postal-service. In making a speech at the Mansion House, Sir Garnet -obviously in disparagement of his own merits-pointed out how great an advantage it had been to him to be able to deal with King Coffee as diplomatist as well as General. This remark has been attacked on two grounds. One of these attacks has been answered by the narrative, and may be left safely to it now that the letters which actually passed have been given. This consisted in the charge that the King outwitted the General, not the General the King. The other was raised by the Spectator. The writer assumed that the General meant that he had been left and ought to have been left entirely without "instructions." One feels considerably puzzled how to deal with a very curious mistake made by a paper which exercises so large an influence. It is not surprising that ladies at dinner-parties, and even men of considerable political experience, should on such authority speak as if it were со possible that such a thing could have occurred. In fact it would have been simply impossible, under any conditions whatever, that a General should be so commissioned to act without orders. Sir Garnet was furnished with elaborate instructions, both by Lord Kimberley and by Mr. Cardwell. These are to be read by those who desire to examine them in C. 891, pages 140, 141, 142, 143, and 144, but it does not seem necessary to give them in full. As is acknowledged again and again in the course of the correspondence, Sir Garnet's action was nothing but the faithful and exact carrying out of those instructions, in so far as they were sufficiently explicit for his guidance, so that their nature may be gathered from his conduct. As has been noticed in the course of the narrative (page 90, &c.), the responsibility of deciding on the necessity for the march to Coomassie, and of the sending of English troops, was so far left to him that he was required to state his reasons for considering the one advisable and for asking for the other. But even in this instance, the Government reserved the right of decision. As to the nature of the treaty he was to make, he was furnished with instructions as precise as could have been possibly given beforehand. The only instance in which Sir Garnet, finally forced by facts, modified his exact adherence to these, was in the case of the alliance with the King of Adansi, a modification which has since been universally approved and for which the General nevertheless apologised as being simply inevitable to avoid the massacre of the tribe. THE FACTS OF THE CASE. 387 It is almost curiously the case, that in nearly every despatch the terms "In accordance with the instructions received from your lordship" are repeated. One little passage in the correspondence will, however, perhaps best bring this out. It happened that at one period the Government became alarmed by the comments which were made at home on their preparations, and in a despatch, in many ways noteworthy, wrote thus: "The Earl of Kimberley to Sir G. Wolseley. "DOWNING STREET, Oct. 6, 1873. "SIR,-The preparations which have been made by the Military and Naval Departments to place you in full possession of all the means necessary for success in your important mission, have given rise to very numerous conjectures and speculations as to the intentions entertained by her Majesty's Government. "It is not necessary for me to warn you against being misled by expressions which will not fail to reach you, of these unauthorised anticipations, and to insist again upon the cautions which have been conveyed to you in former despatches. *”—C. 892, p. 52. * This was written, it will be observed, before the Government had had time to receive any reports of what the General had done. It elicited a reply, in which the following occurs :— |