LORD STANLEYsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether there is official confirmation of the report contained in yesterday's African intelligence, to the effect that a 390 fresh war has broken out among the tribes near Lagos, and that British troops have taken part in the war; and, if so, whether such interference has taken place by order or with the permission of the British Government?
§ MR. CARDWELL, in reply, said, he had received an official confirmation of the report to which the noble Lord referred. It was not, however, that a new war had broken out among the tribes near Lagos, but, on the contrary, the termination of the war that had so long raged and had been attended by such disastrous consequences to the colony. It was true that British troops took part in the decisive action which terminated that war. That interference was not in consequence of any per mission or directions from the Home Government, as all their orders had been to the Governor to avoid any interference with the Native tribes. The Governor justified the step which he took upon this occasion upon the ground that the colony was threatened with invasion, and therefore his proceedings were but in self-defence. The accounts he had received led him (Mr. Cardwell) to believe that the affair had been conducted with very great skill and gallantry by an inferior force against a vastly superior force. The result bad been a decisive success without the loss of a single man of Her Majesty's troops, and he should have much pleasure in laying the papers on the table.