and the chief power was transferred to a company of African mer chants. In 1831 the king was obliged to purchase peacs at the price of 6000 ounces of gold, and to send his son as a hostage to Cape Coast Castle. Since this event the Ashantee power has be come extinct on the coast. By the treaty concluded at the end of the war, the river Prah was fixed as the boundary of the Ashantee kingdom, and all the tribes to the south of it were placed under British protection.
In 1843 the Crown resumed the government of the Gold Coast. Towards the end of 1852 the Ashantee monarch seemed disposed to interfere with the states absolved from his jurisdiction. Two Assin chiefs, who had revolted from Ashantee and joined the Fantee alliance, were discovered to be intriguing with the king of Ash- antee ; and that monarch, under pretext of making "custom" for the late chief of Denkera, crossed the Prah with a force of about 7000 men. These warlike movements naturally excited much un easiness at Cape Coast Castle, but the negotiations of the authorities were successful in averting the storm. From. 1853 to 1863 there was peace between Ashantee and the Government of Cape Coast Castle ; but in. the latter year disagreements broke out on account of a refusal to deliver up certain Ashantee refugees. In 1867 it was agreed that all the Dutch forts to the east of the Sweet River should be handed over to Britain in exchange for all the British forts to the west of that river. Unexpected difficulties, however, arose, which led the Dutch Government to offer all their possessions in that district to Britain, on certain commercial privileges being guaranteed to them. Hereupon the king of Ashantee objected to the transfer of Fort Elmina ; but the superiority he alleged was completely disproved, and the proposal took effect on April 6, 1872.
Meanwhile another matter of dispute arose between the king and the English. Messrs Ku hne, Ramsayer, and Palmer, and a French man named Bonnat, having been inveigled into captivity by an Ashantee chief, the British Government demanded their surrender ; but this, on various pretexts, was obstinately refused by the king. War had for some time been imminent, and at length, on January 22, 1873, au Ashantee force crossed the Prah, and invaded the British protectorate. The importance of the invasion was soon recognised, not only by the local authorities, but by the Govern ment at home ; and measures were taken for the defence of the territory and the punishment of the assailants, which ultimately culminated in the despatch of Sir Garnet Wolseley as her Majesty s administrator, 800,000 being voted in parliament for the expenses of the expedition. On landing (October 2) at Cape Coast, he found that the Ashantee nation was in arms to the number of 40,000 ; the Fantee tribes were fragmentary and languid ; and the country was extremely unhealthy for European troops. He determined, how ever, to march to Coomassie, and dictate terms to the king from his own capital. On January 20, 1874, the river Prah was crossed ; on the 24th the Adansi hills were reached ; on the 31st there was severe fighting at Amoaful ; on the 1st of February Becquah was captured ; and on the 4th the victorious army was in Coomassie. The town was full of Ashantee soldiers, but no attempt was made to turn the fortune of the war. As the rainy season was setting in, all possible haste was requisite ; in two days, therefore, the home ward march was commenced, the city being left behind in flames. By the time that Fommanah was reached (February 13), the king sent his envoys to conclude a treaty, whereby he agreed, among other conditions, to pay 50,000 ounces of gold, to renounce all claim to homage from certain neighbouring kings, and all pretensions of supremacy over any part of the former Dutch protectorate, to pro mote freedom of trade, to keep open a road from Coomassie to the Prah, and to do his best to check the practice of human sacrifice. Besides coloured troops, there were employed in this campaign about 2400 Europeans, who suffered severely from fever and otherwise, though the mortality on the whole was slight. The success of the expedition was greatly facilitated by the exertions of Captains Glover, Butler, and Dalrymple, who effected important diversions with very inadequate resources.
See the works of Bowdich (1819), Dupuis (1824), Ricketts 0831), Beecham (1841), Stanley, WinwoodReade, Boyle, Brackenbury (1874).
ASHBURTON, a borough and market-town of England, in the county of Devon, 192 miles W.S.W. of London, and 18 from Exeter. It stands in a valley surrounded on every side by hills, at a short distance from the river Dart, and consists principally of one long street. The church of St Andrew is a handsome Gothic structure, built in the form of a cross, with, a tower 90 feet high. Ashburton was the seat of one of the stannary courts. Before the Reform Act of 1832 it returned two members to parlia ment; from that time it returned one till 1868, when it vas disfranchised. Population in 1871, 2335, principally employed in the manufacture of serge, or in the tin and copper mines and slate quarries in the vicinity.
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a market-town of England, county of Leicester, 17 miles north-west of Leicester, on the railway from that city to Burton. The town, which derives the adjunct to its name from the Norman family of La Zouch, consists principally of one long street. It contains six churches and chapels, and has a grammar school and several charity schools. The church of St Helen is a fine old building, containing the tombs of the Hunt ingdon family, and a " finger pillory." The Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are much frequented for their saline waters, which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous and rheumatic complaints. To the south of the town are the extensive remains of Ashby Castle, built in 1480 by Sir William Hastings, ancestor of the earls of Huntingdon, who was created baron of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1461. It was one of the castles in which Mary Queen of Scots was confined. Population (1871), 7302, principally engaged in the manufacture of stockings, leather, malt, and firebricks, or in the coal and iron mines of the vicinitv.
ASHDOD. See Azotus.
ASHFORD, a market-town of England, county of Kent, 12 miles south-west of Canterbury, and 53 from London. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence near the junction of the upper branches of the river Stour, and is a chief station of the South-Eastern Railway. Many of its houses are well built and handsome ; its principal street is nearly half a mile in length, and well paved and lighted. It has a fine old Gothic church, with a lofty, well-propor tioned tower, and many handsome monuments. The free grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the time of Charles I. Population of parish (1871), 8458.
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, or Ashton, a parliamentary borough in the county of Lancaster, and hundred of Salford, on the northern bank of the river Tame, 61 miles east of Manchester, and 197 from London. Like Manchester, it has had a rapid growth from an insignificant country town to a populous and thriving borough. Notwithstanding this it is well built, and contains many spacious streets and handsome public edifices. Among the latter are 4 large churches, 15 dissenting chapels, a spacious town-hall, and a very large and prosperous market-house. There are three banks, a savings-bank, a theatre, a mechanics institute, and numerous week-day and Sunday schools. The cor poration have built, at a cost of 16,000, a magnificent set of public baths. There are three newspapers published in the town. At a short distance to the north of the town are the infantry and cavalry barracks, erected in 1843 at a cost of 42,500, and the union workhouse, erected in 1851 at an expenditure of 12,000. A magnificent in firmary, built and endowed by public subscriptions, fronts the workhouse. A large public park is provided for the people midway between this and neighbouring borough of Stalybridge. A union hospital for infectious and other diseases has just been completed. The modern growth of Ashton dates from the introduction of the cotton trade in 1769. It enjoys many facilities for manufacturing indus try, coal being very plentiful in the neighbourhood, four important railway lines passing through it, and canals con necting it Avith Manchester, Huddersfield, and Derbyshire. The town, though essentially modern, has an origin of great antiquity, and still exercises many of its ancient feudal customs and manorial privileges. It is divided into four wards, governed by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty- four councillors; and since the Reform Act of 1832 it ha3 returned one member to the House of Commons. In 1821 it had a population of only 9222, which in 1851 had increased to 29,798, chiefly engaged in spinning cotton yarn and weaving ginghams and calicoes by machinery in the numerous large factories. Population of parliamentary borough in 1871, 37,389; of municipal borough, 31,984.
