TESTING.
407
the Order was proclainied. The ezpolaon of tHe Jesuits was carried ont, but Uxree Cabinet Ministers reag T i e d because the decrees were noC being' enforced against the other Tuumthorized congregations. These secessions upset t£.e Ministry (Sept. 19, 1880). After some delay, M. F^ry formed a Cabinet, consLsting of M. de Freycinet's more adyanoed colleagues, with M. Barth^lemy St. HUaire at the Foreign Office, and the decrees against the Orders were thai carried out with much harshnesa. On Nov. 10, 1881, M. Ferry's Ministry resigned on ac- oount of the attacks made upon their policy in regard to the expe- dition to Tunis. In Feb., 1883, however, a£ter the fall of the Fal- lieres administration, M. Ferry was sent for "by the President of the Bepublic to form a new Ministry. This he did, he himself becoming Premier and Minister of Public Instruction.
FBSTING, Colonel Sib Fban- cis WoBOAN, K.C.M.G., second son of Captain Benjamin Morton Fest- ing, B.N., K.H., by Caroline Jane, only daughter of Mr. F. B. Wright, of Henton Blewett, Somersetshire, was born at High Littleton, in that county, in 1833. He was educated at the Boyal Naval School, New Cross, and entered the Boyal Ma- rines as a Cadet in 1849, obtained his first commission in 1850, and pasaed into the Boyal Marine Artil- lery as Lieutenant in 1851. He served with distinction in the Bal- tic in 1854, for which he received a medal ; also at Sebastopol and the surrender of Kinbum, for which he received a medal with clasps, and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. For his services at Canton (1857-59), he received a medal with clasps and the brevet of Major. In 1872 he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the army. The beginning of our war on the Gold C(^6t was in May, 1873, when the Ashantee army, led by Aman- qoatia, had overrun the country
under the British Protectorate, and threatened Cape Coast Castle. Colonel Festing came to be in com- mand of the miUtary force, which consisted of Marine Artillery and Infantry, half a battaUion of 2nd West India Begiment, and Houssas. No time was lost in setting -the combined military and naval forces in action. It was most urgent to deprive the Ashantee army, then encamped aroimd Mampon, between Abrakrampa and the river Prah, of its facilities for obtaining war- like stores from Elmina. The natives of the "King's Town at Elmina resenting their transfer from the Dutch to the English Government, had become the active though covert, aUies of the Ashan- tee invader. Some parties of Ashantee warriors had been intro- duced into the town, while others lurked in the adjacent bush. To put an end to this danger within nine miles of Cape Coast Castle, it was determined that the chiefs of Elmina should be forced to lay down their arms. They refused to obey the summons, and their town was consequently attacked the next day (June 13, 1873) by the boats of the squadron and the troops under Col. Festing, with the aid of Capt. FremanUe. The hostile native quarter of Elmina was destroyed, and the enemy was exx)eUed from the neighbourhood. Soon after- wards Col. Festing was placed in command of the native camp at Dunquah and of the advanced posts. He was twice wounded in engagements near Dunquah — the second time severely when rescuing Lieut. Eardley Wihnot, who was mortally wounded. He received from the Queen the rank of Colonel in the army for services in the field, and was nominated a K.C.M.G. and C.B. at the conclusion of the Ash- antee campaign. He was appointed Assistant Adjutant-Genend of the Boyal Marines in Aug., 1876, and made an Aide-de-Camp to the Queen in 1879.
