The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

150 crew annexed proved that the British flag was flying at the time of the seizure ; and that, as the expira tion of the Arrow's sailing licence on September :27, previous to her seizure, did not appear to have been known to the Chinese authorities [a point of British regulation], it would not justify seizure by the Chinese. In conclusion. Lord Clarendon observes somewhat doubtfully : I have only to add, that T conclude you will have caused a strict inquiry to be made into the circumstances con• nected with the grant of the licence to the lorcha in the year .1 tis l. Lord Clarendon, it also appears, entirely approves of the part Admiral Seymour took in the destruction of the forts of Canton, for Mr. Hammond, the Secre tary to Lord Clarendon, writes to the Secretary of the Admiralty on Jan. 10 I am to request that you will acquaint the Lords Com• missiouers of the Admiralty that Lord Clarendon is of opinion that the admiral's conduct should be entirely ap• proved, and more especially the judgment, firmness, and moderation with which h• has acted, and the respect which he has shown for the lives and properties of the Chinese people. On the 10th of January Lord Clarendon wrote to Sir J. Bowing : I have received your despatch of the •23rd of Oct. last, with a report of the operations in the Canton river; and I have to acquaint you that her Majesty's Government en tirely approves the course which has been adopted by Rear• Admiral Sir Michael Seymour and yourself; and I have to iretruct you also to convey to Mr. Parkes a similar approval of his conduct. Count do Courcy, the French representative, expresses to Sir John Bowring his "moral adhe sion " to the course taken by the British authorities, and his recognition of the fact that our common interests direct us towards the revision of our treaties with China. The depositions of the master and two seamen point distinctly to the fact that the colours were flying, and that they were hauled down by the Chinese officials. Mr. Kennedy, the master, who was on board the Dart, a vessel lying close by, says:— I was silting on the deck of the Dart, when I saw two Chinese boats, each haying mandarins on board in uniform, and about twenty seamen besides the officers; in all there might be about sixty men. A little after I saw the boats pass, the captain of the Chusan lorcha, who was also on board the Dart, remarked to me that these mandarin boats were Ding alongside my lorcha. I answered, " They are probably sending some passengers to Hong Kong-" As we were looking on, I saw one of the mandarin seamen, who had a badge on his Lt.( ast and another on his back, and a uniform cap on his head, haul down the English ensign from the wizen gaff'. I immediately after wards saw the blue Peter, which was flying at the foremost bead, hauled down. John Leach, one of the crew of the Dart, corrobo rates Mr. Kennedy's statement. Chin-a sing, one of the crew of the Arrow, details the whole affair very clearly. It is worthy of note, that the Chinese authorities appear to have used no violence or inti midation : Early on the morning of the Bth October three or four Chinese war-boats, called " towmangs," left, their anchor age at the Dutch Folly, and dropped down the river' passing close to our lorcha the Arrow. One of them I SW come to nn anchor not far below us, and she imme diately sent away two pulling boats, which pulled up to . the lorcha and boarded us. There might have been eighteen or twenty men in each boat ; they were all dressed in uniform—a few only were armed ; two of them, I no ticed, had swords. There was one mandarin in one boat and three mandarins in the other. All four mandarins boarded the lorcha, and were followed by their men, and another person who pointed out to the mandarin an old man, one of our crew, who was known among us both by the surname Le and the surname Leang The mandarins ordered their men to seize and bind this old man, and then addressing themselves to the crew told us to be quiet, as they did not wish to hurt us. Immediately afterwards, however, they said they should require us to go with them, and we were ordered into the boats. At the same time this order was given I heard the mandarin who wore the crystal button cry nut. "'Phis is not a foreign lorcha, for there is no foreigner in command; haul down her ensign." Several of us assured the mandarin that we had a Euro pean captain. I saw one of the soldiers, in obedience to the command of the mandarin, haul down the ensign, which was flying at the time on the mizenmast, and which he flung on the deck without unreetfing it from the hal yards. As the crew were being passed into the boat, our captain came on board. 1 heard him demand of the officers what they were doing with his vessel, and I heard him cry our, "Who hauled down the flag ?" Some of us replied, "The mandarins ;" on which he ran aft and hoisted it again. The mandarins said they did not believe he was the captain, and immediately went into their boats and pushed off, taking with them eleven of our crew, besides the old man Le, and leaving only myself and Leang-a yang on board. Ohl Le leokeil much alarmed. We heard it then stated fir the first time that he was the father of Le-a-kuer, a pirate. Leang-a-yung, on being examined by the consul, deposed to the same facts as China-sing. He dis tinctly saw the tlag hauled down by one of the soldiers. He and another man were busily engaged in a sampan unmooring the lorcha at the moment when the mandarins boarded. TIIE PRESS. 4.lroctcbings Zn radiainent. HOUSE OF LORDS..--MONDAY. COURTS OF RECONCILIATION. Lord BROUGHAM laid on the table a bill for the establishment of courts of proceeding in the nature of reconciliation. lie said ho had added to the clauses of the bill providing for that object others, to prevent, if possible, or at any rate to lessen, a great grievance, arising f:otn the power which any person not worth a farthing had of instituting an action against any respectable person, and putting him to the expense of VOL or 3001. costs; and, when the person so sued obtains a verdict, be finds the plaintiff penniless, and, moreover, that he has gone to take the benefit of the Insolvent Act. The hill was read a first time. CHINA AND THE PRINCIPALITIES. Lord LYNDHURST asked Lord Clarendon whether he had any objection to produce a copy of the Colo. nial Ordinance imder which a register had been granted to the Chinese lorcha, the Arrow, together with a copy of the register itself? He also called attention to a recent article in the Moniteur, and wished to ask whether the Divans which were to meet in the Danubian principalities were to consider the propriety of uniting those two provinces? The Earl of CLARENDON replied that there could be no objection to produce the Colonial Ordinance referred to, but in respect to the register itself there was this difficulty—that it was not the custom to send home copies of such documents. With regard to the other question put by the noble lord, he had seen the article in the Moniteur with some surprise, but there was certainly no bar to the discussion by the Divans of a proposition for the union of the Danubian principalities. Under the circumstances he would rather not discuss the question : At the present moment I shall refrain from entering into any discussion on the subject, or from saying how far I agree in the opinions expressed by my noble and learned friend ; but I do feel surprised, because there was an un• derstanding come to between the representatives of the great powere• at the Congress of Paris, that until the Divans hail met, until the people of the Principalities bad been consulted, until the report of the commissioners had been received, and the Congress had met to consider it, no one of those powers would do anything to influence opinion in the Principalities, or elsewhere, upon that par ticular question. The Earl of DEM3Y returned to the question of the lorcha Arrow, and to the conduct of Sir John Bowring, and pressed for the production of the com munications which passed between Sir J. Bowring and the Chinese Government in 1854 and 1835, and which do not appear in the papers already printed ; and also any instructions issued to the superinten dent by the Home Government since 1849 connected with the pressing of the English claim to admission into Canton. A lesultory discussion then ensued, in the course of which Lord Clarendon promised to produce the papers specified by Lon' Derby, and that portion of his letter to Sir J. Dowring expressing approval of the late operations requested by the Earl of Ellen borough. Lord Clarendon declined to produce any of the opinions of the law officers of the Crown upon the legality of the seizure of the Arrow. HOUSE OF COMMONS.-MONDAY. THE BUDGET.-THE ESTIMATES. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER announced that the Navy Estimates would be laid upon the table of the house on Tuesday, and the Army Esti mates on Wednesday, and that he would make his financial statement on Friday. THE WAR WITH PERSIA. Mr. LAYARD wished to knew from the President of the Board of Control whether Ferouk Khan, Persian Ambassador to the Emperor of the French, was now negotiating with Lord Cowley under the authority of the same full powers which he possessed when at Constantinople ? Mr. VERNON SMITH said that since Ferouk Khan's arrival in Paris there was every reason to believe that he had received definite instruc tions, and he (Mr. Smith) hoped that the negotiations would arrive at an amicable termination. As to the papers, his noble friend declined to lay them on the table while negotiations were pending. The objection still remained in force, and lie hoped for the forbearance of the house ; still if any selec tion could be made that would not interfere with the negotiations, ha should be happy to have it prepared. Mr. LAYAItD would take the first opportunity to move that these papers be laid on the table. Mr. GLADSTONE said there were two points upon which it was material the house should be informed. First, it was desirable that they should have copies of the Government orders under which the late ex pedition sailed for Persia ; and secondly, copies of any correspondence that might have taken place between Government and the directors of the East SATURDAY, India Company, respecting the mode in which pay ment of the expense was to be awarded. Sir H. WILLOUGHBY hoped the treaty of 1853 would! be laid on the table. RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. Mr. LowE, in reply to Mr. Bentinck, said that het would read a few figures, to show what was really the Ante of the case as regarded railway accidents In the year 1852, 80,000,000 of persons were carried by rail, 10 were killed, and 372 injured from causes beyond their own control. In 1853 the number carried wee 102,000,1x10, the number killed 30, and the wounded, from causes beyond their own control, 280. In 1854, the num bers were 114,000,00;1 carried, 12 killed, and 331 injured. In 1835, carried 118,000,000, killed 10, injured from causes beyond their own control, 311. In the last year the number carried was 125.000,000 the killed 8, and the injured 282. It appeared from these figures that the number of persons killed or injured was gradually diminishing, and therefore Government did not think auy legislation necessary on the subject. ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. Sir C. Woon, in answer to Mr. Roebuck, stateif that no final determination had been arrived at re specting another Arctic expedition, but that if the Government came to the decision that such a step was expedient they would lay the matter before Parliament, and ask for a vote of money before any preparations were made for fitting out the expedition.. CHURCH RATES. Sir G. GREY, in reply to Sir J. Pakington, whether• the Government intended to bring in a hill of their own with respect to church rates; whether they wouldi move amendments on the bill of Sir W. Clay as they did last year; or whether they would abstain from alit interference, said that, looking at the number of; Government bills and the amount of business to be done in the present session, he saw no prospect of advantage resulting from his introducing a bill upon the subject : As at present advised, he believed the Government would not be prepared to lay any bill with respect to church rates before Parliament in the present session, but he must reserve their right to move any amendments upon. any bills which might be introduced by hon. members. SECONDARY PUNISHMENTS AND TICKETS OF LEAVE.. Sir G. GREY moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the act 10 and 17 Vic., c. 99, entitled "An act to substitute in certain cases other punishment in lieu of transportation." The Home Secretary shortly stated the reasons for the change introduced by the act,—namely, the cessation of a demand in the colonies for convict labour, and the general and strong feeling of the colonists against the reception of criminals,—the main provisions of the act, and the system, including tickets of leave, under which, those provisions were carried out. He then pro ceeded to show what had been the effects of the act.. of 1853, so far as appeared from the number of: sentences of' transportation and penal servitude' passed at different periods, the number of licences. granted on the ground of good conduct, and those,. revoked for misconduct or forfeited by recouviction- In the three years before 1853, the average annuall number of transports was 2,049; in the three years after 1853, it was '2OB, while the average number of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude was 2,102, these two numbers making together 2,400. Adding the sentences of transportation since the passing of the act to the sentences substituted for transporta tion since the act, the number of sentences was 249 loss in the three years since 1853, than the number of sentences to transportation in the three years before the act was passed. Having given corre sponding figures for Scotland and for Ireland, the right hon. baronet remarked that the effect of the• act had been a vast decrease in the punishment of . transportation ; but there had been a large increase• of sentences of penal servitude. In Great Britain,. since 1853, the annual average had been 2,300,. nearly three-fourths of which were sentences of four years' penal servitude, in substitution of the previous. seven years' transportation ; and simultaneously there had been an augmentation in the character of crime. In 1853, there were in Great Britain 9,850 convicts under sentence of transportation, which sentence could not be carried out. Out of these 9,850 convicts, 1,050 were actually transported. There had since been discharged on licence, up to the date of the last return, 7,002 : about 1,200 were now employed at Bermuda and Gibraltar, and the. number of convicts under sentence of transporta tion, and who would receive tickets of leave in the next few years, did not exceed 500. Sir George declared his belief that the alarm excited by the. liberation of convicts under tickets of leave, although, ' to a certain extent well founded, had been greatly exaggerated. Looking at the general state of crime • in the last two years, he found that, while there was+ a small fractional increase in the summary comics lions, the committals for trial had decreased from 25,922 in 1855 to 19,433 in 185 n, or about 25 per cent., notwithstanding the disbanding of the militia. This state of things did not, he thought, ustity the great alarm prevalent in the country. Sir George then adverted to the reports of the committees of both houses which sat last session, which concurred