The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

JANUARY 31, 1857. were then charged by the Poonah gorse and a squadron of the :Ird Cavalry. In comma of the latter was Colonel Malet. This officer in the melee saved the lire of a man whom a trooper was about to cut down. The colonel turned away, and the scoundrel, catching up his matchlock, which he had dropped on imploring quarter, shot his benefactor dead. Two other officers fell in the affair, both lieutenants in the 20th, Utterson and Warren, and yet—most strange disproportion--only one was returned as wounded. Among the native and non. commissioned officers and men the loss amounted to six kills l and thirty-five wounded. Our opponents in this smart skirmish were not regular Persian troops, but Arab mercenaries belonging to two of the most powerful among the seacoast tribes—the Dashti and the Tungestooni—anti lost, it is believed, three chiefs of note, besides great num bers of lower degree. • - - Here the troops bivouacked for the night. Captain Jones was now despatched with a flag of truce, carrying the summons of surrender, and the terms offered the garrison. The non-combatants and women had permission to withdraw. Private pro perty of all descriptions was to be protected, the fullest toleration in matters of religion secured, the garrison to be suffered to march out with all the honours of war. The Governor was allowed till dawn the following day to give an answer to the terms proposed, but the flag of truce was fired on; and after waiting for some time on the assumption that this might possibly have occurred from mistake, Captain Jones returned. An apology was almost immediately afterwards sent by the Governor on board the fleet, and the declaration of war of the Governor-General and letter of terms proposed were transmitted by the messenger. Meanwhile General Stalker intimated to the admiral his intention of advancing with all his troops on Bushire the follow ing morning (10th December). The anchorage off the town was lruoyed at night by the boats of the squadron, and at daylight next morning, the gun boats having shelled a strong body of troops out of a covering redoubt south of the town, the squadron steamed in and anchored oft the town, several of the ships lying aground to get closer to the batteries. At this time, the British troops, held under arms and in line, waiting for the moment of assault, a second flag of truce, begging for twenty-four hours' further delay, matte its appearance. The request was at once refused ; and at 8 o'clock the signal to engage was hoisted, and a storm of shot and shell poured in upon the sea-front batteries. The Persians stood well to their guns, but, not ex pecting the ships to lie in so close, their fire was too high to do much damage, except to spars and rigging. Though their small guns were useless, the courage and perseverance with which the larger ones were worked surpassed all expecta tion, and the Semiramis, Feroze, Victoria, and Falk land, were repeate lly struck both in hull and rig ging ; though not a man was hurt. By noon the batteries were all silenced, and the troops were pre paring for the assault, when the flagstaff was struck down in token of submission. The Governor and his staff, utter some hesitation, surrendered them selves, the garrison, from 1,500 to 2,000 in number, laid down their arias, and at four o'clock the British flag was holt ted over the town, the troops appointed to garrison it. marching in at sunset. A proclamation was at once issued declaring the town to be under British martial law, the port to be free, abolishing slavery, and establishing freedom in religious worship. Thus easily, says a letter from Bombay, has Bushire fallen : Not more easily, perhaps, than was expected; but far more easily ( I suppose) then the state of its defences, im proved to a degree previously unsuspected, deserved. The captive Governor frankly says ho was not prepared for the ships coming in so close. " You always used to lie two or three miles out," he says. " I thought you did not know the anchorage, and I look care to get hold of all the pilots. If your troops had assaulted the gate on the land side they would have seen what I hail got really for them,"—and an assault would no doubt have been attended with great loss, for the gunners in the place were of the regular Per sian artillery, and are said to be very good. though their practice against the ships must be confessed to have been indifferent. But the cspittilation found at first but little favour with the army, and in the ranks of the 04th espe cbilly Cher. were growls of " No, no !" "Assault, assault !" acil vengeful clutchings of firelocks ; and afterwards in the town I fear that things were done which were not good to do and are not good to tell. But when the Semiramis left, all was orderly again. Besides the governor of the town and the com mander of the forces, a distinguished personage, "The Agent for Foreign Affairs;' was also taken prisoner : Three days nfter the fdl of the place (says the same correspondent) Sir Henry Lecke left in the Assaye for Bombay, taking with him the three principal prisoners, the captured flag, and various specimens of Persian arms and accoutrements. 'tVbile running down the coast on his way to Itassadore, the admiral was boarded by an Arab chief. The object of his visit was, it appeared, to proffer• the services of his tribe against the Persians. All the tribes of the coast ; he said, would prefer our rule to that of the Shah. In the course of the interview a valuable piece of information was obtained from him. Near a town on the coast, called Ungar, a well•equipped Persian force THE PRESS. of 3,001 men was assembled, with the intention of crossing to the Island of Kishtn and attacking our depot station of Bassadore. Doonissing the sheikh with fair words, Sir Henry steamed on, and, soon coining abreast of the Persian camp, opened upon It with his heavy guns. His fire was instantly returned, but only from nine-pounder field gulls, of which the balls faded to reach the ship, while the eight. inch shot and shell crashed through the camp, knocking over men, horses, and camels, and Hinging the tent•canvas to the winds. As a matter of course the enemy had to retire, but they did it coolly and well. The official despatches, detailing the above events, have been received. The intelligence of the fall of Bushire was received at Bombay with a royal salute of twenty one guns from the Castle. The despatches add nothing in detail to the accounts given above. Major .General Stalker, in command of the expedi• tionary force, bears willing witness to the unwearied exertions and able co-operation of the officers and seamen of the squadron as well as to the gallantry of his troops. " Nothing," he observes, " could have surpassed the admirable spirit exhibited by the officers and men of all ranks, and the utmost praise is due for their zeal, devotion, and gallantry." Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Leeke, writing on the 10th, characterises the capture of the Fort of Reshire at the point of the bayonet as " one of the most bril liant and gallant charges" he ever witnessed. He describes the bombardment of the town as follows ! At daylight this morning, seeing the Persian army drawn up near the walls ( their centre supported by a high for• titled tower and redoubt), it was my duty to dislodge them; and for this service I ordered the Falkland, sloip, 4jdal►a, steam•frigate, Berenire, and Mauna, steam•sloop, under the command of Lieutenants Transon, Woraley, Chitty, and Giles, and eight heavy-armed gunboats, under Lieu tenant Stradling, to place their ships in position to attack it. This was done in a most gallant way, and in the course of an hour I had the satisfaction to see the whole of the Persian troops in full retreat to the town, but in perfect order and with great coolness, supported by their artillery. A host with a white flag was now seen approaching the ship, and on one of the chiefs arriving on board a request was made by the Governor of the town for a delay of ope- rations for twenty-four hours to offer terms. This 1 instantly refused, in consequence of his having fired on one of our small steamers bearing a flag of truce the day before. Half an hour was given him to get out of the way of our shot; and, the ships having been placed in line of battle, my flag ship in the centre, the action co►n menced and continued on both sides for two hours, when, observing two batteries outside the town, one n kind of miniature Malakoff, harassing the Semiramis anti Feriae, I directed our tire towards them, and in three hours they were perfectly silenced and the guns dismounted. A tower on the north-west angle of the fort and a masked battery below the Residency Flagstaff, outside the walls, kept up a constant and steady fire upon the Semiramis anti Feroze. It was necessary to silence them u 1,4) ; and, seeing that both ships were much damaged by their steady aim, the foremost guns of this ship were ordered to be directed towards them, and in the course of an hour both batteries ceased thing. I was now anxious to make an opening in the wall of the town, that the troops might have riDtliing iu their way if General Stalker on bra arrival determined upon carrying the place by assault. Our fire was therefore directed to the south west angle, and the breach commenced by knocking down a part of the tower and the embrasure, in which a gun was mounted, as well as the lower part of the wall. The fire from the batteries at this time gra- dually slackened, and at this moment the flagstaff in the town was hauled down in token of submission, and the place surrendered. The army was by this time close to the town, and it was a source of the greatest pleasure to me to feel that we had cleared away every obstacle that presented itself on their onward march—the more so as they had lost so m 'ny gallant fellows the day before when storming the Fort of Reshirs. Captain Felix Jones, Political Resident at Bushire, after giving a full and detailed account of the opera tions, concludes: — Since the occupation I have been engaged with my assistant, Lieutenant Disbrowe, in giving confidence to the townspeople, securing the Pllalszines, granaries, and other public stores, endeavouring to reopen the bazaars, ar.d in adopting measures for the public safety, as well as in taking steps for obtaining supplies. Owing to the distrust naturally prevailing among suspicious people, quite new to us, and generally ignorant as to our usages and institutions, we have some difficulty to contend with. Time, how. ever, will aid to dispel fears, to restore confidence, and eventually, 1 hope, secure to us all we require. I must rot conceal, however, that ore chief local supplies of fresh meat, grain, ttc., must be drawn from liassorah and Bagdad, and boats are not readily procurable. A large quantity of coal should therefore be stored, both here and at Ilassorali, for the use of steamers, those of small size being best adapted for this service; the:, should not fail us, fur, in any case, to insure cattle living the voyage should be shortened as much as possible by their taking boats in tow. No intelligence of any kind has come in from the interior; but I may be able to glean some in a few days. All is, however, quiet in the town and districts at the present time. I beg to inclose a copy of a procla mation, with appended articles, which forms the basis of our future administration in these tracts. These will doubtless require emendation as we progress in the go vernment of a strange people; but they seem to me at present best adapted to work upon, and have accordingly received the sanction of the major•general commandingin chief of the force. 103 Our loss in killed and wounded amounted to four officers and seven men killed, and twenty -nine wounded. THE WAR IN CHINA. The intelligence brought by the overland mail con. firms the report of the destruction by fire of the Canton factories. They were burned by the Chinese on the night of the 14th of December. Every effort was made to cneck the fire, but without avail. Cap • tain Cowper, It.E., and Mr. 0. T. Lane, hal been killed by falling beams and walls. The Strait Times and Singapore Journal, of Dee. 23rd, states that its latest advices from Canton men tion that "the British were pouring shot and shell into the city, which place, it was expected, would be completely destroyed in a few days." The capture and blowing up of the French Folly Fort, on the 4th of December, is the only circum stance of importance officially announced. The correspondence between Yeh and Sir John Bowring continued up to Nov. 24th, Yeh still maintaining his ground, and declining to accede to Sir J. Bow ring's terms—Sir John Bowring insisting upon a personal interview and a right of admission into Canton. Disturbances had broken out at Hong Kong, and the strictest measures were being taken to prevent any outbreak. The Registration ordinance of 1846 was about to be put in force, and all unre gistered Chinese sent nut of the colony. The Hong Kong journals also intimate that the river swarms with "pirates," against whom the admiral will have to operate. An English marine and a seaman had been killed by the inhabitants of a village. Sir John Bowring, it is stated in the Indian papers, has applied to the Goverment at. Calcutta for a reinforce. ment of troops. In short, the attack upon Canton is rapidly expanding into a general war with China—a war which threatens to be complicated by the in creased activity of the " rebels " in the two Kwangs. The withdrawal of the Chinese troops ordinarily distri buted through the country, with a view to concentrate them in Canton, hail been followed by incursions of the " Hr k ka-men," and it is affirmed that fifty towns and villages have been destroyed, and 5 1 1,000 people deprived of their homes in the course of three weeks. A " rebel" squadron is also said to be anchored iu Whampoa Reach. FRANCE. The Persian Ambassador was received by the Emperor Napoleon at a special public audience on Saturday last. The Empress of the French was also present. His Excellency the Persian Ambas sador addressed the following speech to the Em peror : Sire,—The friendly relations which so long existed be tween France and Persia having been again consolidated by a recent circumstance, I have been charged by the very powerful Shah-iu-Shah of Iran, my august Sovereign and benefactor. to bear to your Imperial Majesty the compli ments and congratulations of my Sovereign. It is a happiness for me that my mission has occurred at a period when France is bowled with so many blessings from Heaven—first, the glorious accession of your Imperial futnil j to the throne of France ; next, sire, the birth of his Imperial Highness, the heir of your crown—an event which is a guarantee for the duration of your Majesty's dynasty, and a subject of joy for all Frenchmen and for all the friends of France ; next, the conclusion of peace be tween the powerful allies and Russia in this same capital of France. In fine, Sire, I come to France after the con clusion of a treaty between Persia and the powerful empire of France—a fact which had ever been the object of the hopes and wishes of the two States, an object to which the efforts of the Governors and the Sovereigns of the two States tendcd, and which is now accomplished, with the as sistance of God, conformably to the intimate desire of the august Sovereigns of Franca and Iran. To the speech of the Ambassador the Emperor male the following reply : Monsieur l'Ambassailenr,—l am happy that your Sove reign has charged you to bring me his congratulations. When the war broke out in the East I sought with pleasure to renew our former relations with Persia, and her neu• trality was not useless to us. I now congratulate myself upon the treaty of commerce concluded between our two countries, as commercial relations firmly established always cement the friendship of nations. It is with regret that I heard of the war which has broken out between you and one of my closest allies, but I entertain the most ardent wishes that your mission to this portion of the globe may hasten the return of a lasting peace. I thank you for the flattering things you have said to me of France and the Prince Imperial, and I beg you to believe in my full sentiments of goodwill towards you. Ferouk Khan, after having presented to their Ma jesties the persons attached to his suite, handed to the Emperor in the name aid on the part of his sovereign the Royal Order of Persia, and presents for the Empre.s and the Imperisl Prince. His Excellency the Persian Ambassador and his attend ants were conveyed to the Palace of the Tuileries in Court carriages, and reconveyed to the hotel of the Persian Ei ceremony. lyed after the audience ,n2bassy with the jsartte