The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

CHINA.

By the mail from Hong Kong, it appears that
the persecution of Christians in China had recom-
menced.

Several missionaries had been condemned to
death.

THE ENGLISH ENGINEERS AT NAPLES.
THE Morning Post has the following statement on
the position of these enr*.ieers

The English Governm, has ref) 'c energetic remon-
strances on the subjec., ,nd 011 Neapolitan authorities
have at last permitted the prisoners to be visited. Mr.
Pugh, the chaplain of the mission, has seen them. He
found them, with the captain of the steamer, confined in as
airy room. The men had no couipiaints to make, and
said they were sufficiently supplied with money by an
agent of the steampacket company in whose employment
they are. For the future, the British Vice-Consul will be
allowed somas to them. He has engaged counsel in their
behalf, and it is hoped that legal forms cannot much longer
delay their trial and liberation.

Mr. Newdegate, M.P., and Mr. Spooner, M.P.,
spoke upon public affairs on Thursday, at the
Rugby and Dunchurch Agricultural Association.
Mr. Newdegate, referring to the meeting of Perlis-
went, said :

Parliament has been summoned, and not at all too
early; and when it meets, a strict account should be ex-
acted of why it was that reinforcements did not reach the
scene of action sooner—why the willingness of England to
back up her forces in the East was not better applied.
trust that a satisfactory account may be rendered, and then
we shall be able to consider how these difficulties arose,
whether due vigilance was used, whether the form of
government in India is such as consults the interests and
the feelings of the vast population over which it extend*
its sway.

With respect to the future government of India, he
maintained that the principle of " a Parliament for
India " was indispensable, bonus. the Imperial
Parliament could not give that time and attention
the administration of so vast an empire requires.
With respect to the Bank Act, Mr. Newdegate jus-
tified the recent suspension of that act
Well might the late Lord Ashburton declare that the act
of 11544 was a " fair-weather boat," and point to the
system of accounts and call it an absurd system of book-
keeping. His observation is justified to the letter. I
cannot go quite so far as my hon. colleague towards
inconvertibility ; but I do believe that as to the insolvency
which is imputed to the present state of affairs, we are no
more insolvent now than we were from 1819 to 1844.
Notes are just as convertible to gold; and I do believe
that much may be done to mitigate the action of a cur-
rency based upon the precious metals; though I freely
admit that if you will have free trade, if you will derange
the supply of metals by the nnregulatetd action of imports
permanently left without control, you must entail a stye-
cession of commercial crises upon the country. I think
those evils may be mitigated, but that they never will be
cured until the country makes up its mind to modify both
its commercial system and its monetary system, and to
adapt the one to the other.

Mr. Spooner also briefly addressed the meetings
and principally in favour of an inconvertible cur-
rency :

If we could not command gold, then we should substi-
tute something else for it, and the energies and powers of
the people should not be crippled, because there were
certain arrangements among foreign nations that we could
not get gold into this country without sacrificing the beat
interests of the country.