The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-30 00:00:00

CHINA.

The summary of the Overland Friend of China,
Juno 7, says :—" Leaving speculation, we have here
to continue our report of actual occurrences since the
last Overland despatch. Amoy had then just fallen
into possession of the insurrectionist body known as
the Short-knife society :—a body, so far as we are
safely advised, having no particular connection with
the men at Nanking. As more fully detailed below,
on Sunday the 29th ult., the Impenalists tried to re-
gain possession; but were quickly repulsed with some
loss.
"The safety of Canton is naturally a subject of
considerable anxiety. We have no information,
however, from which we are led to infer that it is
at present in more conspicuous jeopardy than it has
been in for some time. Canton was the last place to
succumb to the Tartar Dynasty, and the probabili-
ties are that it will be just as soon in falling to the
Tartar's successor. The local Mandarins are known
to possess less political virtue than their contempo-
raries in other parts of the empire ;—and so far
as it lies in their power there is reason to believe
that they will be fully vigilant in aiding to crush
attempts to destroy that system under which they
have throve better than, no doubt, they will stand a
chance of under a new order. . .

" The son of the Taoutae at Shanghae is now'
down here organising a fleet of armed fishing'
boats to proceed to the Yang-tse•kiaag. Re-
cently ho called at the Government-house, Macao,
and requested permission to view the guns
in the forts and their mode of working—which was
,readily granted. Re then stated to an officer that
he had secured the services of sixty vessels, with
thirty fighting men each, to whom he was going to
pay 10 dole, per month per man. On reaching
Shanghae this fleet will, we suppose (co-operating
with the vessels already in the river) endeavour to
recover Chin bang foo and possession of the Grand
Canal. From the pith and known character of their
opponents, however, chance of their success is
doubtful. _

" Leaving a secretary at Shanghae to report pro-
gross, his Excellency Sir S. G. Bonham returned to
;
1 Hong-Kong. Direct'? his Excellency's inten-
tion. were known, feasts. Hogg, Beak, and
Skinner, the members of a committee of safety ap-
pointed by the community, waited upon him for
the purpose of representing their alarm at the an-
nounced departure of the Hermes, and their opinions
as to the extremely inefficient protection to be ex-
pected from the Salamander—respectfully reque.ting
that the Hermes might be retained until somethiog
more definite was known regarding the state of
affairs at Nankin and movements of the rebel
army. To this his Excellency replied that ho had

himself, personally, no immediate apprehension for
the safety of Shanghai, that it was absolutely ne-
cessary he should return to the south, and he must
go in the Hermes—but that en route he would call at
Amoy, and take measures for the despatch of the
Ratter to fill the Hermes' place ; and that, perhaps, the
senior navalofficer would s e fit to send up the Spartan.
That "he had bad that morning, some conversatior
with the Rev. Mr. Taylor who had just returned
from the vicinity of Chin keang foe; tied frein the
information he had obtained from Mr. Taylor,
he (Sir George Bonham) could not see cause for any
increased apprehension on the part of the community.
The purport of Mr. Taylor's information amounted
to this :—that the ciptaiii of the Hewlett, a vessel in
the employ of the Shanghae Taoutac, and stationed a
few miles on this side of Ching-keang, had stated
that the insurgents had declared that they would
put to death ad foreigners seized fighting against
them : a threat not to be w ondered at under existing
circumstances. Mr. Taylor had further heard that
seine five hundred men had been dressed in red
coats, with shakos on their bends, for the par-'
pose of deceiving the insurgents into a belief
that foreign !oldie:Ts were en„ ged to fight on
the side of the Imperialists. All this information
did not lead him to suppose that matters sere now
in a different state to what they were when he left I
Nunkiu, that is, that both Nunkin and Ching- I
keang are in the hands of the insurgents, and that
these places aro surrounded by imperial troops.
He would therefore adhere to his original intention
of leaving Shanghae, and at the same time do all in
his power to supply, as early as possible, the place of
the Hermes by as efficient a vessel of war.
And, accordingly, his excellency left, arriving here
two days after the last mail was despatched. Fol-
lowing their interview with Sir George, the eom- I
mittee had another with the Hou. Humphrey Mar-
shall, at which that gentleman way requested to
prevent the United States' ship Plymouth from fol-
lowing the Susquchannah and Mississippi on their
Japan expedition. "It was well known," the commit-
tee said, "that large armies occupied the banks
of the Yang-tsze kiang, within 170 'lilies of
Shanghae; and that large fleets of beats Sated
upon its waters subject to their command. The
city of Shanghae could be occuph d by the forces
of either patty within a very few hours; and it is
al-o infested by a numerous class who during
this paralysis of trade have no employment, MAI
whose propensities to crime are quickened by their
necessities. There could be no doubt that thou-
sands of loose, vicious, and desperate charac-
ters were now in Shanghae ready to swoop
upon whatever booty they could find, when the
reins of discipline should be slackened to nffirrd
room for the display of their licentiousness." Tu
this the United States commissioner replied that he
agreed with the committi c in considering the danger
to Shanghae more imminent than before, and woul I
also regret the withdrawal of the Plymouth; but the
arrangement aependvd on the discretion of a naval
officer, to whom he would have much satisfaction iu
presenting the committee's communication.
The committee then waited on M. de Montigny,
French Consul for Shanghae sad Ningpo, and having
asked him to keep the steam sloop Le Cassini in port,
after communication with Captain de Plas, the consul,
on the 20th, forwarded them a copy of a letter from the'
commander, in which, after saying that as much as
it depended on himself, he felt great zeal
in aiding in any arrangements for the com-
mon defence, he went on to state that according to
his last orders from the Station Commandant,
the stay of Le Cassini at Shanghae was strictly
limited to the 31st May. Should, however, at that
date, new facts tend to show the propriety of a longer
stay "if imminent dangers should threaten our
worthy missionaries or the foreign community," he
would then consider it his duty to hold consultation
with the Consul, and would adjourn departure "until
just apprehensions had been dissipated."