The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

REVIEW OF THE YEAR.

We entered upon the present year with perhaps
leas than the ordinary impression th►t the New
Year might be one of great events to ourselves and
of mark in the eyes of our posterity. Opinions
differ as to whether we might all have foreseen that
name proximate season must be a memorable one in
the history of our country ; but it is certain that our
people generally were taking matters easily at the
opening of 1837, and quite unprepared in expecta-
tion for such an experience as it, has yielded.
There were " difficulties " in one or two directions ;
as in the Paris Conference, In regard to the new
Hunan frontier ; and in regard to the dispute
between the King of Prussia and the Swiss ;
and we were not at peace in Asia the
war with Persia having began, and some
by strange news arriving from China—no leas
than that we had been bombarding Canton ! But
everybody was tired of the l'aris Conference ; and it
wee taken for granted that the King of l'rumia
must yield, after a longer or shorter controversy;
and the Asiatic matters were too remote to cause

much sensation till the particulars began to arrive.
Yet the Treaty of Perim is not yet satisfactorily ful-
filled, nor are the affairs of Turkey settled. The
final act of the rectification of the Rimini) frontier

was not signed by the Commissioners of the Four
Powers till the sth of December; and the proceed-
logs of Russia in regard to the navigation of the
Black Bea, and recently in fortifying the north part
of Sebastopol, cannot but be considered a warning
that the political accounts of the late war are not
closed. As to the Neufchatel controversy, we had
to sympathise with the Swiss for several mouths,
during which they were sported with by others
than the fantastical " Prince of Neufchatel." They
were disarmed by promises and beguiled by arts
one day; and the next they were threat-
ened and ordered, in • manner which roused
other blood than their own: but the captions
of the King of Prussia and the assumptions
of the Emperor of the French could not be very long
endured ; and we saw the matter end in the actual
restoration of Neufchatel to the Swiss Confederation,
the King of Prussia retaining the empty title of
" l'rince of Neufchatel." The treaty was signed by
the representatives of the great Powers on the 28th
of May, relieving us of our apprehen►ions for the
Swiss, but not of our indignation at the way in
which they had been treated. But for the absorb-
ing interest of subsequent events, we should have
considered the state of Europe very serious indeed,
during the greater part of the past year, through the
oppositions of policy revealed by the pressure of the
question of the Danubian Principalities. Twelve
months since, Europe generally was only just
awakening to a sense of the importance of the ques-
tion whether the pros inces of Moldavia and Wal-
lachia should be united under a sovereign, thus form-
ing a separate kingdom, or whether they shall
continue to be in allegiance to Turkey. A notice of
the subject in the Moniker, at the beginning of the
year, roused the wrath and the fears of Austria,
by whoa, newspapers attention was directed to the
evidences of close friendship between the Emperors
of France and Russia. From that time to this the
complication has become more and more serious.
England has taken part with Austria, even to the
imperilling of her alliance with France ; and it is
now an anxious consideration whether a large and
fertile territory on the most important frontier in
Europe shall be erected into • substantive power, or
be subjected to the conditions of Turkish weakness ;
while on this decision rests again the prospect of
European peace as long as the four great Powers are
divided, two and two, on the question. As for the
natural and equitable appeal in such a case—the
wishes of the inhabitants—such means of decision
are more easily talked about than obtained, as the
history of the provinces during the last year may
show. The controversy may be still very far from
a settlement ; and that settlement may involve the
gravest consequences to the future welfare of
Europe.

As for affairs in Asia, we were asking one another
for light on the subject of the Persian war at the
beginning of the year, but nobody professed to under-
stand much about it before Parliament met. vre
had captured Bushire in December ; but this was
not known tilt after we had been emphatically
assured that the Shah would fight to the lut, and
was really well able to defend himself. We were
not kept long in suspense, however. On the Bth of
February General Outram obtained the victory of

Kooshlb, which at owe achieved a peace. It was
on the 3rd of March that the treaty was signed at
Paris by Lord Cowley and Ferukh Khan, the Per-
sian ambassador. Some doubts afterwards arose,
from time to time, about the due fulfilment of the
terms on the part of the Shah : but before the close
of the year it was satisfactorily ascertained that
Herat had been evacuated by the Persians, and
that the violations of the treaty of 1853 were cum•
pletely repaired.
The first account of troubles in China was pre-
sently followed by news of an outbreak of the
Chinese immigrants in Borneo, with strong menaces
of a similar calamity at Singapore. At Sarawak,
'Rajah Brooke's residence was attacked in the night,
Bir James Brooke escaping by extraordinary pre-
sence of mind, after an inmate of his family had
been slaughtered, and all the English attacked. The
quality of the Rajah's Government was proved by
the fidelity with which he was supported by his own
native subjects, who disposed of the Chinese in the
course of a few days' fighting. The benefits of his
administration are thus placed beyond doubt; and
hi. Wang limes, Ihr the having of his home mad
library, are a small set-off against so great a good.
At the end of the year he landed in England ; and
long before that he• had been made aware of the in-
tention of our Universities to repair the lons of his
library. The time and manner of the outbreak
seem to show that the Chinese abroad were in league
with those at home against the English ; and this
suspicion is confirmed by the restlessness and vin-
dictive spirit manifested by the Chinamen in several
others of our settlements in various parts of the
world.

Official contradiction was presently given to the
story that our Admiral had bombarded Canton with
red-hot shot. He bad only sent a few shots after
marauders. But the story of what had really been
done was felt to be more and more unsatisfactory,
the more it was investigated. At first, and for a
considerable time, there was much confusion in the
public mind as to the causes of the outbreak ; and
not even the debates in parliament availed to con-
vince the constituencies generally of what was
clear to dispassionate and well-informed nen,
that titers were two separate quarrels going on
between the English and the Chinese—it being the
policy and the endeavour of our officials at Hong
Kong, and our Ministers at home, to confound them
in the popular imagination, and perhaps in their
own. The dispute about the Arrow lorcha merely
tempted Sir John Bowring to use the opportusity
for achieving that entrance into Canton which lad
never been effected since the signing of the traty
which stipulated for it. The weeks which me-
ceeded the arrival of the news of war in China vill
always be a humbling period to look beck upon.
Ministers hastily pledged themselves to the support
of Sir John Bowring and Mr. Consul Parkes iby ,
whose united counsels Admiral Seymour was mialed)p
and, on the ground of the necessity of our officials
abroad being supported at home, and by taking
advantage of the prevalent English dislike of be
Chinese, Lord Palmerston staked the existence
of hie admini.tration on this question. PrL