The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-29 00:00:00

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

We are now in possession of full details of the
bews received per the overland mail. The dates
are Calcutta, March
.23; Bombay, April 3; and
Long KOng, 15th March. The news, which is of
very interesting description, we proceed to
Innamari se :

CHINA.
111 Hong Kong everything remained pretty quiet,
01 cligh the public equanimity had been slightly
cli
sturbed by an act of .incendarism _by which a
large, stock of flour was destroyed ; and by the
'larder and decapitation of a seaman close to the
e i', wire No clue _had been, or was likely to be
be, obtained- of either the incendiaries or the
'll4rderers. • '
From' the Canton 'river—except of occasional
"hots fired at Teatottim Fort, garrisoned by our
b'ell,aud.exploratory expeditions up the creeks by
si
,".la steamers—we learn but little. A letter
received at Hong Kong says:—
There has been nothing of import race done in the river
knee the'ritlf,uf-Frebruary. Occasional attacks are made
°lithe Macao Fort by row-b as from the Canton quarter,
111 by rockets and gin ; Ills from the shore on both sides
) .
" th 4. hava not as yet succ,etied in injw•ing any person
1 they appeariliovreVer, to have improved in the art of
ri•
te'-asking, since the disturbances in the river cam-
b•m etl., The junks are still in some force in the,Patshan
"er, but there ate not so many as there wers some time
;ek, A reconnoitring expedition wept up the other day
Oth February), as for es Hyacinth hind, consisting of
`",4 Eocs,iwprs-SwuknogiCoromandel, Sir Charles Forbes,
,td the boos of the sq inlron, exc-pt the Hornet's, which
„"siel was cruising in the neighbourhood of Escape
t‘i4reelt. Nothing was done en this occision, though the
take kept up a distant fire at them fur three or four, bouts.
lleetAabo-nt 100 Jenks; is still some distance up Escape
,reek, but since the affair with the Hornet on the 10th
it'4",i they have been rather:he; The Hornet has frequently
he at,,the en'..Tance to Estop Creek, bat they have
ti''' lc nnod iSv n. ositi in to come down. They, however, had a
k' at the Al - when she brought
Auckland eh the 28. h ult•I
• the mail from Hong Kong, but did her no damage. As-
tpb I)
nia -
tis as they saw•the• Hornet coining out of Blenheim Reach
"eY made sail in retreat. Whatnpoa was visited the other
.:! 5l by the commanderfin-chief,-and all appeared vier. It
48 reported ;oat a large number of row boats were lying
e"2' on not a-single one Was seen,
Pre 'in ' Shanghae, •we •learn that intelligence
leached there on the night of the 6th March, of a
tea depot in the 'east of Keang-se. The quantity
°f tea destroYe4 t-ttas not large, say ten' chops
eoegotr. ' The inhabitants and tea merchanta had
MI fled on' the approach et the rebels. The latter
acre a band from Keang-se, who had been
ravagingv the neighbourhood _of Hwuy -chew is
,tgan-hwuy, and.were on their return to Kean-se.
tilis is astivere..blow. to the import ,trade of the
Port; and was at once felt as such at Soochow in
l'considerable•fallinthe quotations. Since• Canton
e
Was closed, large- quantities of shirtings and
'''oollens have been sent to Keang-se for consump-
tion' further west, in IToonan and Hoopeh, &O.
The great insecurity Of'stije route; through Keaeg: se
‘villeetell most iejurfotisly upon the Shanghae
4iiirkete , and seriously -;.ereipple the demand for
atanufaeturese What the Chinese fear is, that,
even if- the rebels leave Ilow-how- now, they will
return as soon as trade may revive there, for fresh
blunder. • - - ,e•:- •
We have infermation frem Pekin to the 11th
February, Two inches of snow bad fallen, reliev-
`erN'iii Sonie'ineasure the distress of the Emperor's,
'iriti. No authenticaie 1 reports of Yeh's doings'
'has been ..Published—probably none- had
_been
tk:ceived. .In certain. quarters, ..it was suspected
th•tt all was not going on well in the city of, Rams,
acrd consequently notes of inquiry are supposed to
iiRVe been sent to. Seanghae,.that the facts may be
4scertained.. Ych must have reported something,
'l3O the accounts about repairing the fortifications
'Wrie-tsin, and otb'e'r places on the coast, are hardly
credible HoWever, he haS in nil probability
)
Riven some iiititnarion of a restive disposition on
tb..e. Part of tbe Barbarian rebelsi; expeeting soon
o.ll.unable them, as previously he had the native
),Lndits. -As yot no Commissioner for Canton has
been ; Gazetted, and ' probably none has been
Bnl,ointed. At Nanking, or between the Imperial
°IT
-leers and the rebel chief known as Yiti Wang,
There, hes' been some correspondence, the exact
klitf..tre of which 'it 'is not easy to ascertain: The
l'tireonra are conflicting. Some say that overtures
Levu beenenade by Shill ; others affirm that the
chub" liSioliabg has some ends to serve. However,
Ile
. , ... Imperial
troops seems to to made
,by the
troops at
.the .horth or in the west. Inaction
Is rather the order of the day with them; and
at pressent it is not much otherwise with the
ieSureents. But if the South getS cnttngle'd with
1110 Blitish, they Empefror's forces in the centre of
tile ,'-'-opire will be still, more disheartened. A
:,Itish expedition up to. Wuchang, as soon as the
Proper vessels can be: spared from Canton, might
*elk powerfully, both in opening an acquaintance
kith the " Nascent .Dynasty," audit-) showing the
V 4 governmeiet its impotency ; and so prepare the
Prudently
for an immense -expansion of foreign-trade.
-ertldelltly planned and executed, such an exteedi-
lien wohldeopeu a new world for enterprise ;
lfnieed," something of this 'sort Must be see en
it--in order to give full and free scope for
- 41,(61ae ;VW_ now embarked in Chinese trade-7
itifigpaer the ape at least, being, now quite
teie. .
• e cee i
tai e• Bombay 0444,i2d Times says that
'4.Alatle,ol,good grounds for referring thtt Yeh's account
yettl Milton
affair is .tits only one believed in by the
. mperor. In a veryerecent Imperial Decree, not pub-
a.lW in the Gyze4tes but the authenticity of which may
relied on, Jaktegajecy, we are enabled to.stater snubs
ItiMg arid hi4.c.oßeage for being beguiled by the foreign
eraJ4,- of the matti-r, c 'nveyed to ,them by way of
4tig .14ie, which, of course, went to contradict Yeh's
i ti on that the quarrel. was wilfully begun by the British,
qill:l44afnoev,continuedeby there without the sympathy of
',4 es)otb,are..berbarian nations. Tile. Emperor expresses
(7.9Ptilfadence,-,ln Yeh'is, experience of barbarian . business,
rk•hich is.toO great, he thinks, to have left him without an
Itst-Ipedient.for the Settlement of the
,case in hared.

'44 'Another most respectable authority, however,
44,ritt,s that he is persuaded no report has been
nalade -to Pekin on the subject•by -Yeh, and that
he has not yet communicatethollicially with his
tno-ordinates, the governors of the coast provinces.
~-,l3ut this is not probable ; as he is of course aware
..-That the PewS'orour proeeedingS at Canton were
,married to the Five ports ivithetit loss of time, and
tlehe could hardly venture to be silent, when certain
kthat his colleagues were all Apprised of the truth:
A- Chinese note, dated 7th March, has been
received, reporting some eitraordinary proceedings
, •
on the part of S;iih Ta-k'ai, known to us as the
Assistant King.of the Nanking_ rebels. _ On some
(lay not low before the 3rd February, he returned
with his-followers from the districts of Kau-yung
and Piaushwui to Nanking; and there informed the
chiefs that his cousin Hu was about to go
over to the Imperial -Government, and -exhorted
diem to do likewise. As they would not; he privily
ivithdroW his- contingent, 60,000 Men, to Ngan,
14,Ilwut, and the, Nanking rebels having re-occuied
a the cities of the distriets above named, he Sent.to
‘4:o7fer to co operate with Hu, if he would advance in,
t' force against Kau-Yung,,and then against Nanking.
1:4; On the 3rd February the Chin-Kiang rebels went
to take a supply of grain from a lace called
Shang-Cong. west of the city. Thep inhabitants
07-turned out to resist them, and killed some 500 of
ti-the marauders. ThPrebels returned in force, burned
41, the, town, and massacred all they -could find,
El, :without distinction of age or sex, to the number of
IV, 4,000 persons. This done, the same body went
ltHround to Tan yang, and engaged the-Imperial
gi',rriSon, who were getting much the worst of it,
a-
wnen the. people came to the rescue with their
Sir
6Pades. hoes, &c., and beat off the enemy.. The
l'tj)els were so „enraged, that on their way home
they massacred every man, woman, and child they
nipt.

44, The Peking Gazette of the 22nd November last
e(Cntains a curious notice of collision between the
.e:'Rusians of Omsk and the people of Tarbagatai,
sv `or Tashtava, the most distant portion of the
4,, Chinee Empire in Contact 'with the Siberian
frot,iicr. -
:4; SEIZURE OF THE STEAMER QUEEN, AND
MURDER OF PASSENGERS.
Another river steamer, the Queen, had fallen a prey to
her Chinese passengers and crew, though the culpable
negligence of the owners and captain—the former in not
having her properly manned and officered, the latter in
not adopting the necessary precautions against such an

occurrence. On Monday the 23rd Febrnary, as the Qneen
was on her way from }Emig Kong to Macao, and when
the officers and European passengers were at tiffio, the
Chinese passengers, with the crew, amounting in all to
about thirty-fire, turned one of the cannon placed in the
gangway into the cabin door, and fired its contents (grape=
h among the Europeans there, consisting of the captain
and engineer; Mr. Cleverly, elate marine surveyor of
Wnampoa and Canton ; Mr. Wier, late chief engineer of
the Sir Clvr'es Forbes; and also two or three P atuguese
with their wives. The captain received a blow on the
head, and immediately jumped overboard,—his fate
is unknown ; the two engineers would note fight, and were
killed by the Chinamen ; the Portuguese hid themselves
under the table. Mr. everly's escape, and the indomit-
able courage and perseverance he displayed, is almost
beyond belit f. flts thigh-bone was'broken by a shot,
notwi hstanding which hr kept the whole band of savages
at bay with a revolver for about twenty minutes, and shot
two or three of them when they fried to enter the after
cabin where he was. When he had no further means of
resistence, he threw a bamboo chair from the cabin
window, stripped off his clothes, and jumped into the
water, where he remained for an hour and a half, and was
placed up by a lorcha bound to Macao, to which place he
was taken ; and though he may pob4bly lose his leg. it is
hoped Ills life will be eaveel.

iditYintA Accouxr.

The seizttr6 of this steamer, and murder of several per-
sons by her Chinese passengers and crew, is attributed to
the negligence of the captain and owners—the latter in
not having her properly manned, and the former in neg-
lecting due precautions. The Captain of the Queen, with
two of the engineers, and Mr. o.mond Cleverly, a passen-
ger, went down to dinner, leaving the upper deck deserved
and the arms chest accessible. The first intimation that
anything was wrong was a volley being fired into the cabin.
Mr. Cleverly, with a revolver, wounded several of the
Chinese' • The captain was wounded, and jumped over-
blard, as also did the engineer, and a European officer.
Mr. Cleverly had his thigh fractured by a ball, but suc-
ceeded in reaching a lorcha, and was taken to Macao. The
other passengers were taken up the river in the Queen, and
most of them have sines arrived in Macao. They report
the steamer ,to have been burned. She had a valuable
cargo. The atfack was conducted by marauding soldiers
said pirates, wh ) were on board for the purpoee. The
Queen was under Portuguese colours.