The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

MELBOURNE LAB Mt MABKET.

There has been very little doing in the registry offices
during the week, except among female servants, for whom
the demand is increasing both for town and country.
Rough labour of all kinds is meeting with ready employ.
mont.

The following are the ruling prices for the week :
With rations—Married couples, without families, from
£75 to ,eB5 per annum ; do, with families, £55 to £65 do ;
gardeners, 50 to £55 do ; grooms, £4O to .6'50 do ; stock
keepers, £6O to £7O do; shepherds, £35 to £4O do i hut
keepers, £25 to £3O do; general farm servants, 20s to
25s per week ; threshing and cleaning, is per bushel ; hay
cutting, 9s per ton; bullock drivers on the road, 30s per
week ; do on stations, 25s do ; sheep shearers, 163 per
hundred sheep ; sheep washing, lOs per day ; men cooks
.E7O to £9O per annum; female do, .W3O to £45 do
thorough female servants, £39 to .435 do; housemaids
£25 do ; laundresses, £3) to £35 do; nursemaids £2O to
425 do. The following are considered the standard
weekly rations :-121bs beef or mutton, IMbs flour, 21bs
sugar, ilb tea.
There is a better demand for all kinds of skilled labour,
especially among the building trades.
Without rations.—Compositors, Is 4d per thousand, do.
by the week, £4 4s; pressmen, £4 4s to £4 lOs do; car-
penters, 14s to 15s per day ; masons, 15s do ' - plasterers,,
14s to 15s do ; bricklayers. 14s to 15s do ; blacksmiths,
12s to 14a do; quarrymen, 103 do; woodsplitters and
fencers, 5s to 7s per ton; fencing by the rod, material to
split only, 63; labourers on the roads, 98 to 103 per day—
wood, water, and tents found.

Seamen have been engaged at higher rates. For home
or the East, £5 to 46 a month; in coasters £5 to £6 ;
cooks and stewards, £5 10s to es ; mates for coasters,
478 to £9 per month.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF CANTON.

FURTHER DETAILS.

By the overland mail the following additional details,
relative to the events which preceded the bombardment of
Canton, have been received :

HONG KONG, Nov. 15. Unexpected events have oc-
curred at Canton, which has been partially bombarded by
the British fleet, and trade is entirely suspended, most of the
foreign residents have retired to Hong Kong and Macao,
with their books and treasure.

The supercilious and insolent bearing of the Chinese
officials towards the British Government and people had
long required a check, which being long delayed, at last
emboldened the Viceroy to insult our flag, and refuse all
apology for the outrage. The more immediate cause of
offence is as follows :—A lercha, possessing a colonial regis-
ter, and entitled, therefore, to bear the British flag and
claim its protection, was anchored off Canton on the
Flth of October, when a party of Imperial soldiers boarded
the vessel, seized twelve Chinese of the crew; whom they
sent on shore, and, hauling down the Union Sack, retained
possession of the lorcha, The master, an Englishman, ap-
plied to Her Britannic Majesty's consul, who forthwith went
on beard. On remonstrating with the mandarin officer, he
was insulted, and even threatenel with violence. The consul
then addressed the vic:roy, detailing the facts, and requiring
immediate redress, which, so far from being granted, was
distinctly refused, the viceroy appearing determined to
defend the act. Mr. Consul Parkes then communicated
with her Majesty's plenipotentiary here, and twenty four
hours were granted to the Viceroy Yeh to apologise for the
insult to our flag. and consul, Such an etiology not being
forthcoming, Mr. Parkes, on the 22nd of October, publicly
notified that the task of exacting satisfaction had devolved
on her Majesty's naval officers. Meantime his Excellency
Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour had proceeded to Canton,
taking with him all the fleet, excepting her Majesty's ship
Winchester.

The Admiral demanded redress and apology, and a salute
of 21 guns to the British flag, and gave the Viceroy 24
boors further to consider the course he was pursuing, ample
warning being given that should he still refuse compliance,
coercive measures would be adopted. Yoh, however, made
no satisfactory overtures, and the tone of his communications
was anything but apologetic,
But one course, therefore, remained for Sir Michael Sey-
mour, and on the 24th October all save one of the river forts
at and about Canton were taken by our seamen and marines
without loss, the Chinese offering but a poor resistance,
The guns were spiked, to the number of 170, and some of
the forts were burnt, while others were held by our marines
and a detachment of the It yal Artillery.

Some days were then allowed to elapse, and every oppor-
tunity was given to Yeh to ar ange matters, if so inclined.
The Viceroy, however, remained obstinate; and the usual
Chinese policy was resorted to. Twelve men, with
chains round their necks, were sent to the Consulate (not
on board the lorcha, as had been demanded) purporting to
be the same as were taken from the ve'sel. They were,
however, wretches of the lowest class, evidently dragged
from prison, and were, of course, sent back at once, and all
attempts at negociation having failed, on the 27th Oct.,
the Encounter steamer, Captain O'Callaghan, opened fire
on the city wall and the Viceroy's palace, the Roy al
Aertillery co operatinA from one of the captured forts. Her
jesty's steamer Barracouta, Captain Fortescue, steamed
up a branch of the river, and from a distance of 3,20$ yards
threw shot and shell into the torts on the heights. A
breach having been effected in the city wall, it was stormed
on the 29th of October by the marines and sailors, le 1 by
Commodore Elliot. The breach was carried after some
resistance, and the Viceroy's palace was also taken possesion
of and visited by Sir M. Seymour. Our troops were with-
drawn before dark, our loss for the day amounting to
only three killed and eleven wounded.
Fur her attempts at negociation were then made, but all
proved fruitless. Oa the 3rd and 4th November the old
city was shelled, and on the 6th her Majesty's steamer
Berne mta engaged and destroyed a fleet of twenty three
war janEs, anchored in line off the small fort not previously
taken. The Barracouta had hot work, and received no less
than eiglry shot in her hull and rigging. The Chinese
stood to their guns better than usual. The fort wcs also
taken by the boats of the Calcutta. Our loss amounted to
three killed and two wounded. His excellency having pre-
viously reconnoitred the Bogue forts at the entrance of the
Canton river, they were taken on the 12th just , after some
fighting, by which we lost two killed and four wounded—
one of the latter a midshipman.
His Excellency Sir El. Seymour, in whose hands the
whole affair rested, has gained the respect and admiration
of all the British subjects here. The patience and humanity
he has displayed, and the unflinching determination with
which he acts, have inspired the greatest confidence.
The following circular addressed to the British commu-
nity by Mr. 11. S. Parkes, her Majesty's Consul at Can-
ton, has been issued under the authority of the British
Admiral:—

" British Consulate, Canton, Nov. 15, 1856.

" lier Britannic Majesty's Consul has received, the in-
structions of his Excellency Rear Admiral Sir M. Slymour,
K.O 8., Naval Commander in Chief, &c., to issue the follow.
ing notice to the British community—
" His Excellency feels it unnecessary to recapitulate to
the British community the origin and progress of what
has been done at Canton during the last few weeks by
her Majesty's naval forces under his command. Their
loss has happily been trifling, and their operations, now
including the capture of the Bogie Forts, eminently
successful.

" His Excellency regrets to find that neither the extreme
measures to which the Imperial Commissioner's defiance
of treaty obligations has compelled him to resort, nor the
plain proof given that the city and its inhabitants are at
the mercy of her Majesty's ships of war, have as yet
induced the Imperial Commissioner to make the concession
demanded by his Excellency, as a guarantee against future
misunderstandings of a similar nature to the present.
"The concession is not regarded as unreasonable by
Chinese, who, his Excellency understands, adequately,repre-
sent the feelings of the respectable inhabitants of Canton,
nor is any tangible obstacle alleged to it by these tyccept
the impracticability of the Commissioner himself, who has
laboured to associate the people with him, by representing
the English as in league with rebels and outlaws, and has
pushed his hostility to the ferocious length of proclaiming
rewards for the lives of English subjects without distinction.
" His Excellency is determined that his demand shall be
conceded ; but the community must be well aware that any
course his Excellency may now contemplate would be
compromised by publicity. His Excellency, therefore
oonfiues himself to stating, that he sees no immediate
prospect of a restoration to quiet.
" The security of the foreign position will be as well
cared for as heretofore. The nature and object of any
measures now to be resorted to, his Excellency deems it
advisable to keep to himself.

(Signed) " HARRY S. PARKES,
" Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Canton.
_ _ _

" To the British Community at Canton."

A "remonstrance" has also been issued by the "Chinese
gentry of Kwangiung," in explanation, or rather justifica-
tion cf the seizure of the lorcha, which was the immediate
cause of hostilities. This document alleges that for some
time many of these lorchas have infringed the laws against
smuggling, greatly to the annoyance of the native officials.
The particular lorcha in question, No. 27, is charged with
sheltering robbers, and entering Canton, contrary to the
regulations. The English Consul, it is alleged, has been
deceived by the captain of the lorcha, and is therefore
chargeable with the consequences that have resulted.
The Chinese remonstrants further state that the twelve
men who have been seized have been liberated ; but, not-
withstanding, the English officers, " distinctly against the
treaty, have fired upon and injured the forts, killing the
soldiers." In conclusion. they appeal to the " officials and
merchants of all the honourable countries, as well as the
large English merchants," to cause investigation to be