The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-16 00:00:00

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF SIR JOHN BOWRING, DATED

ITONG KONG, MAY 23, 1855.
" 1 have made a noble treaty with Siam. lam amazed
at my own success ; but all the good genii were with me.
I found there in the prime minister a marvellous man ;
and, together, we shook the Gaz t gates of monopoly. Siam
is likely to become what it was once—one of the most com-
mercial and progressive nations of the eastern world."
EXTRACT FROM AN EARLIER LETTER.
"Bangkok is a city of more than 300,000 inhabitants.
The Jesuits say 400,000. It extends for many miles on
the two sides of the Meinam. I imagine no city in the
east has such a number of gorgeous temples. The prostra-
tion of the people before the king and the nobles, and of
the nobles before the king, is, I suppose, unparalleled even
in Oriental nations. Everybody becomes a quadruped in
the neighbourhood of the Lord of the White Elephant,
with their faces in the dust. But I have been so much in
the graces of the two kings—for there are two—as to be
introduced into their private apartments, to have seen
their wives—the first has 600, who have 2,400 female at-
tendants—and to have many colloquies, lasting many
hours at a time, seated vis-a-vis at their tables, or close to
their thrones. All the kotou-ings and acts of vassalage
have been dispensed with. I came up in a ship of war to
the capital, and she anchored off the ancient factory, fired
there a royal salute, which met with the appropriate re-
sponse. In a word, everything has gone on delightfully ;
though I once or twice had to apprehend a total failure.
But the king promised that all the honours ever done to a
foreign ambassador should be done to me; and as I found
the ambassador sent by Louis XIV. in 1688 was not sub-
jected to the humiliations which have been since exacted,
I have managed to escape every indignity, and to be al-
lowed to sit at the royal audience, where all the princes of
the blood were on all fours. We wore our swords, too,
a privilege for which the French ambassador stipulated ;
and though it was ceded comme faveur .tout-a-fait per-
sonelle et particuliere,' I persuaded the king, after long
discussions and much resistance, to allow, to me. But his
majesty had the goodness privately to leard me to the hall
of audience, acknowledging that the claim of Queen Vic-
toria now was as good as that of the French king in 1688 ;
so we settled before the day of reception all the ceremo-
nials, and they were no sooner over than his majesty sent
for me to tell me I had conducted myself most satisfac•
torily, and desired I would hear him read the speech I had
delivered, and which he did me the honour of saying was
the very sort of speech he wished me to make. He dan-
dled on his knees a pretty child the while, which he told
me was the twelfth which had been born to him since he
came to the throne, four years ago. The favourite wife he
could not introduce, as she was ' in a state of happy ex-
pectancy,' he said.

SUSPECTED MURDER OF A SAlLOR.—Yesterday Mr.
W. Baker, the deputy-coroner, hell an inquest at the
George and Dragon Tavern, High-street, Shadwell, on
view of the body of George Smith, aged 43 years, who
was found on Monday morning lying dead on the cause-
wary failing New Crown Wharf, Wapping•wall, with a
severe injury,oll the bead, which wassuffi*i.t.te account
kermt, number of witnesses -yw?re ,oxamitied
was returned Oki-Found. dead .in the ricer with a cut
wound on the head, but hoiv,saused, 9i0:ju17.13941 no
evidence to show." The coroner requeAtqdAhepolice.to.
follow up the case, and if they could trace any, further
evidence which was likely to throw some light uppn the
'mysterious death of the deceased, the parties concerned'
might be taken bolero a magistrate,