The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-02 00:00:00

THE ASIATIC JOURNAL.

Three articles of eastern production, which are
making much noise in'the commercial world at pre-
sent, and which are peculiarly within the prorince
of this journal, are treated at considerable length in
the present number. It is hardly necessary to state
that these are opium, tea, and cotton. There is a
copious and careful digest of the proceedings in.
China relative to the first, which places the dispute,
or rather the parties most interested in the dispute,
in a different point of view, not at all agreeable, we
suspect, to the East India Company. It would ap-
pear from this that the loss will not fall on the
twenty-six different firms engaged in the trade (at
the head of which stands the house of Jardine.
Matheson, and Co., for 7,341 chests), but on the
Company. After stating that there are three
courses open for the owners of the opium—either
to sit down content with their loss, or bring actions
at common law against Captai❑ Elliott for the
three millions sterling, or petition Parliament—the
latter of which will probably be chosen—the writer
adds :

" It so clearly appears that the East India Company
were the virtual smugglers of the opium into China--:-
seeing that the drug could not have been smuggled
there if had not been grown in India—that the Corn-
pan) Government is debtor in account with the actual
smugglers, who were merely the passive and innocent
instruments of the Company ; and after the Zemindar
of Nozeed Act, there cannot be the smallest obstacle to
passing a Bill for indemnifying the unoffending exporters
of opium to China out of the plethoric Indian revenues."
We think, however, there i, another mode of
redress, and if the East India Company are to be
subjected to the responsibility, they will contrive
some way to make the Chinese Government also
one of the party. If these different firms were
merely the agents of the Company, so were the
Chinese authorities at Canton agents of the Celes-
tial Empire, and therefore the " Bright Eye,'
who is styled " divine," and who, according to his
assumed attributes, ought to have known all their
deeds, must be responsible for them, Such, it
appears, is the rage for opium still, notwithstanding
the dreadful penalties, that opium sales were going
on according to the latest accounts, all along the coast.
At one place a whole cargo had been sold at 600
dollars a chest, and Manilla is now become the
grand depot whence the drug will be smuggled into
China with nearly as much facility as before. We
have not space for any remarks on the growth of
cotton and tea in Hindostan and .Assam, and can
only recommend to the perusal of those interested
the Report of Mr. Bruce on Assam Tea, and the
Essay of General Briggs on the Cotton Trade of
India. The " Review of Eastern News" at the
present moment will be read with interest.

THE NEW STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF
,SCOTLAND. No. XXIV.
This Number is more interesting than several
that have preceded it, chiefly on account of the
particulars given of remarkable persons in the re-
spective parishes. The work is necessarily
dry and uninteresting to the general reader,
though as a statistical record and an his-
torical account of a people of peculiar habits
it must be of great value. It is tedious
to be reading the monotonous details about plough
and horses, and schools and glebes, and swallows
and swans ; and, therefore, a little. variety about
heroes and poets and historians forps an agreeable
relief. In the present Number We have short ac-
counts of some of the most remarkable men of the
south of Scotland---Principal Robeitson, Thomp-
son the poet, Leyden, Arinsttong,' and the gallant

The embellishments to this periodical are this
month more numerous than they have been for
some time past. There ate not less than four of
them, and each displays considerable skill in the
execution The best—or at least the most striking,
in point of subject—is that entitled " Shooting a
Boa," which represents one of these gigantic In-
dian serpents in the act of crushing a dog whom he
folds ;
has just entangled in his slimywhile in the
distance is seen a sportsman preparing to take a
steady aim with his gun at the huge monster. The
aspect of the boa is very impressive. Among the
literary contents we find some diverting recollections
of the late Ettrick Shepherd. We quote the ac-
count of the death of the boa :
l\
tilie following
aiorße van,inhis ' Thirty Years in India,' re-
lates account of the destruction of a boa-
constrictor :—On his return from Bombay, Lieutenant
C— had a still more singular adventure near the same
place. He entered the jungle in search of game, pre-
ceded by a favourite powerful dog that had courage to
seize anything. The dog ran a little a-head, and sud-
denly made a noise as if choking. ' Run, master, a
cheeta has caught your dog,' said the native. Lieut.
ndgliding
C— advanced cautiously, and saw a large heap, just
the colour of a royal tiger, black and orange. In a
the other
a
few seconds he beheld the head and neck of an enor-
mousboa
r .
him.
o waited
slowly
untiluncoiling
h ai f
oi tf, set lhfe snake was
,
out of the coil or lump, and then fired both barrels.
aObnoeutbafollur entereditlebes imfrommcdtiahteelyhebaed. ihindtleeye,
The
whole coil in-
stantly fell, and revealed the poor dog crushed to death
within the folds. In the meantime all Lieutenant C—'s
followers had fled, and he was forced to go to a village
for assistance. Having with some difficulty mustered a
little band, he returned, and brought out the snake,
the dog, and a spotted deer that the snake had killed,
the scent of which had probably tempted the unfortu-
nate dog. The carcase of the deer was so bruised,
that even the lowest c:ste in the village refused to
touch it, declaring it was full of zakar, or venom, of
the ashgur, as they called the snake. The boa was
twenty-three feet eight inches long, and about six feet
in circumference. There teas a large cake of fat all the way