The Sun.
London, England, 1824-10-19 00:00:00

INDIA.

Therebave bean several arrivals from India :
The William Shand, Kenn, from Batavia ; the Mary, Steele,
from Singapore and Penang ; the Francis, Benson, from Ba-
tavia and Beneoolen ; anathe Acasta, Dixy, from Penang.

By the communications from Batavia, it appears that the
supply of European arms, with which the Burmese have
hitherto been so liberally supplied from Europe, is now cut off.
A proclamation was issued in June last, by the Governor of
Batavia, directing the seizure of all arms and ammunition,,
from ships anchoring in the Roads, or navigating the straits of
Sunda, except such as might be requisite for actual defence.—
The Guardian, bound to Singapore, had been detained under
this proclamation, of Which ,we shall be enabled to:give our
readers a copy to-morrow.
It had excited surprise to find the Burmese so perfectly armed
and equipped as they proved to be in the late actions, and the
Proclamation published at Batavia is not doubted to have. re-
suited frem the representations of our Indian Government to
the Authorities at Batavia. The Cochin-Chinese are known
also to have been largely supplied with arms from France, and
the Dutch Government is said to have complied most promptly
with the edict restraining importation, from a sense of the com-
mon delver in which they might themselves be involved, by
suffering.the free importation of arms into the further Penin-
sula of.-India. IVe greatly regret to find, from a letter dated
Singapore; 23d May, brought by the William Shand, that no
satisfactory intelligence has been yet obtained of Mr. Thorn-
ton, the merchant. That Gentleman had then .leeen in the
possession of the Malays seven months. 'During that period
the most strenuous exertions for his discovery and liberation
had proved fruitless. Intense interest was excited for the fate
of an individual so highly respected throughout every part
of our Indian settlement, as well amongst the natives, as our
own countrymen. short time previous to the sailing of the
• William Shand, private information was received 0151 r. Thorn.
ton being confined at Ruttce, a place distant from• Singapore,
only about twenty English miles. A confidential native agent
-was immediately authorised to make an offer of 10,000 dollars
for his liberation, together with an assurance of free pardon t't
all the individuals-concerned in his seizure. The .agent pro-
ceeded forthwith to the place at which he expected to open the
negociation, but neither at Ruttee, nor at any other place,
could he obtain the slightest information on the subject, and
this unfortunate and respected Gentleman's place of detention
had, up to the hour of the William Shand•'s sailing, eluded
every attempt at discovery.

SINGAPORE.
We have received Singapore Chronicle: to the 13th May
The following arc extracts :

ItATIVE.FOREIGN TRADE,OF

[roost TILT; SINGAPORE ciinosuct.r OF 13TII MAY.]
Our limits will admit of our giving hut a very slight sketch
of -this very interesting subject.
The provinces •of China, which carry on foreign trade 'are
Canton, including the island of Hainan, Fokien, Tcchekiang
. and Kianan. No foreign intercourse is allowed with the island
of Formoza, and the storms and dangers of the Yellow Sea de:
ter the natives of the maritime provinces of •Shanton and Pet-
cheli from engaging in foreign commerce. These are supplied
with the commodities of distant countriesolarough the coasting
Itrade, which is carried on in the fine season between them and
the neighbouring province of Kianan and the city of Soutcheon.
Of these provinces? by far the largest trade•is carried on by
Canton, and next to it by Fokien, and the greatest commercial
'cities in China are Canton (so well known to Europeans) and
Soutcheon, the capital of one of the divisions of -Klemm, which
the Chinese, in their extravagant way, call a Terrestrial Para-
dise—an odd epithet, according to our• ideas, for &great trading
city. The four provinces which we have enumerated are al.
leged to contain above fifty millions of inhabitants, but if they
•contain -one half of it they are upon a level.with the first king-
doms of Europe, and this may afford an index of the amount
of foreign trade which they are capable of condueting,-withnut
reckoning that they are channel* for a trade with the pros inces
of the interior, which are still more populous and extensive
than themselves
Without including Korea, the •Lewcliew Islitntlei-or Formosa,
may
y be described as the countries with which
on foreign intercourse, viz :—Japan, the Philip-
pines, Sooloos,
tchheinfaol carries fallowing
Celebes, Borneo, Java, the Straits of Malacca
(now principally confined to Singapore). East coast of the Ma-
laya Peninsula, Siam, Coehin.Chinalincluding anbojia), and
Tonquin.
The Junks which carry on this trade, are of very various
sizes, being generally from 200 to 1,000 tons burthen, and the
' capital on which they trade, being often as small as-3,000, and
not unfrequently as large as 50 to 60000 dollars.
Some are built in the countries to which the trade, particu.
laxly in Siam and Coehin-China, and these are the best, but
the greater number ha China itself of the fie and other inferior
woods of that country. Some are owned by Chinese residing
in foreign countries, some by the Chinese themselves, and often
there is an intimate connection between those residing on
the spot, and the colonists abroad; :every where they are
commanded ananavigated by Chinese. The smallest but the
naost-numerous junks sail from the' Island of Hainan. The
natives of this island had -hitherto tried as far only as
Siam and Cochin-China, but, this season a few of them have
come on as far• as Singapore. Canton furnislus the largest
description of junks; these trade every -where but to Japan.
The junks of Fokien or Amoy are small but valuable; they
trade also every where but to the-last place, hut are fewer in
number than those-of Canton. • The junks _of Tchekien .are the
only Chinese vessels which trade to Japan; besides which they
trade to Manilla, Cochin-China and Siam, but do not appear
to cross the Equator. Those of Kianan are few in number, but
large, and carry very valuable-cargoes; their trade is confined
to the. Philippines, Siam, and Cochin-China.
The construction and rigging of a Chinese vessel is her pro.
per registry, and-a •very effectual one it is ; for any deviation
from the set form and character subjects her immediately to
foreign duties, and what (if it is possible) is still worse, to all
kinds of suspicion.
No measurement or tonnage-duty, is paid in China on na-
tive vessels trading with foreign parts, but there is a kind of
Tariff, -which, however, varies in the different provinces. At
Canton a picul of manufactured silk _goods pays 7 dollars, and
a picul of.fine earthern ware one dollar. .These duties arc high-
est in the
ports of Fokien, and the lowest Of all in the island of
Haitian. The Chinese traders of Siam state that they carry
-on a fair and easy trade with the cities of Nimpo, and Sianghai,
In Tchekian and Kianan. Every where the Chinese traders
exhibit a very admirable dexterity in evading 'the Imperial
Custom House laws, and putting them upon a footing of more
-freedom and liberality than is allowed by their letter. The
coasting trade of China, for example, is neatly free of duty...-
The:merchant takes.advantege.of this, anti intending in reality
to go to Siam or Cochin-China, he clears out. for Hainan.—
When he returns again, his junk will be rein or live days off'
and on, at the mouth of the port, until he has made a regular
bargain with the Custom-house Officers for a reduction of du-
ties ; threatening ell the time to discharge his cargo at some
other port, and weedle them out of their perquisites, if they will
not come into his terms. The following may be looked upon as
an approximation to the amount of the foreign trade, which
China either now conducts, or has lately in general conducted
with foreign Countries, viz.:—
Japan - Junks - - 10
Philippines ditto - - 15
Sooloo Islands ditto . •- 4
Celebes - ditto . - - 2
Moluccas - ditto . 1
Borneo • . ditto . 13
Java - ditto • • . 7
Sumatra - ditto - - 10
Singapore, and other places in the Straits of Malacca 9
- E. Coast of the Malayan Peninsula 6
Siam - 120
-

=
86
Cochin-China and Mini lyoj Li ditto . -
Tooquin . - - - . 34

Total of Junks annually - - 297
Thetonnage of these vessels will probably not be over-rated
at from .90 to 100,000 tons, and unexpectedly large, as it may
appear to some, must in reality be looked upon as a mere trifle
in comparison to the vast population, extensive.territory, and
industry of the couutry •io which they belong.
We can spare but a moment to describe the commodities of
which this commerce consists. China is .to the natives of the
further East, what Great Britain Is to all America, and to
many of the nations of the Continent of Europe. She supplies
them with manufactured goods, withilvdc, religion and lite.

'-nature, with astrology (if not with astronomy), and with emi-
grants ; and receives in return the rough produce of their forests,
or the peculiar products of their agricultural industry. She fur-
nishes
every where teas, coarse pottery, umbrellas, fans, shoes
and sacrificial paper. She furnishes to the Tonquinese and
Cochin Chinese wrought satins and gauzes. To the Siamese
crapes, mirrors and ornaments for their temples. To the Ma-
layan tribes raw silk.
'The Chinese Coloniits, placed under favourable circum-
stances, and certain of the countries to which they emigrated,
have been able to exceed, or surpass, the industry of the mother
country. It is thus that in Java, the Philippines and Siam, they
manufacture sugar ; in Siam, iron and iron utensils, which,
within the last 12 years, have superseded those of China ; and
that in Borneo, and in the Alalsyan Peninsula, they have
wrought mines of gold and tiß'much. superior iuproduttiveness
to those of their own country.
The Chinese receive from Japan, chiefly fine copper and
camphor, from the Philippines, Sooloos, Moluccas and Celebes,
tortoise-shell, mother-o -pearl shells, beech de mar, and es-
culent nests ; from Java, many of the commodities now enu-
merated, with some tin, cotton, and spices • from the Malay
countries, similar articles, with timber, barks, scented wood,
tin, Malayan camphire, pepper, opium, and some European
commodities. Siam affords by far the most extensive cata-
logue, such as tin, pepper, gamboje, cardamoms, perfumed
wood, fancy woods, dye woods, hides, horns, bones, ivory,
feathers, &c. ; from Cochin-China, Kambajia, and Tonquin,
near the same articles, with the exception of tin and pepper ;
but besides these, cinnamon, betel nut, varnish, and certain
dye stuffs.
The Chinese colonists of the countries with which China car-
rit s on a trade, may be safely estimated at one million, of whom
Siam contains by far the largest number; and the hands ac-
tually engaged in navigating the junks themselves, may be
moderately estimated at from 18,000 to 20,000.

The Dutch ship Scheldt, beloning to Malacca, we are sorry
to state, was totally destroyed by fire while lying in the harbour
of Grissi, on the coast of Java. The accident was occasioned
by a few sparks of fire having accidentally fallen amongst some
~,un-pawder in the after part of the ship. All the persons on
board escaped with their lives, excepting one Malay woman, who
was unfortunately killed by the first explosion.
Cil A)roSIA m.—The arrival of junks
this season haucontinued ,an unusual late period. On the
28th ult. a large junk came. in Macao, taking 40 days to effect
a passage, although she had a Portuguese pilot on hoard. She
brought us, notwithstanding, the latest intelligence from Can-
ton. By European letters received by, her, the price of Patna
opium had fallen to 1,100 dollars a chest.
The Dutch have discovered and opened tin mines in Billiton,
and a considerable resort of Chinese to that island has been the
consequence.

MR. CANNING and LORD VERPOOL.

We copy the following from a Morning Paper.
We, know not what precise degree of accuracy
may belong to it ; but there is an air of truth
pervading the whole which inspires confidence.
Cheltenham, Oct. 14, 1824.
• .
Sin,—ln the article respecting Mr. Canning, in your Paper
of Saturday, the Uth instant, signed " Jonathan," are some
few mistakes of fact, which, as • they are obviously uninten-
tional, I have no doubt your correspondent would be glad to see
corrected.

Ist. Your Correspondent says " Mr. Canning enjoyed the
friendship of the present Premier at Fulham, at Eton, and at
Christ Church Oxford." Having been at Eton with one,
and at Christ Church with`both, I can set your correspondent
right in these particulars. Whether Lord Liverpool began
his education at Fulham, I know not; but he certainly never
was at Eton. He was educated at the Charter House. lam
equally certain that Mr. Canning cannot have been at Ful-
ham; forasmuch as I- well remember that he came to Eton
from Winchester', bringing with him a talent for verses
(the great qualification 'for eminence at Eton) far beyond
his years. The first place of • education, therefore, where
Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning met, was Oxford. Lord
or summer of 1787 ; and Mr. Canning in the October Term
(then Mr. Jenkinson) entered at Oxford in the Spring
Liverpool
of the same year. They were then constantly in each other's
society, together with a third young man, who promised as
fairly as either of them—Lord Henry Spencer, son of the late,
and brother of the present Duke of Marlborough. He had
been Mr. Canning's most intimate friend at Eton, and come
from Eton to Christ Church at the same time. j. It was un-
donlvedl v at Christ Church that the foundation of that friend-
ship between Lord Liverpool and Mr.. Canning was laid, which
has lasted all their lives, and which no occasional political
separation appears to have ever seriously interrupted. 1 believe,
however, that your correspondent is mistaken in attributing, as
he secols to do, Mr. Canning's introduction into public life to
Lord Liverpool. I reMember hearing at the time, that at
dinner at Addiscombe House, the seat of the first Lord Liver-
purpose of being introdUced to Mr. Pitt, it was tbund, to the
surprise and amusement of their hosts, that the two supposed
stranger-guests were already well acquainted with each other.
Mr. Pitt (1 never knew exactly through what channel) had
sometime before intimated to Mr. Canning his wish to become
acquainted with him, and they had already met without the in-
troduction of any third person.
2d. Your correspondent is right in stating that Mr. Canning
was educated under the care of an uncle, a zealous Whig in
politics, Orough whom . he became as a boy, acquainted with
Air. Sheridan ; and that he continued in habits of friendship
and rear
1 with Mr. Sheridan to the end of that gentleman's
life. But he is wrong in supposing, as he seems to do, that
Mr. Canning was " supported" by the uncle who auperintend-
ed the early part -of his education, or that the paws of the
uncle coat have influenced the nephew's, for he died a short
time blore Mr.'Canning left Eton, and politics had not in
those days . faundtheir way into schools. The means of Mr.
Ca tnin;.;'s education were furnished by a small estate in Ire-
la td, vhich, I believe, he still owns, and which, though very
small as a provision for life, he was understood to be ample as
lund for education.

3. Your correspondent says that "at the eventful period of
the French Revolution he (Mr. Canning), was one of the
Friends oldie People." I speak with perfect confidence, when
I say that Mr. Canning was never a Member of that Society.
So far from it, all those of his contemporaries who lived with
him in habits of intimacy knew at the time that he refused to
belong to that Society when invited to dO so, and some rather
angry discussions Miowing that refusal, led to his open decla-
ration of die political opinions which he has ever since main-
taineth It is also well-known, that about the same time, he de-
dined a seat in Parliament offered to him by di late Duke of.
Portland, then at the head of the %Vblg party, alleging his po-
litica opinions as the reason. Those opinions he had soon after
an accidental opportunity of manifesting, in a copy
of verses
written on the ooccasionsor the installation of the Duke of Port-
land as Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and spoken in
the theatre by Mr. Dawkins, or by Lord John &milord, now
Archbisholkof Dublin_;. Mr. Burke and Mr. 'Mullin), 1
remember, were vresent on this occasion. Not many months
after, the Mike of Portland himself, with more than half of
the great Whig party, joined the banners of Mr. Pitt.
Your correspondent will, I think, admit, upon this retros-
pect, that it is hardly correct to describe as a " transition from
one party to another," a political step taken, obviously with
deliberation, in common, if not in concert, with such men as
the Duke of Portland, Lord Spencer, Lord Fitzwilliani, Mr.
Windham, and Mr. Burke. The junction of the Duke of
Portland with Mr. Pitt, took place previous to the opening of.
the Session of 17934, which was also Mr. Canning's first Ses-
sion. Lord.'LiverPOol had left the University two years be-
fore, and had greatly distinguished himself in the first Session
of that Parliament. Mr. Canning had continued, after taking
his degrees, to be afrequent resident at Christ Church. But
as, from the time of his coming into Parliament,. be discon-
tinued his petiodiCal visits to the University, my opportuni•
ties of knowing any thing of him, or of Lord Liverpool,
beyond what is known to the puhl!c, became rare. .1 have,
however, always followed them With that interest which a re-
' cluse naturally feelss in contemplating the more active career of
those who were once his companions—for I had, however
sun-
worthily, some claim to that title: I have been an occasional
visiter in those uncles reentrque Az Christ Church, the mock de-
bates and playful controver)sti of which, prepared, perhaps, in
some measure, for the serioua.labours of Parliament. Ido not
know whether either or both of them (if we should happen to
meet their eye) willvecogniie the individual who thus indulges
himself with the remembrance of those times. He is one whose
intercourse with them during the last 35 years has been not ab-
solutely none,
but next to nonel butt who when he has had any
thing to .say to either of them,- has found the charm of Christ
Church reminiscence a ready passport of access, and, finally,
(what, perhaps, both of them, however well-disposed towards
him, will be glad to hear), he is-one who wants nothing—though
SACERDOS.

• Not Winchester College, but a private• School, then, and I
believe still, under the management of a most respectable
Clergyman, of the'name of Richards..
t This promising young Nobleman was, soon after his edu-
cation was finished, initiated into the Diplomatic line, in which
he greatly distinguished himself, but unhappily died at Berlin
in the year 1.795, being then British Ambassador. at that Court.
t There were two copies of verses by Mr. Canning on that
occasion, which were spoken by these Gentlemen ; but which
of them contained the political allusion 'I cannot call to mind ;
nor do I know of any Repository in which the Enccenia of .that
Installation are to be found.