The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-29 00:00:00

MACAO.

We have been favoured with the following extract
from a letter from Macao, dated the 18th of February,
received by a gentleman in this city :
" About fourteen days ago, most of the British com-
munity, after having been on board ship for nearly five
months, came across here in the expectation that they
would quietly be permitted to remain until a force came
from England to arrange the matters in dispute ;
but, from appearances, I am afraid such will not be the
case. We received no permission from the Chinese to
return ; and I fully expect they will shortly take mea-
sures to molest and annoy us, in order that we again
leave.

" Macao, though a Portuguese settlement, is entire!),
dependent upon the Chinese for provisions and su7-
plies of every sort. Though there is a Portuguese
Governor and Senate, who govern the settlement under
Portuguese laws, yet the Chinese still retain some
authority over the town, having a custom-linuse, and
also civil officers, under the Emperor of China.
Though there are above four thousand Portuguese
subjects here, yet there is not amongst them a baker,
shoemaker, tailor, or tradesman of any description, nor
have they a single acre of land under cultivation, ren-
dering them entirely under the power of the Chinese,
who can at any moment stop supplies from entering the
town. England having always acted towards Portugal
in the kindest manner, we might have expected to have
found an asylum in one of its settlements ; but from
the causes enumerated above, the Portuguese, however
willing, ern hardly grant us protection. The mode
adopted by the Chinese, when they last expelled us,
was the simple one of stopping supplies from entering
the town, and as the great bulk of the Portuguese are
very poor, and unable to lay in a supply of provisions
for any length of time, and the then stoppage having
entailed upon them considerable misery, at their re
quest we retired. We were then, however, with-
out any maritime force, and though we have
now but a weak one, we feel more independent.
The Governor is an old military &leer, who
fought under Wellington in the Peninsular war,
and who would do his endeavours to defend and protect
the English ; but the Members of the Senate. men who
have seen less of the world than he has, and generally
men of contracted and narrow minds, will not support
him. In a very few days I expect that all our Chinese
servants will again leave, and we will then be obliged
to become our own cocks, servants, and coolies (in Eng-
lish, porters or under servants), as we were in Canton,
or again retire to the shipping to spend the time which
will intervene between this and the final adjustment of
the question. There are a good many: forts in Macao,
well manned with guns, and with 1,000 British troops, it
might be held against all the power of China ; the whole
force the Portuguese could muster would not exceed
250 men, and these very far inferior to European troops,
and with such a force :he Portuguese are very wary in
corning to a quarrel with the Chinese, and they are
equally averse to come to open and direct hostilities
with the English, which would be embraced in an order
from them for us to withdraw from the settlement.
They are, therefore, placed between the horns of two
dilemmas, and the choice being a difficult one, they
arc now engaged cogitating against which it will
be the more wise to run. It they side with the Eng-
lish, they bring themselves immediately to loggerheads
with the Chinese, which, indeed, they almost do, unless
they take part against the English. The Chinese arc
by no means nice in the weapons they use to gain an
end, and feel no qualms of consei,nce in breaking
international laws. They will probably issue an order
to the Portuguese to the effect that they must drive
the English from Macao, else they will stop Cie sup-
plies ;
and such is a forcible argument to men who
have five thousand mouths to feed. The terms upon
which the Portuguese hold Macao are far from being
honourable. They pay an annual rent for it ; they
cannot build a house ivi!hout applying for Chinese
permission so to do ; and in it they can hardly
inculcate their own laws ; indeed, they are mere
tenants at will, and they here a haughty lord to deal
with. Under all the circumstances, I conceive that
the English will be again compelled to evacuate the
place, and again fall b ick upon the shipping, and there
quietly await the time when, by the interference of the
British Government, China will again have been made
a place of residence and of trade to the British corn-I
muoity. Many people will doubtless be found in Eng-
land to advocate the part of the Chinese in their en-
deavours to suppress or destroy the traffic in opium,
which has been the root from which have sprung all
the existing difficulties ; but there surely cannot be any
one found to advocate the propriety of the means which
they have used in endeavouring to compass this end, nor
can any justification be found for the barbarous manner
in ~which they have treated us, ner for the savage and
inhuman edicts which from time to time they have
Issued against us ; and this all proceeding, not from the
People, but from a Government at once despotic, cruel,
and unjust. Nevir in the history of lioglish commerce,
or of English relations with foreign countries, has any
difference or quarrel happened of a magnitude to
match the present disturbance with China, and never
was a finer opportunity offered to England to teach
the c Celestial barbarit.ns a lc,so i of their own weak-
ness and of Britain's power. You will readily suppose
that we look with great anxiety for news from home to
I inform us in wlia. t manner Government mean to take up
the question. If it does not take it up in a strong man-
ner, and cause the Chinese Government to treat her
subjects with respect and, honour, thee will the lives of
our merchants here be worse than those of slaves.
Indeed no one would be found to Carry 00 the trade.
In the course of a short time we shill know the deter-
rdnation of Governnictit, and within a few months
many iutercsting scenes will be enacted hire."—Edin-
burgh ('unrest.

ATTAR OF ROSES.—Five guineas have been
paid for one ounce. The most approved mode of ascertaining
its crality is to drop it on a piece of paper ; its strength is ascer-
tained_ ly the gniokness with which
,it evaporates, and its
worth by its leaving no stains on the paper. The best otto
manufactured at Constantinople.— Wellsted.