The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-17 00:00:00

~Luzcc~c ~oU/'l

(No. 12,694.1

CHINA.

(From the Canton Register of Dec. 20.)
ATTACK NEAR MACAO.
A day or two ago, considerable sensation was excited in
Canton, by a report that two gentlemen had been attacked
by some Chinese in the immediate vicinity of Macao, and
that they had been very severely treated.
The particulars of the case, as we gather them, are as
follow :
Mr. Lindsay, of the Hon. Company's factory, in com-
pany with a gentleman lately arrived in China on account
of his health, had been snipe shooting on an island called
the Lappa, and were quietly returning home, without
having had any quarrel or given cause of offence to any
one. When within about a quarter of a mile of their boat—
they having before observed that they were followed by se-
veral suspicious-looking men, three of the number advanced,
and commenced abusing a Chinese coolie who attended the
two gentlemen. Mr. Lindsay addressed them, in Chinese,
asking what they meant, no molestation being offered to
them. The answer was made by drawing out from their
sleeves short heavy carpenter's axes and bludgeons, which,
till then, they had concealed. From this it would appear
as though the attach were a premeditated one, and Mr.
Lindsay, no doubt thinking it such, pointed his gun at the
nearest man, threatening to shoot him if he advanced;
but be seemed too well aware that such threats in China
cannot he executed, and struck Mr. Lindsay a severe blow
on the face with a bludgeon, he in vain trying to defend
himself with the butt end of his gun, with which he
then attempted to knock down his assailant : the stuck
broke over the man's arm, and when thus defenceless,
the Chinaman rushed in and struck him, with a
hatchet, so severe a blow on the face as to cut him
completely through the lip and cheek, and break
several back teeth : another one with a bludgeon also
struck him on the head so as nearly to stun him ; and,
in that condition, took his gun, and some other things.
The whole of this occupied haraly a minute ; and Mr.
Lindsay's companion who had been, when they fray be-
gan, at some distance, being seen hurrying to his assist-
ance, the assailants ran to attack him. One of them
aimed a blow at him with a la-ge hatchet, and, had this
taken effect, it would most probably have proved fatal ;
but, in the act of striking with the butt end of his gun,
he lost his balance and fell ; his gun was then seized, and
the men ran away. After waiting till partially recovered
ram the blows, the gentlemen walked to their boat.
The Chinese who attended them did not assist during
the affray, and only once interfered, calling to his coun-
trymen not to strike one of the gentlemen after he was
disarmed.
We are happy to have it in our power to state that, al-
though severely hurt, and still suffering from the effects of
the blows, no fears need be entertained for Mr. Lindsay,
who will, however, bear for life the marks of the indig-
nity and violence which he has suffered.
We understand that the chief of the British Factory on
learning the circumstances, immediately forwarded a
statement of them to the Tootang and Keun-min-foo, to-
tether with a demand for redress. Of the attainment of
'his we are, however, by no means sanguine, such being
the strange state to which foreigners are reduced, that none
can, even with arms in their hands, venture to defend their
own lives ; or, even after the forbearance displayed by
vese gentlemen in not discharging their fowling pieces at
their ruffianly assailants, can they hope for more than a
few civil words expressive of the regret of the local officer
o whom the complaint is forwarded. It was but last
month that we hail occasion to notice an attack on some
gentlemen in front of the British Factory, not ten yards
from its gates; and we are never long without some cause
far regret—and, may we add, of disgust—at the state of
helplessness in which we find ourselves. Not a month
ago two English ladies, while at different times passing in
their sedan chairs, were grossly insulted in the streets of
Macao. The complaints preferred on these occasions
were met exactly as we have above described : redress is
out of the question.
It may appear to such of our readers as are unacquainted
with this country (or rather with that part of it to which
foreigners are confined), that we lay too much stress on
every little affray in which a foreigner is concerned. We
are not querulous, but we cannot but feel, that it is only
the impression on the minds of the Chinese, that we dare
not use arms, which makes them so audacious ; it is not
against the petty villains who attack for the purpose of
plunder that we feel resentment, but against the Govern-
ment, whose barbarous policy abets and encourages such
things ; it is not for a moment to he supposed that
peaceful strangers should be thus attacked, in open day-
light, in the prtsence of numerous spectators, unless the
parretrators of the crime were aware that they could do so
with impunity.
The consequences are to be dreaded. Impunity will
beget offence. Can it be expected, that in every instance
the aggrieved p irty will reason so coolly as to refrain from
availing himself of the means in his power to defend his
life, for which, if he were murdered, no redress could be
obtained ? Had the Chinese in Mr. Lindsay's case met
the fate which lie merited, at the hands of the gentle man
whose life lie jeoparded, what would have been the re-
sult ? The (in such a case) monstrous doctrine of life
for life would be insisted on, and nothing short of a re-
petition of the tragedy of the gunner of the " Hin-
dostan," or Francisco Terranova, would satisfy the
Chinese. Though it were too great an insult to the
foreign community to suppose, that at the present day
this would, under any circumstances, be submitted to,
such would, however, tee demanded, and, as a matter of
course, stoppage of the trade won d ensue; the Chinese
now looking on this as the spell which could, in the der-
nier resort bring the high spirited Englishman to uncon-
ditional submission. The remedy for all this is easy, but
we fear, from the supineness with which our situation is
viewed in England, that it will not ba applied, and it is at
least probable that an appeal to arms may be the first
means attempted to prove to this arrogant nation, that our
strength exists, though it is withheld. Until this " con-
summation so devoutly to be wished" arrive, in some way
or other, by negotiation or force, foreigners must be con-
tent to submit to whatever they may meet with ; and, if
they feel sore on the occasion, they must console them-
selves with the reflection that, sooner or later, le bon
!enips viendra.

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( PRICE 7D.)

to bring forward, affected solely the !interest of th
manufacturers of the kingdom, and did not deeply affect
every class in the community ; however anxious he might
be that the House should adopt his views on the subj, et,
he would not lie the individual to bring it forward.
He would confine his observations to as small a compa-s
as pogsible ; but he hoped that the House would
feel that he was not justified in calling the atten-
tion of the House to the subject, unless he stated
tie gaounds of his opinion for the necessity of some
alteration in the corer laws. He would, however, consult
the convenience of Hon. Members as much as he
consistently could, and would endeavour to class
I,is subjects under four heads. He would first,
then consider the application of the present law as fans
as it might be expected to attain the object for which it wa
intended. He mainly objected to the principle of tt e
law enacted in 1828, bectuse there was a certain
price stated by it, below which no foreign corn would be
admitted. To a certain extent this law had been founded
upon the enactment of 1815, when the importation price
was 90s. per quarter. In the year, 1816, by a lamentable
visitation of Providence, the lailute of the craps was so
great, that the markets were opened for the recep-
tion of foreign corn, even at that high limitation,
nor were the crops of 1817, 1818, an t 1819, RIM
cient for the purposes of the county, although the prices
were not sufficiently high to admit the full operation
of the law.--( Hear, hear.) tne Hon. Member then
went into some statements of the comparative Fro-
duce for the year 1819, up to the year 1828,
(LEFT SITTING.)

INQUEST ON R. CULLY.
(THIS EVENING.)

The inquest having been adjourned until five o'clock
this evening, the jurymen, witnes,es, &c. assembled at
,he Calthorpe Arms at that hour. The Coroner (Mr.
Stirling), however, was not present, and ha I not arrived
at the tittle our reporter left, viz. half past six o'clock.
Among the persons present who were expected to be
examined, were several who hid their heads bandaged,
and one whose arm was in a ding. We understood t 1 at
they received their injuries from the police during the
affray.
Mr. M'Wxwax, a County Magistrate, attended at b
o'clock, and was in waiting, as well as the Jury, &c., for
the appearance of the Coroner.

IMPERIAUTA RLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, M 4716.
INSURANCE ON FARMING STOCK.

Sir R. PEEL hoped the Hon. Member for Lincolnshire
(Mr. H. Handley) would not refuse to postpone to ano-
ther day his motion relating to certain duties on farming
stock. He m ide this request because he wished to hear
the personal charge which was to he brought forward
against him by the Hon. Member for Oldham.
. .

- Lord ALTIIORP said he believed it would be unneces-
sary for the Hon. Member for Lincolnshire to press his
motion for the repeal of so much of the 9th Geo. IV. as
imposed certai❑ duties on insurances from loss or damage
by fire as related to live and dead stock. He bad looked
into the amount of those duties, and they were so insigni-
ficant that he thought they could be dispensed with.
Mr. H. HANDLEY said that under those circum-
stances he bad great pleasure in withdrawing his motion.

- SIR. ROBERT PEEL. -
Mr. COBBETT, who was called fur from all parts of
the House, said, that in rising to bring forward his motion
be should not trouble or detain the House with any apo-
logy or professions. The course he meant to pursue was,
first to read the resolutions which he bad to propose, and
leave it to the House to gather from those resolutions the
grounds on which he proceeded. The Hon. Member then
read the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That according to the laws and customs of this
kingdom, the King, our Sovereign Lord, can do no wrong to
the whole, to any part, or to any one of his subjects; that,
however, effectually to guard against wrong being, in his Ma-
jesty's name and under his authority, done to his subjects with
impunity, the same laws and customs which have, as our birth-
right, descended to us from our just and wise forefathers,
make all and every one, acting in that name and under that
authority, fully and really responsible to the good people of this
kingdom for every wrong done unto them by any and every
person invested with such authority, and that, in virtue of
such responsibility, the wrong-doing party is subject to such
censures, pains, and penalties, as in virtue of the said laws
and customs the several tribunals of the kingdom have, in all
ages, been wout to inflict; that, if this responsibility were not
real and practical, we should be living under not only a des_
potism, but an avowed despotism, for the King being inca.
pable of wrong-doing, and his servants being responsible
merely in name and form, and not in practice, they also could
do no wrong, and then the people of this renowned kingdom,
the cradle of true liberty, would be the most wretched slaves
ever yet heard of under the sun; that in cases where the
wrong-doing is committed by inferior functionaries, or is in
its effects confined to individuals, or to small numbers of suf.
ferers, the ordinary courts of justice have usually been deemed
competent to afford redress to the injured ; but that when the
wrong is the act of a Minister of State, sworn to advise the
King for the good of his people, when that Minister of State
receives as a reward for his fidelity and skill large sums of
the people's money, and when the wrong by him done is in its
effects so deeply and so generally mischievous as to send ruin
and misery to sweep over the kingdom like the pestilence,
then there is, for the purpose of yielding justice to the suf-
fering millions, no power competent but that which is pos-
sessed by their faithful representatives assembled in this
House.

" That in the year 1819 there had long been, and then was,
in virtue of divers Acts of Parliament theretofore passed, a
paper money in circulation throughout this kingdom, which
paper money was, in effect, a legal tender in payment of all
private debts, as well as in the payment of taxes ; that this
paper money, descending so low as to notes of one pound, had
been the almost only circulating money of the country from
February, 1797; that is to say, for the space of 21 years ; that
this paper money soon became depreciated to so great an ex-
tent, that the prices of commodities had, during the said 21
years, risen, on an average of years and commodities, to about
double the amount of the prices at which the same
commodities were usually sold before the issue of the said
legal-tender paper.money ; that the depreciation of the money
was so notorious, and so amply avowed in Parliament, that
divers Acts were passed during the said twenty-one years to
raise the allowances to the Royal Family, the salaries of the
Judges, of the Police Magistrates, of the army, of the navy, and
of almost every one in public employ, for the purpose of coun.
teracting the effect of this very great depreciation; that, during
the said twenty-one years next preceding 1819, all mortgages,
rent charges, leases, settlements, annuities, bonds, and other
contracts for time, together with all wills and testaments, had
been agreed on, settled, and made on the basis of this depre-
ciated money ; and that, during the said twenty-one years,
about five hundred millions of the public debt had been con.

tracted in the said depreciated paper money ; that, therefore, to
pass an Act compelling the debtor parties to make good these
contracts for time, to the very letter, in sterling gold, must be,

. _
in fact, an act of confiscation against, and a sentence of ruin
pronounced upon, these parties ; while, with regard to the
people at large, such Act must in reality double the amount of
the public debt, double the amount of all the above.mentioned
augmented salaries and public pay, and, of course, double the
real amount of the taxes.

" That, notwithstanding these premises and conclusions, so

indubitably true, and so clear to the understanding of every
man of common sense, the Right Honourable Robert Peel, then
one of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, did, in the
said year 1819, bring into the then House of Commons, and pro-
cure to be passed by that House, a Bill to put an end to the
legal-tender paper money, which Bill, unaccompanied as it was
with any measure for the revision and rectifying of private con-
tracts, and for the adjustment of public engagements, was a 8111
inevitably tending to produce that injustice, confiscation, and
ruin hereinbefore described.
" That this Act, which received the Royal Assent on the 2d
July, 1819, though it provided for what was called the gradual
resumption of gold payments, began at once to plunge the whole
community into pecuniary confusion; that the prices of all
commodities, and of all property moveable or immoveable, began
instantly to fall prodigiously in price; that mortgaged estates
were, in thousands upon thousands of instances, taken from the
owners and sold, in many cases, for less than the amount of the
mortgages; that, in other cases, fixed charges upon estates
swallowed up the whole of the rental; while, with regard to
leases, bonds, annuities, and other contracts for time, and,
above all things, with regard to property dropping in to be dis
posed of by will, the demon of injustice seemed to have
been, by this atrocious Act, let loose upon the kingdom, setting
landlords and tenants, creditors and debtors, brothers and sis.
tern, parents and children, to tear each other to pieces, bring-
ing down hundreds of thousands of families from a state of
competence and ease, and many from a state of opulence, to a
state of utter ruin and beggary, while all those who were livinh
on the taxes, and who were in fact receiving double pay, were
rolling in wealth, and lording it over the rest of the commu-
nity ; and that, of all these drndful effects of such a measure,
the said Right Hon. Robert Peel had been duly warned even
before he brought in the said fatal Bill.
" That, by the said Act, gold payments were to be com-
pletely resumed, and the one-pounds were to be wholly abo.