The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-02 00:00:00

SUPREME COURT OF HONG KONG.

Mr. WYLD asked the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, if the Government had been informed by the Go-
vernor of Hong Kong of the trial, at the Supreme
Court, of Captain Saunders, of the British barque Chin-
Chin, for the murder of one of the crew of the Custom
House Boats in the Port of Swatow ; aid, if there be any
objection to lay the despatch upon the table of the house ?
Mr. D. FORTESCUE asked the secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, whether he was in possession of any in-
formation confirmatory of certain statements made in a
pamphlet recentlypnbliahod in Paris, quotcd in the " B,u-
nomist" newspaper of Saturday last, relative to the proceed-
ings of the police authorities in Sicily; and, if so, whether
he had any objection to lay such information upon the
table of the house.
Mr. B. OSBORNE said before the noble lord replied to
the question which had been put to him by the hon. mem-
.

ber for Poole (Mr. D. Seymour), he would, perhaps, have
no objection to state to the house the precise position of the
Persian mission at that moment. From the year 1835 to
the year 1858, the conduct of Persian affairs was vested in
the Foreign-office, but by an arrangement subsequently
come to it was removed to the Board of Control. What
he wished to ask the noble lord was, whether he had again

. _
transferred the conduct of Persian affairs to the exclusive
direction of the Foreign-office, because he had some idea

that the resignation of Sir H. Rawlinson had something to
do with this transfer. This was more important than it at
first sight appeared, because he believed that the difficul-
ties between this country and Persia, which led to the Per-
sian war, might be ascribed to the Foreign-office.

Mr. BUCHANAN said before the noble lord replied to
the question put to him by the hon. member for Bodmin
(Mr. Wyld) he wished to allude to the appointment of
foreign inspectors in the Chinese ports. The present system
of collecting the Chinese customs was anomalous. It was
done by strangers, and the sums collected might, as was
believed to be the case at present, be paid into the Treasury,
and be used for the purposes of offence against ourselves.
Swatow was likely to become a second Singapore, and it
was therefore essential that the customs should be put on a
proper foundation. We were also doing our best to destroy
Hong Kong, a British settlement, in which there was in-
vested an immense amount of British property. The pro-
ject was to establish a complete organisation of custom-
house ports along the Chinese coast ; but this he believed to
be impossible. The French did not approve of it ; and their
interests as traders were so trifling, that they might act as
other considerations dictated. Neither had the Americans
been very cordial. At Shanghae they had declincd to become
joint assessors, and at Canton had also raised difficulties, in
fact, had refused altogether. At Swatow the same objec-
tions were raised. The object he had in making these ob-
servations was that the noble lord at the head of the Fo-
reign-office might not accept the proposed arrangement
without having first given it the fullest consideration.