The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-29 00:00:00

CHINA.

The following is the summary of the Overland
China Mail of Nov. 15 :--

The London mail of the 25th September arrived
here on the 9th inst.

The only important intelligence of the fortnight
comes from Shanghai, where the tariff and trade
regulations, supplementary to the new British
treaty with. China, have been -signed by Lord Elie
and the Imperial Commissioners; the latter having
received an answer from the. Emperor yielding the
point, which was referred to him for settlement.
In accordance with the system of secrecy which our
plenipotentiary has pursued, no official information
has been given in regard to the tariff and regula-
tions; but it is reported that the import Of opium
has been legalised under a duty of 30 taels per
chest ; that the other duties upon imports have been
fixed at an ad valorem rate of 5 Per cent.; and that
the duties upon exports have been approximated to
a similar rate, excepting those on tea and silk,
which remain as they were before. Considering
the enormous tax which we place on the import of
tea into Britain, Lord Elgin could not, with any
face, have demanded a reduction of the compara-
' tively, trifling Chinese duty.
Lord Elgin and his suite intended to proceed up
the Yang-tsze in the Furious, starting on Monday
last, the Bth inst., and accompanied by the Retribu-
tion and Cruiser, with the gunboats Lee and Dove.
If practicable, they mean to ascend as far as Han-
kow, nearly 800. miles distant, and his lordship will
thus be able to determine, by personal inspection,
what ports should be opened on the river under the
new treaty. Various rumours are in circulation as
to the special object 'of this excursion. By some
it is hoped, and by others dreaded, that the squa-
dron may be fired upon by the rebels when it passes
Nanking, and thus British power may be brought
in conflict with a power in China inimical to the
interests of commerce. The expedition was ex-
pected to be absent from Shanghai for about three
weeks, so the report of his lordship's speedy ap-
pearance at Hong Kong, to which some gave credit,
turns out to have been incorrect. We are informed
that Lord Elgin expressly prohibited all strangers
from being allowed to accompany the expedition.
On both sides of the Yang-tsze the rebels have
been committing great devastation, and arc said to
have slaughtered every person in the city of Luhho,
of which they had never previously been able to
get possession.
The improvement in the state of matters at Can-
ton continues steadily to progress, though not
much business is doing there; and besides the
sale of teas, there have been some transactions in
regard to cotton manufactures. Elsewhere will be
found a translation of Whang's proclamation autho-
rising the resumption of trade, which was received by
us too late for insertion in our last overland issue.
There have been no special indications of late of
hostility towards foreigners, on the part ,of the
people of Canton and its neighbourhood ; but until
they get the opportunity of cutting off a few
foreigners, it is impossible to know with certainty
what impression has been left on their min ds by
recent events. On the 7th inst. several fires broke
out at Canton, and were supposed—but with what
truth we cannot say—to have been the work of
incendiaries. Two large junks, belonging to the
contractor for the troops, were destroyed, along with
a number of bullocks and other stores on board.
The bakery was only preserved by the active exer-
tions of the officers and men of the gunboat Star-
ling, soon assisted by seamen from other English
and French vessels. _

No further intelligence has reached us of the pro-
gress of the allied French and Spanish force at
Cochin. At Manilla, on the 29th ult., three Annamese
mandarins, who had been captured by the force,
were presented to the Captain-General of the Philip-
pines, and it was with difficulty they were assured
that it is not the custom of civilised nations to tor-
ture and put to death prisoners taken in war. They
had good reason, from the conduct of their own
countrymen and neighbours, in dreading death at
the hands of their captors ; for two French Roman
Catholic bishops have suffered ma.rtyrdom in Cen-
tral Tonquin within the last two years. One of
these, Msgr. Melchior, died so lately as the 2Sth of
July of this year.
In our last Overland we anticipated that an un-
fortunate affair between foreigners and Kwang-
tung men, both resident at Fuhchau, would become
a matter for consular. jurisdiction ; and such has
been the result. It originated in suspicion, on the
part of the former, in regard to the relationships of
a certain class of the Chinese population, to which
the special correspondent of the Illustrated London
News devoted much attention, and to which the
Bishop of Victoria did not allude in his letter
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, on " the
relations of Western Christendom with the
population of the Chinese Empire." This suspi-
cion led to a violent assault by some of the
English at Fuhchau, on a party of Kwang-tung
men engaged at a private feast, all of whom were
severely " punished," and one of whom was carried
off, deprived of his tail, and imprisoned on board a
receiving ship until released by a man-of-war's boat
sent for the purpose. Mr. Medhurst, the Consul at
Fuhchau, found it necessary to fine the assaulters
' 100 doll. each, from whence we conclude that they
were to a great extent in the wrong.
The only local matter of interest in this place has
been a long examination in the Insolvency Court of
Mr. W. M. Robinet, whose extraordinary proceed-
ings have attracted the notice of the commercial
community on both sides of the Pacific. Some time
ago Mr. Robinet went from this, with a cargo of
silk he had shipped, to Valparaiso, and on the voy-
age an attempt was made to set fire to the vessel
and cargo. Though this proved unsuccessful, it
disclosed that the silk was not silk but gunny bags,
worth nothing ; and Mr. Robinet then attempted,
or pretended to attempt, suicide. When the vessel
reached Valaparaiso, he was non inventue, and it
was said he had thrown himself overboard. How-
ever, after a few days, Mr. Robinet re-appeared,
with a story that, vexed by:the deception practised
on him and the consequent embarrassment of his
affairs, he had intended to drown himself, but was
prevented from doing so by the number of sharks
and whales he saw in_ the water; that, next, he
tried a dose of laudanum, and this had only the
effect of setting him to sleep in an out-of-the--way
corner of the ship ; that he was an honest m
that he had been deceived by the Chinese, because
of of the services he had rendered to the allied forces
on the Canton river •, and if his creditors at Valpa•
raiso would only let him go back to China, he would
demand the aid of the allied forces in obtaining the
arrest and punishment of the Chinamen who had
deceived him. He was allowed to go back, and on
his arrival here .was arrested on the suit of his
principal creditor, the American house of Russell
and Co. On his applying for a release, the case
of the vessel Mercedes and the gunny bags was not
of his style of eon-
gone into, but *enough appeared

.
ducting business to wet - e
application for micas
months to the debtors' riiii9Cli,v,.. T 7-;"
His Excellency Sir John 4owrint .-tett suf-
fering from severe illness, Mid. it' A e. 1 eted that
on the return of the Lieutenant-Governor, now
absent on a trip up the coast, .he will proceed to
Manilla for the benefit of his lw.lalth. This will
probably cause a delay in the pros ecutiOn of one of
Sir John's favourite schemes, the ,formation of a
Praia, or sea-wall, road and frontage, which are
much required for the health, safety, and adorn-
ment of the colony, but the construct on of which
is much opposed at present, partly for private
. reasons and partly on the ground that other public
works are of more pressing necessity.
The Emma, a vessel flying American colours, has
been seized, on a charge of debt, by the auth rarities
at Macao; and various wild rumours are tr-ying
about as to the illegality of the seizure, and the
probability of the representative of the Unit ".d.
States demanding indemnity and redre s. It hap—
pened that the governor of Macao was about to
proceed up the coast on a trip at the time of the
seizure, and this has been tortured into a proof that
he wished to avoid the difficulty ; but.we cannot
leari that anything much out of the way has hap-
pened, or that, if there has been a mistake, it can-
not be rectified in the usual manner.
The 59th Regiment has not yet left Hong Kong
for the Cape, but it. is expected to do so. *ithin a
week, and in the Lord Raglan, which brought the
Ist Royals here. As tenders are advertised for the
removal of a number of invalids, it seems that the
hospital ship Belleisle will not be sent home at
present, and it is likely that the lowest tender wilt
be made by the steamer Princess Charlotte. The
Cairngorm, Chieftain, Lammermoor, Morning Star,
'Friar Tuck, 'West Derby, and Warrior Queen
have been despatched from Whampoa for London,
and the Meliora, for Dublin. The Joseph Fletcher
has also been despatched from Shanghai for
London.

ARRIVAL OF I1.1?.H. PRINCE ALFRED
AT .3IALTA.

MALTA, DEC. 23.

On Sunday, the 19th Dec., at. 10 o'clock a.m.,
H.M.'s steam frigate Euryalus, Capt.• Tarleton,
C. 8., on board of which H. Prince Alfred,
second son of our gracious Sovereign Queen Vic•
toria, is serving as a cadet, entered the grand har-
bour of La Valetta, under steam from Tangiers.
Having saluted the flag of Admiral Fanshawe,
C. 8., Commander-in-Chief, as she rounded St. Elmo
Point, the salute was immediately returned by the
screw line-of-battle ship Marlborough, and on 1 ass-
ing Fort St. Angelo a royal salute was fired from
that fort. Off the Fair-weather Buoy the Euryalus
was mt by the Master-Attendant of the Malta
yard, Mr. Mainprise, who piloted her to the buoy
at the entrance of the Merchants'-creek, and even
before the port officer on duty, Capt. Blenkinsopp,
of the Marine Police, had admitted her to pratique,
the veteran Lieut.-General commanding the forces,
Sir J. Pennefather, attended by his staff, pulled
alongside in his barge, and as soon as pratique
was given, went on board to paV his respects
to his Royal Highness, and to invite him to
an entertainment for the following evening.
The invitation was graciously accepted, and
the entertainment came off with great eclat, having
been attended by all the elite of the garrison. It
was generally supposed that his Royal Highness
would land in the afternoon, throughout which the
bastions were lined with anxious and loyal subjects
of her MajestV, desirous of getting a glimpse of
this Royal scion of Britain's Royalty. But their
expectations were disappointed for that day by the
hoisting on board the Euryalus the pendant for
Divine service, usually performed, as was the case
with the other ships, in the morning ; and later in
the day a Circular was issued by the Governor to
the members of the Council, the Lord Bishop of
Gibraltar, and the Right Rev. Bishop of Malta, her
Majesty's judges, magistrates, heads of civil depart-
ments, the consuls for foreign powers, as also an
order by the General to the military to assemble at
the palace on the morning of yesterday. Accord-
ingly, on Monday morning, at the early hour of 8,
the bastions were again lined, and soon after 10 the
Vice-Admiral Commander-in-Chief and the Rear-
Admiral Superintendent of the Malta Dockyard,
attended by their respective staffs, anti the captains
and commanders of the several ships-of-war in port,
assembled on board the Euryalus, and were pre-
sented to his Royal Highness. The Prince, accom-
panied by his governor, Major Cowell, R.E., shortly
before 11 embarked in a barge, and between two
lines of men-of-war boats, proceeded to the shore
under the Royal salutes from the ships in port,
which also manned yards, and Royal salides from
the garrison, and4anded at the Custom-house, where
a guard of honour from various regiments received
him, and where he entered the Governor's carriage,
with Lieut.-Gen. Sir J. Pennefather, Major Cownl,
and Captain Brest, Aide-de-Camp and Private
Secretary to the Governor, and drove off by the
Caleara-gate to the Palace, escorted by the officers
of the military staff on horseback, and followed by
the Naval Commander-in-Chief and Rear-Admiral
Superintendent, with their staffs in carriages. On
entering Porta Reale, as was also the case at the
Marina, his Royal Highness was loudly cheered by
the assembled multitude, and on passing the Ca-
thedral of St. John, a merry peal of bells was
sounded, in which all the other churches in the
town joined. His Royal Highness seemed much
pleased with his reception, and repeatedly took off
his cap and gracefully bowed in acknowledgment
of the salutations of .the people. On. St. George's-
square, opposite the Palace of the Knights, another
guard of honour was in attendance, and at the foot
of the principal staircase amidst the thrilling sounds
of the national anthem, Excellency the Gover-
nor, with the two bishops, the military and civil
chaplains (Protestant and Roman Catholic) and the
chapters of the cathedral and collegiate churches of
Valetta, the members of the council and her Ma-
jesty's judges, greeted and welcomed the young
prince. The master of the ceremonies on the occa-
sion, Lieut. Drake, R.E., us'lcred the prince into the
reception room, attended by the governor, the gene-
rals, the admirals, and the distinguished personages
above mentioned. The military were first pre-
sented. Then came the foreign consuls, who were
severally introduced by the doyen of their body.
Then followed other presentations, according to
rank and station. After about half an hour his
Royal Highness left the palace in an open carriage
accompanied by the Governor, Gen. Pennefather,
and Major Cowell, and drove round the town and
bastions to the Pieta. On returning to the palace
the prince partook of a cold collation, which had
been spread in the Hall of St. Michael and St.
George. After lunch the prince proceeded with the
Governor to his excellency's country residence in
St. Antonio. At 4 o'clock precisely, under royal
salutes from the forts and shipping, the prince re-
embarked on board the Euryalus, with the same
naval procession as on landing.
On re-embarking, as he passed the Melita (screw
steamer), which had just arrived from Liverpool,
Capt. Langlands mustered all hands aft on the poop
and shrouds, gave three loud cheers, and dipped the
colours, which the prince courteously acknowledged.
Prince Alfred was dressed in the simple uniform
of a naval cadet. He has a pleasing lively counte-
nance, and the family likeness to his royal mother
is very striking.
On Tuesday, the 21st, his Royal Highness was
entertained at dinner by Admiral Fanshawe, and
on Wednesday by the Governor, after which Lady
Le Marehant had an evening party at the Palace,
which, as well as the whole of Strada Reale, was
brilliantly illuminated in honour of the Prince.
Over the facade of the main guard shone in con-
spicuous letters the words " Viva Alfredo." Danc-
ing was kept up to a late hour, in which the Prince
joined, and did not retire until nearly midnight.
On Thursday, the 23d, his Royal Highness
visited the Opera, the approaches to which were
illuminated. On Christmas-day he will dine on
board the Euryalus with his messmates, and on
Monday, the 27th, the British. foreign, and native
merchants, and members of the Chamber of Com-
merce and Exehange,,a ill give his Roya]. Highness
a grand
r a rid
Tuesday,ball
thet h their 12r splendidB thßear-Admiral
establishment.
eo dr
ngton
will entertain the Prince at dinner, and in the
evening Dirs. Codrington has issued cards to all
the elite of the island to meet the Prince,
who will
leave for Alexandria on Wednesday, the29th.

_HE CORNET. AND Ins SUBSTITUTE.—The Allea
young
Advertisergentleman thlenaisat (the name
story :—" About a year ago a
was anxious to procure
in name is given by our contemPoraul
goons, and not possessing
ommission in a regiment of Dr.-
the Commander-in-Chief n those
mental qualifications which
ow requires, procured a substi-
tute to pass the necessary examination. The substitute
duly presented himself to the examiners in London, and
received a first-class certificate, which was recorded in the
name of the aspirant who had employed him, and in ft
month or two afterwards the latter was gazetted to a cor-
netcy. The substitute for nearly ten months has been
harassing the young cornet, and procuring from him by
threats of exposure large sums of money, till at last he was
unable to meet these inordinate demands, when; about a
month ago, the substitute anonymously communicated the
fact to lus Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the
Commander-in-Chief, who communicated with the officer,
desiring to know the truth of the statements. The cornet
was obliged to admit the fict, and has in consequence been
removed by her Majesty from the regiment, and the value
he paid for his commission has been forfeited to the
Crown." •

IN RE DAVIDSON AND GORDON.—THE GREAT
CITY FRAUDS.—His Honour (Mr. Commissioner Goul-
burn) hasTised Wednesday, the sth proximo, to pronounce
his decision on this unfinished , case ; when his judgment,
which will be an elaborate one, will review the whole of the
arguMents resorted to for and against the bankrulits at the
OUP' s on last Thursday last,