The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESiDAV EVENING MARCEi

L &TEST NEWS.

THE CHINA MAIL.

We have received the letters of our special and
private correspondents from Canton and Hong
Kong to the 29th of January.
(FROM THE TIMES' SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

" GOVERNOR'S YAMUN, CANTON, JAN. 28.
" Having gone down to Hong Kong with the
last mail boat, I remained there a few days to
get my letters and make some arrangements for a
more protracted residence in Canton. The topics
of interest in the city of Victoria were not very
numerous. The arrival of the Princess Char-
lotte and the departure overland of Cap-
tain King—farewell dinners to Commodore
Elliot, who takes home the Sybille—the ad-
vent of Captain Hall, to take the place of
Captain E Igen as Senior Officer—deeds of heroism
upon the walls, reported by the heroes upon
leave—the circumstances of one or two past balls
and the probabilities of the forthcoming races—
the departure of the Madras troops and expecta-
tion of others to supply their places, were the
chief matters talked over in that not very event-
ful city. Some benevolent individuals amuse
themselves throwing pebbles into the stagnant
socialities of the island by inventing some egre-
gious 4 shave.' Yeh was a frequent hero of these
fictions. At another time Peh-Kwei bad ab-
sconded. Then the Tartar General had fled to
join a camp of 20,000 men assemblel near Fort
Lin. A Frenchman had been found outside a
Canton shop skinned. The whole of the 90
villages were ready to march upon the invaders.
A massacre of the English in Canton was in active
preparation. The blockade was taken off !
" This last was th• all-absorbing 'shave.' The
island was immediately divided into two parties,
who argued the question entirely upon public
grounds. It was amusing to one a little behind the
scenes to hear these disinterested and patriotic dis
cussions. You never would have imagined that the
disputants had any personal interest in the matter.
Yet it does so happen that some of the Chinese
houses have been buying large quanties of teas at
high prices in the north, reckoning upon the con-
tinued suspension of the southern trade ; and it
generally occurs that the representatives of these
houses think the Chinese ought to be punished by
keeping up the blockade until they have learnt
that we can do without the commerce of
Canton. On the ether hand, those Americans
who have intimate relations with the Chinese, and
people who could not run the risk of buying teas
in the north at their present prices, are struck
with the gross cruelty of stopping the poor China-
man's commerce in his own river. They never
hint that they hope to buy 11,000,000 lbs. of teas
at lower prices as soon as the river is open. The
hope may be illusory, but it is a chance which
costs them nothing.

" The leaders subsequently conferred upon this
subject of raising the blockade. The consultation
took place on Monday, the 25th, and the day de-
termined upon is the 10th of next month. This
mail will probably take home a copy of the pro-
clamation about to be issued at Hong Kong. We
shall not get the Gazette here until the mail is gone.
"On the 21st I returned to my quarters in
Canton, and found that all the tender solicitude of
the people of Hong Kong had been entirely
thrown away. I traversed the whole city with
my trunk and chow-chow baskets, myself the only
escort to my four coolies. Along the great east
And west thoroughfare a closed shop was become
a rare exception, and the only difficulty was to
push our way through the crowd. The people
were cutting up their pigs and their fish (the
abundance of immense carp, tench, and roach in
the streets of the city is wonderful), and cooking
their comestibles in full business-like security.
Idlers were playing at Chinese hazard, and exhi-
biting their piles of coins upon the board. The
curiosity shops, in incredible numbers, were
spread with curious I:antiques of the newest
fashions, and. were victimising credulous
lieutenants in a way which Mencius would
not Lave approved. The crowds are riot
even afraid to manifest curiosity at the
clothes and features of their European guests,
And the shopkeepers invite you into their shops
with a politeness that demonstrates that they have
no misgiving that you will exercise any right of
conquest except a conquest by purchase. Yet the
spirit of insolence has departed out of them.
Neither in word nor gesture is there any symptom
of hostility or even of dislike. I have seen two peo-
ple frightened very much by a scolding for using
the word " fan-quei," (foreign devil)—but I
believe they used it in all innocence, having
never heard us called by any other name. I
would neglect no precautions, for the neglect
of precautions would revive hopes now aban-
' doned, and the neglest of precautions nearly
proved our destruction at Ningpo during the last
war ; but so far from there being any notion of
retaking this city, I believe that no 10 Chinamen
within sight of Canton would dare to raise a stick
in the presence of a British or French soldier or
sailor.

" The street of the triumphal arches is the only
exception to the general reopening movement.
That street lay rather in the way of the Phlege-
thon's fire, and the lower part of it has suffered
severely. The Chinese are engaged in clearing
away the rubbish to rebuild their burnt houses,
but the uninjured shops near the Treasury still
remain sulkily closed. In the large western su-
burb, where the streets and shops are quite as
good as in the city, not a shot fell, and business
goes on as usual.

" The commercial parts of Canton have been
much over-estimated. We have believed that there
must be some grain of truth in the bombast and
brag of the Chinamen. Canton is big and popu-
lous, that is all. In other respects it is a very
ordinary China city. Its temples are numerous,
and the Confucian temple and the temple of five
hundred gods are good of their kind, but most of
the others are miserable and dilapidated. The
nine-storied pagoda is in so ruinous a condition
that the General the other day forbade the at-
tempt to climb the fragments of its broken stair-
case. Major Luard, whose success at the escalade
seems to have inspired him with a mania for
climbing, had previously risked his neck in
getting some way up. Yet this pagoda is
the great boast and lion of Canton. The
Chinese boasted of it because foreigners could
not get near enough to see what a miserable
ruin it is. What can we think of a people who
will not afford a few dollars to save their monu-
ments from mouldering ? When the General and
his party went to the pagoda it had all the air of
not having been opened for 20 years. I have
already spoken of that great district of desolation
the Tartar General's yamun. Hundreds of coolies
are now papering and whitewashing, carpenters
are shoring up, and I believe, even painters are
painting. It is thought that when the jungle is
cleared away, and the roofs and floors are secured,
and the bats driven out, and the atmosphere
sweetened, it will become good barracks, and that
the surrounding grounds will become what I inno-
cently described them as being when I spoke of
them on Chinese testimony—' capital camping
ground for the British grenadiers.'
" How different are all the realities of Chinese
life from our English notions of Oriental magnifi-
cence ! Their ridiculous mandarins, whom our
middle classes wonder at, and our great folk adore,
live in houses in which an English gentleman
would be ashamed to lodge his steward, and keep
their retainers in places which an English farmer
would think quite unworthy of his cows. It is
xplained that they allow vast yamuns to fall to de-
cay lit cause their tenure of office seldom exceeds three
years ; their luxuries, therefore, are for dresses,
embroidered tunics, jadestono sceptres, loose silk
chaircoWviethrs,soand suchlike moveables.
I found the yamun of Peh-Kwei in a much
mpioionarrter:brafineshiy::::::e. than when I left it. I shall not
forget the sensations of otfhaour first night in that
• peawvielrioenssu,ddenly left alone at sun-
downt,iirimeal.
Fancy
without t unknownso
light,foreigners
or
rßabylon
leftg u id
in ofe,

the dark in Vauxhall-garden s two days after London
had been stormed, groping about the rotunda and
the Alhambra and the side boxes for places
where they might sleep secure from a night
attack. It was not encouraging that when
two of us penetrated to Peh-kwei's buildings
to demand oil and tallow, a hundred fellows,
headed by Peh-kwei, and his guest the Tar-
tar General, stormed at us in chorus, and twice
pressed us out by the unhostile pressure of their
bodies against ours before we could make our-
selves understood sufficiently to levy a pound of
candles as the price of peace and quietness.
" Now all this is entirely changed. Through the
open yamun doors crowds of Chinese come and
go. The Chinese tribunal of Peh-Kwei and the
tribunal of three Commissioners (Colonel Holloway,
le Capitaino Martineau, and Mr. Parkes) are cur
petits soins. Thanks to the energy of the trium-
viri, the streets of Canton are as safe from Euro-
pean violence as the streets of Paris are from
Chinese exactions. Colonel Holloway's Court
takes all the mixed cases ; and, finding the other
day that a Chinaman was in the wrong, he was
sent over to Peh-Kwei with a statement of the
circumstances. The Mandarin was so charmed
with this compliment that he had the poor wretch
bambooed nearly to death.

" The New Court has also established a new
Canton police. Captain Pym is the Colonel Rowan
of Cantos. He has 100 soldiers under him armed
with swords and revolvers, and the French have a
separate body of 30 men. Associated with the
European police are an equal number of Tartars.
Five English and two French stations have been
established in convenient parts of the city and
suburbs, and the shopkeeping community are likely
to obtain under British and French rule a security
they never before hoped for.
" Things were proceeding so happily that Peh-
Kwei the other day wrote a note to Lord Elgin
complimenting him very much upon the state of
affairs, and suggesting that we were all now such
very good friends that it was quite unnecessary for
us to keep soldiers in the city. This polite imper-
tinence produced an answer which Peh-Kwei has
not yet shown to his most intimate advisers. In-
stead of evacuating the city the General has been
obliged to remind the Tartar General of a stipula-
tion that the arms of the Tartar soldiery should
be given up. The Chinese dignitaries were pre-
pared to correspond upon this subject, to appoint
commissioners, to receive reports, and to hold
a discussion upon every giugal. The English
General, with a barbaric promptitude, marched
1,300 coolies and a large escort into the three great
depots, and, on Saturday last, lodged nearly all the
rubbish within the English lines. The three
Imperial armouries were in a high state of effi-
ciency. The double-handed swords were immense
in numbers and terrible to look upon. There were
rooms lull of those fear-inspiring shields which, in
some quite moleru period of Chinese hiAory,
'probably gave to some piratical Greek the idea
of the Shield of Minerva. There were arrows in thou-
sands, very carefully finished and preserved in cases,
but the mandarin bows were very rare. Great
stores of quilted war jackets filled the presses, and
there were many complete suits of Chinese armour.
'I he swords, and pikes, and gingal4, and matchlocks
were innumerable ; but the chief attraction was
five brass gnus, which were followed by covetous
eyes as they were walked off by the coolies. In
another establishment we found collected all the
shot that could be recovered after the last year's
bombardment, and also some of the unexploded
shell, which had been fired upon the city on the
28th December. There was also a great depot of
infernal machines in form like a dark lantern made
of tin ; many flags and banners were also carried
off.

" I have takeu some pains to ascertain the loss
suffered by the Chinese during the bombardment
and the storm. We have all the official returns of
the first day in our possession, and no account that
I have seen places the deaths during the whole
operations higher than 200. Some distrust the
Chinese accoun's, but I am inclined to put frith in
them. Unless you surround Chinese soldiers you
never kill many of them. You never catch them
upon an island, or in an isolated position. They
act upon the principle of the Wife of Bath, that
" 'A mouse who trusts to one poor hole,
' Can never bo a mouse of any soul.'
They fire very fiercely upon you as you are coming
up to attack them, but escape by the back door as
soon as you get too near. Our escalade was a com-
plete surprise upon them. They fancied you were
advancing under the fire from their walls to attack
Fort Gough ; they never expected that you would
turn aside and jump upon wooden legs' over the
wall Howqua's Comprador, with whom some of
us talked the matter over, declares that it is impos-
sible that the numbers killed could be greater than
is sta'ed. The people, he says, knew perfectly well
the line the fire would take and got out of the way.
The troops who were obliged to remain on the
walls kept very much under cover, and great quan-
tities of the missiles missed the wall and fell into
the ditch. The dead must be buried outside the
city, and as the western gate only was open, it
was easy for any one to calculate how many were
carried out. It says little for the destructive
power of our warlike engines that so small a loss
should have been occasioned by so large an expen-
diture of shot and shell, but the probabilities are
that the fact is as the Chinese state it. It is placed
beyond doubt now that the loss of the Chine-e dur-
ing the bombardment in 1856 was not more than
43, and I quite believe in the probability that the
recent list of killed doss not exceed 200.

" The Staff arrangements have undergone some
change. The last accounts from India showing that
Crealock's regiment was actively engaged, he
resigned his Staff appointment here, and is gone off
to his regimental duty. Captain Pellew, the Gene-
ral's aide-de-camp, has pursued the same course.
Captain Cooke, of the Marines, succeeds Major
Crealock, and Capt. Carrington, who has hitherto
acted as Provost-Marshal, has been removed to tho
Adjutant-General's department. The General has
not yet chosen an aide-de-camp to succeed Captain
Pelle w.
"Our great want is interpreters. It would ap-
pear that there are only three English interpreters
available for our use iu all China. Mr. Wade and
Mr. Parkes aro worked beyond all reason, and,
what is more to the purpose, they toil in vain to
overtake the exigencies of the public service. Mr.
Alabaster, a young man of some acquirements in
Chinese, is in attendance upon Yeh. There is a
Wang, and a Portuguese named
named
dre the only mouths through which
CLhozinaarimo.anTnhaemse
we can communicate with this people.
Peh-Kwei has been asked to take some steps to-
wards
alleviatingthe misery of the destitute
classes,does not see his way to the employ-
mentbut
h
of any less efficacious methods than the head
cutting knife and the bamboo. The life of these
high dignitaries must be very' dull. Peh-Kwei is '
too great a man to do anything. He sits all day
in an uncomfortable straight-backed chair, and re•
ceives a few reports, and writes occasionally—or ra-
ther dictates, for his handwriting is unpresentable
to the Emperor. Seeing him the other day in this
positio
ednasokfdigeified discomfort, one of the inter-
pretershim whether he passed much of his
time in reading ? His answer was, ' No, I never
read ; my heart is heavy. I cannot laugh over roe
mances, and if I read good books I go to sleep.'
" Yeb, on board the Inflexible, exhibits much
the smile spectacle; and it naturally occurred to the
Anglo-Saxon mind that ho also must want books.
nwoasrnegjeacbtoeudtcomances. His answer was,
What
but Yeh is a religious man
al:hnde offr
nothing saides hould Ido with books? All the books
that are proper to be read I know by heart.' He
quoted Caliph Omar without having ever heard his
name. He passes his time in praying to Buddha
and telling his fortune. His papers abound in for-
tune-telling schemes, analogous to our SortesVir-
eilianee 'or Sortes Biblicm.' One of them is
headed Scheme to determine when the Kwangsi
Rebellion will terminate.' The Chinese are very
indignant with him
for not killing him-
self. They say Eep number one fools ;
he no make writee pigeon, he no make
fighteo Pigeon ; he number one bad Man-
dalin, he no cuttee thloat.' The wretched crea-
ture seems to have been influenced in his conduct
by these fortune-taEng tricks, which are as hetero-
dox in China as they are id tiglaud. Respire
his state p
rivalcs Divorant. Yet; although the revelations uf
aper s
anti our observation of his personal
demonst,rate that he is without conduct or
judgment, or even the rt ong cernmon-sense of an
thatordinaryare
ehtiolirithalt his
h is
pre
official, ecreat
thei s so
cagurteo,alt
river exercises an unfavourable influence upon our
dealings with the Chinese people. Unless early
news of his degradation should be received. he will
be sent away. The present idea is to send him to
Calcutta, where
he will probably have an oppor-
tunty of cultivatlng
the frieniship of the King of
Oude within the walls of Fort-William.

HONG KONG, JAN. 29.
Our latest advices from England are tD the 26th
November. The steamer with the mail of the 10th
December keeps out. The steamer Ottawa, with
the outward mail, leaves to-day.
By a Government Gazette _Extraordinary, pub
lished late last evening, we learn that the bluctiade
of the port and river of Canton will be raised on
the 10th February next. The city and suburbs
will be open to foreigners under certain conditions,

28,

and martial law will continue during th© occupa-
tion by the Allied Forces.

By this opportunity we have little to report from
this.

At Canton matters remain quiet, and the system
of government adopted seems to work satisfactorily.
It will probably be some time before entire confi-
dence is restored, and we learn that a good many
of the wealthy inhabitants are still leaving the place.
When the restiutions to trade are removed we look
forward to a better understanding between
foreigners and Chinese.
Their Excellencies Lord Elgin and Baron Le
Gros still keep their stations off the city.
It is said the Ambassadors will proceed north as
early as practicable.
Yeh, the late viceroy, is still on board her Ma-
jesty's steamer Inflexible, stationed in the river.
We believe it is not yet decided what will be done
with him. His being allowed to remain so near his
former seat of Government is considered to exert
some influence over the present Chinese Commis-
sioners, who previously acted under him.
One or two regiments of native troops are ex-
pected in here shortly, from Bengal.
Her Majesty's ship Sybille, Commodore Elliot,
sailed for England on the 21st inst., and her Ma-
jesty's ship Comus on the 26th inst.
We have to mention a most daring robbery and
murder which was committed in this place on the
evening of the 26th inst. At about 5 o'clock in the
evening the shop of a watchmaker was entered, and
property to a considerable amount taken away.
The European boy in charge was killed, having
been stabbed in several places. The Chinese house
servant has been taken into custody, and a China-
man connected with the establishment, supposed
to be the murderer, has been captured at Macao.
Watches were found in his possession, and a knife
soiled with blood.

At Hongkong business during the past fortnight
has been very inactive, partly owing to the state
of Canton matters, and restricted also from the
approach of the Chinese new year, 12th proximo.
Cotton.—Small sales of Bombay. Quotations
nominal $l5.
Cotton Yarn.—No sales. Prices ara somewhat
lower.

Silly.—No purchases have been made at Macao
for Great Britain.

Exchange on England, 45. 9 d. ; on India, 220 r.
The present steamer takes a large amount in
treasure for India and England.
Freights.—Little demand tor tonnage.
At Foochow the tea market was very dull. Set-
tlements reported at 6,000 chests congou and about
1,000 half chests Oolongs, at a decline of about 1
tael. Remaining stock 65,000 to 70,000 chests
congou (mostly common kinds), and 15,000 half
chesth Oolongs. One vessel had sailed for England
and two were loading.
Our Shanghae advices are to the 23d inst. Busi-
ness in imports and exports had been limited.
Total exports of tea to Great Britain, 38,000,000
of lb. against 46,000,000 last year to the same time,
being a decrease for the present year of 8,000,000 lb.
Silk.—Transactions had been very small, esti-
mated at 1,000 bales, at a decline in price of 40
taels.

Freights to England, 27. 10s. for tea, and 47. 10s.
for silk.

Amoy advices are to the 24th ine. Transactions
in imports and exports very limited.
Manilla advices are to the 23d inst. The quota-
tions for exports were nearly nominal.
Our latest dates are—from England, Nov. 26 ;
Calcutta, Dec. 19 ; Bombay, Dec. 16 ; Singapore,
Jan 2 ; Manila, Jan. 23 ; Sydney, Nov. 10 ; Mel-
bourne, Nov. 16 ; Shanghae, Jan. 23.

THE LOSS OF THE AVA.
POINT DE GALLE, CEYLON, FEB. 23.
The Peninsular and. Oriental Company's steamer
Ave, with mails from Calcutta and Madras for
England, went on shore on the evening of Tues-
day, the 16th instant, on Pigeon's Island, off
Trincomalee, and has since gone in halves
amidships, and become a perfect wreck. She
was on her way to this port, but had to
touch at Triucornalee to land money ; how she
came in the locality where she was lost remains to
be explained ; it was within 1i mile of the shore
and 10 miles from the harbour of Trincomalee.
No portion of the mails has been saved ; of the
treasure which she was bringing for the Bombay
Government 152 boxes out of 500 have been re-
covered, containing 78,5001., out of 253,0001. ; 400
bales silk, and 500 chests of indigo, and other valu-
able merchandize to a large amount, have been lost.
The Admiralty agent, Lieutenant Percival, re-
mained by the wreck after the captain and officers
had lefr, in the hope of saving some boxes, but
there appeared slight chance of his doing so. Pro-
videntially no lives have been lost. The passen-
gers include many ladies from the garrison of
Lucknow, and several wounded officers, 70 in all,
besides 19 children and many European female
servants. We have as yet no list ;we only know
that among them are Major-General Michel and
Colonel Greit')ead for Bombay, and Mrs. Inglis
(wife of the gallant Commander at Luckuow), and
her three children. Unfortunately, Mrs. Inglis's
journal of the siege, not the least valuable article
among what has perished, has not been saved.
All the passengers arrived here this morning in
the Granada, a small Peninsular steamer, which
happened to be here for commercial purposes, and
which was promptly despatched to the scene of the
wreck by our Master Attendant, Captain Twynam,
within a few hours after the loss of the Ava had
been communicated to him by telegraph from
Colombo.
The Ave had on board a new shaft for the steamer
Alma, which remains at Aden, waiting for it, be-
fore she can resume her work on the line. The
loss of the Ave is a parallel to that of the Erin,
which took place about a twelvemonth ago, and
concerning which little inquiry appears to have
been made by the Company.
The Granada will leave this with passengers and
the mails from Ceylon and China to-morrow, at
daybreak. They have been detained,a week by this
accident.

FRANCE.
PARIS, MONDAY.

There is now no doubt of M. de Persigny's
resignation of the London Embassy being defini-
tively accepted. The Marquis de Moustier will
probably succeed him. It is not believed that M.
de Persigny will for the present enter the Cabinet,
notwithstanding the rumours to that effect. He
will, probably, be more useful in the Council of
Regency, of which he is a member.
BOURSE, March 22.—The following were the
closing quotations :-
4i per Cents 93 50
Do. end month —
3 per Cent. ..... 69 75
Do. end month 69 90
Bank Shares
Credit Mobilier
Do. Account B3O -
RAIL
Orleans
Northern
New Ditto ' 695
Lyon and Mediteran. 810
New Ditto BOO
Geneva

Credit Foncier
Belgian 44
Piedmontese (5)
Roman
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt 37}

'AY S.

Midi
Western 6621
Strasburg
Grand Central
Sardinian
Austrian

LLOYD'S SHIPPINO.—(This Day.)

LONDON, March 23.—Wind .this day at noon, S.E.;
calm, with dense fog.
OFF FALMOUTH, March 22.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—
Young Sam, for New Orleans for Havra; Johanna, Ha-
vaunah. _

...---.
CLYDE, March 21.—Wind S.—Arrived—Bellona, from
Cardona% . _ _ _

FALMOUTH, March 22.—Wind N. W.—Arrived--Friar
Tuck, Shanghai; Edith Roab, from Newcastle for Monte
Video.

PORTSMOUTH, March 22.—Wind S.E.— Sailed—An-
drilla, for Corfu. _ _

NEWPORT, March 22.--Wind W.—Sailed—Conrad,
Fernando Po.

LEITH, March 22.—Wind S. E.—Arrived —Knight,
from Callao.

QUEENSTOWN, March 22. —Wind S.W.—Arrived-
-11-,nnah, from Callao.

SHIELDS, March 22.—Wind) W.N.W.—Sailed—Julia,
for Cahutta.

CARDIFF, March 22.—Wind E.—Sailed—Danube, for
Havan nab.

JERSEY, March 21.—Wind S.E.--Arrived—Bassie,
from Demerara. Sailed—Susan, for Barbadoes.
GLOUCESTER, March 21. —Arrived—Melodia, from
Huela.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
SOUTHAMPTON, Tuesday Morning.
Calm and fine.
Arrived—Express (s), from Jersey; Bury, Briaport ;
Havre (s), Havre.
Sailed—Alliance (s), for Havre.
LIVER 00L, Tuesday Morning.
Wind N. W.
Arrived, March 22—Sarah Ellen, from Rouen; Rita
(ss), Bilboa.
Sailed, March 22.—Louis, for Bahia ; Queen Bee, for
Jamaica.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH•)
GRA gP,SEND, Tuesday Morning.
Wind E.; tide tbree hours' ebb ; weather tine.
Arrived, March 23—Acis, from St. Michael's.
Sailed, March 22—White Star, for Halifax.
Sailed, March 23—Panther, steamer, for Boulogne.

The specie by the Parana was delivered yesterday,
and the greater part of the g.)1.1 was taken up for the
Continent ; the remaining Brazilian gill by the A von
will also go abroad. Tile bar silver brought on this oc-
casion has been disptsed of at 61g- 1., showing no alters,.
tion. The dollars are not yet sold, the market being
sat.