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 Elgin
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
tram tictn-6- 4,..0020mpany the expedition.
On both sides of the Yang-t&ne"the rebels !cave
been committing great devastation, and are 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 Alatters 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 29thu1t., three Annamese
mandarins, who had been captured by the force,
were presented to the Captain-General of the Phili-
ppines, 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 martyrdom in Cen-
tral Tonquin within the last two years. One of
these, Msgr. Melchior, died so lately as the 28th 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. Mcdhurst, the Consul at
Fuhchau, found it necessary to fine the assaulters
100 dole. 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 premed-
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 inventus, and it
was said he had thrown himself overboard. How-
ever, after a few days, Mr. Robinet re-appeared,
with a story that, vexed brit, he 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 man ;
that he had been deceived by the Chinese, because
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
gone into, but enough appeared of his style of con-