The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-26 00:00:00

CHINA,

The following is from the Hong Kong Trade
Report of March 15:—
The advices which the last mail hence took were
to the effect that political matters in the neighbour-
hood of Pekin wore a pacific aspect, and that every
confidence was placed by the foreign community in
the performance:of the treaties in their fall integrity;
that the expedition up the Yang-tsze had taken its
departure, the most sanguine expectations being en-
tertained as to its results ; that the British authori-
ties, whilst they repudiated interference between
the Imperialists and Insurgents, were, in point of
fact, pursuing a well defined and arranged course of
action that rendered the rebel cause utterly hope-
less ; that the experimental diplomacy, conducted
of course with the utmost secrecy, now habi-
tually practised by British functionaries in
China and Japan, appeared an obstacle to
the establishment of permanently satisfactory
political relations ; and that diplomatic rela-
tions between her Majesty's Minister at Yeddo and
the Japanese Government had been broken off,
arising out of circumstances connected with the
assassination of the interpreter to the United States
Legation, which eventuated in her Majesty's
Minister leaving Yeddo for fear of a similar fate
awaiting him, and taking refuge among the foreign
communityin Yokuama.

" Since then, although the hopes and expecta-
tions entertained of a satisfactory and speedy
development of the new order of things are even
higher than ever, little has occurred of a
tangible nature from which any deductions can
be drawn. The British Minister is still at
Tient-sin ; his secretary, who is the fountain head
of the secret experimental diplomacy named in last
report, being at Pekin making preparations for
his Excellency's reception in the spring.' The
Emperor is still at his palace of Zhehol, in
Tartary, deelining to return to the capital. The
bearing and the demeanour of the Chinese Govern.
ment towards the British officials is as friendly and
pacific as could be desired, and every confidence is
felt by the foreign community in the bona fidc in-
tentions of the Chinese.
" Regarding affairs at Japan, which at date of
last report appeared so very critical, a most unex-
pected and favourable change has taken place,
which, it is to be hoped, will lead to a more satis-
factory state of relations, and will avert the catas-
trophe which appeared almost inevitable. Her
Majesty's Minister, after leaving Yeddo and taking
up his residence with the mercantile community at
Yokuama, published a remonstrance and a warn-
ing which he had administered to the Japanese
Government, a copy whereof was given in last
report. He then applied to the British community
of Yokuama for a statement of their grievances.
They simply repeated the complaints, the dis-
regard to which had caused the unfortunate
feud between them and the Minister ever
since his first assuming the reins of office. It would
seem as if communications of an expostulatory
nature had been going on between the Japanese
and the British Minister from the time of the with-
drawal of the latter from Yeddo, and there can be
no doubt that the mercantile grievances formed a
portion of the grounds of these communications.
At all events, it is certain that the knowledge of late
events in China, adding as they must naturally do
to the prestige and power of Great Britain, caused
the Japanese to become alarmed, and to seek to
induce the British Minister to return to Yeddo.
This, it seems, his Excellency refused to do until
certain promises had been made and a variety of
concessions accorded. On the Ist of March ho
issued a notification, stating that everything had
been satisfactorily arranged, and that he should
return to Yeddo the day following. He did so
return, and re-hoisted his flag under a salute
from the Japanese batteries. There are now good
grounds for hoping that the irritating, vacillating
policy exhibited towards the Japanese will be dis-
continued—that the plain meaning of the treaty
may be the guide to all future communications, and
that whilst the foreign community are restrained
from inflicting the smallest infringement upon the
customs or prejudices of the people, they may be
treated with some show of reason and justice, and
not with the hauteur and indignity under which
which they have lately suffered.
" The expedition up the Yang-tsze has proceeded
slowly, the vessels even of light draught continu-
ally grounding on the shifting sands of the river.
The latest date from them to hand at this
moment is to the 21st of February. They had
then only proceeded as far as Nankin. A
British ship of war will remain at anchor off
Nankin, as a means to make the Taeping in-
surgents amenable for any aggressive acts they
may commit upon British trade. It need
hardly be pointed out that such a step is most
damaging to the prestige of any political cause,
because the question as to whether an act is aggres-
sive, or not, rests entirely in the hands of the
mighty.
" It will be remembered that it was left to the
British plenipotentiary to name two ports on the
Yangtze which should be opened to trade. After his
arrival at Shanghai the Earl of Elgin named Kiu-
keang and Hankow, which it seems from the rebels'
own statement (as given in the above letter) are the
two points they intend to attack. The Customs re-
venue of these places stands absolutely secured to
the Imperial Government by the notification issued
by the Earl of Elgin directing that all duties
whether of imports or exports, shall he paid at Sh an g-
hai, It has been seen already that the allied troops
did actually drive the rebels back when they attacked
Shanghai, and there can be little doubt that an
attack on Hankow and Kinkeang will be deemed
an act of aggression, which the British men-of-war
at anchor off Nankin will resent.
" Besides, the fact has come out that at all the
open ports at which the foreign inspectorate
scheme has been applied, the British Consul is vested
with surveillance over the Customs revenue, on the
pretext of claiming the indemnity agreed upon in
the Pekin Convention. And when the patronage
conferred by the Chinese Commissioners upon the
Earl of Elgin in the nomination of the Customs
mercenaries be remembered—when the underhand
determined support given to the Customs seheme by
the British Minister is borne in mind, as well as the
trick of making the payment of the indemnity con-
tingent upon the existence of /the Customs esta-
blishment, it can hardly be doubted that the ulti-
mate object of the parties implicated was to drag
the British Cloyernment, wind the yfifilA and pro.

A MAN BURIED INSTEAD OF A WOMAN.—THE ST.
PANCRAS BURIAL BOARD V. TITFORD.
This was a case heard yesterday before Mr. D.
D. Heath, the presiding judge at the Bloomsbury
County Court, Portland-road, and the peculiar
Arne of the disclosures excited lively interest
among the public, who crowded the court. •
The-plaintiff, Mr. Chas. Greene, on behalf of the
Burial Board of St. Pancras, summoned the &fon-
dant, Mr. Wm. Titfo-rd, undertaker, of Judd-street)
Euston-road, for the sum of lls. for the interment
of Joseph Kemp, af'Finchley Cemetery, The defen-
dant pleaded a set-off (but notice of which not
having been given at the proper time, was not ad-
mitted), for fees paid for the burial of Mary Ann
Brown, which burial he asserted took place at
Ilford Cemetery instead of at Finchley.
Mr. J. W. Herring, solicitor, appeared in sup-
port of the summons, and in an able exposition of
the object of the Burial Board in taking out this
summons, said it was not merely for the recovery
of the lls., but rather for the more important 'rea-
son of giving an expose of the impositions practised
by a certain class of undertakers upon the board,
and which extended in a .most cruel manner to poor
people who unfortunately happened to place them-
selves within their clutches. On the 4th January
last the defendant went§to the office of the Burial
Board, and gave an order for the interment of Mary
Ann Brown, aged 58, of 2, Marsozi-street, St. Pan-
cras, the body to be buried in the third class chapel
ground, on the Sunday following, in accordance
with the particular wishes of the relatives
of deceased, who, being poor people, were
anxious to have the body buried on a Sunday, so
that it should not interfere with their labour on
a working day. The grave was prepared and the
gravedigger and officiating minister waited a
long time over the ordinary period for the arri-
val of the body on the Sunday, but it did not
come. On the following Tuesday. Mr. Titford took
down a body, which was understood to be that of
Mary Ann Brown. He was then asked for the
necessary certificate—for it was proper to remark
that they did their business at St. Pancras very
different to the city of London with the Ilford.
Cemetery, where any person could go and have a
body interred without the necessary register signed
by the clerk of the board, as in St. Pancras—and
no register, until pressed for, was produced, and
then it was the register of Mary Ann Brown—and
it was not until the officiating minister asked the
question whether it was a brother or a sister that
it was discovered that, instead of the body of Mary
Ann Brown, it was the body of a man named
Joseph Kemp, aged 48, for whose interment no
order had been given at the Burial Board, and no
fees had been paid. His Honour would imagine
the surprise of the gravedigger when, in answer to
the minister's question, Mr. Titford said it was a
brother. On visiting the daughter of the de-
ceased Mary Ann Brown, it was ascertained that
she and the rest of her friends had been scanda-
lously imposed upon by the undertaker, Its they had
particularly desired, and were under the full im-
pression, that the body was to be buried in the
cemetery of their own parish at Finchley, and it
was not until at the moment the body was bein.-
removed from their house that they knew it was to
be buried at Ilford. It was proper that such tricks
of undertakers should be exposed, as it was a gross
fraud on the burial board and the public at large,
especially as, but for an accidental discovery, the
register would be falsified, as some of the books of
the board were already in consequence.
The Clerk of the Burial Board, in a shrewd
cross-examination by defendant, proved that he
(defendant) had paid the fees only and read an
order for the burial of Mary Ann Brown, and had
made no mention of Joseph Kemp, until the dis-
covery had been made, when he treated the matter
with the greatest indifference.
Defendant—Are you not a reporter ?
Witness—What has that to do with the case
Defendant—Because you want to get up this case
for the papers. (Laughter.)
Witness—l am a reporter, but that has nothing
whatever to do with the case, as I am obliged to be
here on behalf of the burial board as its clerk.
Mr. Herring said he apprehended Mr. Greene,
being a reporter, would not deter him, as clerk to
the burial board, from performing his duty, and to
prove the unwarrantable presumption of the defend-
ant he should next call one of the members of the
burial board present.
Mr. Nodes, vestryman of St. Pancras and member
of the burial board, deposed that Mr. Greene acted
in accordance with a resolution of the board, passed
on the 25th ult.
One of the grave-diggers at Finehley Cemetery
deposed at length to the facts of the case, in reference
to what took place at the Cemetery as stated by Mr.
Herring. On the Tuesday, after the time allotted
for the burials, Titford brought up a body and told
him that it was the body that ought to have been
buried on the Sunday, and the reason he did not
bring it on the Sunday was because he was disap-
pointed in getting horses and a carriage ; and when,
in reply to defendant, witness said the superinten-
dent of the cemetery was not there, he said that was
a good job. On the foreman of the grave-diggers
asking him whether he had a register, he said he
had not, but the mourners had. However, no cer-
tificate of Joseph Kemp could be produced, and he
allowed the body to be buried, as they did not like
to turn the mourners away.
Isabella Bunce, daughter of the deceased Mary
Ann Brown, corroborated that part relating to the
burial of her mother at Ilford, contrary to the wish
of herself and friends, and they would not have
permitted it, only that the intimation of the de-
fendant's intention was not made known to them
until the moment of removing the body from the
house.

Defendant denied that he had ever been applied
to for the lls. ; that above that sum was due to him
from the Burial Board, and that it was common to
bury one person in lieu of another.
Mr. Nodes and others warmly denied what they
denominated an absurdity. that one person was ever
allowed to be buried in lieu of another.
His Honour said this was not the first time the
defendant had been before him. There was a case
very similar to this that he had been previously
guilty of. He bad no hesitation in saying that it
was very important for the public to know of such
a case, and so far he did not regret the case being
brought before him. But he did not see his way
clear as to who waa responsible for paying the
burial fee of Joseph Kemp. He (the judge) should
look into the law on the question, and reserve his
judgment till next week. He was quite satisfied
it was a proper case for the Board to take up, but
there was a question whether the Board had been
sufficiently active in the matter, by not
talon.
different steps for obtaining a penalty.
The case was then adjourned accordingly,

ENGLISH STUDIES.—" Father," said a lady of
the new school to her indulgent spouse, as he resumed his
pipe after supper one evening, " You must I9uy your dear
Georgiana an English grammar and spelling book. She
has gone through her French, Latin, and Greek
drawing and dancing, and now she must commence her
English studies." , music,
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