The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

CSINA.

Itiag..

(From the Times' Special Correspondent.)
SHANGHAI, AIM. 7.
lgy last despatch was closed in hot haste, for the
renaosa hove in sight, and in five minutes the
boat was lowered, the letters were put on hoard,
and we followed them with wistful eyes as they
deported for " home."
Next morning we were still out of sight of land,
but the landsman's cry told
that weo wereines bath
steam-
ing in shallow waters.
showed th at the water was qurrihteefres h and opaque,
with rich alluvial soil. There were no other 8
toras of Jan d. We were in the mouth ofs EnPthe-
:nighty river Yang-tae—" the child of the ocean"
the iichest raver in the world--richest in naviga-
ble. .
water, in nsjghty cities,. industrious human
beins4, in affluent tributaries, alnessd inferte wilid margins
of cultivated laud
.of exhaust y. t
vast expanse of turbid fresh water is saturated with
the loam of fields ILOO miles away. Portion
of this rippling eleme,at was gathered upon those
great mountain rangcs of Central Asia where
the Ganges, the Brahma putra, and the two great
rivers that irrigate Siam and Cochin China, and
the fierce "yellow river" which pervades the
north of China divide the drainage. The volume
was increased by every maintain and every de-
scending streamlet through 000,000 square miles
of midland Caine. In its pride and in its strength
the proud river fights for a little while with ocean
himself for empire, drives back bis salt waves, and
establishes a fresh.water province in the midst of
his dominions. The Chinese love aaid venerate the
Yang-tse as Chinese sons love and venerate their
fath-rs. Philosophers draw their parztbles from his
greatness and benificence, historians chronicle his
droughts and floods as events more important than
the change of dynasties, and poets find his praises
the most popular theme for their highest flight of
song.
Many a gentle dullard will think or say that I am
"straining after the picturesque," or, more hor-
rible still, " writing sentiment." Don't believe it.
I write rapidly what I feel elrnestly. The Yang-
tse-Kiang is the m,ot de Veniomes, the secret the
great Chinese puzzle. If I cannot make Mr. Dol-
drums, or Sir John Fathead, or General Craes ti,ii-
deritand the grandeur and the all-importance of this
river, I shall never succeed in fixing in his skull one
right idea about China. If he will study the
geography of this empire as I have done, hour by
hour, and day by day, with map, glass, and books of
travel, collating the bad maps, and asking explana-
tions from French missionaries and Chinese mer-
chants, he may then say what he likes about my,
des ;riptions, fur he cannot but share my conclu-
sions.
We had steamed for some hours in this shallow
sea, when aline, having length but neither breadth
nor thickness, became just visible far away upon
our left. As onr course was tangential to this line
it gradually became more distinct. Then through
our glasses we could see a level coast, well timbered
wit° trees—no palms or Easter forms of foilage,
but such an outline as we might trace on the banks
of Essex or Lincolnshire.
Between the river shore and the woodlands there
was a margin of meadow land, where droves of cattle
awl flocks of sheep were depasturing, and every-
thing around, except only the fierce sunshine, gave
promise that we had escaped into an European cli-
mate.

Then land upon the right grew into view, not
the opposite bank of the Yang-tae, that is far out of
sight—but an island which he is throwing up. From
day to day he piles there the spoils he brings down
from the midland provinces, The pilots say they
call observe an increase every week. The Chinese
arc already planting bamboo there to give solidity
to the rich alluvial soil. A thousand squatters are
ready t) seize upon it and convert it into gardens
ire .nediately the tide shall cease to cover it. ,
Fishing and carrying and convoying, a thousand
junks and torches are scudding to and fro in the
estuary. But we proceed not far up the channel of
" the child of the ocean"—" the father of rivers"
see" the girdle of China." A checker-painted sea-
mark (which wan's only a telegraph upon it to
make its usefulness complete) and a floating light-
lac use mark the point where the last tributary to
the Yang-tae Kiang, the river Wang .Poo, joins its
waters. Upon a low spit of land stands the deso-
late_and amphibious looking village of Woosung.
The.:plaCe
.is not 'really desolate and is not really
aniphaliou4, for large fortunes are constantly being
mt:de h.er6 (the golden sands of commerce accumu•
late as rapidly, as the deposits of Yang-tse-Kiang),
and t4p„ piles
_on :which the building are erected
lift 'i4ertt out of danger of inundation. But the
ChMese have a talent fir giving an appearance of
squalor to their towns and villages!
I did not hail, but proceeded immediately in a
sampan to Messrs. Dent's receiving-ship, which. lies
strongly sachored fore and aft in the mouth of the
river. Time was when the Emily Jane was a floating
garrison with a disciplined crew trained to gunnery
and boarding practice. Her guns are still in very
good order, but she is not likely to test their powers;
fo:. the Mandarin junks are la° longer her enemies,
awl the pirates hold her iu great respect. lam
afraid she is a very wicked Emily Jane, for she is
crammed with opium, and the odour of the drug is
strong in her spacious c Abins. Your " Special Cor-
n spondent" ought to be above such base consider-
at i OWN but temperance advocates have been known
to relish a rump steak cooked upon the furnace fire
of Broadwood's brewery, and I must own that when
the. frank and hospitable commander of the Emily
Jane bad responded to my letter of introduction by
an invitation to join him in some well-cooled sau-
terne, a joint of capital Shanghai mutton, and a
successfully concocted ice pudding—grateful con-
trast to the monotonous fare of a passenger steam-
boat—l did not look about me with so much
flaming indignation as a total abstinence-from-
opium advocate ought to have done. These cool
drinks calm one's judgment.
I shall return to this opium question hereafter—l
hope in more serious and ratiocinative mood. After
" tiffin" I left the Emily Jane, for the tide was
making, and Shanghai is seven miles up this river
Wang Poo.

At a distance of three miles, in the gray twilight,
Shanghai looks like a distant view of Woolwich.
The tall spars of the Pique frigate, the English and
.American steamers of war, and a fleet of merchant
vessels give an air of life and bustle to the Waters
or.: this noble tributary to the Yang-tse-Kianee
le! igher up, where a turn in the river gives an inlan%
appearance, we see a multitudinous mass of junk
masts, just as from Greenwich and Woolwich we
see the spars of the ships that crowd our dock. All
t lls of a large commerce requiring a strong protec-
t,on. In this indistinct light the "Longs" of the
kuropean settlement loom l'ke the ship slips at
eptford or Woolwich. It is only upon a near
approach that they resolve themselves into fine
finished buildings, some columned like Grecian
temples, some square and massive like Italian
pelaces, but all declaratory that the res augusta doini
i a woe unknown to Englishmen in China.
The English settlement at Shanghai is situate
upon a bend of this river Wang Pon. Its bounda-
ries are its fortifications. On one side the Soo-choo
river, which c Hues down from the great city Soo-
ohoo (the Birmingham of China) and falls into
the Wang Poo, forms its lien to. On the other side,
the Yang-kang-pang canal shuts it from the settle-
ment allotted to the French. This French allotment
extends up to the walls of the Chinese city of
Shanghai.
The frontage upon the Wang Poo, between the
Soo-choo river and the canal, is nearly a mile in
I(4igth, and the settlement extends backwards about
k air a mile. This space is divided jute squares by
six roads at right angles with the river, and three
parallel to it, aud in these squares are the re4idences
and godowna of the commercial houses, each in its
surrounding plot of ornamented ground. In the
rear of all is the Shanghai race-course.
I am so fortunate as to be commended to the
princely hospitality of Mr. Beale, whose capacity of
entertainment is so large that he can afford a sem-
rate establishment to each guest. I occupy the
rooms where Mr. Fortune stored his treasuies and
ei here he hung up that terrible double-barr.elled gun
Which raked the decks of so many pirate junks.
• If I have succeeded in conveying to the reader
atlY notion of this place, he will recognise in it the
present mainstay and the future hope of our trade
lvitta China. Almost yesterday the site of this hand-
e(). me -Allele-Chinese city was paddyfields and cotton
kunde- In 1856 309 Briti,h ships of the tonnage
vf 92,943 tons unbaded on the quays. Imports from
tae whole world t') the amount of 3, 010,5111. passed
through the Cu-torn house, and in addition to these
opium to the value of
passed through.
t )is portal to the interor'6of2gl9sl. notwith-
standing this amount of lee.l Andni:ihllaerYilbtimuporis, a
f., rth er impel tatiou, 4,287,090/.
withu i_on, was
r quisite to settle the balance of %That,
end America, and to pay for the enormous
aErnuo7lipiei.
uf tea and silk which China sent down to Shanghai-
and Shanghai distributed to Europe, America, and
'Australia.
This is son!) olline like prosperity—a single port
with an annual balancet' of four millions and a quar-
ter in its favour. But for the opium the amount
would have teen nine mullions. In the current year,
..:cording to all present appearances, the sum may
reach 9,000,000 e, even with the set-off of the
pium ; and but fur this undesirable resource for
neuginc, our losses, the civilised world would have
to find 14,000,0 m. worth of silver to pay the
Oteinemen who supply this single port.
It is impossible to predict this as a certainty.
Perhaps the native Chinese merchants may over-
stated their marketand the exports may be checked.
All we know at present is that the Chinese have a
tremendous silk crop, and are holding out for most