The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-29 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

A very numerously attended meeting of this society
was held on Monday evening, at their rooms, No. 15,
Whitehall-place—the president, Sir R. Murchison, in
the chair.
The minutes of the previous meeting having been
read and confirmed, a number of net: members were
elected, among whom were Sir G. Simpson, Major-Gene- j
ral Sir R. Alexander, and Mr. Layard.
The CHAIRMAN opened . the proceedings by announc- '
ing that a subscription list was about to be opened to the .
public on behalf of the private search which Lady Frank-
lin is about to undertake at her own cost. Without at all
questioning the decisions that had been come to as to the
desirability of the Government taking upon itself this ,
expedition, be would only remark that it was with re- ,
gret her Majesty's Government had come to the determi- '
nation they had arrived at. As men of science, that
society had always advocated those Arctic researches,
and they still hoped that some relics of the much
lamented traveller, Sir John Franklin, might yet be •
found, although they knew that the area to be searched
was extremely limited. They, however, knew that it
was easily approachable, that ships had gone to it and
returned from it without the loss of a man. He then
proceeded to read an address, which it was intended to
place before the public through the medium of the press
in furtherance of the object in view, adding that before
the appeal was actually made very nearly 8001. bad been
lready received.
Sir J. F. DAVIS then read a lengthy paper on Canton
and its forts. He was aware that he could offer very
little that was new on the subject of China to the en-
lightened audience before him. He would, however, say
a few words on the scene'of the late operations, and the
probable place of our future ones. All our troubles since
the late war had been at Canton, which, however, had
escaped chastisement. It was,.in his opinion, the best
policy towards the Cantonese, and justice and humanity
towards the population of the north-east coast of the
Canton River, that if a lesson is to be ministered to
the Chinese at . all, it should be in the right quarter,
Canton, the source of all our grievances. If we were to
leave anton to itself, as we had done before the other
provinces which were really unoffending would with jus-
tice complain of our not addressing ourselves to thoea
who had offended ns—the Cantonese being really the
source of all the insolences practised towards the British
people. Moreover, there was nothing to lose in the cap-
ture and occupation of Canton, Hong Kong being
capable of supplying us with all we require from the
natives. The whole distance from Canton to Hong
Kong was about 77 nautical miles s Whampoa was
about 10 miles below the provincial city, which was a
great drawback to the trade. The principal defences on
the Canton river were the Bogue forts, which, in ap-
pearance, were very formidable, though in reality they
had been three times taken by the British. A little
higher on the left of the river was a long battery, on the
Tiger Island, and no other defence occurred until the
first Bar battery was reached, also on the left bank,
erected in 1841. The principal defences towards Canton
were at the point called the barrier, where there were
about six batteries, and where the two divided channels
of the river unite, and this position would be impregoable
were it not for the absurd plan npoa which the defences
were built. The remaining defences on actually reaching
Canton were—first, the French Folly fort, formerly on
the east of the city, but which had been blown up and
destroyed by Sir M. Seymour • next, the Red Fort, and
another called the Shah-min It'ort. Nearer to Canton,
in the same passage, is the .Macon Fort and the Bird's
Nest battery, a little higher on the left bank. Sir M.
Seymour on temporarily leaving the south position had
wisely occupied Cow Fort, and had placed his ships
within signal distances of each other all down the de
fensible portion of the river, so as to avail himself of
their co-operation in case of need. Considerable diffi-
culty was occasioned by the numerous creeks and inlets
existing along the river, from whence the Chinese pirates,
of whom there were a considerable number, might send
oet fire rafts with impunity. The species of vessels
most ' wanted a; cording to the last accounts were
il gnn oats to follow these men to their retreats, and
deet oy their means of carrying on these practices.
Al ost every Chinese afloat near Canton was a pi-
rate, and perhaps one of the most beneficial results of
destroying Canton would be the ridding the river of
these pirates. The excuse for these man arming their
vessels is that of self defence against pirates. Both the
internal and external troubles of Chita seemed to have
conspired to favour the progress of our own colony,
Hong Kong, 'which now contains 70.000 Chinese in-
Chinese inhabitants, having occasionally 100 European
ships in the harbour, which was one of the finest in the
world. Leaving Hong Kong, at a dieter ce of 247 miles
was Amoy, the harbour of which, and the approaches to
it, were conducive to trade ; the chief, objection to the
part being the small trading capital possessed by the
native merchants. Then came Kin-tchou, Ning-po, the
h•land of Chnsen and Shanghai, which is'9oo miles from
Canton, and two-thirds only of the whole distaece along
the coast to Pectin. Shanghai as a ;lace of trade had
far exceeded all Expectation, havine outstripped Canton,
notwithstanding the troubles that had ensued there in
consequence of its having been taken by a party of rebels
some years ago. The p 'sition there of tee British was
very different from that at Caiten, having obtained far
more than our treaty right.. In fact, the British sub-
. _

jects had been allowed-to fortify the plice, and in his
(Sir .T. Davis'.) opinion, the beat way of showing the
Chixese that it was not their territory, but their trade,
that we wanted, would be to reduce tho,e fortiiicatioos
at the earliest possiLL, opportunity. nit in order came.
Nankin, which affirded the greatest facility for trading.
With regard to the great rebellion which distracts the
Chinese Empire, he said there could be no doubt that
'th'e existing insurrection in China was the result of our
oAn vear with that country. The number of robbers
and criminal associations were very great, the army
never having recovered from the want of success in " the
barbarian business"--as they call the late war. The
condition of the Cbinteos as a military people had but
littleeif anything, improved during the last 21 years-
Mr. CRAWFORD said, though he had never been in
China he had lived for a considerable period amongst the
Chinese people. They knew that China was a very popu-
lous country, but there had been some mistakes about the
extent of its population. It was not, as was supposed,
the most densely popnlated in the world—not so much so,
indeed, as Great Britain 'and Ireland. With regard to
the emigration from China, it was cansei mainly by the
protection afforded' to Chinese emigrants by the Eure-
pis in governmeits, and especial'y by our own govern-
ment, which had encouraged them to settle. They wore
composed of men in the prime of life, not a boy nor an
old man was to be seen among them. Chinese women
never emigrated ; and, as it was not good for man to be
alone, it was supposed that this absence of their own
country-women was a great cause of the turbulence and
ill conduet of the men. Every Chinese expects to return
home at some time or other, although the majority never
did so. They were in the Eastern Islands an exceed-
ingly industrious, and well doing peoples and he bad
never experienced the slightest inconvenience from their
mideonduct—in fact, he had received assistance from
them in cases of emergency. It had been said the, Chi-
nese were conspiring against us wherever they were
found, in our posisea,ions er other xise, but this he be-
lieved to be entirely without foundation. He then pro-
ceeded to refer at some length to the import and expert
trade of China. He said there was one great article of
import into China—viz., opium—about which much had
been said, but he considered it was far less injurious
than ardent spirits, either British or Chinese. He had
good authority for this statsuient—that of Sir Benjarn-ii
Brodie. His words were to the eff that opium
soothes the nervous system, and brandy cr alcoholic
spirits irritate it' exceredinely ; the one is compara-
tively innocuous, the other is very ncxlous. Both were,
eo doubt, liable to abuse, hut he believed opium more
rarely abused than ardent spirits. Three millions of the
revenue of India was 'derived from opium, owing to the
great stupidity of the Chinese, for :f they were a people
of sense they would endeavour to regulate sad control
that which they cannot stop. It was not our busine
to put, a stop to that which the Chinese themselves
would not set their face against. In conclusion he said
the only point upon which be ventured to differ with his
friend Sir F. Davis was as to the mode of carrying on
the operations in China; be seemed to think that the
capture and occupation of Canton would ha all-sufficient.
It had not been sufficient before. It was 1.200 miles
distant from the seat of the Chinese Government, and
he (Kr. Crawford) thought the most effectual way to
brir•g the Chinese Government to its senses would be to
cut off the csnamuvications, by means of the canals, with
the capital.

Mr:DEVITT wished to know whether the same sort of

piracy that existed i❑ the Canton %Alen existed on the
other portions of the Chinese seas, as if so it would have
a most important bearing upon the proposed extended
trade.

Sir F. Davis said the piney which prevailed was very
much the result of the physical construction of that part
of the coast, which ha,-1 a number of small islands and
creeks—extensive fishing also created those maritime
habits so essential to the profession of a pirate. This
piracy did not, however, extend far along the coast, and
he thought that the possession of the gunboats to be
taken out would afford an opportunity to our authorities
of disarming every armed boat they came iu contact with.
With reference to Mr. Crawforci's sug.zestion that the
capture and occupation of Canton would not have the
desired effect, he must 'remind that gentliman that on
the former oceasion alluded to the fine levied upon Can-
ton did not in reality punish the Cantonese, as it was
paid by the Government. He thought that if our troops
were garrisoned there, and they were put to some of the
other inconveniences of capture, it would effect the ob-
ject desired. In reference to the opium trade, he
quite agreed with Mr. Crawford as to the physical effect
of opium. Since the war the Chinese had virtually
abandoned the prohibition of its use, and it was publicly
used and traded in. It would be an act of intrusion on
our part to interfere with that which was sanctioned and
permitted in open day ;
bas no more business to
iu-
terfere with the use of opium in Cnina than the Coinese
had to interfere with our consumption of spirits, which
were far more baneful in their consequences.
The SECZETARY tben read a brief paper by Mr. Gre-
gory, "On the Completion of the North Australian Ex.
pedition," in which that gentleman described the re-
sults of his investigatienia in that territory in the most
favourable terms, stating that the country, as respects
climate, fertility of soil, and extent of it, and its capabili.
ties, far surpassed Western Australia. He was prepar-
ing a map of the route which he bad travelled from
Victoria to Moreton Bay, and which would doubtless be'
published as soon as possible.
Some discussion then took place upon the paper ; after
which
The CHAIRMAN announced that one of the society's
gold medals bad been awarded to Mr. Gregory, to
whom the society was greatly indebted for the great and
valuable information he had so frequently bestowed on it,
arising from his explorations.
The proceedings terminated at a late boar;