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

.TIEIZI SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY E V ENE3IIO OCTOBER 31, 1857.

extortionate prices ; and that, although seta, 31
houses hold their hands, there are others who thir ak
it can all be sent to Europe at a profit at the pi' ces
demanded, and are buying freely. In any 0A ,her
country this problem would meet a certain E olu-
tion, but in China even this great export trade: is as
nothing. There is a competing home market .i of
360,000,000 of people, and almost every laboe trer
in the cities has his holiday silk tunic.
True, it is small merit in an Englishman's 03 es
that this port of Shanghai is so productive to Chit to
that it drains us of our bullion, deranges our ex -
changes, and embarrasses our commerce. But it is a
fact, and a very important fact. I am not now going
to investigate why this so happens. I am not in a.
condition to speak authoritatively yet of the doings
at the Pihisn, the Taeping, and the Kan Custom-
houses, or to tell the mysteries of that cordon of
Douanes which is drawn round this port, and pre-
vents our goods from penetrating, with fair chance
of competition, 60 miles into the interior. When I
have succeeded or failed in getting near these places,
and have gat all the information I can gather, I
shall devote some very lengthy epistles to the great
question of how to work our manufactures into
China. At present I have no further purpose than
to show what a commercially important place this
port of Shanghai is, to fix it in the public mind so
that in our dealings with the Court of Pekin it may
hold its proper rank.
Beyond the limits of the European settlement the
rich alluvial plain on which Shanghai stands extends
for 20 miles without a hillock. We must admire the
fertility of the soil and the industry of the people,
but there all our gratification must end. The roads
are devious footpaths, and the courses of traffic are
dykes and drains falling rapidly to ruin. When the
fierceness of the sun ie a little moderated I walk
a 1 out these fanny tracks as they wind more tortu-
ously than the footways in the marches between
Erith and Greenhithe. They all tell of better days.
They are strongly paved with rough blocks of gra-
nite or of limestone, fortunately too solid to need
repair. Small drains are crossed upon slabs of stone
of many tons weight, and wider water-courses are
crossed by bridges of stone built to last centuries.
But where present or eonstant care is required we
see the evidences of a decrepit Government and an
unsettled society. Reeds and bamboos choke the
water-courses ; some have become dry which were
navigaele five years ago. Here we come upon the
)
site of the imperialist camp. The canal which formed
its defence in front is now a swamp. The peasant
still retains his habits of industry. The land is par-
celled out into little patches of cotton ; and as the
plant must be sown wide, the interstices are filled
with beans, or some vegetable that will find a mar-
ket in Shanghai. The senses are afflicted with open
pans of human ordure, carefully preserved for ma-
nure; and the proprietor, with a small bucket fixed
at the end of a bamboo, is bringing water from the
ruined canal to irrigate his little cotton garden.
In all probability the Government has made the
usual grant for sustaining that canal, for routine is
constant in China as in England ; but the mandarin
has embezzled three-fourths of the sure, and the
contractor has expended one-half of the rest in
bribes, and has pocketed the remainder. Cotton
(yellow and white) is the general crop ; but it is not
all cotton. There are patches of maize, purple,
gingals, and leguminous plants of many kinds, but
the staple of this district is cotton. At present the
plant is a low woody plant about a foot high, a little
like (with the exception of the stools) those young
springs of an oak coppice which form such pleasant
cover to shoot pheasants in early in October. In
another month the flowers will be out, and a fort-
night later the yellow pods of which the nankeen
cloth is made will form and burst, and all the popu-
laeon will turn oat to pluck them. The old women
will sit under the eaves of their cottages cleaning
and winding, which, indeed, is their normal occu-
pation all the year through ; the ablebodied part of
the family having cleared their leguminous crop,
will plough up the ground, and either prepare it
for wheat, or, if the situation is favourable, will
bank up the land and let in the water to prepare
for rice. The wheat is off the ground in May or
June, and the cotton is again sown.
Thus three crops annually are obtained from this
alluvial plain.
0 Vice-Consul Harvey—doetus utriusque lingua
—t3 whom the manners and the language of China
are even as the manners and the language of Paris
or of London, tell me what means that more than
usually pestilential stench. It seems to radiate from
that decaying pepper-box-shaped tower, which,
although not 20 feet high, we must by the courtesy
of China call a pagoda.
Undismayed, the energetic Vice-Consul, who
sometimes acts as guide, philosopher, and friend,
and expatiates with me over this maze, advances
through a vapour so thick that I wonder the Chinese
do not cut it into blocks and use it for manure—
and at a distance of five yhrds from the building
puffed hard at his cheroot and said—
" That is the baby tower."
" The —1" said I, inquiringly.
" Tile baby tower. Look through that rent in
the stonework—not too close, or the stream of
effiuvia may kill you. You see a mound of whisps
of bamboo straw. It seems to move, but it is only
the crawling of the worms. Sometimes a tiny le
or arm, or a little fleshless bone, protrudes from the
straw. The tower is not so full now as I have seen
it; they must have cleared it out recently."
"Is this a cemetery or a slaughterhouse?"
" The Chinese say it is only a tomb. Coffins are
dear and the peasantry are poor. When a child dies
the parents wrap it round with bamboo, throw it
in at that window, and all is done. When the tower
is full, the proper authorities burn the heap and
spread the ashes over the land."
There is no inquiry, no check. The parent has
power to kill or to save. Nature speaks in the heart
of a Chinese mother as in the breast of an English
matron. But want and shame sometimes shout
louder still. There is a foundling hospital in the
Chinese city with a cradle outside the door and a
hollow bamboo above it. Strike a blow upon the
bamboo, and the cradle is drawn inside. If it con-
tain an infant, it is taken and cared for, and no
questions asked. There is also a system of domestic
slavery in China. At an early age a childis worth
dollars, a father or mother may for raor/4 delegate
their own absolute power--delegate without losing
it—for, although the father may have sold his son
tc a stranger, or although a mother may have sold
her daughter to prostitution—and concubines in
China are only thus to be obtained—the duty from
child to parent remains unimpaired, and is strictly
performed.
The incentives thus offered by Mammon and the
alternatives proffered by native charity may save
lives that would otherwise be destroyed ; but this
baby tower is a terrible institution. It stands there,
close to the walls of a crowded city, au obtrusive
invitation to infanticide.
I have paid one hurried visit te the Chinese city,
but must postpone any description of it until I
have opportunity to see it thoroughly, and this will
not be for some weeks. Ever since my arrival here
I have been trying to organise an expedition into
the interior, but every one is afraid of fever and
ague and suns trokes, and talks of two months hence,
when I hope to be thinking of coming home. At
last I have found a companion in an ardent mission-
ary who speaks the language well. I have purchased
a modest Chinese wardrobe, and a barber is delibe-
rating upon the fabrication of a toupee, with a hand-
some tail attached. With the aid of Chinese spec-
tacles, which are always four inches in diameter, I
flatter myself lam s 3 disguised that my own house-
keeper, with her Lest spectacles on, would not re-
cognise me.
I have written a lone news-letter without one
word of news iu it ; and' yet it would be easy to
1v 1 ite columns, for one half of the people here are
reporting news from the interior, and the other
half are contradicting it.
People say that the rebellion is dying out. They
erpect every day news that Chin-Kiang-Foo is re-
taken by the Imperialists, and opinions are strong
that Nankin will not long hold out.

This, if true, is very important news for us, for
it clears the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Imperial Canal,
where our operations both for war and commerce
wale most likely to be complicated by the presence
of tlie.ee insurgents.
I believe the news to be correct to a certain ex-
tent, and in a certain sene. If the rebellion be not
welting out it is shifting. Chin-Kiang-Foo and
Nankin are consumed. The locust has eaten every
haf, and must take another flight or die. " Wait
a while, all will come right—tan years, perhaps,"
has always been the Chinese view, and they think
the time is now near. They have tested this rt.-
bellion, and find it has no root. The old Chinese
families do not join it, the merchants have no
confidence in it, no literati except one degraded
graduate has yet gone over. Therefore they
think it will never be more than an excuse for
brigandage, and that it will always be local and
transitory.
This is the opinion of the Chinese hereabouts ; and
as we are within 200 miles of the seat of rebel go-
vernment, their opinions deserve some attention.
I question, however, whether tip.), know much of
what is passing in the SA
The Rend
l
tti
g
starts
car on tile .9th with the mail for
England, and a
_o of silk which they say will
give the Penins
freight. u ar
I hope to write you and Oriental Company 9,0001.
next from Ningpo, which city
I intend to reach by a
the inland parts of Chelriclicula.r route through
Atm. 10,
Chekiang.
ON THE IMPERIAL CANAL
At the close of my last despatch, while the authe •
rities at Hong Kong were re,:olvie up
formal
blockade of the river—a measure which was a
as
conve-
nient to the fleet, and which the ripened rieha;
vest raiders not very important to the Cantonese,

—I was about to employ the interval of Lord
Elgin's absence in gathering a little experience in
the interior.

On the appointed day Mr. Edkins, the missionary,
Dr. Dickson of Canton, and myself, started in three
sauchau boats, with a fair flood tide, up the Wang-
poo River. Our object was to reach Ningpo through
the network of internalcanals, and without crossing
the bay. This is a journey never yet made even by
the missionaries, and Mr. Edkins regards it as a
pioneering expedition preparatory to future labours.
Our first stage is to Hangchau, and thus far our
boatmen have covenanted to convey us.
These sauchau boats are somewhat like the larger
gondolas which go outside into the Adriatic.
The cabins are fitted up with no little preten-
sion. Mine had plate-glass windows ; much
carving and some gilding had been lavished upon
it. There was a joss-house with a vacant niche
for any idol I might fancy to put there, and
two ecclesiastical candlesticks, upon the spikes
whereof I might, if I had pleased, burn any sized
joss-sticks or wax candles. The extent of this, my
habitation for the next eight days, was however
not great—it was '7ft. Gin. square. Nor was there
provision for effeminate luxury. There was a locker
within which I might put my most important bag-
gage, on which I could spread my bamboo matting,
and over which I hung my mosquito curtiins ;
there was a table and two camphor-wood stools.
There was a box, with " Fortnum and Mason's"
name upon it in one corner, a modicum of sherry
and Bordeaux and a dozen of soda water in another
corner, and a revolver and double-barrelled gun
handy to the grip. The use of the firearms is, I
believe, solely this—the boatmen will not go on at
night unless they know you have them. The adroit-
ness of the Chinese thieves will justify their con-
tempt for any barbarian swell-mobsman. Mr. Ed-
kins not long since found that some one had during
his slumbers crept in at the cabin window, taken
his keys out of his pocket, opened his trunk, and
abstracted all his dollars, leaving the trunk open,
and nothing else, not e►en the proprietor, dis-
turbed. But Ido not hear of any open pira'ical
attacks up the country, and you do not want fire-
arms to drive away a thief. The first thing he
would steal would probably be the gun and the
revolver.

Off we 'go, then, up this tributary of the Yang-
tse-Kiang. About four miles an hour is our pace,
propelled as we are by one gigantic oar, worked
over the stern by three men, curved in the handle,
and made to perform in the water the evolution we
call skulling: We pass through the European ship-
ping, by the floating bath, and into and along
moored tiers of junks, which may almost vie in
numbers with the shipping in our pool. Hun-
dreds of these ply between Shanghai and Amoy,
bringing sugar here and taking cotton back. A
thousand others will start this season for Shantung,
and will carry with them 100,000 pieces of our
gray shirtings—a demand owing, the merchants
say, to exceptional cause.
In an hour we are clear of the environs of Shang-
hai, and we look to see the river contract to the
proper decent dimensions of a third-rate stream.
Nothing of the sort. Seven miles up the Wang-
poo is still suite a mile in width, and for the green-
ness and flatness of its banka, and the European
outline of foliage, we might be a little below
Gravesend. _ _

Resenting, perhaps, my small respect for him as
a third-class river, the Wangpoo treats ns to a cap-
ful of wind just as the tide is finished, and the
boatmen incontinently run into a creek, which
leads up to a village possessing a high pagoda and
a Buddist monastery.
On our walk to the village—quickly speeding,
for we hope to reach the pagoda before the sun has
set—l notice the same lavish expenditure of labour
in paving the footpaths and bridging the dykes
with slabs of limestone or granite which struck
me in the neighbourhood of Shanghai. The pagoda,
from the galleries of which nothing is visible but
the limitless fat plain and the frequent villages, is
of course a thing comparatively of yesterday. The
Buddhists brought the form from India not long
before the birth of Christ ; but these products of
untiring toil, these mounds and dykes, these count
less masses of enormous stones brought from afar
—still more those practical, matter-of-fact, Sab-
bathless, business-loving, pleasure despising habits
of mind which under a less corrupt and depressing
system of rule would lead the present race of Chinese
to sustain these works and to create others—that
insensibility to play of fancy, yet love of qua;nt
conceits and forced antithesis—that incapacity to
feel grace and beauty, yet strong appreciation of
mere geometrical symmetry—that complete discon
nection from (not divergence from) all the modes of
thought and vehicles of thought, traditions, and
superstitions of other nations—these things suggest
a train of dreamy thoughts, and send the mind wan-
, daring back to times almost as old as that setting
sun. May it not be that we have here a not very
degenerate specimen of a civilisation that covered
the whole earth before our traditions begin—which
spread and flourished before the Semitic or the
lndo-Germanic race had being—which has left its
traces in India and in England, in Moxico and in
Italy, in California and in Greece, in Brittany and
in Normandy, end in the most remote islands of
the ocean ; pliers of mounds and hewers of moun-
tains, builders of Babols whlse might was quenched
we know not how, and whose sparse descendants
we can just trace under the names of Egyptians,
Pelasgians, or Etruscans mingling with now races
and losing their identity.
We passed the night upon the wide and troubled
waters of the Whangpoo with less of meekness than
befitted the peaceful character of my companion. I
insisted upoit starting as soon as the flood.' ide made.
Every wave seemed to break under the flat bottom
of my boat, and she rolled and quivered and
creaked as though she would have quoted Mencius
to rebuke my impatience. But the night was very
beautiful. It was so hot that I lay outside with
my head against the broad junk-like prow, and ev,n
the rushing wind brought no coolness ; the round
moon looked down in all her splendour, but did not
dim the light of the big stars. Estis as one of our
sister boats went ahead, the oar acilliating to and
fro at her stern, produced a sheet- of phosphoric
radiance which neither moon nor stars could pale.
Sometimes we neared the banks, and then the
monotonous croak of the frog was heard, and in
sheltered places flights of fireflies, like flakes of
diamond, fluttered up and down among the cotton
plants, and then also myriads of mostiu;toes of
great stature came off and sounded their declara-
tions of war in my ears.

We were not alone ou the Wangpoo. On the
contrary, there were never less than a hundred sail
in sight. Some were beating up and others were
coming down, the strong monsoon urging them
swiftly against the tide. Sometimes celliiioni
seemed imminent, but a little shouting, and all
went olear.

From 3 o'clock till 8 I slept, and awoke t find
myself moored against the villtge of Min-Hang.
While at this village I fell in with a Chive e
physician, who had escaped from Nankin when it
fell into the bands of the rebels. He was the first
specimen of a Chinese gentleman I hacliseen. The
villages in this neighbourhood contain many fugi-
tives from the rebel districts. The Government
lodges them in the temples and allows them 30c tAi
(about 3d.) a-day, wherewith, at the present priced,
they cannot buy even a sufficiency of rice. Of
course disease is common among them, and this
benevolent old gentleman devotes himself to their
care. He came on board my boat and we had a
long chat. He insists that the key of the Yang-ts,-
Kiang, Chin-Kiang, has been remove I by the
Imperialists ; for his friends at Soo-choo have
written to him to say so. I doubt this, however ;
for if this decisive event had happened the Govern-
ment would certainly have announced it at
Shanghai.
His view is that the rebellion is dying out. He
says the locusts have cle,troyed it, having especially
cf,me upon those provinces where the rebels hold
their sway. He does not rest his expectation upon
the Imperial armies, for he says the rebels are
robbers and murderers, acJus coned toevery artifice,
and adepts in all villany. All the loyal people can
do is to hem the conflagration round and wait till
it burns out. _ _

These are the opinions of a well-informed
Chinese gentleman, who has seen much more of
these rebels than the Europeans who lave written
upon the subject. About 48 hours is the lougest
pellet(' that any European has teen am Ingst them,
and they have never invited any cl ,ser intercourse.
Mr. Edkins interpreted for me these l'ayings of my
Chinese acquaintance with no great satisfaction.
The missionaries still hang their ho;-:e upon this
rebel cause. The facts are unpromising, but still
they hope. Devastation and bin° fished track the
course of these insurgents wherever they go, ter
these are only necessary incidents of eivil war. The
thin of those public works which are to China wlity
their dens are to the Dutch mark where these
rebels are, and where they have been. Still mole
widely extended ruin follows upon the exhaustion
of the Imperial treasury. The two great rivers, no
longer restrained by the great artificial emb,nk-
mews, now suffered to decay, are alt, ring their
courses and devastating tracts as large as Europeal
kingdoms. Perhaps a man whose fervid religious
zeal is akin to that which animated Joshua or
Gideon may see in all this but the will of God
working to a great end, but the religious facts
are aot encouraging. The nominal hod of thQ
movement, claimed as a missionary convert, has
sought no communication with any Christian
teacher. Ire boasts himself the Sovereign of the
whole Earth, calls himself the younger brother of
Jesus Christ, and claims to have constant personal
intercouree with the Almighty. His second in
command, the King of the East, blasphemously
styled hithself the Holy Ghost; but lie has been

slain in internecine conflict, and the great leader, or
his counsellers, proved their vigour and their Chris-
tian humanity by butchering two thousand of his
adherents in cold blood.

This does not look like a hopeful result of a mis-
sionary conversion, nor does it give much promise
of temporal success to the insurrectionary move-
ment. But then these reformers put to death the
" id olators," whether they call themselves the priests
of Buddha or the missionaries of the Pope ; they
forbid opium-smoking under pain of death, and to-
bacco-smoking under pain of blows ; they appear to
have read, although they have misiatrpreted the
sacred books which the missionaries distribute.
Amid the outpourings of blood, in famine and pesti-
lence, in the wrack of all the physical good which
antiquity has wrought our missionaries think they
see a hope for the religion of the Bible. We must
not expect from men whose zeal sends them forth
among the hea' hen a sober and chastened faith ; but,
with all allowance for their strongly militant posi-
tion, it is hard to understand how so faint and in-
definite a hope can blind their eyes and deafen their
ears to the material woes which this rebellion has
produced. Yet we have men here who have gone
among them in the same spirit as Samuel went to
Saul, and who have produced scandal even among
their own body by urging their ruffians to go forth
and kill.

Mr. Edkins is a man of very different spirit to
such as these. Upon the testimony of the linguists
of Paris and of the Chinese here I know him to be
one cf the greatest of Chinese scholars, and from my
own intercourse with him I can say that he is fairly
read in the sciences and well acquainted' with west-
ern literature. He has undertaken the task of
showing the Chinese that we have a literature, and
thus disabusing them of that contempt which ex-
tends itself to our faith. His American coadjutor,
Dr. Macgowan, undertakes to ins ruct their gradu-
ates in the mysteries of the electric telegraph, and
their pilots iu the law of storms. Missionary labours
thus directed must result in good. Your medical
missionaries, sech as Dr. Lockhart and Dr. Parker,
command the gratitude and goodwill of the people.
Men of learning like Mr. Edkins and Dr. Macgowan
gradually compel the respect of the literati. These
men are ploughiug a soil in expectation of a seed-
time which is not yet. To the missionary societies
of England and America I would say lye tibi erunt
antes,—iguora,nt declaimers in bad Chinese have
no success in China. Their preaching is foolishness
in more than the Apostolic sense ; bat this practi-
cal and conceited people only jeer and blaspheme.
Yet I have found even the higher class of mission-
aries hoping against hope that the rebels may suc-
ceel, and that they may turn out to be Christians.
I have objected to them the material miseries the
insurrection has caused ; they have quoted against
me Mr. Cousin's defence of war, which is no other
than that war is in itself a g )od, and that the
abridgment of longevity is not necessarily an evil.
When I reply that this is all that could be best
said by an infidel philosopher against a certain ar-
ticle in the Decalogue, they have replied that not-
withstanding this commandment the Israeiities
were enjoined to exterminate the Canaanites. I
reply that to establish an analogy between the casts
it will be necessary to admit, Taepirsg-wang's pre-
tensions to direct personal intercourse with God the
Father. No missionary is prepared for this admis-
sion, and our argument closes, With these men it
is a hope and a sympathy which they cannot but
feel and cannot justify. With some others it is a
truculent spirit of partisanship embittered not a
little by envy and hatred of the merchants.
I know no more of the rebels than others who
write about them do—that is, I know very little in-
deed ; but having talked the matter over daily and
in all societies for the last two months, I know
pretty well what the views of the officials, mer-
chants, and missionaries are upon the subject.
Meanwhile, my Chinese guest is sipping his tea,
looking through my opera-glass, and condoling with
me upon my sad condition i► not being able to un-
derstand Cnineee. I hope I omitted no point of
ceremonial with him. Whet he begged to present
me with his spectacles, which I had affected to ad-
mire, and pressed them upon me with as much ear-
nestness and sincerity as a Downing-street secretary
assures you he is your most obedient humble servant,
I declined the gift according to Chinese forms, but
I confess I could not prevail upon myself to offer
him my opera glass. Hum,,n nature is weak, and
the China gentleman's admiration was evidently
very strong. We parted with a hundred chin-chins.
Up the flood tide of the Wangpoo Dr. Dickson's
beat separa•ed from us last right, and is not come
up. The boatmen talk of )arils from pirates or
foundering in the storm. We wait and send back
runners, and, learning no ticings, conclude he has
returned to Shanghai. Two ,arge navigable tribu-
tar:es fall in, but the river above is not much de-
creased in width. After sore hours' further voy-
a.;e the Wangpoolo3es its name and form. It divides
into two equal channels, ore of which descends
from the right, and comes (own from a string of
lakes that extend to Soo-choo; the other is our way.
Tributaries and canals now cone quickly in show-
ing how wonderfully ramified 's the internal water
communication of this laud. OfColllse the volume
of the stream contracts as we a•c itd. At night the
action of the tide i 3 but faintly f, It, and we anchor
in a channel about 50 yards wile. In the moonlight
Dr. Dickson's boat comes up with a tale of adven-
ture.
The next day was a day of canals and great
cities.

(To be conticaed )

GRAND AMERICAN BALL AT PLY-
MOUT!.

gainvdenthbeyWa
One of the most successful
Ply-
mouth took place on Thursday evening at the Royal
balls ever held in
Captain Hudson,
Ward-room Officers
of the United States steam frigate Niagara, to
CHoomteml a n ehre Pb eanl In
°weak,
mark their esteem of the kiaduess and hospitality
which have been accorded to them sines the
Niagara has been lying in the pert of Plymouth ;
and the Plymouth Journal, Which commemorates
the event in a special edition, assures us that, as a
fraternal demon-tration of a sense of that kindness
nothing could have been more liberal on the part
of the American Union—nothing more gratifying
to those who had the honour and the pleasure of
being present.
The decorations showed that neither trouble nor
expense was considered in Lheir preparatioe. The
en rants to the staircase W&5 through a passage of
crimson cloth, the sides and roof being festooned
with evergreens, the green and the crimson con-
trasting very finely with each other. The staircase
was also profusely decorated with evergreens.
Round the sides of the windows were festooned the
"Jacks" of England and America. On a cornice
extending across the rooms above the orchestra
was written the passage 01 Scripture, " Let there
be peace between thee and me, and between my
people and my people, for we are brethren." Be-
low this was another arch, from which extended
thirty-one burners, on the
glees globes of which
were written the names of the thirty-one states
composing the American Union. Underneath these
again were several large stars, composed of swords
and bayonets, and these were surrounded by large
gas jets, on the globes of which were painted the
rose, the this:le, and the shamrock. The sides of
the room were festooned with the flags of the
various nations, those on the right-hand side, jar-
medietely over the fire-place, conveying a graceful
allusion to the approaching union between Prince
Frederick William and the Princess Royal. The
flag of Prussia and the white English ensign were
festooned, and both being white suggested ideas of
a bridal character. Tho decorations were designed
and superintended by Lieut. Beverley Kronen,
master of the Niagara, aslistel by Mr. .Eldridge,
the purser est' that ship.
At the time when the company began to arrive,
Captain Hudson and other officers of the Niagara
stood at the top of the grand staircase, and received
each and all of their visitors with a graceful recog-
nition. The company legan to arrive early, and by
10 o'clock the room was well filled. This is rather au
early hour for assemblies to be so well packed in Ply-
mouth, but the company had evidently come pro-
eased to have A, night of it, and certainly a more bril-
liant assembly has rarely been brought together.
All that was fair and beautiful was there ; and this
personal beauty, of which the fair Devonians can
'nest to a very large degree, was sustained by the
numerous and gallant sons of Mars, of both services.
Amongst the nobi ity that were present were the
Earl and Countess of Morley, Lord Boriugd 00, Miss
Coryton, Lord Valletort, the Hon. Miss Mac-
donald, the Hon. Georgiana ReinlY and Mr.
Romily, Sir Massey and "r,ady Lopes, Major Ibbet-
srn a'rd Lady Alela liTheoson, Sir Berriugton
Reynolds, the Port Admiral, Sir James II tnway
nue:ridge, the Admiral Striae, intendentr and all
the heals of departments, the Mayor of Plymouth
(Mr. F F. Bulteel), Mr. Watsen (Mayor of Devon-
pce t) ; Mr. T. W. lea, in his ofliei tl dress as Vice-
Consul of the Americ to States ; Admiral Kirrg-
c earbe, and Mr. White, M. P. Tnere wore few of
the officers whose breasts were net adorned with
one or more signs of their past experience iu the
more active service of their country.
The ball lasted till near ly rise o'clo in the morn-
ing. Nothing could have been more liberal and
elegant than the serausgfleauts for the entertain-
ment of the guests ; and we repeat that, as a suc-
cessful demonstration of our friendly relations,
nothing could have been more template or more
sati =fee tory,
The Niagara will leave Plymouth next Thursday
morning. Its officers will take with them our
esteem, and on their return, in April next, they
will be welcomed with renewed pleasure.

From the London Gazette of Last Night.

ST. JAMES'S PALACE, Oct 27.

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Benjamin
Travers, Esq., to be one of the Serjeant Surgeons to her
Majesty, in the room of Robert Keate, Esq., decease].
BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL, OCT. 28.
The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of
Privy Council for Trade and Plantations have received
through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a copy of
a despatch from her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Monte
Video, enclosing a copy of the following decree of the
Oriental Republic of Uruguay, respecting the navigation
of the River Uruguay.

Art. 1. —All ve;sels coming from beyond seas, naviga-
ting the River Uruguay, shall pay 120 reis per ton, as a
due, on account of thebeacons.
Art. 2.—Coasting vessels, from 10 tons and upwards,
aro to pay 50 reis par ton.
Art. s.—Vessels having paid the duo on entering the
river will not be required to pay it on leaving, and vice
versa.

WAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, OCT. 30.
35th Regiment of Foot--Major-General John Leslie to be
Colonel, vice General Sir George H. F. Berkeley,
K.C. B. , deceased.
Ist Regiment of Dragoon Guards—The surname of the
Cornet appointed on the 25th of October, is Elliot, and
not Elliott, as previously stated.
6th Dragoons—Honourable W. 0. Beresford Annesley to
be Cornet, without purchase, vice Anderson promoted.
oth Light Dragoons —Cornet Alex. Morrogh to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Hamilton, promoted;
Cornet John Evans to be Lieutenant, without purchase,
vice Morrogh, whose promotion on the 21st June, 1857,
has been cancelled.
11th Light Dragoons—Lieut. John McLoughlin, from the
Military Train, to be Lieutenant, without purchase.
13th Light Dragoons—The third Christian name of Cornet
Lethbridge, appointed on the 23d October, 1857, is
" Erin."
17th Light Dragoons— Ensign Henry W. F. Harrison,
from the 21st Foot, to be Cornet, without purchase.
Military Train—Capt. C. J. Tuffaell Oakes, from half-pay
Ist Foot, vice Godfrey Clerk, appointed to the Rifle
Brigade; Lieut. Wm. E. Cater to be Adjutant, vice
Jenkins, appointed to the Bth Light Dragoons.
3d Regiment of Foot.—Frederick Taylor Hobson, Gent.,
to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Gape, promoted.
6th Foot.— Ensign Henry Kitchener, from the 9th Foot, to
be Ensign and Adjutant.
Bth Foot.—Ensign J. C. Cooper, from the 92d Foot, to be
Ensign.
14th Foot.—Ensign Peter Barlow to be Lieutenant, by

purcaase, vice Hall, promoted ; Henry John Harington,
Gent., to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Barlow.
17th Foot.—Captain James Browns H. Boyd, from half-
pay 17th Foot, to be C tptain, vice Brevet-Lieutenant-
Colonel Charles Seagram, who retires upon full pay.
23d Foot— itaff Surgeon of the Second Class Patrick Sin-
clair Laing to be Surgeon, vice Macfarlanwdeceased.
26th Foot—Ensign Henry Augustus Barton to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Mill, promoted in 6th
Foot.

30th Foot--Captain J. S. Chandos Harcourt, from half-
pay 3.)th Foot, to be Captain, vice O'Brien, appointed
to the sth Foot.
37th Foot—Albert Jones, Gent., to be Ensign, without
purchase, vice Sale, killed in action.
39th Foot—Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel William Caino,
from half-pay Unattached, to be Major, vice Wolfe, who
exchanges ; Brevet-Major Robert Hamilton Carrie, to
be Major, by purchase, vice Caine, who retires.
49th Foot—Captain William Young, from half-pay of the
49th Foot, to be Captain, vice Brevet-Major W. Gordon
Cameron, whose Brevet Rank has been converted into
Substantive Rink, under the Royal Warrant, 6th Oct.
1854.
53d Foot—Lieutenant Henry Back to be Captain, with-
out purchase, vice Brevet-Major Thomas Ffrencb, who
retires upon full pay.
60th Foot—Robert Fitzwilliam de Barry Barry, Gent., to
be Ensign, by purchase, vice Sewell, promoted.
61st Foot—Ensign Samuel Bucknall Elkington to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Gabbett, killed in
action.
67th Foot—Lieutenant H. S. G. S. Knight to be Captain,
by purchase, vice Count William C. Rivarola, who re-
tires; Ensign William Henry Bell Kingsley to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Graham, promoted in the
9th Foot ; Ensign Charles Morgan to be Lieutenant, by
purchase, vice Knight; James Hardie Fraser, Gent., to
be Ensign, by purchase, vice Morgan.
70th Foot—Lieutenant Charles A. Poyntz James to be
Captain without purchase, vice Hay, deceased ; Ensign

Thomas Deering backhouse to be Lieutenant, without
purchase, vice James.
71st Foot--Lieutenant G. Campbell to the Captain, by
purchase, vice Halkett, who retires.
75th Foot John Thomas H. Butt, Gent., to be Ensign,
without purchase, vice Hurford, promoted.
77th Foot—Captain John ➢lac Henry, from half-pay 7th
Foot, to be Captain, vice Brevet-Major R. G. A. Luard,
whose Brevet Rank has been converted into Substantive

- -
Rank under the Royal Warrant, 6th October, 1851.
78th Foot—Lieut. Thomas Anderson to bo Captain, with-
out purchase, vice H. D. Campbell, deceased ; Alexan-
der Ewing, Gent., to be Ensign, without purchase, in
succession to Lieut. Anderson, promoted.
84th Foot—Ensign Hugh Pearce Pearson to be Lieute-
.

nant, without purcha;e vice Kenny, deceased.
92d Foot—John ColebeTdCeoper, Gent., to be Ensign, by
purchase, in succession to Lieut. Mecham, who has re-
tired.
98th Foot—Ensign Edward Frank Gregory to be Lieute-
nant, by purchase, vice Montagu, who retires.
99th Foot—Lieut. William H. D. Reeves Welman to be
Captain, by purchase, vice De Winton, who retires ;
Ensign Henry James Day to be Lieutenant, without
purchase, vice Gray, promoted in Bth Foot.
let West India Itegimont—Ensign A. Sullivan to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice James, appointed to the
6th Foot : T. B. Eames, Gent., to be Ensign, without
purchase, vice Sullivan, promoted.
2,1 West India Regiment—Ensign T. Purefoy to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Oldfield, deceased • En-
sign C. B. Cradock to be Lieutenant, without purchase,
vice Baylis, deceased ; Ensign W. H. M'Coy to be Lieu-
tenant, without purchase, vice Purefoy, whose promo-
tion on the 16th October, 1857, has been cancelled.
UNATTACHED.
Brevet-Major R. G. A. Luard, 77th Foot, to have his
Brevet Rank converted into Substantive Rank, under the
Iloyal Warrant, 6th (Maher, 184.
HOSPITAL STAFF.
Staff-Surgeon of the Second Class Enea3 Mackintosh
Macpherson, from half-pay, to be Staff-Surgeon of the
Second Class, vice Laing, appointed to the 23eFoot.
Assistant-Staff-Surgeon W. M. Trestrail has been per-
mitted to resign his Commission.
Acting-Assistant-Surgeon John Alex. Harvey, has been
permitted to resign his appointment.

class, 261 13s 7d ; Eighth class, 131 Gs 10d ; Ninth
class, 8/ 17s lld ; Tenth class, 4/ 8s 11d.
30th August, 1855—Commander, 71; Third class, 2/ Gd ;
Fourth class, 11 6s Id ; Fifth class, 14s 5d ; Sixth class,
13s ; Seventh class, 8s 103 ; Eighth class, 4s 4d ; Ninth
class, 2s lld ; Tenth class, is sd.
Sept. 18, 1855. —Commander, 326/ 17s 6d ; third class,
9315 s 2d ; fourth class, 591 193 ; fifth class, 33/ 6s ld ;
sixth class, 291 193 id ; seventh class, 19/ 19s 8d ; eighth
class, 91 19s 10d ; ninth class, 6/ 13s 3d ; tenth class,
31 Cs 7d.

17th, 18th, and 21st October, 1855.—Commander, 4)/
183 lld ; third class, 121 183 2d ; fourth class, 8, 63 ld;
fifth class, 41 12s 2d; sixth class, 4/ 3s ; seventh class,
21 15s 5d ; eighth class, 11 is 8d ; ninth class, 18s 5d
tenth class, 9s 2d,

24th NoVember, 1855.—Commander, 121 12s Gd ; third
class, 3l 168 Gd ; fourth class. 2/ 9s 3d ; fifth class, 1/ 7s
4d ; sixth class, 1/ 4s 7d ; seventh class, 163 sd; eighth
class, 8s 2d ; ninth class, 5d 6d ; tenth class, 2s Bd.
12,h Feb., and 30th March, 18:56—Commander, 31115 s:
Third class, 91 9s 5d ; Fourth class, 611 s 9d ; Fifth class,
31 7s 8d ; Sixth class, 3/ 10d ; Seventh class, 2/ 7d ; Eighth
class, 114 d ; Ninth class, 13s 6d ; Tenth class, Os 9d.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.
(No. 39.) ATLANTIC OCEAN—UNITED STATES.
Fixed Light at-Dutch Island, Rhode Island.
The United States Lighthouse Board has given notice,
that on and after the 25th day of September, 1857, a light
would be exhibited from the new lighthouse recently built
on Dutch Island, Rhode Island, in the place of the old
oue, when the temporary light shown during the erection
of the new buildings would be discontinued.
The light is white, fixed, and at an elevation of 50 feet
above the sea at high water; it. is visibie all round the
horizon, and should be seen from the deck of a vessel in
ordinary weather at a distance of 11 miles.

The illuminating apparatus is catadioptrio, being a Fres-
nel lens of the fourth order.

The new light tower is 36 feet high, with a keeper's
dwelling attached ; both are built of brick, and coloured
white.

By command of their lordships,
JOHN WASHINGTON, Hydrographer.
Hydrographic-office, Admiralty, London,
10th October, 1857.
This notice affects the United States Lights List, No-
-105.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.
(No. 40.) SCOTLAND—NORTR AND WEST COASTS.
Beacon on Stroma Skerries, Pentland Firth.
The Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses have given
notice, that a beacon has recently been erected on the
south-west extremity of the Skerries of Stroma, which ex-
tend from the south-eastern side of Mallit Head on the
islind. of Strome in the Pentland Firth, and are covered
by the sea at high water.
The beacon consists of an open framework of iron, sur-
mounted by a cylindrical cage, in all 40 fees above high
water, and painted red.
Beacon on Bo Caolas, Loch Inver.

Also that a beacon has been erected on Bo Caolas, a
rock which is covered at high water, and lies at the en-
trance to Loch Inver, on the west coast of Sutherlandahire.
The beacon is composed of cast iron pillars surmounted
by a cylindrical cage ; it is elevated about 30 feet above
high water, and painted red.
Beacon on Screen Rocks, Whithorn.
A beacon has also recently been placed on the Screen
rocks at the entrance to the port of Whithorn, on the
south-eastern coast of Wigtonshire.
This beacon is of iron, with a barrel top, and painted
red.

By command of their Lordships,
JOHN WASHINGTON, Hydrographer.
Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London,
Oct. 13,1857.
This notice affects the following Admiralty Charts :
Coast of Scotland, Sheet 5, No. 2181; Orkneys, No. 2180;
and Pentland Firth, No. 2162 ; West Coast of Scotland,
Sheet 9, No. 2386; Loch Inver, No. 1953. Also North
Sea Pilot, Part 2, page 28.
- NOTICE TO MARINERS.
(No. 41.) SCOTLAND—EAST COAST.
Alteration in Colour of Buoys.
Tae Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses have given
notice that in adopting a uniform system in colouring the
buoys under their direction— by which arrangement vessels
ontering a harbour should keep red buoys on the starboard
hand, and black buoys on the port hand, while chequered
buoys indicate centre patches—the following changes have
been made in the colours of the undermentioned buoys :
Dornoch Firth.
Thin bar inner buoy, north side, from black to red,
Tain bar inner buoy, south side, from red to black.
Cromarty Firth.,
Nigg sand buoys from black to red.
Newhall buoy from red to black.
Moray Firth.
Whiten Ness sandhead buoy from red to black.
Inverness Firth.
Craig Mee buoy from red to black;
Skate bank buoy from black to red.
Munlochy buoy from black to chequered red and white.
Petty bank buoy from red to black.
Middle bank buoy from black to red.
Meikle Mee buoy from black to red.
By command of their Lordships.
JOHN WASHINGTON, klydrographer.
Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London,
14th October, 1857.
This notice affects the following Admiralty Charts :
East Coast of Scotland, Sheet 4, No. 1,23 ; Dornoch
Firth, No. 2,170; Cromarty Firth, No. 2,167; Inverness
Firth, No. 1,451. Also North Sea Pilot, Part 2, chapters
3 and 4.

BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.
Charles Alexander Hill, cabinet maker, Bristol.
BANKRUPTS.
George Wacey Stevenson, general merchant, Fora-
street, Cripplegate, to surrender, Nov. 12, at two, and
Dec. 8, at twelve, at the Court of Bankruptcy. Edwards,
official assignee, Sambrook-court, Baainghall-street Stret-
ton and Postans, South-square.
William Troeby Chafe, ironfounder, Devonport, Nov.
10 and Dec. 9, at eleven, at the Exeter District Court.
Hertzal, official assignee, Exeter; Hawker, Devonport
Slogdon, Exeter.
Samuel Mendel, commission agent, Fenchurch-street,
Nov. 7, at half-past twelve, and Dec. 15, at one, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. St ansfeld, official assignee ; Lum-
ley and Lumley, Ludgate-hill.
George Gossling, baker, Upper Bemerton-street, Mid-
dlesex, Nov. 13, and Dec. 15, at twelve, at the Court of
Bankruptcy. Lee, official assignee, Aldermanbnry; Begbie,
Essex-street, Strand.

Jeremiah Self, innkeeper, Bishop's Waltham, South-
ampton, Nov. 6, and Dec. 1, at two, at the Court of Bank -
ruptcy. Lee, official assignee, Aldermanbury ; LaWrance,
Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-chatubers.
William Pemberton, commission agent, Barge-yard
Chambers, Bucklersbury, Nov. 13, at three, and Dec. 11,
at one, at the Court of Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official
assignee, Basinghall-street ; Moss, Pancras-lane.
• Samuel Ra.wnsley, brush manufacturer, Halifax, Nov.
20 and Dec. 11, at eleven, at the Leeds District Court.
Young, official assignee, Leeds ; Ws.vell, Philbrick, and
Foster, Halifax.
George Baker, flour factor, Fulham, Middlesex, Nov.
13, at half-past two, and Dec. 11, at twelve, at the Court
of Bankruptcy. Cannan, official assignee, Aldermanbuty ;
Watson and Sons, Bouverie-street, Fleet-street.
Edward Rogers, draper, Oswestry, Nov. 9, and 30, at
half-past twelve, at the Birmingham District Court.
Whitmore, official assignee, Birmingham; Bull, Oswestry ;
Reece Birmingham.
William Edward Waters, milliner, Haverstock-street,
City-roaii, Nov. 7, at one, and Dec. 15, at eleven, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. S tansfeld, official assignee; Depree
and Austin, Lawrence-lane, Cheapside.
Thomas George White, lace warehouseman, Alderman -
bury, Nov. 13, at two, and Dec. 11, at twelve, at the Court
of Bankruptcy. Carman, official assignee, Aldermanbury ;
Rogerson and Ford, Lincoln's-inn-fi:lds ; Brown, Notting-
ham.
__ _

James Clarke, timber merchant, Kingsland, Nov. 17, at
half-past two, and December 11, at one o'clock, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official assignee ;
Chid ley, Basinghall-street.
Edwin and William Sunderland, bill brokers, Oldbury,
county of Worcester, Nov. 12 and Dac. 3, at half-past
eleven, at the Birmingham District Court. Whitmore,
official assignee, Temple-street, Birmingham ; Southall
and Nelson, Birmingham.

Robert Hiudry Mason, printer, Sunderland, Nov. 11,
at eleven, and Dec. 16, at twelve, at the Royal Arcade,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Baker, official assignee, New-
castle-upon-Tyne; Harle, Bush, and Co., Southampton-
buildings, Chancery-lane.
James Musto, Joseph Musto, and Robert William
Mneto, millwrights, Cambridge-road, Mile-end, Middlesex,.
Nov. 10, at half past twelve, and Dec. 10, at two, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Johnson, official assignee, Basing-
hall-street; Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-
chambers. _

John Woolsey, ironmonger, Great Grimsby, Lincoln-
shire, Nov. 18 and Dec. 23, at twelve, at the Leeds Dis-
trict Court. Carrick, official assignee Hull ; Reed, King-
ston-upon-Hull.
George Tin 'all, wheelwright, Wickenby, Lincolnshire,
Nov. 11 and Dec. 16, at twelve, at the Townhall, Kingston -
upon-Hull. Carrick, official assignee, Hull ; Brown,
Lincoln.

William Alliston Lamprell, carpenter, Long-lane, City,
Nov. 12, at half-past two, and Dec. 15, at twelve, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Edwards, official assignee, Sam-
brook-court ; Broughton, Falcon-square.
Henry Whitmore' tailor and woollen draper, Stockport,
Oct. 10 and Dec. 1, at one, at the Manchester District
Court. liernamann, official assignee, Manchester; Cop-
pock and Oldham, Stockport.
Henry Bastow, mercer and draper, Manchester,-Nov. 13
and Dec. 4, at eleven, at the Manchester District Court.
Hernaman, official assignee, Manchester; Cooperand Sous,
Manchester.

SCOTCH SEQUESTRATION.
Michael M`Haffie and Co., merchants, Glasgow.

BANK OF
An Account pursuant to the Act
the Week ending on Saturda

ENGLAND.
7th and Sth Victoria, cap 32, i r
y, the 24th day of Oct., 1857.
.AZTMENT.

ISSUE DEP,
A
Notes issued . . 23,252,1051

Government debt.... 11,615,100
Other securities...... 3,459,50;
Gold coin and bullion 8,777,105
Silver bu11i0n........ -

£23,252,105

£23,252,
[. MARSHALL, Chief Caskier.los

Dated tho 23th day of Oct., 185'

BANKING DE.
Proprietors' capital .. 14,553,000
Rest 3,239,499
Patine deposit (in-
cluding Exchequer,
Commissioners of
Nati _nal Debt, Sav-
ing's Banks, and
Dividend Accounts) 4,861,740
Other deposits ...... 11,263 986
seven Day and other
819,442

:PLRTMENT.

Government securities
(includg.Dead Weight
Annuity) .... „ • .... 10 254,541
Other securities...—. 2 ),401 597
Notes .......... 3,495,540
Gold and silver coin .. 592,68:

434,737,667

£34,737,667
:. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier

Dated the 29th day of Oct., 185'

AVERAGE PRICE OF SUGAR.
The Average Price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, com-
puted from the returns made iu the week ending Oct.
27, 1857, exelmive of the Duties of Customs paid cr
payable thereon, on the importation thereof into Great
Britain : e. d.
From the British Possessions in America............ 31 04

Thomas Fuller Bacob convicted of administering
arsenic to his niotber at"'Stainfor,l, waH on Wednehday
removed from Lincoln Castle to Millbank prison, under
Eentenca of penal servitude for life.

Country Markets.

LIVERPOOL—OcT. 30.

_ice-/►

The transactions at our corn exchange this morning wen
limited ; we had, however, more inquiry for wheat fi om
the millers in the interior, indicating that our present
tango of prices will command next week a better and larger
demand than we have lately had. Good American rod
wheat can be bought at 7s to 7s d, and white 7s 10d to
8s per 701bs. Choice American flour is not lower, but
English sack is offering at 2s decline. Best oats id., and
secondary ld per bushel lower. Indian corn is 6d per qr.
cheaper. No other change on Tuesday's quotations.