The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-07 00:00:00

satisfactory result is to be anticipated from a protracted cor-
respondence.—Accept,
(Silzned) SEYMOrr R
Naval Commander in-Chief of the British Forces
in the Canton River.
His Excellency Yeh, Imperial High Commissioner, &c.

Yeh, Imperial
.Commissioner' Governor-General of the Two
Kwang Provinces, dre., makes this declaration to his Ex-
cellency Sir Michael Seymour, Naval Commander in Chief.
I have received your Excellency's letter of y, sterday, ac-
knowledging my communication (of the sth Nov.), wherein
you state, " I have nothing to add to what I have before
written, except that I observe with much regret that no
satisfactory result is to be anticipated from a protracted
correspondence.''
This communication I have well considered, and have now
to remark that the several replies I have made to your com-
munications have been exceedingly clear and distinct, so that
your Excellency, I conclude, will early have understood all
the explanations I have therein given you. To resume, how-
ever; in the management of the affairs of our two nations, far
from having recourse, just as individual nations may prompt,
to forcible measures, we should seek to carry with us
public opinion, by adhering to the rules of heaven (or
nature). Your Excellency should again examine the state-
ments in my previous communications.
I avail myself of this opportunity to wish your Excellency
prosperity.

Hien-fUng, 6th year, 10th moon, 16th day (7th November,
1856.) Translated by
(signed) 11. S. PARKES.

Encounter, at Canton, November 6, 1856.
Sir,-- Since my communication of the 3d inst. my opera-
tions have beeen limited, Ist, to showing the authorities
that it is in our power to throw shot and shell to reach the
most distant of the city forts and government buildings ; and
this morning, in consequence of a most menacing number of
war junks having collected under the protection of the French
Folly Fort, it appearing absolutely necessary, for the security
of our position, that they should be dispersed or destroyed,
the Barracouta and Coromandel, steam vessels, with our
armed boats, successfully accomplished this service, though I
regret to state not without the loss of 1 man killed and 3
wounded.

Considerable resistance was offered, and the fire from the
junks and forts, iu the early part of the operation, was
stoutly maintained. The security of our position here will
now be the main object of eur exertions.—l have, Ste.,
(Signed) M. SEYMOUR.
His Excellency Sir John Bowling, LL.D., her
Majesty's Plenipotentiary, Hong Kong.

List of Officers engaged in the destruction of war junks and
the French Folly Fort, on the 6th November, 1856.
Calcutta.—Launch, Mr. E.H. Stuart, acting mate; barge,
Lieutenant F. J. Campbell, Mr. Eden, midshipman; pinnace,
Lieutenant Beamish, Mr. Kennedy, midshipman.
Sybille.—Launch, Lieutenant A. H. Alston, Mr. W. H. De
Burgh, midshipman ; barge, Lieutenant E. F. Dent, Mr. H.
T. Price, midshipman ; pinnace, Mr. T. K. Hudson, acting
mate; Ist cutter, Mr. A. T. Brooke, midshipman.
Encounter. —Pinnace, Lieutenant Gibson ; Ist cutter, Mr.
F. R. Hardinge, acting mate ; 2d cutter, Mr. Alex. Tupman,
midshipman ; 2d gig, Mr. W. G. P. O'Callaghan, cadet.
Sampson.—lst cutter, Lieutenant Wm. Clark ; 2d cutter,
Mr. Charles H. Murphy, midshipman.
Winchester.—Cutter, Mr. Wm. Bell, midshipman. A
party of Royal Marines light infantry on board the ,steam-
tender Coromandel, under the command of Captain Boyle,
her Majesty's ship Calcutta.
(Signed) Cu&atss J. B. ELLIOT, Commodore.

List of Casualties amongst the Natal Forces employed at the
destruction of war junks and the French Folly Fort, on
the 6th November, 1856.

KILLED.

William Prowse, ordinary seamen, Calcutta.
WOUNDED.
William Reid, Royal Marine, dangerously, Barracouta.
John Bare, Royal Marine, severely, Barracouta.
John Dempster, quartermaster, slightly, Barracouta.
Charles Hipsey, stoker, slightly, Barracouta.
(Signed) CHAS. A. ANDERSON,
Staff Surgeon, Calcutta, in Medical Charge
of the Force disembarked,

Government-house, Hong Kong,Nov. 8, 1856.
Sir,—l have received your Excellency's despatch of the
6th inst., informing me that shot and shell had been thrown
juts the most distant of the city forts and Government build-
ings, and announcing the destruction of a large number of
Chinese war juni:s, and the capture of the French Folly Fort.
I have to express to your Excellency my great and admir-
ing sense of the consummate skill and prudence with which
the military operations have been directed, and to all con-
cerned my thorough appreciation of the promptitude, zeal,
and bravery which have given them such successful results.
Whatever may have been the importance of the question
which necessitated the first appeal to hostilities, it has now
assumed a character seriously involving all our present and
future relations with China ; and I am of opinion that every-
thing possible should be done to give effect to treaties which
have been pertinaciously and recklessly violated—a small and
turbulent fraction of the population of China cannot be
allowed to supersede the engagements of their Emperor to
the sovereign of Great Britain.
I submit to your Excellency that the next step to take
bhould be a notice to the Imperial Commissioner that unless,
within a period to be fixed by you, your reiterated demands
are complied with, the Bogue Forts will be destroyed.
I think it should also be stated that the object of our en-
tering the city is to carry forward a work of peace and amity;
to put a stop to the miseries, whose infliction has been ren-
dered imperative by the resistance to lawful requirements,
and to prevent their recurrence on any future occasion.—l
have, &c.,

(Signed) Joins Bemuse.
His Excellency Rear-Admiral Sir M. Seymour,
K.C.8., Naval Commander-in-Chief, dm,
Canton.

British Consulate, Canton„ Nov. 9, 1856.
Sir,—l have to acknowledge your Excellency's letter of the
7th inst., in which you dislaim the adoption of forcible mea-
sures, an appeal to higher principles as the proper guide of
our actions.
I deeply regret that your Excellency should not at en
earlier date have kept these principles in view, for it is owing
to the utter disregard of them on your Excellency's part, as
evinced by your violation of treaty engagements, your die-
courtesy and inattention to my demands, that the present
unwilling resort to force has been rendered unavoidable,
Neither is it creditable to your Excellency that, in the em-
ployment of force on your part, you should have recourse to
measures so opposed to civilised practices, as that of offering
a reward for the indiscriminate murder of Englishmen. I
enclose you a copy of one of those proclamations, the original
of which, under your Excellency's seal, is in possession of
her Majesty's consul.
I take this opportunity to repeat the demands already so
clearly presented to your Excellency in my letters of the 30th
of October, and let of November, and to again state that
your Excellency's compliance therewith is the only solution
of the present difficulty that I can accept. The fulfilment of
the particular treaty engagements, which is the sole object
of those demands, is now proved to be indispensable for the
preservation of peace and amity, and the prevention in fu-
ture of disastrous misunderstandings like the present. I
therefore once again warn your Excellency that active ope-
rations will be recommenced, unless I receive within 24 hours
your assent to all I have required. The experience of the last
fortnight should have convinced your Excellency of the futi-
lity of seeking to invite the people to support you in your
unjust and personal policy, and, I therefore, trust you will
well consider the danger of the crisis you persist in urging
on.—Accept, &c,,

(Signed) MICHAEL SETMOUR.
His Excellency Yeh, Imperial High Commissioner,
Governor-General of the Two Kwang, dcc., &e.
Yell, Imperial Commissioner, Governor-General of the Two
Kwang Provinces, &c., makes communication in reply :
On the 10th inst. I received a letter from your Excellency,
dated the 9th inst., with a copy of a proclamation appended
to it.

As to the imputation that I am vainly seeking to incite the
people to a rupture, in support of an unjust and per,onal
policy, I would ask by what person have they really been
incited to a rupture in this case !
The seizure of some criminals on the part of the Chinese
Government, a small matter, having been misrepresented as
a hauling down of your flag —on the 23d, 24th, and 25th ult.,
you opened fire on the different forts of he city. To this, in
consideration of the peaceful relations so many years subsist-
ing between us, I made no rejoinder whatever. Had I not re-
ferred myself to the higher principles, which your letter
accuses me of not keeping in view, I should have shown
no such forbearance. But when, following up this, on the
27th and 28th, you opened a fire on the city, by which
numberless houses were consumed, with considerable loss
of life, the whole population, thus subjected to calamity,
gnashed their teeth in anger. At the time you took pos-
session of the forts, although the gentry and the mercan-
tile community of the whole city put forth placards, I did
not issue any proclamation. But when 'you had continued
firing on the old city and the new, from the 27th October to
the sth instant, the people came crowding is my court in
hundreds of thousands, demanding why, after all the
years that the English' had traded at Canton, to their
great advantage, without any cause of complaint against
them, the people of Canton, they should bo subjected sud-
denly to such suffering at the hands of the English, declaring
that they were ready and eager to subscribe funds, to be de-
posited
in the public hall, for the provision of the necessaries
of war, and of the expenses of rewarding merit, and requir-
ing me with instance to publish a scale of rewards.
With the public mind thus impatient (of your acts) I could
not but concede what was requested, and accordingly, on
the 27th I issued roy proclamation. But did the idea ori-
ginate with me ? The people's placards were out before my
proclamation
was issued. Wherein then have I been moving
the people ?
As to another observation in your letter, let your Excel-
lency well remember, that without any injury done to the
English by the people of Canton, your Excellency fired at
once into the city, and ask yourself whether this consists
with the forms of war, as waged by a great state, or whether
this is the practice of civilisation.

I accordingly reply to you, availing myself of the occasion
to wish your Excellency prosperity.
A necessary communication adrdessed to his Excellency
Sir Michael Seymour, K.C. 8., cite.
Hien-fung, 6th year, 10th moon, 14th day, 11th Novem-
ber, 1856. Translated by
(Signed) THOMAS WADS, Chinese Secretary.

(Summons sent in to the Mandarin commanding the Bogue
Forts on the 12th Nov., 1856.)
The British Admiral wishes to spare" life, and ie not at
war with the Chinese ; and as it is necessary for him to
hold possession of the Bogue Forts until the conduct of
the Viceroy Yeh can be referred to the Emperor at Pekin,
one hour will be given for the purpose of clearing out; if
this offer is at once accepted, -boats will be permitted to
pass to and from the main land and the Wantungs. In this
case the forts will remain uninjured, ready to be returned
in the same state to the Chinese when these differences
are over, and the rebels will neither be allowed to pass the
Bogue Forts nor to enter them whilst in our possession.
At the expiration of an hour his answer came. The ad-
miral commanding the Bogue Forts cannot give them up,
fight.
The he would lose his head, and he must therefore
The small mandarin who was the bearer of the niessag,,s
understood English, and bad been a pilot. He stated that
M. SEYMOUR,
there were 500 soldiers (isnigenaechd)fort.
Rear-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief
of the British Forces.
Return of killed and v alluded on board her Majesty's
ship Nlnkin, on the 12th November, 1856, at the attack
on the Bogue Forts.

KILLED.
James Towey, boy, Ist class.
WOUNDED.
Mr. Oliver T. Lang, midshipman.
Alexander Morrison, seaman.
George Dwyer, seaman.
Thomas Kirby, seaman.
Richard Proctor, seaman.

lIRCULAR.
Her Britarinic M9jesty's consul has received the ihstruc-