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

CHINA.

(From the Time Special Correspondent.)
SHANGHAI, Aro. 7.
My last despatch was closed in hot haste, for the
Formosa hove in sight, and in five minutes the
boat was lowered, the letters were put on board,
and we followed them with wistful eyes as they
departed for " home."
Next morning we were still out of sight of land,
but the landsman's cry told that we were steam-
ing in shallow waters. The morning's bath
showed that the water was quite fresh and opaque,
with rich alluvial soil. There were no other symp-
toms of land. We were in the mouth of the
mighty river Yang-tae--" the child of the ocean"
the richest river in the world—richest in naviga-
ble water, in mighty cities, industrious human
beings, in affluent tributaries, and in wide margins
of cultivated lands of exhaustless fertility. This
vast expanse of turbid fresh water is saturated with
the loam of fields 1,500 miles away. Portion
of this rippling element was gathered upon those
great mountain ranges of Central Asia where
the Ganges, the Brahmaputra' 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 mountain and every de-
scending streamlet through 600,000 square miles
of midland China. In its pride and in its strength
the proud river fights for a little while with ocean
himself for empire, drives back his salt waves, and
establishes a freshwater province in the midst of
his dominions.. The Chinese love and venerate the '
Yang-tse as Chinese sons love and venerate their
fathers. Philosophers draw their parables 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 earnestly. The Yang-
tse-Kiang is the mot de enigmes, the secret of the
great Chinese puzzle. If I cannot make Mr. Del.
drums, or Sir John Fathead, or General Craes un-
derstand the grandeur and the all-importance of this
river, I shall never succeed infixing 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
descriptions, for 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 our course was tangential to this line
it gradually became more distinct. Then through
our glasses we could sae a level coast, well timbered
with 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
and 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-tse, 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
can observe an increase every week. The Chinese
are already planting bamboo there to give solidity
to the rich alluvial soil. A thousand squatter= are
ready t'r seize upon it and convert it into gardens
immediately the tide shall cease to cover it.

Fishing anal carrying and convoying a thousand
junks and lorchas are scudding to and fro in the
estuary. ißut we proceed not far up the channel of
" the child of the ocean"—" the father of rivers"
—" the girdle of China." A che::ker-painted sea-
mark (which wants only a telegraph upon it to
make its usefulness complete) and a floating light-
hcuse mark the point where the last tributary to
the Yang-tse 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
amphibious, for large fortunes are constantly being
made here (the golden sands of commerce accumu•
late as rapidly as the deposits of Yang-tse-Kiang),
and the piles on which the building are erected
lift them out of danger of inundati,n. But the
Chinese have a talent f,r giving an appearance of
squalor to their towns and village.
I did not land, but proceeded immediately in a
sanpan to Messrs. Dent's receiving-ship, which lies
strongly anchored fore and aft in the mouth of the
river. Time was when the Emily Jane wasa 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;
for the Mandarin junks are tao longer her enemes,
and the pirates hold her in great respect. lam
afraid she is a very wicked E:nily Jane, for she is
crammed with opium, and the odour of the drug is
strong in her spacious cAbins. Your "Special Cur-
r.spondent " ought to be above such base consider-
ations ; but temperance advocates have beeu 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 had 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 ailout 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 loft the Emily Jan?, for the tide was
making, and Shanghai is seicri mles up this river
Wang Poo.

At a distance of three miles, in the gray twilight,
Shanghai looks like a distant view of Woolwich.
he 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
of this noble tributary to the Yang-tse-Kiang.
Higher up, where a turn in the river gives an inland
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
tells of a large commerce requiring a strong protec-
tion. In this indistinct light the "Longs" of the
European settlement loom 1 ke the ship slips at
Deptford or Woolwich. I, is only upon a near
approach that they resolve themselves into fine
finished buildings, some columned like Grecian
temples, soma square and massive like Italian
palaces, but all declaratory that the res augusta doini
is a woe unknown to Englishmen iu China.
The English settlemenr. at Shanghai is situate
upon a bend of this river Wang Poo. I: s bounda-
ries are its fortifications. On one side the Soo-choo
river, which c nuts down from the great city Soo-
chcio (the Birmingham of China) and fails into
the Wang Poo, forms its Jim. its. 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.
Tha frontage upon the Wang Poo, between the
Soo-shoo river and the canal, is nearly a mile in
length, and the settlement extends backwards about
half a mile. This space is divided into squares by
six roads at right angles with the river, and three
arallel to it, and in Close squares are the residences
and godowns 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 eo large that he can afford a sepa-
rate establishment to each guest. I occupy the
rooms where Mr. Fortune stored his treasures and
where he hung up that terrible double-barrelled gun
which raked the decks of so many pirate junks.
If I have succeeded in conveying to the reader
any notion of this place, he will recognise in it the
present mainstay and the future hope of our trade
with China. Almost yesterday the site of this hand-
wale Angle-Chinese city was paddyfields and cotton
gr°lllldi. In 1856 3d9 British ships of the tonnage
of 92,943 tons unloaded on the quays. Imports from
the whole World to thbeamount of 3,010,511/. passed
through the Custom horse, in addition to these
opium to the value of° passed through
tbis portal b the interior of 4dhi 51.
e. t 1 notwith-
standing this amount of leg it and illegal
further impoi tat ion, 4,287,9901. in haeblumllPorts, a
requisite to settle the balance of trade with Europe
was
and America, and to pay for the enormous amounturope
of tea and silk which China sent down to Shanghai,
and Shanghai distributed to Europe, America, and
Australia.
This is something like prosperity—a single port
with an annual balance of four millions anda quar-
ter in its favour. But for the opium the amount
would have been nine millions. In the current year,
according to all present appearances, the sum may
reach 9,000,0001., even with the set-off of the
Opium ; and but for this undesirable resource for
hedging our losses, the civilised world would have
to find 14,000,000/. worth of silver to pay the
Chinamen who supply this single port.
It is impossible to predict this as a certainty.
Perhaps the native Chinese merchants may over-
stand their market and the exports may be checked.
All we know at present is that the Chinese have
tremendous silk crop, and are holding out for most

extortionate prices ; and that, although some
houses hold their hands, there are others who think
it can all be sent to Europe at a profit at the prices
demanded, and are buying freely. In any otleez
country this problem would meet a certain solu-
tion, but in China even this great export trade is as
nothing. There is a competing home market of
360,000,000 of people, and almost every labourer
in the cities has his holiday silk tunic.
True, it is small merit in an Englishman's eyes
that this port of Shanghai is so productive to China
that it drains us of our bullion, deranges our ex-
changes, and embarrasses our commerce. But it is a
fact, and a-Nary important fact. I am not now going
to investigate why this so happens. lam not iu a
condition to speak authoritatively yet of the doings
at the Pihisn, the Taepinea and the Kan Custom-
houses, or to tell the mysteries of that cordon of
Dortanes 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 nearthese 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 is a little moderated I walk
about these fenny 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
navigable 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 th 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 sum, and the
contractor has expended one-half of the rest in
bribes, and has pocketed the remainder. Cotton
(yellow aid 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 wid form and burst, and all the popu-
lat on will turn out 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 ye tr 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 th situation is favourable, will
bank up the land and let in the water to prepare
for rice. The whea,, 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—doctus utriusque Unglue
—to 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 pestiteutial stench. It seems te 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 aud use it for manure—
and at a distance of five yards from the building
puffed hard at his cheroot and said—
" That is the baby tower."
" The ?" said I, inquiringly.
"The baby tower. Look through that rent in
the stonework—not too close, or the stream of
effluvia 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. Sometime; 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 reuud-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
1 uder still. There is a foundling hospital in the
Chinese ci"y with a cradle outside the doer and a
hollow bamboo above it. Strike a blow upon the
bamboo, and the cradle is drawn inside. If it con-
taiu pn. infant, it is taken and cared for, and no
qeestions asked. There is also a system of domestic
slavery in China. At an early age a child worth
dollars, a father or mother in ,y for money delegate
their own absolute power—delegate without losing
it—for, although the father may have sold his son
) a stranger, or although a mother may have so!d
her daughter to prostitution—and concubines in
China are only thus to be obtained—the duty from
child to parent remains uuinapaired, and is strictly
performed.
The incentives thus offered by Mammon and the
alternatives proffered by native charity may save
lives that would otherwise b 3 destroye I ; but this
baby tower is a terrible institution. It stands th re,
close to the walls of a crowded city, an obtru,ive
invitation to infanticide.

I have paid one hurried visit to the Chinese c'ty,
but must postpone any description of it until I
have opportunity to sea it thoroughly, and this will
not be for some weeks. Ever since my ar►ival here
I have been trying to organise an exped.tion 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 think ng 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 fabticatioirof a toupee, with a hand-
some tail attached. With the aid of Chinese spec-
tacles, which are always four inches in diameter, I
flitter myself lam so disguised that my own house-
keeper, with her Lest spectacles on, would not re-
cog:iise me.

Ti have written a long n.lws-letter without one
word of news in it ; a,zd yet it would he easy to
w:ite columns, for one hale of the people here are
reporting news from the interior, and the oth.r
half are contradicting it.

People say that the rebellion is dying out. They
expect 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
were most likely to be complicated by the presence
of these insurgents.
I believe the news to be correct to a certain ex-
tent, and in a certain sense. If the rebellion be not.
wearing out it is shifting. Chin-Kiang-Foo and
Nankin are consumed. The locust has eaten every
leaf, and must take another flight or die. " Wait
a. while, all will come right—ten years, perhaps,"
has always been the Chinese view, and they think
the time is now near. They have tested this re-
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 fur
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 soma attention.
I question, however, whether they know much of
what is passing in the SJuttl.
EnTghlae
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theythe ayil for
give the Peninsular and Oriental Company 9,0001.
frelgh
t.hope to write
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hof
Chekiang.
yboyu naext from Niugpo, which city
thel intend
inland top
semicircular route through
ON THE IMPERIALg: CANA.Lh, AUG. 10.
ean
upon
the autlio •
At the close of my despa'ch,
cities at Hong Kong were re.olviu
g blockade of the river—a me ;sure whiephoWnaas formal
v
vient to the fleet, and which the ripened ricee 6har-
vest renders not very important to the Cantonese,

—I was about to employ the interval of Lord
Elgiu'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 throe
sauchau Loats, 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. Elkins 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 ale 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 gildiug 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 dlys, 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 curt %ins ;
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 even the proprietor, dis-
turbed. But Ido not hear of any open piratical
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 tsking 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 causes.
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 m les up the Wang-
poo is still quite a mile in width, and for the green-
ness and flatness of its banks, and the European
ou line of foliage, we might be a little below
Gravesend.

Resenting, perhaps, my small respect for him as
a third-class river, the Wangpoo treats us to a cap-
ful of wind just as the tide is finished, and the
boatmen incontinently run into a creek, which
le.ids 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 raving 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 ♦isible 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
bt fore 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, Us-
bathless,, business-loving, pleasure despis:ng habits
of mind which under a less corrupt and depressing
system of rule would lead the present race of Chinese
to sust tin these works and to create others—that
insensibility to play of fancy, yet love of quaint
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 ♦ehicles of thought, traditions, and
superstitions of other nations—these things suggest
a train of dreamy thoughts, and send the mind wan-
dering back to times almost as old as that setting
I sun. May it not be th,t we have here a not very

degenerate specimen of a civilisation that covered
the whole earth bet ore our traditions begin—which

spread and flourished before the Setni,ie or the
lud ) Gennauic race had beibr,—which has left its
trices iu Endia and in England, in Mexie) and in

Italy, in California and in-Gree.,.e, in Brittany and

in Normandy, and in the most remote islands of
the ocean; pilers of mounds and hewers of moun-
tains,.builders of Babels whose 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 patted 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 upon starting as soon as the floo'. lie made.
Every wave seemed to break under the flat bottom
of my boat, and she rolled and quivered and
croaked 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 even
• the rushing wind brought no coolness ; the round
morn looked down in all her splendour, but did not
dial the light of the big stare. Ever as one of our
sister beats went ahead, the oar o..cilliating to and
fro at her st,rn, produced a sheet of phosphoric
radiance which neither moon
,nor stare could pale.
Sometimes we n=ared the banks, and then the
monotonous croak of the frog was beard, and in
sheltered place.; fights of fireflies, like flakes of
diamond, fluttered up and down among the cotton
plants, and then also myriads of mosquitoes of
great stature came off and sounded their declara-
tions of war in nay ears.
We were not alone on the Wangpoo. On the
cont,ary, there were never loss 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 collisions
seemed imminent, but a little shouting, and all
went clear.

From 3 o'clock till 8 I slept, and awoke to find
myself moored against the village of Min-Hang.
While at this village I fell in with a Chine.°
physician, who had escaped from Nankin when it
felt into the hands of the rebels. He was the first
specimen of a Chinese gentleman I hadlseen. The
villages in this neighbourhood contain many fugi-
tives from the relel districts. The Government
lodges them in the temples and allows them 30caAs
(Mout 31.)a- dap, wherewith, at the present price;,
they cannot buy Teven a sufficiency of rice. Of
course di3,:aie is common among them, and this
benevolent old gentleman. devotes himself to their
care. He came on boiltd my boat and we had a
long chat. He 'insists that the
.key of the Yang-tse-
Kiang, Chin-Kiang, has been removoi 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 announezd it at
Shanghai.
His view is that the rebellion is dying out. He
says the locusts have deltroyed it, h 4ving especially
c.,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, accustomed to every artifice,
and adepts in all villany. All the loyal people can
do is to hem the conflagration round and wait till
it burns cub. _ _

These are the opinions of a well-informed
Chinese gentleman, who has seen much more of
these rebels than the Europeans who have written
upcn the subjec,. About 48 hours is the longest
peeled that any European has been am mgst them,
and they have never invited any closer intercourse.
Mr. Edkine interpreted for me these sayings of my
Chinese acquaintance with no gre bt satisfaction.
The missionaries still hang their hope upon this
rel,el cause. The facts are unpromising, but still
they hope. Devastation and bloodshed track the
course of these insurgents wherever they gei but
these are only necess,ry incidents of Lisa war. The
ruin of those public works which are to China what
their d ans are t') the Dutch mark where these
rebels are; an I where they have been. Still mote
widely extended ruin follows upon the exhaustion
of the Imperial treasury. The two great rivers, no
longer restrained by the great artificial euibink-
men's, now suffered to decay, are altering their
c mrsos and dev!stating tracts as large as European
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 not encouraging. The nominal held of the
movement, cl dim d as a missionary convert, has
sought no communication with any Christian
teacher. Ho boasts himself the Sovereign of the
whole Earth, calls himself the younger brother of
Jesus Christ, and claims to have constant personal
intercour e with the Almighty. His second in
command, the King of the East, blasphemously.
styled himself the Holy Ghost ; but he 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
" idolators," 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 misinterpreted 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 heathen 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 of the greatest ofChinese 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 instruct their gradu- j
ates iu the mysteries of the electric telegraph, and
their pilots in the law of storms. Missionary labours
thus directed must result in good. Your medical
missionaries, such as Dr. Lockhart and Dr. Parker,
command the gratitude and goodwill of the people.
Men of learning like Mr. Eakins and Dr. Macgowan
gradually compel the respect of the literati. These
men are ploughing a soil in expectation of a seed-
time which is not yet. To the missionary societies
of England and America I would say hce tibi erunt
artes,—lguorant declaimers in bad Chinese have
no success in China. Their preaching is foolishness
in more than the Apostolic sense ; but this practi-
cal and conceited people only jeer and blaspheme.
Yet I have found oven the higher class of mission-
aries hoping against hope that the rebels may suc-
ceed, 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 pod, 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 Decaloie, they have replied that not-
withstanding this commandment the Israelities
were enjoined to exterminate the Canaanites. I
reply that to establish an analogy between the casts
it will be necessary to admit Taeping-wang's pre-
tensions to direct personal intercourse with God the
Father. No missionary is prepared for this admis-
sim, and our argument closes. With these men it
is a hope and a sympathy which they cannot but
feel and cannot justity. With semo 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 ♦ery 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 official!, mer-
chant=, 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 in not being able to un-
derstand Gaines*. I hope I omitted no point of
ceremonial with him. When 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
assuresyou be is your most obedient humble servant,
I dedmed the gift according to Chinese fortis, but
I confess .I could not prevail upon myself to offer
him my opera glass. Human nature is weak, and
the Caina gentleman's admiration was evidently
very strong. We parted with a hundred chin-chine.
Up the flood tide of the Wangpoo Dr. Dickson's
boat separa ed from us last night, and is not come
up. Tile boatmen talk of perils from pirates or
foundering in the storm. We wait and send back
runners, and, learning no tidings, conclude he has
returned to Shanghai. Two lirge navigable tribu-
tar esfall in, but the rivor above is not much de-
creased in width. After some hours' further voy-
age the Wangpooloses its name and form. It divides
into two equal channels, one of which descends
from the right, and comes down from a string of
lakes that extend to Soo-choo ; the other is our way.
Tributaries and canals now come quickly in show-
ing how wonderfully ramified is the internal water
communication of this land. Of course the volume
of the stream contracts as we me nd. At night the
action of the tide is but faintly felt, and we anchor
in a channel about 50 yards wide. In the moonlight
Dr. Dickson's boat comes up with a tale of adven-
ture. The next day was a day of canals and grsat
cities.

(To be contioued )

GRAND AMERICAN BALL AT PLY-
MOUTH.

One of the most successful. balls ever held in Ply-
mouth took place on Thursday evening at the Royal
Hotel. The ball was given by Captain Hudson,
Commander Pennock, and the Ward-room Officers
of the United States steam frigate Niagara, to
mark their esteem of the kinduess and hospitality
which have been accorded to them since the
Niagara has bean lying in the port of Plymouth ;
and the .Plymouth Journal, which commemorat.s
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 their preparation. The
en.rance to the staircase was 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 room above the orchestra
was written the passage of 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
were written the names of the thirty-one stettes
thirty-one burners, on the glass globes of which
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 thistle, and the sharnroCk. The sides of
the room were festooned with the flags of the
various nations, those on the right-hand side, im-
mediately 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 a eggested ideas of
a bridal character. The decorations were designed
and superietended by Lieut. Beverley Kinnon,
master of the Niagara, assisted by Mr. Eldridge,
the purser of 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 began to arrive early, and by
10 o'clock the room was well filled. This is rather an
early hour for assemblies to be so well packed in Ply-
mouth, but the company had evidently comp pre-
pared 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
boast to a very large degree, was sustained by the
numerous and gallant sons of Mars, of both services.
Amongst the nobility that were present were the
Earl and Countessof Morley, Lord Boringdon, Miss
Homily, Sir
Coryton, Lord Valletort, the Hon. Miss Mac-
donald, the Hon. Georgians I:tonally and Mr.
Massey and Lady Lopes, Major Ibbet-
son and Lady Adele Ibbeison, Sir Barrington
Reynolds, the Port Admiral, Sir James Hanway
Pleennge, the Admiral Superintendent, and all
the heals of departmnits. the Mayor of Plymouth
(Mr. F. F. Bulteel), Mr. Watson (Mayor of Devon-
port) ; Mr. T. W. Fox, iu his official dress as Vice-
Consul of the American States • Admiral King-
combo, and Mr. Whit© M.P. There were few of
tho officers whose breasts were not adorned with
One or more
sig.'s of their past experience in the
more active service of their country. i
The bail lasted till nearly five o'clock in the morn-
ing. Nothing could have been more liberal and
elegant than the arrang
we repeat that, as a suc-
ements for the entertain-
ment of the guests.; and
cessful demonstration of our friendly relations,
nothing could have been more complete or more
sat i -factory.
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 ple.uure.

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 Keats, Esq., deceased.
BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL, OCT. 23.
The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of
Privy Council for Trade and Plantatior 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 vessels 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,
are to pay 50 reis per ton.
Art. a.—Vessels having paid the due 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.
let 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.
9th 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, a ithout purchase.
Military Train—Capt. C. J. Tuffnell Oakes, from half-pay
Ist Foot, vice Godfrey Clerk, appointed to the Rifle
Brigade ; Lieut. Wm. E. Cater to be Ad j utant, 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
Bth Foot.—Ensign J. C. Cooper, from the 92d Font, to be
Ensign.
14th Foot.—Ensign Peter Barlow to be Lieutenant, by
purchase, vice Hall, promoted ; Henry John Harington,
Gent., to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Barlow.
17th Foot.—Captain James Browne H. Boyd, from half-
pay 17th Foot, to be Captain, vice Brevet-Lieutenant-
Colonel Charles Seagram, who retires upon full pay.

23d Foot—Staff Surgeon of the Second crass Patrick- Sin-
clair Laing to be Surgeon, vice Macfarfaxe deceased.
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 30th 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 Caine,
from half-pay Unattached, to be Major, vice Wolfe, who
exchanges ; Brevet-Major Robert Hamilton Currie, to
be Major, by purchase, vice Caine, who retires.
494 h 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 Ronk, under the Royal Warrant, 6th Oct.
18;4.
53d Foot—Lieutenant Henry Buck 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. River°la, 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. royntz James to be

Captain without purchase, vice Flay, deceased ; Ensign
Thomaa Deerin; 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 ba Ensign,
without purchase, vice Hurford, promoted.
77th Foot—Captain John MacHcriry, 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 be 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 -purchase, vice Kenny, deceased.
92d Foot—John Colebnd Coopar, Gent., to b 3 Ensign, by
purchase, iu 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 Wellman to be
Captain, by purchase, vice Do Wiuton, who retires ;
Ensign Henry James Day to be Lieutenant, without
purchase, vice Gray, promoted in Bth Fcot.
let West India Regiment—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 501h.v...n, promoted.
2d West India Regiment—Ensign T. Purefoy to be Lieu.
tenant, without purchase, vice Oldfisld, deceased • En.
sign C. B. Cradock to be Lkutenant, without purchase;
vice Baylis, deceased ; Ensign W. H. M'Coy to b 3 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 hie
Brevet Rank converted into Substantive Rank, under the
Royal Warrant, 6th oAober, 1S 4.,

HOSPITAL STAFF.

Staff-Surgeon of the Second Claus Eneas Mackintosh
Macpherson, from half-pay, to be Staff• Surgeon of the
Second Class, vice Laing, appointed to the 23f Foot.
Assistant-Stair-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.