The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-02 00:00:00

DEPARTURES TO GREAT BRITAIN.

From Hong Kong.—Dec. 9, the lienriette Gustav
(Hamburg), to Falmouth.
From Foochow.—Dec. 13, the Agnes Garland, to
Liverpool ; Dec. 10, the Polmaise, to London ; Jan. 6;
the Aliquiß, to London ; Jan. 9, the Competitor (Ame-
rican), to Cork.
From Shanghai.— Dec. 13, the Leichardt, to London;
Dec. 16, the Palmerston, to London; Dec. 21,the Abd-tl-
Medjid, to London ; Dec. 22, the Cornball], to London;
Dec. 26, the Avery, to Liverpool ; Dec. 27, the John
Robinson, to London ; Jan. 5, the Agnes (Prussian), to
London ; Jan. 9, the Spray of the Ocean, to London.

murderhas been perpetrated chore, the victim being
a German servant of Dr. Ryder.
The \\lump9a anchorage has been abandoned-
It is not expected that any active men,sures.will
be taken against the city of Canton until the arfival
of troops and gunboats places in the hands of Ad 7
miral Seymour -the means of. striking .a decisive
blow by laud r.iill water.
At present it is by no means an easy task to
hold his present pnsition, but this, we doubt not,
he will do if possible, as any retrogrqde movement
would be deerried a viettir3i by the Chinese.
Of the, Viceroy. Yeh we• have heard nothing
no; has any commissioner arrived from Pe.:
kin, although the Chinese assert that a.fvery high
official is on the way, 7
Of the rebels in the south we have no intelligence
beyond a ruthuir that:they hay.e Come to "an under-
st andintr, with Yeh, and combined• to "expel-the'
ba• !' Whether VAS be true or-not, it is a
. pemliar fact-that
.tliey nyt seem to tits.° advan-
tage of the pre: eat st ae„--ct affa'ts tO press the
perialists•anyWhere nrear'Cant
Our present force in Chitaa is quits inadequate ti
carry ou with 'success any impor!aut opqations, and
we trust we shall not- Icing' beleft•without large
and effective reinforcenienti cif nien.and ships.
Light draught gunboats areminch wanted.
.. in Hong.li:ong all remains quiet as yet, and the
stringent precautions which have been taken have.
beneficial effect. Some of -the worst ca-ra,c-
ters have-been apprehended, -and will be deported.
Three inen h IVO Va 9.11 seized, who are doubtless
emissarieszfrom CAnten, seat here with mischievous
in.ent; The tesillt of their -exaniination has not yet
-transpired. The
.eglonial Government has lifred
. •

bourhoo 1.
The M unlarine have issued in various districts
the most bloldth'rsty- lictsagainst the English, and
have offered large ro 7. rds to those who may suc-
ceed in assassination or incendiarism is Hong Song.
All Chinese have been ordered to quit the ser--
vice of foreigners and return to their homes, and so
powerful is the Mandarin system that disobedience
entails Muth trouble, -if not positive destruction,
upon the relatives of the offender. Nearly all the
Chinese servants have left or are leaving, and this
creates no small inconvenience, and also renders
private propeity more insecure.
Her Maksty's ship Calcutta is in the harbour,
and Admiral Guerrin has in the most handsome
manner offered the services of the crews of La Vir-
gin'e and steamer Catinat whenever they may be
required • indeed there is now a French guard
stationeat one of the most unprotected points.
The Americans have also landed a guard at their
naval stores and at another point.
A deputation of merchants waited on his Excel-
lency Sir J. Bowring on the sth inst., and presented
a letter from those interested in property destroyed
or abandoned at C3aaton or elsewhere, and requested
his Excellency's views with reference to compensa-
tion. Sir John replied that the matter had been
already brought to the atten'ion of the home Go:
vernment.

We have just received intelligence from Canton
informing us that the whole of the suburbs west of
the city had been burnt by our force on the 12th
inst. In this service we regret to.say that a party
of the 59th Regiment missed their way, and getting
under the city wall were assailed with stones and
matchlock 4, losing two men killed, 11 severely
wounded;and 10 slightly wounded.
A large fire had also taken place inside the city.
Admiral Seymour has decided on blowing up the
Dutch Folly, retiring from the gardens, and making
the Bird's-nest Fort his outpost, where we hope he
will be able to remain until reinforcements arrive.

We take the following items from a supplement
to the Overland Friend of China : _

"ATTEMPT TO RETAKE TEATOTUM FORT.
" Our news from Canton was just a week old when her
Majesty's steamship Coromandel, Lieut. Douglas, R.N.,
commanding, arrived about half-past 10 o'clock last night,
bringing the following information :—The Coromandel
was lying with the Niger and Encounter off the Factory
Ruins, Canton, when at 20 minutes past 1 p.m., on Sun-
day last, a boat arrived from the Macao-passage Fort,
advising the admiral of the approach below the fort of a
large number of Chinese war junks. Steam was got up im-
mediately, and, with all the available boats in company,
the Coromandel proceeded to a reconnaissance, the En-
counter. being directed to folleow as Born as possible. By
the time the Coromandel got down to the fort the Chi-
nese had ranged that portion of tbeir squadron, some
60 vessels, that had come down the Fatshan Creek, in a
line between Marines' Island and Barrow's Island, about
midway between the Mama passage (Teatotum) Fort
and the stations of the Hornet and C 0113113 off the barrier

—say a mile and a-quarter from the fort, a mile and
a-half from the Barrier, and were exchanging shots. The
time chosen f)r this approach had been well considered ;
it was a dead low neap tide ; consequently a vessel of the
Hornet's draught of water was unable to get up the pas-
sage, the Encounter being similarly disc` led from get-
ting down. But just as the Encounter was under way
anme 20 cr 30 vessels were seen coming into Starling
Reach, and instead of proceeding directly it was deemed
best to send a few shot into them. The Niger, and the
make-shift gunboat at the boom, too, took up the fire,
and continued it till they retired. The Encounter then
attempted to get down the Macao Passage, but unfor-
tunately grounded somewhere off Birds' Nest Fort, and
was unable to gct the assistance of the others engaged.
The accident being observed from the Coromandel, Sir
Dd. Seymour did not deem it prudent to do more with the
Coromandel than stand on the defensive, and accordingly
dropped back with the tide, still firing from the bow
gun, and sent the boats' crews into the fort. The Chi-
nese, of cour-se, attributed the movement to irresolution,
and came on bravely to within 400 yards of the fort,
when from the minids of the marines and small arm men,
till then under cover, they received repeated volleys,
which must have committed frightful execution. It
was half-past two, that a 201 b. shot from the Chinese
struck down Mr. Pearn, master's assistant of her
Majesty's ship Calcutta, in charge of one of the cutters
of his ship—a wound in the breast proving, mortal.
The cutter was immediately sent to the Encounter
that he might have surgical attention, but he only
lingered till sundown, sensible, and speaking of his
family to, the last moment. This gallant young
fellow had been in charge of the same boat
throughout all the previous operations, and was an of-
car of high promise. It was about 4, or a little after, that
the Chinese, finding they had again met more than their
match, and knowing that as the tide made they could
not show*, fight a minute, gave signs of an intention to re-
turn the way they came, to freshen which movement the
Coromandel and boats stirred up their wake, firing shot,
shell, and rocket as fast as they could be poured in; and
as the Chinese boats were crowded with men the havoc
among them oannot have been trifling. At all events,
they were too busily engaged in escaping to answer the
fire. By 5 o'clock they were out of reach, in water
too shallow for our approach.
"The Comus and the Hornet all this time were hard
at work, too, the former, sprung broadside to Hamilton-
creek, pouring the contents of her guns* into another
division of Chinese junks which had made their appear-
ance in that direction—the Hornet's long 68 in the rear
of the division which had gone towards the fort commit-
ting terrible ex .cution, while the boumboats, headed by
Capt. Forsyth in his cutter, did their best in an unsuc-
cessful attempt to cut off the stragglers in their retreat.
Just as the engagement was over and the Coromandel
returning to her old berth off the Factory ruins, the
Encounter came down, anchored for a short time off
Teatotum Fort, and then returned to Shameen.
" In addition to the lamentable casualty mentioned six
men were wounded in the boats, and one boy of the first
class severely burnt on board the Coromandel, while in
the act of screwing in a rocket-staff, which accidentally
ignited, either from the friction of screwing or the back fire
of a previous discharge. It is supposed that not less than
7,000 Chinese, in altogether some in boats, were engaged
in this the most plucky action on their part that has ever
been witnessed by English naval officers. As the c
mandel passed down yesterday they were again observed
as
with their sails at the mastheads and flagsan flying,
k Nothing
though they intended tryit.g another att
elseand o f
there importanceis nn has occurredordf
n thedu absent
gstehnet pmasrt. fewc nwdpanyrs,
further word
taking in guns from Bt
eahrr ac
,
sen. Her Majesty's steamsloop accoul tuattwaasfopraTsseead:
at the B'gue
totum Fort.
Chinese way
junks
directly
vas
nese doing their best while
"Of course no one can feel
easty hoanvisehtmheenotpaptotrhtuenCithyi:
for b
on; the is
th
uutnlbtottalteswarirll maiivree.onnlfyor thonee
oUrg
sunk, pErhaps by themselves intentionally, in the fair-
way off Sixty-sixth Point, Barrow's Island. The Coro-
mandel was struck three times, each slightly. The shot
which killed Mr. Pearn went into the Bittern's pinnace
and there remained. The intention of the Chinese, it
would appear, was to retake Teatotum Fort, and, bad
they been a little smarter, and kept back our reinforce-
ments, they might have succeeded.—Jan. 7.
"Tile Fei•ma, just arrived, tried to get up the Junk
Passage to Canton, but finding 200 junks there came
back to Whampoa, and went up the Macao Passage,
through which she with difficulty passed the halt-a-dozen
junks found sunk at the barrier. The Admiral is to be
here in the Barra,couta presently. Nothing has beenhe,ard
of Mr. Cowper, sea. No other news of importance.
"THE THISTLE MASSACRE.
"The last paper of the year was in the course of de-
livery on Wednesday evening, when news reached that
colony of a more frightful local tragedy than any
had been told in previous numbers. This was the cold-
and
blooded murder of the captain, officers, forei ji resouls.
passengers, of the postal steamer Thistle— I! "
ob-
The particulars of this dreadful deed
who during the
aiving
tamed from Chinese who escaped,.
such a fright that
act most probably, have been in
are imperfect,
but little power was left for observation, been

* " The Comus, having replaced those thrown overboart
in the typhoon last year, again mounts 14 thirty-t 7,"