The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-02 00:00:00

REMONSTRANCE OF CHINESE GENTRY.

A few days ago we heard that the English authorities had
suddenly brought their steamers and war-vessels to enter
the river, fire on and injure the forts, and kill the soldiers
—(which is) exceedingly perverse and unreasonable. For-
tunately our officers and soldiers in the forts did not resist,
thereby avoiding the infringement of the treaty. Having
inquired (we learn, that) for some time many of the lorchas
that have traded on the Canton river have inifursitnagnecdesthoof
laws very much—smuggled and sold salt;
their infringements are piled up. Not one
rovoof the native
officials and people but has beau much pked. Now,
this No. 27 lorcha boldly dared to shelter the robbers Lee
Ming T'ae and others, and to enter Canton..
The English officials are bound, in accordance with the
treaty, to find out vagabonds and hand them over to the Ch-
inese officers for punishment. But in this affair, the Captain
of the lorcha has deceived the English consul ; the wrong,
therefore, rests with him (the captain), and not with our
military authorities. This lorclia was employed by a na-
tive called Soo ASing ;
the register was dishonestly pro-
cured by the captain ; it is not an English, lorcha—there is
a great difference between it and the foreign men-of-war,
and ships that are of an honest character..
The duty of our military is only to find out and capture
robbers; they do not understand the treaty, at which we
wed not be astonished. Oar officials have heard (of this
a(f„ii), and, being very merciful, have liberated the twelve
mon (who were taken from the lorcha)—(in accordance)
with all love and reason.

_ .
But, unexpectedly, the English officers, distinctly against
the treaty, have fired on and injured the forts, killing the
soldiers.

We wish to ask if there is any love or reason in such
conduct? We recollect that the forts on the banks of the
river were formerly made for the protection of the people,
now they being suddenly injured, the (neighbouring) coun-
try suffers also. Not one who has blood and breath but
will be engaged.
We can only expose this perverse and unreasonable in-
fringement of the treaty by the English officers, univer
sally informing the officials and merchants of ail the hon-
ourable countries, as well as the large English merchants
—(requesting them) altogether to investigate, and not to
say we men of China speak against human principles.
Public Statement by the Gentry of swangtung.

R
1 T.F11.1 P.7RSTAN FXPROITT')N.-•
-- L. .V;Skllr
(Prom the Bombay Telegraph )
Since the departure of the militery and navail,--4041e1es::041,
tb:n to the Persian Gulf, under the command ifffkeelft#44'94;:einee.),::teq'
Stalker and Rear-Acmiral Sir Henry Leekee,44o*.e..em_feeeZ eif--
had no tidings from Bassadore, the point of rendee,Oiti4V li;A;e:ey
We are, however, in hourly expectation of the arrival of "g- Lee
a steamer with despatches from the commanders, andtek
is just possible that they may arrive before the mai
closes. The latest news received from the Gulf is not at
all of a pacific character. The Shah is resolved to fight
to the last, should the soil of Persia be profaned by the
footsteps of an invading foe. The Resident at Bushire,
when the last vessels left, had been ordered to haul down
his flag, and leave the town ; together with all the Chris-
tian and American residents who were supposed to be
favourably inclined towards the British. A proclama-
tion had been issued by the governor of the province,
directing its subjects to remove into the interior, as
the Shah was determined to maintain the integrity
of the empire, and to do battle with the British.
Most of the inhabitants have accordingly moved out of
the vicinity of the expected battle-field. Troops were
being rapidly collected in the vicinity of Bushire ; about
40,000 soldiers of all arms having been moved towards
that point. Russian officers and even Russian troops
are said to form a portion of the Persian force at Bushire,
and they consequen4 hold high hopes of preven lug the
British from effecting a landing on their shores. An
island about two miles from Bushire has been fortified
with 80 guns. Works to strengthen the position are
being rapidly and vigorously executed. 111tich reliance
is seemingly placed on this fortification for keeping off
our ships from approaching the shore. It is evident,
from what is transpiring around us, that the war in which
we have just engaged will be something more than a
mere hostile demonstration. Orders have been received
by the Bombay government from Calcutta, to prepare a
reserve field farce with the utmost despatch ; and the mi-
litary departments are all now busily engaged in carrying
out these instructions. It is expected that the reserve will
be ready to sail by the time that the transp -arts return
from the Gulf ; and it is evident that the authorities are
waiting for them, as no extra freight has been taken up.
The Reserve Brigade is to consist of the let or Leslie's
troop of Horse Artillery, her Majesty's 14th Light Dra-
goons, and the 78th Highlanders, at present stationed at
Poona ; the let Company 2d Batta!ien European Foot
Artillery, from Sholapore ; the 26th Regiment N.I
from Sattara, directed to march to Poona immediately ;
and three Native Infantry Regiments from the Madras
Presidency. Should this demonstration fail in obtaining
the object desired by her Majesty's 'Government, an
aalemerik parch across Affghanistan
_into'Pe*sia, the -
Ameer Drost Mahoreed taking the same part.% lie cams
paign that the Nizam took against Tippoo Sultan. The
object of her Majesty's Government is to obtain the
cession in perpetuity of the island of Grand Ki,hma,
which is immediately on occupation to be made a free
port, and transformed into the head-quarters of her Ma-
jesty's arsenal and dockyard in the Persian Gulf. The ob-
ject appears to be to control not only Persia, but all the
trade down the Euphrates, which empties itself into the
Persian Gulf, and will soon be the highway for the trade
of the East to the West. The island commands not only
'Persia and Turkey, but Arabia, especially the trade of
Muscat and the country of the Yoseamines, so long famed
for their piracies. From the island a flotilla of steamers
would sweep away all the rade of a refractory chief in
lees than a week, and shut up all Prria, especially the
rice and fish trade, which would starve both Gamroun
and Bussorah into compliance in less than six months.
The island of Grand Kishma completely covers Ormuz,
and is capable of supporting a population of 200,000
without any foreign aid whatever.
On the western nod north-western frontiers of India,
preparation; for a cempeign are being silently but surely
made. Our agents are quietly aceomplishing their ends
in Affghanistan, Candahar, and Kelat : arid when the
storm does burst it will descend upon Persia like an
avalanche.

THE FUTURE ()F ISIA.

(From the Friend of India.)

Of all revolutions perhaps the strangest and the least
marked is the one now transacting itself in Asia. There
is little perceptible alteration. There are fewer wars than
of yore. There is no violent uprising of whole races.
There is nothing worth insertion in a telegraph bulletin.
Yet at one and the same time all the dominant races of
Asia are passing from the scene. To use an expre•4sion
we have employed before, the air is filled with the noise
of the crumbling of rotten thrones. One by one the races
which rose up to power in the wild confusion of the
thie,centh, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, are drop•
ping their sceptres into str••nger hands.
Of the north, Europe as yet knows unfortunately too

little. Its political position is the true Asian Mystery
Disraeli's followers have so long sought in vain. But the

little we do know is sufficient t;indiCate the result. The
Tartar empire is gone. Tne Russian has step by step from
Moscow to the Sea of Okhotsk swallowed the ancestral
possessions of the tribes. The Tartars who fled from
Ivan 111. in 1402 cannot fly further, for Russia has
reached theses and looks face to face with the Anglo-Saxons
in their march along the Pacific. From the North Pole
to Herat, from the Caspian to the mouth of the Amour,
the land is Russian. The Tartar can but obey the ukase
from St. Petersburg, and whatever his future destiny
must for the present be erased from the roll of the domi-
nant races of the earth.

The offshoots of his power fare even worse. He has
been conquered. They are dying of inanition, and the
vices luxury is said to in, roduce. The authority of the
Turks but nominally subsists. Their military prestige,
dec iying for a hundred years, expired with Sultan Ma•
homed. Their wealth has bee:, drained from them by

the supple slaves, the Bengalees of Europe, who hope
because they are parsimonious and pliant to wriggle back
the Empire of Byzantium. The last bond which bound
the Turks together, their fanaticism, or tse love of per.
secutiou which survive fanaticism, is crumbling under
hatti-scheriff,. Their numbers are known to be de•
clining. The race is not recruited from the desert,
and is like its own great cities rushing down. The
English press occasionally talks of the improve-
ment of Turkey. It is becoming tolerant. Is not
a church rising at Scutari ? Is not a rayah admitted into
the army Is not Layard establishirg a batik, O'Shaugh-
nessy a telegraph, and Andrews a railway ? Did not the
Sultan go to a ma,,querade ? Are not all these things the
visible signs of civilisation patent to the eyes, consola-
tory to the breeches pocket ? Possibly they may be.
They are what the nineteenth century accepts for its
mission at any rate, but as Turks and civilisation are in-
compatible, they do not greatly affect the argument.
The Greeks may prosper and grow greater, though no
effete race has ever yet revived. Turkey may be filled
with new colonies, or new races. She may be divid-
ed between France and England. She may even suc-
cumb to Russia, and under any of these changes may
advance. Turkey may improve, but the Turks receive
orders from quiet attaches in round hats. They, like the
race from whom they spruno, are losing their place on
the grand muster roll of dominion.
The Mogul, the second offshoot, vanished away a cen-
tury ago, but far to the eastward the i bird of the great
Tartar dynasties is perishing beneath our eyes. The
Chinese insurgents, their creeds, their leaders, and their
[natives, may remain inexplicable till they have won.
We may remain even ignorant of the geographical di-
rection of their conquests. But two facts are none the
less certain. They are winning. They are Chinese. The
Tartar rulers are perishing out, and whatever the fate of
China, its dynasty will not be Ilanch,w. Already the
oentral provinoes are lost. The south is kept in order
only by atrocities which seem to Europeans almost. de-
served by the cowards who can endure their perpetra-
tion. The Tartars of China are forcitsy cleansed out of
the Red Book of the world.
Three countries thus ruled apparently remain. The an-
cestry of the Indo-Chinese races may be a puzzle, Lnt if
there be truth in physiognomy, they are Calmueks. They
have the same form, the same head, the same peculiari-
ties of face which local circutn-tances do not appear to
cause. The Barman is already paralysed, and the Siamese
and Cambodian only wait in their marshes till the inevit-
able tide of progress brings them also within the red line.
Forbidden to judge foreigners without the intervention of
the consul, their claim to dominion seems but slight.
The late remaining state is Persia. That kingdom alone
in Asia was filled as well as occupied by the conquerers.
Whatever be the nature of the indigenous population, it
has become inseparanly intermixed with its rulers. The
sovereign race is scarcely a dominant race, in the sense
in which we have employed the phrase. In any sense,
however, it is decaying. Russia has its fairest provinces.
The Shah ventures to trust cities only to his sons. The
army is too disorganised to keep the Knords within
bounds; and now at the appointed time, against the will
of England and of India, we are advancing to effect a
lodgment which will terminate when the gulf is dry. Ten
years more at the present rate of advance and the Tar-
tar dynasties, the race who under one form and another
have held Asia for five centuries, will have passed from
the scene. They pass, too, almost unrecorded. Tke indi-
genous races have done much, the Tartar nothing. The
sCohvienreesiegnhsaair,e prodced a
e civilisationbutaunexcrescei.ce. on which
Turkey
key
isnotsotrheicihr
or so cultivated, has fewer cities, fewer buildings, fewer
traces of wise government than she had in the days of
her Greek emperors. The trade of India was conducted
by Ilindoos, not Tartars. It is the industry of the indi-
genous race, not the government of her conquerors,
which made her rich and fertile. In the North, where
they bad absolute possession, what have they done?
There is not one road, one bridge, one city, better than
a camp, between the Ural and Saghalien north of the
Jaxartes. Not one idea has emanated from the Steppe,
not one law, and, with the exception of a dozen soldiers,
not sine great man. Earth can spare the Tartar rulers of
Asia.

It is impossible, watching these things, to refrain from
speculation on what the end may bo. We have some
facts to guide us./ All history shuves that indigenous
Asiatic races require the direction of a dominant class.
Industrious, hardy, and with many of the qualities essen-
tial in the development of civilisation, they eeem to lack
social force. India was in the days ot Aurungzebe what
she was in the days of Ram. China is now what she
was a thousand years ago. The Greek rayahs of Turkey
are what the Greek peasant was in the days of Canta-
cuzene. Their numters even do not materially change.
They do not advance, and need the directing force of a
progressive race. It remains but to speculate on the
races to whom this high function must be assigned.
They must be European., for Itlur.,peans alone have ac-
quired the necessary superiority in amp. Off It is to
Ehuerropoecacoas.
the English and Russian., alone display capacity for the
permanent adieinislr ot sulject peoples.
their bands that we believe Asia to be entrusted. The
future may
ent b
uer predicted
ee
advance ef Russia will be checked I y no humanity and
few scruples. That of England may, but she obeys the
irresistible impe lee the in ~re thoroughif
si.e al leas;). Year y year the owe powersiclose in to-
wards each ether; and, it the m
from the experience of the past,
this quarter of the globe governed from London, Waeh-
ington, and St. Yetereburg.

TRAND T HEAT RE.—Manager, Mr. T.
Payne.—This Evening will be performed

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