The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-01 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING,

VERLAND TO AU STR ALI A.—Packages
‘..7 for the meat Mail received at these Offices till Wednesday,
the 9th September; or until Two o'clock on Thursday, the lot,.
upon payment of 2s. 6d. extra. Specie and jewellery received till
the 10th ‘nitant.—European and Australian Royal Mail CompO.nY
(Limited), 12, St. Helen's-place, Bishopsgate, E.C.

1-1 ANK OF DEPOSIT.—This. Company was
it established in 1844, for the purpose of opening to the public
an easy and unquestionably safe mode of investment, with a high
And uniform rate of interest.
Dens t Accounts may be opened with sums of any amount, and
increased from Lime to time, at the convenience of depositors.

PAYMENT OF INTEREST.
The interest is payable in January and J. ly, and for the conve-
nience of parties residing at a distance may be received at the
Br,nch offices, or remitted through coun ry bankers.
- • PETER MORRISON',
3, Pall-m ill East, London. • Managing Director.
Forms for opening accounts, and further particulars, forwarded,
post free, on application.

JOR the SEA. SIDE.—TRAVELLING SUITS,
with Cap, complete, 2/. IBs. to Three Guineas; the Beaufort
Coat, 2/. 10s ; the new summer Trousers, One Chilnea,;;Baden
Waistcoats, Two for fine Guinea.
EXCELLENCE WITH ECONOMY.
GEORGE HOBSON, 57, Lombard-street.

DRINCE ALBERT ROAD, Hyde-park.—ln
this delightful and desirable neighbourhood are to be LET or
SOLD several select and elegantly finished Residences; their architec-
tural display is of the highest order, and the internal arrangements
are everything that can possibly be desired; in size they are suited
;or the occupancy of both the Nobleman and Gentleman, and the
stadv of comfort has been the chief object of the builder. This now
most fashionable part of London renders the locality fof these
buildings undeniable, being contiguous to Kensington-gardens, with
is beautiful walks, and Hyde-park, with its rides and drives; added
to which the salubrity of the air of Kensington-gore is proverbial-,
and considered by the faculty the most healthful in the vicinity of
the metropolis. Apply at the Office, 1, Prince Albert-Road, South
Kensington.

r•/"EASAM'S MEDICATED CREAM, for the
ut. cure of Gout, Rheumatism, Burns, Scalds, &c., removed
from 238, Strand, and 17, Bedford-street, Covent=garden, 0 more
extensive premises, 13. Catherine-street, Strand, London, where it
may be had wholesale and retail; al•o, wholesale of Messrs. Bar-
clay, Edwards, sutton, Newberry, Butler, Sanger, and Hannay,
Lou 'on ; olton, York; Campbell, Glasgow; Raimes, Edinburgh,
Liverpool, and Tork ; and retail of all sneaiclite vendors in town and
country.

AFFAIRS IN CHINA.

The following is from a letter dated Hongkong,
July 8 :
" Lord Elgin has arrived;
It was quite time that Eornothing should happen
to break the dreary monotony of existence here.
The last mail did not arrive, and we have onlyju.t
learnt that the steamer was wrecked. . The Shan-
non, which brought Lord Elgin, brought us no
news of anf.descrip ion, except that the Simoom
was gone on to Calcutta, with the troops from the
Mauritius.
'The sickly season is doing its work. Of the 600
men who now form the -strength of the 59th (a re-
giment, sent here some eight years ago) there are
150 in hospital. The proportion is still greater
among the blare jackets and marines up the river.
Happily, however. the Hongkong fever has not re-
appeared in its old terrible malignity. Although
fever, dysentery, diarrhcea, and ague are rife, deaths
are not numerous. There is plenty of hospital-
room, and the eurgeons can hold every case well in
hand. Precautions are also mult: plied with a praise-
worthy minuteness. Every sentry has sherry and
bitters given him to fortify his stomach against the
night miasma ; the ships are alternately moved
down to the healthy islands at the Bogue • and the
elpulsion of our old friend, the Mandarin Of Chuen-
pee, was because his fort wits wanted for sanitary
purposes.
The few who have escaped, and who are daring
enough to go out in the sun, try to escape from
themselves by a voyage round the island or a trip•
to Macao. I have accomplishel both these achieve-
men.s. The voyage round the island was performed
in a private pleasure steamer, and, notwithstanding
the presence of a well-filled refrigerator, was the
hottest thing I ever ditt my lifta S'anley,-ekt the
back of the island, is a native village and an English
barrack. It stands upon a pretty isthmus, withthe
Chinese Sea breathing its south-west monsoon into
its face and a tranquil, landlocked bay, rippling
against its heels. They say tha't bay is not large
enough or deep enough for the fleet of merchant-,
men. the China trade employs. It is now used as a
bathing-place for the troops, as the shelter of small
fishing craft, and as a resource of very hungry
pirates, who at night or early dawn have sometimes
dashed into the bay and attempted to carry off
fishing boats under the eyes of the garrison. It is
a voyage of 40 miles round this little Wand.
It is scarcely more to Macao, end, although the
fate of the Thistle and the Queen has rendered the
perils of that passage more notorious, I doubt
whether there are more pirates lurking in the archi-
pelago between Victoria and Macao than in the
islets at the back of Hong-Kong. While we gaily
steamed along in our little toy steamer several times
did some vicious looking junks standdown towards
us, their large mat sails looking like the wings of a
bird of prey, and heavy cannon frowning mischief
from their deck. But they always stood off again
when they found that we were a party of eight
Englishmen with revolvers in our belts and silks
lying close at hand. We grow used to precautions
in this land. Some days since I went to dinner at
a house high up upon the hill, and, expressing some
surprise at seeing all the guests solemnly depositing
their revolvers as they entered, was told that a few
weeks since a headless trunk was found in the ditch
that passes by the wall of the garden. Seven days
ago Mr. Chisholm Anstey, Her Majesty's Attorney-
General, was at Macao upon some professional bu-i-
-ness, and, going out to enjoy a swim before break-
fast, took -his comprador with him to guard his
clothes. Coming back to the city, the comprador,
who was a native of that neighbourhood, remarked
that six fellows, of whose antecedents he had some
knowledge, had posted themselves three on each
side of a narrow place which he and his master
must pass. This fact being communicated to Her
Majesty's law officer, he drew his revolver and
walked up to affront the danger. The scoundrels
retired precipitately, but with -many impreca'ions
upon their countryman, the comprador. But ah,
Chung, and Cluing, and Wang, and Lin, had you but
known how rusty and unserviceable that pistol was,
you would have come on boldly with your 15-foot
spears ; the bag of dollars would have been yours.
Why so faint-hearted ?
" Quis desiderio sit pudor ant modes
Tarn can carStis I"
That head was worth 500 dollars to you and Yeh.
The passage boats to Macao are little artnour:es.
There are cannon upon deck and revolvers in every
belt. But so it was on board the Queen when the
cannon was turned round and fired into the cabin
upon the pas=engers absorbed in tiffin. Further
precautions, however, are now taken. In the Fei
Ma the Chinese passengers are put down the hold
12 feet deep, and the ladder is taken away. A sai-
lor keeps guard over them with a drawn cutlass.
One of the Yankee shias has an iron cage on deck,
into which the Chinese passengers are invited to walk,
and are then locked up. The Pet:insular an I Orion-
ttl boat has a better 4at more coil ly precaution,
she carries no Chinese passengers. -Easy, cosy l es-
ple at home, who fear nothing but the gout or an
easterly wind, may laugh, or may even, perhaps,
be very indignant at these precautions. But two
boats out of five have Leen already-taken, and the
passengers put to death. Death at the hands of
those simple sons of civililation is Dann easy tran-
sit. The Bustard gunboat only a few days since,
on taking a pirate, found two men nailed to planks,
each with a stink-pot tied round his neck and slow
matches burning. By what torments the prisoners
taken in the Queen perished we do not know. She
was carried up that very Fatshan Creek where the
battle of the Ist of June took place. P.eces of
machinefy marked by fire were sten on a point
near the fort ; some revolvers were found in one
of the junks ; and Captain Corbett obtainecra Por-
tuguese flag from a mandarin beret which after-1
wards blew up. These circumstances do not abso-
lutely prove, but they strongly suggest, that some
scene of horrors was enacted in this spot, and that
the fleet we destroyed were spectators of the tor-
tures. Every man in that fleet has been a pirate,
and there would be no lack of proficients iu the art
of producing agony.
Such, up to the 2d of this month, were our re-
sources iu the absence of news from England, and
in our ignorance of the wreck of the Erin. With
the: rare exceptions we sit in a half torpid state
upon our verandah, or, if we have none, then on
the club verandah, and wait till the sun goes down
and the notables of the place come forth for their
half-hour's exercise. The booming of guns gives
token that General Ashburnham is exchanging
civilities with the French and American navies.
General Garrett appears on his Penang pony—
strong nerved old man, who alone, of all the new
comers, has affronted the first burst of the climate
without suffering a day's illness, who tells of Pen-
insular sieges and Crimean tattles
just as an iron
column would record them ; their dates are written
in lines upon its front, but it is tough and unworn
as when first set up. Colonels Pakentiam and
Wetherall are walking together in very good pre-
servation, and doubtless think this Chinese affair
a very small matter after the battles before Sebas-
topol. Colonel Lugard is meditating deep things
about mysteries which 1 attempt not to fathom, for
Colonel Lug ard is the head of the Engineers. I
wish he would think it necessary for some military
puraose to drive a tunnel through :this Victoria
mountain and let in the south- west monsoon. Major
Macdonald, who so promptly put Balaklava to
rights, has been at h's desk all day, and is stretch
ing right away for a rapid walk. There are others
whose names are scarcely less known to despatches,
but quos nunc perscribere longum est. The ladies
of the colony are coming forth. sparingly in pala-
quins or in pony chairs, and some of the residents
are dashing by in light four-wheeled match carts,
as though they could not get quick enough over
their two miles of gt ound. The portico of the club
has it groups of lookers-on, and in the hall there is
a little crowd surrounding the ice pails—for ices at
Hong Kong must be eaten between 6 and 7 o'clock,
or not at all.
Suddenly from the mouth of the-harbour .comes
the sound of guns. We have scarcely applied our-
selves to count them when the Calcutta opens in
a can be no doubt
any
reply, fires 19 times in measured succession ; then
after, a
longer—thepause sevengreat man
bTalsieaved. The sun
r
rriis down and the w ather has changed, the wind
m
whistles and the rain descends ; but meet of us
wait to catch a glimpse of the topmasts of the
Shannon as she steams steadily into port and comes
to anchor alongside of the flagship.
Lord Elgin has arrived in perfect health. Two
days were given to receptions on hoard. On the
third he landed under salute from all the ships and
from the fort, and the troops were turned out, and
there was a gala day, and Sir John Bowring con-
ducted him through a line of soldiers to Govern-
ment house, where he now remains a guest, and-
where dinner parties, levees, and addresses are the
order of the day.
We have therefore a Plenipotentiary whom all
parties hope and believe to be the man for the oc-
casion ; and we have leaders who, if ordered to do
so, would take 10,000 men through China from the
Yellow Sea to the Himalaya, but we have not got
the 10,000 men.
It was very evident that Lord Elgin'a posisiou