The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-10 00:00:00

CHINA.

The latest China date is the 7th of June. The
intelligence of most importance is the capture of
Chatioo, the mart of the China trade with Japan.
It apilFars from the following accounts that the
place was taken without the loss of a single ,man,
but unfortunately a rencontre occurred berween
300 Tartars and a small British force, in which
one officer and ten men were killed, and several
wounded.
A great many transports, steamers, and several
ships of War, had arrived at Hong-Kong. The
first division of the reinforcements, consisting of
the tndymion frigate, three steamers, and. seven
transports, bad sailed for the northward, and the
others would be dispatched with as little loss CJ
time as possible. Sir Henry Pottinger was
still at Hong-Kong, and was to proceed to
the northward in a few days in time steamer
Auckland. Nothing authentic has transpired
as to the plan of the approaching cam-
pain. Some are of opinion that the Yang-
tse:keang and the -.Great Canal are to be
the points of attack, and- not .Pekin. Others,
with perhaps greater probabiiity, think ghat
Pekin is the object at• which the cfforis of our

noorrnecrtni r
capitaletna icntoawte. snore ,13c
troops are to be where they will either
is
frighten the Emperor beyond the great wall, or
drivea
sh tit ;!,
aanye
e
that
than ever before an o:wet of attention,
attract-
ing alike all eyes, foreign as well as native, far
and near. At Tientsen, and all along the Penn),
from the sea to the cJpital, the Chinese have
made great preparations for defence. The forts
are reported to be more than a hundred in num-
ber, and the troops almost innumerable. No-
thing of this, however, appears in the Pekilly-
Gazettes, which, down to about the middle of
April, are filled with the usual memorials, edicts,
notificationSof new appointments,&c. The rumour
that the Eniperor had fiedfrom Pekin into Tartary
is not confirmed. The monarchs of the reigning
dynasty have beenaccustomedgenerally to spend
the hot season at Moukden, in Mantchourie, tint
ancient residence of their 1111114; a practice-for
some years fliscontinued by the present -Em-
peror. Whether the advent of the British ar-
mament may induce him to resume the practice
remains to be seen. The original sentence
passed upon Lin, namely; banishment to Ele,
" the cold country," has bee:' carried into exe-
cution. Keshen has been baulAed to Mant-
, chouria, and old Elepu sent again to liekeang.7
In the south the British authoritie;
averse to commit themselves to measures that
might require the retention of a large force, ha's,
permitted the Chinese to rebuild their defences ;
and from a little above Whampoa, upwards,
Canton and its approaches are more strongly for-
tified than ever befbre.
Chusan has been virtually abandoned to the
Chinese Government, and it must be recaptured.
Her Majesty's present Government, it is painful
to know, have not rectified the blunder com-
mitted by their predecessors in dividing the re-
sponsibility of the different heads of the expe-
dition. Sir Henry Pottinger, it seems, can only
advise with Sir Hugh Gough and Sir V. Parker,
not control them. As it is, there is every pro-
bability that the present season will not witness
the conclusion of the enterprise, and that it may
he spun out to a fourth year, and thus entail on
England the expense of the vast armament
now in China during another twelvemaonths.
The settlement on the island of Hong-Kong
appears to progress rapidly, so far as the
erection of private buildings is concerned ; it has,
however, been ordered by the higher authorities
to be held only as a military post. All the public
works which were in progress hove been sud-
denly stopped. This seems strange and unac-
coun table.
Shipments of bullion and specie are in pro-
gress from England to China. The steamer
Memnon, has left Singapore with 150,000 Spanish
dollars on board for the public service—a prac-
tical commentary on the wisdom of Captain
Elliot in sending the Canton ransom money out
of China. The expenses incurred both ways, in
sending the treasure away, and bringing it back
again,, must be very great.

FALL OF CHAPOO.
(Letter of an Officer in the Fleet.)
OFF eIIAPOO, MAY 23.—We moved from Chusan
on the Bth, and on the 16th we reconnoitred in the
Phlegethon and Nemesis without interruption, And
satisfied ourselves of the Chinese means cf defence.
The line of land from east to west, for three miles,
ending at the suburb of the city, comprised separate
hills; the slopes between were fortified by field works,
and on the last of these hills next the town were two
batteries, about one-third up, consisting of seven and
five guns. In front of the town facing the water was
a circular battery, mounting, I suppose, fourteen or
fifteen guns, .1 further to the westward ajother,
al
together about forty-five guns on the sea face. The
hills and works appeared to be covered with soldiers.
On the 17th we moved in ; and on the 18th the Corn-
wallis, Blonde, and Modeste, being anchored abreast
and as close to the battery as possible, opened their
fire, which was very faintly returned. To
our right (eastward) the troops disembarked
on a fine sandy bay without accident, and headed by
the gallant Sir Ilugh, pushed on over the heights,
and soon came upon a causeway leading to the city.
The Chinese fled before them in every direction. As
soon as possible after the troops moved from the east,
the naval brigade landed at the west end of the
heights, and joined the troops between the heights and
the suburbs.: Up to this time every defence had been
ctraororpiesd,
finding
with scarcely
impossible,yanyloss;but about 300 Tartar
and being inspired
with the idea that the English would give no quarter*
took possession of a joss-house on the spot, defending-
themselves most desperately ; and it was not until the
house fell upon them that about forty were taken—
the rest perished.
in this affair we have met with a very severe loss.
Colonel Tomlinson, of the 18th, and eight men of the
army, killed. Colonel Mountain, the Adjutant-Ge-
neral; Campbell, 55th; and Jodell, 49th, wounded
severely ; and 45 men. The Navy—Two killed and
four wounded. The Chinese had about 10,000 men,
one-third Tartar troops. We captured an immense
quantity of arms of all sorts.- -Bombay Times, Aug. 17.

POSITIONS of the BRITISH and CHINESE
FORCES.--CHAPOO and HANG-CHOW.
Hangchan lies on the north bank of the river
Tsientang, at a point where that river, after a rapid
course from the southward and westward, through •
the western districts of the province, begins to open
out and form a wide embouchure towards the sea.
" The tide when full," says Sir G. Staunton, in his
account of , Macartney's embassy, " increases the
width of this river to about four miles opposite the
city. At low water there is a fine level of strand
near two miles broad, which extends towards. the sea
as far as the eye can reach."
On its southern shore, as we proceed eastward from
Hangchan, this swift-flowing river has deposited,
during the lapse of ages, upon the slope of a ridgenof
hills that skirt it to the southward, bank uponstrbeaanki
of sand and earth, brought down by its rapid
the off-branches of the Himalayas) wheroefm h
hardened
from the high mountain range (one of the. o Ittm. oasstiotsf
source. Under the triple distinctiot
in its progress
centuries have so narrowed the stirteanhins
been left on
onward, that the deep channel th.
ground, firm sands, and quick sands, nhese deposits of
vcssels, when sent out
rapidity, which even the steam-
to
and e s rtides to stem.
. .
on its northern edge. has been found to flow with a
survey, were unable durin) .p . .
built kept m repair with
ne
as of
from
:Chinese en-
gineering c
the
:Isel taoenbnnnecurcroaf: "II
de:ft
s,
serves, on the northern bank, to keep
gineerine• skill,
u tonfi orisLerxnenrdtios
the gene •
rally flat country that lies between this place and the
Yangstz' kiang—a country everywhere intersected
with streams, rendering it rich and fertile in the highest
degree, and, at the same time, sufficiently diversified
make
with hills to add beauty to the scene, and to it
in all respects one of the most lovely and interesting
parts in the whole empire of
China.
The sand-banks on the southern shore
to Chinhai, not many miles to-the reach nearly -e
westward of which
the unfortunate ship Kite was l
crew conveyed to Tszli and Yost in
1840, and her
Ningpo. The river Tsaungo, uyan, and thence to -
the Chekiang province, rising in the centre of
straight line, into th ngo,
e flows northward, almost in or
embouchure of the Tsientang
or liangchan river . •
the line of these and thus makes a slight break iir
sand•banl is,-to examine which Com-
mander Collinson has recently been sent out, but
with what success
to learn. he has met we have yet
~nCommunicating, too, with the river
of
B" gpo by means of a canal, that ex-
tends likewise from the Tsaungo, westward past the
city of Shanhing, and ends at a place directly
.oppo-
site to liangchan a line of communication by inland
waters is thus afforded between the British position bf
Chinghai and Ningpo, and the head quarters of the
Chinese force at that provincial capital—a line which
has been twice described to us—first by the PP.
Bouvet, Fontenay, and others, on their route from
Ningpo by way of llangchan to Pekin in 1687
and then, by a portion of Lord Macartney's embassy,
proceeding in an opposite direction, from Hangchan
to rejoin their ship at Chusan, in 1793. The em-
bankment and causeway, on the.northern shore of the
Tsientang river and embouchure, extend from Hang-
chat), with little interruption, to the knot of hills that
encircles the bay and town of Chapoo, passing by the
ancient Capra (Kanpu) of Mohammedan travellers,
before it reaches this the modern seat of the rich trade
with Japan ; and nearly parallel with this road runs
a canal, its banks adorned at short distances with pret-
tily wooded villages.
Ve have thus three modes of approaching Hang'

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