The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-23 00:00:00

CHINA.

We find the following article in a recent number of
the Debats on the war in China, which is not without
interest, as showing the view taken of it by that jour-
nal. There are in it some facts which have already
been before our readers, but we could not separate
them from the comments of our Contemporary with-
out risk of giving the latter unfaithfully. The Debats
says _ _

The marvellous facility of the victories hitherto
gained by the English is easily explained by the im-
mense superiority of the arms they use. In every
action they have yet fought, excepting one, they com-
menced the attack with their vessels of war, whilst,
with their thirty and eighty pounders, they destroyed
at leisure the miserable fortifications of their enemies.
To disembark, then, and finish the rout was a mere
amusement. During the two years that the war has
lasted, the Chinese have made extraordinary im-
provements in their gunnery. In 1839, Commis-
sioner Lin promised enormous sums to any one who
would produce a 30 pounder, for it appears that then,
perhaps, not a single one could be found in the whole
of China. At present the English find in abundance
pieces of this calibre, and even greater. It is also in
vain for them to destroy ; the Chinese Government,
which is represented in the English accounts as altoge-
ther without resources, repairs and renews with won-
derful facility. If the private letters which arrive are to
be believed, there cannot be less than 400 pieces of can-
non in the fortifications which the Chinese have erected
neighbourhood of Canton, since the month of May in:the
last. With respect to portative arms, the superiority of
the. English is the same as for the larger pieces. What
can an unfortunate Chinese, embarrassed with a huge
bow six feet long, a heavy quiver, a useless shield,
and often a lance, whose only effective weapon is the
matchlock, what can such a being do against the
musket, with bayonet and percussion lock of the Eng-
lish soldier ? But, on this point, the Chinese are
also making efforts to place themselves on an equality
with their adversaries. The Government of Canton
possesses at present, it is said, 15 or 20,000 muskets
of European manufacture, which will doubtless serve
as models to Chinese industry, whose wonderful powers
of imitation are so well known. As to the source from
whence the arms are obtained, we can believe
without much difficulty the report that, for the most
part, they have not been brought directly to Canton
or Macao by European traders, but have been pur-
chased in India, Batavia, or Manilla, for the Chi-
nese, by some of those numerous colonists which are
in the habit of constantly communicating with China.
It is also said that they have got up the cannons of
the French vessel Magicienne, lost last year on the
Palavan bank, near Manilia, and that these pieces are
at present on the ramparts of Canton. In everything
relating to the art of fortification also, the same im-
provement has taken place. The English officers who
have lately: visited those works recently raised about
Canton declare that they are infinitely superior to
everything hitherto done by the Chinese. In place
of granite walls, of which the splinters are so dan-
gerous for the defenders, the ramparts are con-
structed as in Europe of earth, in which the bullet
disappears. In place of a continued wall, presenting
one line of fire to the enemy, they have now erected
works with projecting and retreating angles, al-
lowing a great mass of fire to be poured
from cross-batteries on the same point. The
report is, that these works have been con-
structed under the direction of European officers,
whose names even have reached us. To judge by the
Ho -Hong Gazette, which mentions the names of
Van Schulte, Van Bralam, and Van Schruick, these
officers must have belonged to the Dutch engineering
department. All these circumstances, joined to the
deplorable state of commercial affairs, excite serious
reflections respecting the future, and increase to the
highest degree the ill-humour of the English who are
established in China. Sir H. Pottinger, who was
welcomed, a few months ago, with such lively demon-
strations of joy, is now no better treated than was
Captain Elliott. During 1841, only fifteen millions
of pounds of- tea were exported for England, whereas,
in former years, the exports amounted to 32 or even
34 millions."