The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-09 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION.

Standard-office, Eleven o'clock.

EXTRAORDINARY EXPRESS FROM INDIA.

INDIAN MAIL.

(From a Fourth Edition (f the Times of Yesterday.)

We have received by a second extraordinaty express the
Indian mail, with despatches and journals, which left Bom-
bay on the 30th April.

The troops to form the expedition against China were em-
barked at Madras on the 16th of April on board the John
Adam and Rustomsjee Cowojee without a single accident,
and all the other preparatoi r measures were in progress.
On their side the Chinese displayed activity and determi-
nation. The accounts from China, brought by these papers
and correspondence, come down to the 13th of March. They
state that an order of the Emperor for suspending trade with
all foreign nations, without exception, reached Canton on the
12th of Februat y. The Emperor, moreover, ordered Com-
missioner Lin to give effect to that interdict, without refer-
ring to the Government at Pekin. Several attempts to burn
the Brit;sh fleet Toonkoo Bay were made by the Chinese,
but they miserably failed.
Many Chinese famiiies were f1!,;,,g from Nivea°.
In the mean time a spirit of dis..ontent and rebellion,
among the inhabitatts of Pekin nod of the second capital
Moukden, has excited considerable alarm, and several of the
mandarins have been degraded for having neglected to seize
the c:iminals.

CHINA.
ATTEMPT OF THE CIIINESE TO BURN THE BRITISH FLEET

IN TOONGXOO BAY.

About ten o'clock on Friday morning two small junks
were observed to arrive among the shipping in Toongkoo
Bay. About half-past oat: on Saturday morning, they were
observed coming down from the eastern end of the bay in
flames ; but the wind being too southerly, they drifted in-
shore of the shipping, through the mass of small Chinese
boats and foreign schooners : one touched the Devil schooner,
and set fire to ber forward ; but the crew succeeded in extin-
guishing the tire with the loss of the jib and damage to the
bowsprit. These junks, or rafts, were filled with ail kinds of
combustibles, cotton, oil, bamboo fans, or rather tubes,
thickly mounted in several tiers, that threw out fire balls as
the fire reached them. Some of the ships slipped their ca-
bles, and the Cawasjee Family was aground for a few hours,
but without receiving any damage. It is the opinion of an
experienced eye—witness that had there been 20 such junks
chained together, the shipping would have been greatly
injured.

This abortive attempt, however, has had the good effect of
awakening the captains and officers of the ships to the danger
to which they are exposed, and they are therefore more on
the alert ; several have bent sails, shifted their berths, and
got springs on their cables.
Since writing the above we have been told another attempt
was made to burn the fleet on the succeeding night, but,
from some unknown cause, vs not persevered in.—Canton
Register, March 3.
On Friday night, the Bth of February, at about 10 o'clock,
two junks on fire, to which a number of smaller boats
filled with combustibles were attached, were seen to drift
towards the shipping from the Cap-sing-moon passage,
but wind and tide carried them clear of the shipping,
nearer in shore, among a number of small Chinese boats,
some of which we hear were burnt. The only damage
sustained was by the schooner Devil having her jib and
bowsprit set on fire, which was, however, soon extinguished,
and by the Cowasjee Family, in slipping her cable to avoid
the fire-ships, having got ground, but got off again with-
out sustaining ally damage. We hear the boats of Her
Majesty's ship Volage were employed in towing these fire
ships out of the line of danger. They burnt out, after
having drifted on shore without explosion, though, it is said,
they were filled with bamboos stuffed with gunpowder,
broken glass, small stones, &c. On the following night
another attempt at firing the fleet was made, but without suc-
cess. The tide on Friday night was very low, and the wea-
ther fine, two circumstances much in favour of the fleet,
which might have suffered considerably had the attempt of
the Chinese been on a larger scale and better managed. As
it is, however, this first trial will but too likely be followed
by others which may possibly be more dangerous, the Chinese
from experience being enabled to give a truer direction to
their fireships ; and it is hardly necessary in us to recommend
the greatest vigilance.—Canton Press, Marehl.
A memorial had been issued from the Grand Military
Council, addressed to bin, Viceroy of Kwantung and
Qwangse, recommending the massacre of the English, and
the stoppage of the foreign trade.