The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-07 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS-FRIDAY.

After the presentation of numerous petitions on the subject
of the corn laws, church extension, &c,

Mr. PAKINGTON asked Lord John Russellwhetber he bad
applied to the law officers of the crown for their Opinion as
to whether the thirty days required by the constitutional act
of Canada, during which the clergy reserves bill should re-
main on the table of both houses of Parliament, wouldinclude
the time during the holidays.

Lord J. RussaLL answered that he had not made such
application, but the opinion of the government was that the
thirty days comprised any time during which the house might
be sitting, or might be adjourned by a resolution of them-
selves. He intended however, to allow the fortnight, during
which it was probable the house might be adjourned, and
also the thirty days required by the act, and then to take the
opinion of the law officers of the crown before he advised
the crown to give its consent to the bill.
Mr. PAKINGTON asked whether the government was in
possession of any further information with regard to the
ordinance of the Governor-General of Canada, with respect
to the incorporation of the monks of St. Sulpice, and whether
that ordinance would receive assent. He wished to know
whether memorials had not been presented by the landowners
in and about Montreal, in opposition to the proposed ar-
rangement.

Lord J. RUSSELL said that the Governor-General had
acted under the provisions of the act of parliament.
Lord SAN DON inquired whether the ordinance would be
allowed or disallowed by government.
Lord J. RUSSELL believed that there was no objection to
it, but that it had not yet received consideration.
The order of the day for the attendance of Mr. Sheriff
Evans on the 6th of April (Monday) having been read,,
Lord J. RUSSELL said he trusted that he should not have
to renew the discussion on this subject. He hoped the other
house of parliament would give their assent to the bill which
had been sent up to them. Its second reading was fixed for
Monday. He should move, therefore, that the order be
discharged, and that Mr. Sheriff Evans be ordered to attend
the house on the 6th May, by which time he anticipated that
the bill would have passed into law.
The motion was then agreed to, and the sheriff continues
" at large" until the Gth of the next month.
During the evening the committee on the subject of the
affairs of China, with regard to the trade in opium, was
nominated.

The debate on Mr. Villiers' motion respecting the "corn
laws" was again resumed, Mr. Brotherton opening the third
night's debate.

The house was eventually adjourned until Monday, after
considerable confusion, and amidst loud laughter, as the
question now will be, how to resume the debate, as this was
not adjourned.

THE "DUCHESS OF INVERNESS?"

(From the Morning Herald.)

In our paper of yesterday, we inserted some brief com-
ments on a very astounding announcement which had ap-
peared in the London Gazette of the preceding evening.
That announcement apprised the British people that her
Majesty had been pleased to grant the dignity of a duchess
" to the right hon. Lady Cecilia Letitia Underwood (eldest
surviving daughter of Arthur Saunders, second Earl of
Arran, by Elizabeth, his third wife, daughter of Richard
Underwood, late of the city of Dublin, Esq.), and the heirs
male of her body, lawfully begotten, by the name, style, and
title of Duchess of Inverness." We will not stop to quarrel
with the oddity of a patent of nobility, which, in express
terms grants to any future " Master Saunders," who shall
be entitled as legitimate heir male, the said dignity of a
duchess(!) and we repeat that we desire "not to question
her Majesty's right to elevate to the dignity of the peerage
whomsoever her Majesty pleases." And this is constitu-
tional doctrine. "The Crown is the fountain of honour,"
said the sages of the English law before the days even of
Bracton or of Fleta ; and it is a maxim as true in English
jurisprudence as it is dear to English loyalty.
The principle of loyalty has, down to our times, retained
so much of strength end freshness, that it has sometimes
seemed too active and flourishing, when crown-descended
honours have been diverted into worthless channels, or
poured into polluted courses. If, however, it has not
"withered, drooped, and died" over these occasional aber-
rations of the Sovereign's grace, its permanency and health-
fulness may be ascribed to its own deep-seated conviction
that such cases were but unhappy exceptions to the general
principle which had formerly regulated the distribution of the
waters of so noble a source. English loyalty was ever full of
faith, and amidst the corruption and venal patronage pro-
fuse)y, encouraged and distributed by the profligate Jameses
and'eharlese4, it looked forward to better times and juster
and more upright peince4. It found them in the reigns and
the persons of William- ICI., and of the second, third, and
the fourth In, somq of Arse reigns do we remem-
ber that the bacUliteceddritlar !Gebr;,,,p 1., in the creation of
his mistress to be.Dunhess of Kingston, was followed. The
next notable creation of. this kind was that df' a late reign—
the Duchess of Sutherland. That was a case in which it
was little possible for the prerogative of the CrOikar to add to
the hereditary rank and station of one of the noblest of Bri-
tish matrons. Tile' good and venerable " Duchess Coun-
tess" boasted a descent from the noblest houses of Scotland.
and England, through an unbroken lineage of 800 years.
Her own fortune was regal, independently of the enormous
wealth of her excellent lord ; and both of them, not less by
the unsullied purity of their private characters, their high
attainments, their virtues, and their munificence, than by the
lustre of their public position (eminent as this was in every
attribute of title, influence, and the respect of ail classes),
did honour to the station which they filled. The third coin-
age of a new duchess, to which we shall adiert, is this of the
Lady Cecilia Letitia Underwood.
If these creations are so rare in the annals of our peerage,
we may, without the slightest imaginable disrespect to the
sovereign, be allowed to speculate a little as to what can have
been the reasons which have guided the grace of the throne
in so remarkable a visitation upon the person of her ladyship.
" Remarkable," in truth, is but a weak term. It is almost

miraculous. If it was the glory of the r` Divine
according to the legend, " to draw down an angel from the
skies," to listen to her organ playing, what organs must this
Cecilia (Letitia) have possessed to drawn down upon herself
the ecstasy of a tangible duchess-ship ! Now, in these for-
tunate days of whis- ascendancy, in this bright age of liberal
opinions, it can not only be improper in us, or derogatory to
the lady, or offensive to the crown, to enter into the consi-
deration of the probable reasons which may have dictated
this selection of an object for the highest exercise of grace
and favour which it was in the power of the Queen to bestow
on any female subject; but we should expect to be taunted
with the charge of having deserted our duty by the organs of
that ascendancy, and of these opinions, if we did not endea-
vour to elicit the facts. Besides, the crown itself, and the
powers nearest to the crown, must be anxious that the mo-
tives of such especial distinctions should be known; and,
indeed, in modern times these motives generally are either
distinctly proclaimed, or permitted to be inferred from data,
not very likely to be mistaken. That was but a sorry reign
for this country (and we hope never to live to hear its autho-
rity quoted in the way of precedents for royal patents,) when
the sovereign, being assured that he need give no reasons to
the world for the most extravagant acts of his favour, created
one mistress a " Duchess " of Portsmouth, and another a
Duchess of Richmond. We have fallen upon other days.
Public opinion has, to a vast extent, usurped prerogative
royal. This change in many instances, under many phases
of circumstances, may be a change of uncertain tendencies.
It may be for good or for evil. But, be it for evil or for
good, to this extent it is omnipotent—it will not permit even
the personal prepossessions of the sovereign to compromise
the interests of public safety or of public morality.
We feel, we know, how unnecessary it is for us to renew,
at this time, the expression of our unfeigned, devoted, and
affectionate attachment to the youthful and intelligent pos-
sessor of the crown of these realms. But the reflections to
which the recent " creation" has given rise in our minds,
are heightened in their character of solicitudb and earnest-
ness by the very intensity of that devotion. Shall we not,
then, proceed to discover, first, the possible effect of this
creation ; secondly, the possible identity of the party en-
nobled? Wherefore' should we abstain in performing this
duty to the public?
And first, as to the possible effect of this creation. If it
had been determined upon with a view to do honour to some
bright exercise of those female virtues of which our lovely
Queen presents in her own person so signal an example--if it
have been bestowed as a tribute to that maternal solicitude
for the_ pure, and careful, and enlightened education of off-
spring, which her Majesty'S illustrious mother has so suc-
cessfully exhibited in the superintendence and direction of
her Majesty's own studies—if it have been granted as an ac-
knowledgment of that touching devotion to the last hours,
and the solace of the last pangs of a fond and confiding hus-
band, which Englishwomen, like Lady Dover, or princesses,
like Queen Adelaide, have manifested under circumstances
worthy of higher honours than courts or crowns can give,—
in auy of these cases the creation may reflect even greater
lustre on the Sovereign, than the Sovereign can confer, by
her own act of grace upon the object of it.
But, in order to judge of the possible effect of the creation
just announced, subject, as it thus appears, to such conside-
rations, we must proceed to look at,
Secondly, the possible identity of the party ennobled.
And we assume, for the reasons adduced by us yesterday,
that the modern Cecilia (Letitia) is no other than " the
daughter of the late Earl of Arran, whose family name was
Gore ; whose mother's name was Underwood ; that, in 1815,
Lady Cecilia Gore espoused (forgive us, Clio !) Sir George
Buggin, Knight I' and, under the latter name, was subse-
quently known in the fashionable world, at a period when her
ladyship's acquaintance with his Royal Highness the Duke
of Sussex became matter of some notoriety." If this be so,
and no other circumstances of a later date have altered the
legal status of the lady, we must condemn the creation of
duchess in her favour as a most Stuart-like, most unaccount-
able, most capricious exercise of the Royal favour.
If other circumstances have since occurred to alter her legal
status, why are not these set out in the Gazette, to account
for the transformation of Lady Cecilia Letitia Gore Buggin
into Lady C. G. (no Buggin) Unuerwoo .? Did Lady Bug-
gin (her Grace of Inverness will forgive us) ever marry, at
all, after Sir George Buggin's death?
Did she marry an " Underwood"—so as to have legally
sunk in that kindred shelter the horrid memory of (the name
and she has
happened,
of)fh enre
ihtuh ser band,of
tthhees
eattorney kr
eniaigthyt ?
ceased to be " Lady Buggin,'
Whom did she marry?

With happy taste—as a compliment to the most decorous
people in the world—the title created for her is a proud and
an eminently Scotch title, Duchess of Inverness.
The Duke of Sussex is Earl of Inverness.
Is the duchy attributed to Lady Cecilia Gore Buggin Un.
derwood in consideration of any claim arising out of a legal
or quasi legal connection with his Royal Highness ? or is it a
mere compliment to a long-accustomed inmate of his Royal
Highness's bower at Kensington? Doubtless, in reference
to the wording of the grant, the connection is legal or quasi
legal ; hut the " heirs male of her body, lawfully begotten ?"
youngthese? Bugginses, or little Underwoods, or grandson Saun-
s, or ---. 1

,
But we cannot put the other alternative without graver
and more foreboding feelings. We have lived to hear liberal
peers and members talk of the rapid and widely-spreading
progress of the democratic principle among us, as reducing
the chances of the perpetuation of monarchy to the duration
of three lives, or 21 years. God forbid,
say we, from the
bottom of our souls! " Eato perpetua," we cry to the mo-
narchy But tamper not with the saored questions of prior
rights and legitimate descents. In an old established mo-
narchy, and a magnificent and immeasurable dominion like
that of Britain—by the side of certainty, right, and legitimate
title, all the personal curiosity or interest attaching to all the
Duchesses of Bugging Inverness that ever existed, are as the
mere office dust
oannldy sweepings
oonfs
.a cliftyt-haetyt ocranne attorney s e
reo
iceed.
tLoeitnuts asheneicgtahtehn4, all other interrogatories, and all reasoning
upon them, are " leather and prunella."
Is the Duke of Sussex married to the new Duchess of In-
verness (Buggins) ?
Are there male issue of this marriage (such issue, of course,
if existing, are lawfully begott4n) ?

Unless his royal highness could show a written despensa.
don front the crown, such a marriage is clearly invalid, be-
cause it vas, ab hallo, illegal, against an express statute.
Hear what Blackstone says of the I2th GeO. iii.—
" And now, by statute 12 Geo. iii. c. 11, no descendant
of the body of king George iii. (other than the issue of prin-
cesses married into foreign families) is capable of contracting
matrimony without the previous consent of the king, signified
under the great seal ; and any marriage contracted without
such consent is void."—Blackstone 's Commentaries, vol. i,
p. 22(y.

We are pretty safe in broadly affirming that no such certi-
ficate of consent has ever passed the great seal. Then the
marriage would be illegal. Then the public will he prone to
ask why so extravagant a grant should emanate from the
throne, in favor of any already, or here after to be, born
Bugginses, or Invernesses ? If the lady be not the rightful
wife of the Duke of Sussex, this is a sort of sacrifice to the
lucky genius of the house of Buggins which even the house of
Saxe Coburg might envy !
Take the other alternative. Is the Duchess of Inverness
the lawful wife of the Duke of Sussex ? 'Why in that case,
these enormous honours to the widow of the Hatton-garden
attorney, which were denied to the high-born exemplary wo-
man, Lady Augusta Murray, whose marriage with the Duke
of Sussex, duly celebrated by a protestant clergyman at
Rome, was clearly, qouad the effect upon it of the 12th Geo.
iii. legal ; because the purview of that statute does not ex-
tend to marriages celebrated de/fors the British dominions ?
That marriage was further confirmed by a repetition of so-
lemnisation according to the forms of the English established
church, in England, at a subsequent period, though it may
be doubted, on the highest authorities of the ecclesiastical
courts, whether such marriage, being in all other respects le-
gal according to the forms or dispensations of the foreign state
in which it was first celebrateed, needed this additional solem •
nity. If the marriage with the beautiful and accomplished
Lady Augusta was legal, why are the honours now destined
for the Bugginses (for aught that appears) withheld from the
admirable, the excellent issue of that marriage, the accom-
plished gentleman and soldier, Sir Augustus D'Este, and his
virtuous and high minded sister, Lady Augusta ?
If the Duke of Sussex be married to Lady Cecilia Letitia
G. 1.". 8., Duchess of Inverness, and the defect of any such
consent of the sovereign, signified under the great seal, as is
required by the Royal Marriage Act, had not invalidated the
marriage, how can the legality of his royal highness's prior
marriage with Lady Augusta Murray be disputed ?
If the marriage with Lady Augusta was valid, what pre-
tence, what reason, what explanation, can be assigned to the
British public for this inexplicable preference of the Bug-
ginses over the D'Estes ?
Truly it excites some misgivings in our mind when we
collate with this astounding patent to Lady Cecilia, the al-
most over-acted, impetuous affection and profound reverence
of his royal highness fin- and to the sovereign of these realms,
on the three memorable occasions of her majesty's first
meeting her parliament, her majesty's coronation, and her
majesty's marriage. A. lively hope of " grace to come" is a
wondrous gout-curer !

Again, what did Mr. Gillon's motion portend, at the close
of a former session, when he expatiated on his royal high-
ness's ill-paid state; and after showing how he had got in-
volved, from sheer disinterestedness, in the discharge of the
duties of President of the Royal Society, prayed the house
to levy countervailing " duties" on the people to the tune
0fX6,000 or £B,OOO a-year, in the shape of an addition to
the duke's income? Is this proposition, then, repudiated
very unequivocally by the House of Commons, to be brought
on again under the more insulting suggestion of expediency
of providing for the descendants of the relict of the knighted
attorney? And if this ever be done, can any man guarantee
us against a similar application, some fine morning, on be-
half of a sister connection—of which fame speaks odd things ?
What pass arc matters now come to ? How far does our
" socialist" premier mean to shock the ancient purity of Eng-
lish society ? With what further sacrifice of the decorums
and decencies of life, after presenting Owen to his Queen,
will this reckless lord be satisfied ?

We bid him to beware. It is a dangerous experiment
which we apprehend. On the one hand, however, we shall
never cease to suggest that justice, generosity, and honour,
are first to be satisfied to the D'Estes ; and that hitherto
we know of no such case made out for the Bugginscs. On
the other hand, we solemnly and with deep respect submit
to that high tribunal, from which on earth such honours
flow, that had they been devoted in a divided appropriation
to the two D'Estes, and the reparation of the insulted cha-
racter and sacrificed life of Lady Flora Hastings, by the dis-
tinction of her next female representative, the fearful possi-
bility of all questions of a doubtful succession hereafter, and
the hazard of public disgust at present, might have been
avoided or overcome.

STATIONS OF THE BRITISH ARMY,

ON THE ls? OF APRIL, 1840.

(From the United Service Journal.)

[Where two places are mentioned, the last-named is that at which
the Dep6t of the Regiment is stationed.]

Ist Life Guards—Hyde Park 40th Foot—Bombay ; Chatham
2d—Windsor 41st—Madras; Chatham
Royal Horse Guards—Reg. Park 42d—Templemore
Ist Dragn Gds.—Canada; York 43d—Canada; Naas
2d—Glasgow 44th—Bengal ; Chatham
3d—Edinburgh 45th—Newport
4th—Birmingham 46th—Gibraltar; Jersey
sth—Nottingham 47th—Malta, Inniskillen
6th—Manchester
7th—Leeds 49th
--BGeibnralgalta; re;
Chatham
Ist Dragoons—Sheffield 50th—N.S.Wales ; Chatham
2d—Ballincollig 51st—V. D. Land ; Chatham
3d—Bengal 52d—West Indies ; Armagh
4th—Bombay 53P—Ionian Isles; Plymouth
6th—Dublin 5 Ith—Madras ; Chatham
7th Hussars—Canada; York 55th—Madras ; Chatham
Bth—Leeds 56tht—Jamaica ; Belfast
9th Lancers—lpswich 57th-Madras; Chatham
10th Hussars—Dorchester 58th—Portsmouth
11th. Light Dragoons—Cantrbry 59th—Malta ; Tralee
12th Lancers—Brighton 60th*(1st battaln.)—lonian Isles
13th Light Dragoons—Madras Birr
14th—Hounslow (2d batt.)—lon. Isles; Clonmel
15th Hussars—Bombay 61st—Winchester
16th Lancers—Bengal 62d—Madras ; Chatham
17th Lancers—Dundalk 63d—Madras ; Chatham
Grenadier Guards (Ist batt.) 64th—Jamaica ; Boyle
Port man Barracks 65th—Canada; Clare Castle
(2d batt.)—Canada 66th—Canada ; Kinsale
(3d batt.)—Wellington Barracks 67tht—West Indies; Cork
Coldstream Guards—(lst batt.) 68th—Jamaica ; Cork
St. John's Wood 69th—America; Youghall
(3d batt.)—Canada 70th—W. Indies ; Fermoy
Scotch Fusileer Guards—(lst batt)7lst —Canada ; Stirling
St. George's Barracks 72(1.—Cape of G. Hope ; Dundee
(2d batt.)—Tower 73d—Canada ; Sheerness
Ist Foot (Ist batt.)—Gibraltar 74th—West Indies; Fermoy
(2d batt.)—Canada 75th—C. of G. Hope ; Plymouth
3d Foot—Bombay ; Chatham 76th—West Indies , Enniskillen
3d—Bengal; Chatham 77th—Malta; Hull
4th—Madras ; Chatham 78th—Edinburgh
sth—lonian Isles; Galway 79th—Manchester
6th—Bombay; Chatham 80th—N. S. Wales ; Chatham
7th—Gibraltar; Cork 81st—Barbadoes ; Hull
82d—Jamaica; Portsmouth
Bth—America; Guernsey
9th—Bengal; Chatham 83d—Canada; Belfast
10th—Burnley 84th—Kilkenny
11th—Canada; Gosport 85th—Canada; Pl7mouth
12th—Mauritius; Brecon 86th—Bolton
13th—Bengal; Chatham 87th—Mauritius; Dublin
14th—West Indies ; Chester 88th—Dublin
15th—Canada; Plymouth 59th—West Indies ; Gosport
16th—Bengal ; Chatham 90th—Ceylon ; Dover
17th—Bombay; Chatham 91st—Cape&St.Helena; Aberdeen
18th—Bombay ; Chatham 92d—Malta ; Birr
19th—Bristol 93d—America; Fort St. George
20th—Stockport 94th—Madras; Chatham
21st—Bengal • Chatham 95th—Ceylon • Carlisle

22d—Dublin - - 96th:—M'ancliester
23d—America; Castlebar 97th—Dublin
24th—Canada; Cork 98th—Newcastle-on-Tyne
25th—C. Good Hope ; Devonport 99th—Athlone
26th—Bengal; Chatham Rifle Brigade (Ist batt)—Weedon
27th—C. Good Hope ; Wexford (2d batt.)—Windsor
28th—N. S. Wales; Chatham Royal Staff Corps—Hythe
29th—Woolwich Ist W. Ind. Regt.—Demerara, &c.
30th—Bermuda ; Newry 2d—New Providence & Honcuras
31st—Bengal; Chatham Ceylon Rifle Regiment—Ceylon
32d—Canada ; Cork Cape Mounted Riflemen—Cape of
33d—Gibraltar; Tynemouth Good Hope
34th—Canada; Chatham Royal African Colonial Corps-
35th—Mauritius; Chatham Sierra Leone
36th—America ; Limerick Royal Newfd. Veteran Company-
37th—America; Waterford Newfoundland
38th— Limerick Royal Malta Fencibles—Malts.
39th—Madras ; Chatham
* Ordered home. t The 56th and 67th are to go to Canada
2 Ordered to New South Wales.

SECOND EDITION.

Standard-office, Eleven o'clock.

ARRIVAL OF THE INDIA MAIL.

NEWS FROM CHINA AND INDIA.

(Prom' a Second Edition of the Morning Post.)

By an extraordinary express from Marseilles and Paris,
we have received our letters and journals brought by the
Atalanta steamer. Our dates from Bombay are Feb. 29,
China Jan. 7, and Calcutta Feb. 16. The following is the
letter of our Bombay correspondent

Bombay, Feb. 29.
The accounts from China. which are to the 7th of January,
continue of the same unfavourable complexion as those pre-
viously received. The reports which were previously in circu-
lation respecting the imperial displeasure at the failure of
the Commissioner Lin's attempt to eradicate the traffic in
opium turns out to be totally unfounded. His master's con-
fidence in him is unshaken, and instead of being degraded,
as reported in the Canton papers, he had received additional

.
marks of the imperial favour. The decisive measure adopted
by Lin of excluding British commerce for ever from the em
pire has received the approbation of'the emperor, and the
commissioner has not only been relieved from all the respon-
sibility of the ordinance, but the power of modifying it has
been taken out of his hands ; and he is thus precluded from
entering into any negotiations for the restoration of our
intercourse, all of which must be henceforth directed at once
to the court at Pekin, and not to its minister at Canton.
Before the Emperor's pleasure had been know, the com-
missioner issued a fresh edict (a copy of which I transmit
herewith), prohibiting the evasion of the new law by the
transhipment of British goods to foreign bottoms, to be con-
veyed to Canton under the protection of a foreign flag, to do
so. The Captain of every American and other foreign ship,
before being permitted to enter the port of Canton, was re-
quired to give bond to the following effect :—" If have
got on board the goods and merchandise of any ship belong-
to the English nation, no matter whether taken on board
within or without the Grand Ladrone Island, or on the high
seas, or at Singapore, or at Penang, or at Manilla, or while
touching at any other of these foreign possessions. If any
thing of the kind be found on board, we are hereby perfectly
willing that both ship and cargo be confiscated."
The Thomas Coutts had commenced taking in her home-
ward cargo, and was expected to leave about the end of
January. She was being loaded by the merchants at the rate
of £8 to £9 per ton. The Royal Saxon, Captain Towns,
had also succeeded in getting up to Whampoa. It appears
her Majesty's ships Volage and Hyacinth had left their an-
chorage at Tankoo, and repaired to Macao, for what reason
does not appear, unless to enjoy Christmas-day at that place ;
and the captain of the Royal Saxon took advantage of their
absence and entered within the Bogue, of course having pre-
. viously signed the required bonds. Connected with this
event is the capture by the Chinese of Captain Gribble,
of the firm of Gribble, Hughes, and Co., who proceeded
after the Royal Saxon in a Chinese fast boat for the
purpose of putting a tea taster 'on. board, which, having
accomplished, as he was returning to the fleet his boat was
seen and chased by a Mandarin boat with about fifty rowers,
and was overtaken close to the shore—himself taken out and
carried away—but all his Chinamen escaped by jumping
overboard and wading ashore. On the circumstance being
made known, a number of the boats of the fleet at Tangkoo
was manned with the greatest promptitude and went in pur-
suit, but failed to come up with the boat. On the 3rd of
January it was ascertained that Captain Gribble was in con-
finement at Canton,'and it was expected that he would be
immediately released therefrom by the Commissioner.
The officer and crew of the Sunda, wrecked on the coast
of the Haman, had been conveyed to Canton, where they
were at once admitted into the city, and introduced to the
Commissioner and all the other public authorities. They
were treated with great kindness; the sailors were regaled
with a pork feast, and the whole party was sent on to the,
English fleet without detriment. Lin talked much with the
captain, and was greatly delighted with Mr. Thelwall's book
against opium, a copy of which appears to have been on board,
and which was read to him, it is stated by a cabin boy. He
is also reported to have said that notwithstandidg all that had
passed, the English might return, if they would engage in
the lawful trade ; but this is inconsistant with the edict of
eternal exclusion, to which he had obtained the Emperor's
sanction. a
The late conduct of Captain Elliott seems inexplicable
even making every allowance—and great allowances ought t
be made—for the difficulties of his position. He appears to
have made an attempt at reconciliation, which has only
afforded a fresh opportunity to Lin to degrade him still fur-
ther. This vacillating conduct of the Superintendent is
lamentable, and it is matter of congratulation that all further
negociations with the Chinese will be speedily placed upon a
different basis, and entrusted to other agency,. Captain
Elllott's position has been a very difficult one, and his feel-
ings are not to be envied when the accounts of the dishonour
his bills have met with from the British Government shall
have reached him.

A very great error appears to be prevalent in England in as-
suming that the opium trade was the sole cause of the late
crisis in China. It undoubtedly accelerated it, but, inde-
pendently altogether of matters connected with opium, the
time had arrived when the interference of our government
with respect to China was absolutely necessary to place our
relations upon a proper footing. The British Government
ought to have peremptorily interfered in 1834, on the occa-
sion of the murder (for it was little better) of their represen-
tative in China, the late lamented Lord Napier, the occur-
rences connected with which had nothing whatever to do
with opium. Nothing however was done at that time,
the attention of people in England being engrossed with
some petty affitir of politics, and the insult was tamely
submitted to. Nothing short of a crisis such as has
occurred, and the consequences of which will be felt through-
out the length and breadth of the land, was sufficient to rouse
the British Government to a sense of the importance .of the
interests at stake. _ _

With regard to the projected expedition to China, I have
not any additional particulars to communicate. •
Lord Auckland h:►s arrived at Calcutta, and in a few days
we shall hear more definitely what the plan of operations
will be.
H.M. ship Wellesley, Captain T. Maitland, having on
board Sir J. J. Gordon Bremore, commodore, commanding
the British squadron in the Indian sea, arrived at Madras on
the 11th instant, from whence she was to sail immediately
for Calcutta in order to enable the commodore to confer with
Lord Auckland, as to the measures to be adopted in relation
to the expedition destined for Chinas.
The expedition is said to consist of the following troops ;
from Bengal, her Majesty's 21st and 26th regiments of native
infantry ; from Madras one regiment of Queen's troops, four
of native infantry, one regiment of artillery, and one of en-
gineers;—from Ceylon, one regiment of Queen's troops,
total ten regiments. General Sir R. Arbuthnot, Commander-
in-Chief at Ceylon, is to command the above-mentioned
force ; and Generals Oglander and Walker are to have divi-
sions.

The expedition is not intended to arrive in China before
May next. Two vessels have been chartered each to take in
200 tons of coal and some stores, and to proceed to Madras ;
from thence receiving troops they proceed to Ceylon and
Trincomalee where they will change the troops and proceed
to China. Eight other vessels. the Ernaad fliaemar, Rai-
many, Nassurat Shaw, Indian. Oak, Ednionstone, Alla Al-
lenie, and Mahomed Shaw, each receiving 300 tons of coals
and provisions, and, taking troops, will proceed direct to
China.

Tenders for tonnage to convey her Majesty's 55th regi•
ment, had been issued, but afterwards countermanded,
Brigadier Stewart of Vellor, has been appointed to the com•
mand of the Northern Division on the departure of Major-
General Welsh.

The Marquis of Camden, one of the old first class India-
men, has been totally wrecked on a sand-bank off the Seme-
rary Islands, between Pannay and Mindora Phillippine
Islands. The French ship L'Asic, which was in company
when she struck, succeeded in saving a quantity of opium,
(228 chests,) she had on board, the amount of salvage
on which (one-third) alloWed to the French captain, amounts
to upwards of 30,000 dollars.