The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-12 00:00:00

CHINA.

ATTEMPT OF THE CHINESE TO BURN THE BRITISH FLEET
IN TOONGKOO BAY.

About ten o'clock on Friday morning two small junks
were observed to arrive among the shipping in Toongkoo
Bay. About half-past one 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 her 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 all kinds of
combustibles, cotton, oil. bamboo guns, or rather tubes,
thickly mounted io several tiers, that threw out fire balls as
the tire reached them. Some of the ships slipped their ca-

tiles, and the Cawasjee Family was aground fora 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, was 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 tire, 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 any damage. We hear the boats of Her
Majesty's ship Wage 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 will' bamboos stuffed with gunpowder,
broken glass, small stones, &c. On the following night
another attempt at tiring 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, March 7.
A memorial had been issued from the Grand Military
Council, addressed to Lin, Viceroy of kwantung and
Qwangse, recommending the massacre of the English, and
the stoppage of the foreign trade.
-PEKING.

A.'spirit.of discontent and rebellion has gained considera-
bly upon the inhabitants of the capital, and given rise to
the establishment of numerous illegal associations and bro-
therhoods in the very precincts of the palace. The report
of this state of thinga does not proceed from the pencil of a
misanthrope, but from the court itself, and may therefore
be considered as by no means exaggerated. Defiance of the
constituted authorities, robbery in open daylight, and ex-
cesses of every description, are the immediate consequences.
The inference we must draw from this is, that the Supreme
Government is either too weak to oppose effective restraint,
or that the police
is leagued with the outlaws. After
much search live persons have been discovered who had
joined themselves by an oath, besmearing their mouths and
swearing eternal fidelity to each other. Though they are
guilty of no other crime, they have been delivered over to
the tribunal of punishment, to be dealt with according to
the law, which denounces such proceedings. The Imperial
tombs have again been violated, much to the grief of old
Taoukwang. Little as we know about the Celestial Court,
there seems to be much agitation amongst the dense popula-
tion. At Moukden, the second capital, matters are by no
means better, as the translation of the following edict will
show. The riots there have been worse than at Birmingham,
but Celestial justice i = summary—catch the criminals, whether
Chartists or common agitators, and if you cannot do so within
a specified time you must take the consequences.
sentence, and execution, are in this land synonymous terms.
We have received an Imperial edict to the following effect :
She and Ying have presented a memorial requesting to de-
grade some assistant magistrates for mot keeping a proper
watch and the consequent escape of some criminals, that they
may in future seize, them in good earnest. It appears that
several persons, guilty of murder, through their negligenceab-
sconded, and subsequently plotted together to the number of
several hundred men and acted as incendiaries at Moukden.
Eighteen of them have since been caught.—Pekin Gazette.
CHINESE TROOPS.
Nine Government junks and boats, some of them of large
size, filled with Chinese troops, have been lying in the inner
harbour for the last eight or ten days. Five are anchored
near the Leen-fung temple on the race course, and four near
the house occupied by the establishment of Messrs. Turner
and Co.
Notwithstanding the Taoutae's proclamation, cargo has
not been sent from Canton for the ship laid on for Lisbon,
which has been detained more than two months for her
teas, &c.
The Provincial Government, it is said, are building 30
boats in Canton, Willer the direction of live Chinese Coat-
builders hired in Macao. They are to be double-banked, 28
.oars on each side ; are to be well armed and equipped for the

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service of capturing, opium ships, brigs, and schooners. The
Chinese suspect the Taoutae is meditating some foul play, be-
cause he is building and putting the Portuguese off their
guard by fair promises.—Canton .Register, March 10.

INDIA.
(From the Calcutta Courier, April 16.)
The Madagascar steamer leaves us to-morrow Morning
early—for the Straits and China. -We hear her armament is
of the most complete and beautiful description, her large
guns over her stern and how in particular. She is to be fol-
lowed in a week or two by the Queen ; CS pounders will, no
doubt, soon thunder in the ears of the inhabitants of the Ce-
lestial Empire the true sense in which the power and gal-
lantry of the British ought to be viewed : the Enterprise fol-
lows her—also for the China expedition.

The Mermaid and the Hed-quarters of her Majesty's
49th Regiment left Calcutta yesterday in prosecution of her
voyage to China. Sir J. G. Bremmer and the Staff leave in
the Madagascar steamer this day, and her Majesty's ship
Conway, with a division of the volunteers, sails from Cal-
cutta in about a week or ten days. The whole force will then
have left, and we shall look with great interest for an account
of its proceedings.—Calcutta Englishman, April 17.

. -
THE CHINA EtiIiEDITION.
The transports Rustoinsjee Cowagee and John Adam sailed
at day-light on Tuesday morning, with the Madras portion
of the expedition to the eastward, consisting of as follows :-
1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 captains, 6 lieutenants, 1 surgeon, 1
assistant-surgeon, 2 warrant officers, and 212 European ar-
tillery, 9 of the ordnance and commissariat departments, 8
native commissioned officers and 64 native artillery, 1 cap-
tain, 6 lieutenants, 1 assistant-surgeon, 1 warrant officer, 4
native commissioned, 10 European non-commissioned, 1 as-
sistant-apothecary, and 266 native non-commissioned and
rank and file sappers and miners, with 132 public followers.
—Bombay Times.
Russia, ever sleepless, appears to have her eyes open to the
probable results of the projected British expedition to China.
Letters from St. Petersburgh of the Bth ultimo state that, in
a few weeks, a mission was about to be sent to the Emperor
to the court of Peking.—Bombay Times, April 11.
TIIE CHINA EXPEDITION.—It appears from general
orders, that spirits will not be issued as rations to the Euro-
pean troops, but in lieu thereof each man will receive a com-
pensation f 3 rupees 2 annas per mensem—the canteen
system will be established on hoard, but no man will be
allowed to purchase a greater quantity of spirits than two
drains a day.
The European commissioned officers are to have four
months' advance of pay and allowances, and the troops two
months.'—Benyal Hurkaru, April 16th.
(From the Madras Herald, April 4.)
We are happy to learn, on the authority of a contemporary,
that the Left Wing of the 15th Hussars, under the command
of Sir Walter Scott, arrived safely at Bangalore on the 31st
ultimo.