The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-11 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL
STANDARD.

SIR,—We have heard of an English monarch who won
"golden opinions of all sorts of men" by his noble and chi-
valrous bearing alone. We live now, however, it would seem,
—at least in the opinion of a councillor for the ward in which
I live--in a different age, when to win these opinions from
Popish radical opponents, a conservative must come down
with a handsome donation to a Papist chapel, or to a " testi-
monial" to the memory of some defunct radical. Perhaps,
Sir, you will permit me to suggest to conservative gentle-
men, who wish to purchase such valuable commodities as the
good will of the Liverpool Mercury, the advantage of bid-
ding at once a price proportionate to the boon to be gained ;
for it does look a little awkward to see a gentleman paying
£5 for that which is not worth, in my opinion, five-pence,
and yet not getting it after all.
What a triumph it must have been to the well-known
malevolence of the conductors of the radical rag, whilst vent-
ing on Friday a portion of their concentrated scurrility upon
the family of one of his colleagues, to be enabled to
parade in their advertising columns the name of the can-
didate for fame, whom that gentleman himself introduced
into his present position in the council, in the humiliating act
of endeavouring to propitiate the lash which was preparing
to flagellate himself, by an offering to the memory of the
radical pen which had never ceased to heap calumny, the
most rabid and venomous, upon his patron and his patron's
family !—I remain, sir, yours, &c.
A VOTER IN ABERCROMBY WARD.

PUBLIC TEA PARTY IN HONOUR OF THE REV. H.
STOWELL.—The friends of the Rev. Hugh Stowell have
celebrated the recent decision in the case of Hearne versus
Stowell by a public tea party, given in the Corn Exchange on
Monday evening week. Upwards of 900 persons, chiefly
females, were present and several were refused admission
for want of accommodation.
PORT OF AMOY.—The news of the recent victories of the ,
British arms in China, invests Amoy (the principal scene of
those successes) with much interest at the present moment.
This celebrated part of the celestial empire is situate in the
province of Fe-kin, and, in the Mandarin dialect, is called
Hea-mun, which is pronounced by the natives Ha-moy. It
is stated by Davis to be " a fine shelter for any number of
large ships ;" and the town itself is represented to be the
emporium of the commerce of the province. The province
itself, however, is the most barren of all China, and nut only
yielding nothing for exportation, but being dependent even
for the necessaries of life on the neighbsoring island of For-
mosa. Still the merchants of Amoy are characterized as
among the most wealthy and enterprising in the empire,
having formed connections' all along the coast, and esta-
blished commercial houses in many portions of the Eastern
Archipelago. Most of the Fermosian colonists are emigrants
from the district of Amoy, with capital supplied by its mer-
chants; and in proportion as the island has flourished so has
Amoy increased in wealth and importance. The fort was re-
sorted to formerly by Europeans, but was abandoned when
foreign commerce was restricted to Canton. There are se-
veral temples in the place, particularly one of great cele-
brity, dedicated to the god Fo, or Budha (who according to
the homilies of the priests, exists " in forms as numerous as
the sands of the Heng-ho.") This temple contains a statue
of the god, of colossal size. During the south-west mon-
soon the merchants of Amoy freight their vessels at For-
mosa with sugar, which they dispose of at different ports to
the northward, returning borne with cargoes of drugs. They
maintain commercial relations with Manilla, Tonquin, and
Cochin-China, and Siam ; and many of the junks annually
go to Singapore to procure goods of British manufacture.
The port has not always been closed against Eurcpean ves-
sels; as, according to the records of the East India Corn-
pany, we find that " the King of Tywan, on taking Amoy in
1675, issued a proclamation inviting both Chinese and foreign
merchants to trade thither, exempting them from the pay-
ment of all duties for three years." In consequence of this,
numerous vessels went; but the exemption was soon revoked.
The town was then taken by the Tartars, six years after-
wards : but the Europeans still resorted to it until 1734,
when the exactions of the Mandarins deterred them from
continuing so unprofitable a trade. Since that time many
attempts have been made by English ships to induce the
Chinese to trade, but without success. The recent events
will, probably, produce more faYourable results.